Here is my story on Christine;
She was one of over 20 or so cars used in the movie Christine. I acquired her in 1984. She was the actual stunt car from the alley scene chasing Moochie up where she corners him in the loading dock. Being pushed from behind by a dozer, another car with rubber front end parts was used where she actually crushes herself into the area to get Moochie. The dozer was easily edited out later.
She was the only 3 speed overdrive in the bunch. I know this because the guys on the set forgot and when they went to start her up she was in gear and lunged forward almost taking out some equipment. "Bad Christine," they shouted.
I bought her 18 years ago from the back lot of a studio in L.A. She was going to be saved for a movie that was in the works at the time called "Cat's eye," however, they found a perfect red and white Belvedere 4 door and shot the footage they needed from the front and then the rear. Since the car was not used it was scheduled to be scrapped. My friend Al Newman from "Classic Wheels" out of Anaheim informed me that I may be able to save her.
Because of his connection with movie cars and the studio not wanting the liability of selling these to private parties, he picked her up for "parts." I was able to buy her for and flat bedded her home along with boxes of parts. I was also given a script, movie stills, press kit, rubber moldings, fenders, etc. I even found the "CQB-241" license plate that was on the car during the filming in the trunk.
When I bought the car she had no interior, just a simple roll cage, 5 point harness, one plastic racing type seat and the windows were all painted black on the inside with the exception of a small driver section which was a patch of black window tint so that the stunt man could see. Most of the stainless moldings and trim were rubber or plastic. There were also 4x4 inch wooden beams between the firewall and front core support and the radiator was mounted in the trunk so that in crash scenes the radiator fluid would not spill out.
The cars that were running were labeled "Muscle one," "Muscle two," etc. My car had "Muscle two" on the underside of the hood. The non runners were pulled on rolling dollies. Al from Classic told me where all the wrecks were sent and I was allowed to go into Bill and Ed's Auto Wrecking in Fontana California. This is where all the smashed cars were sent. I quickly made friends with the owner there. I was told that possibly 27 Plymouths were used. Sadly, a very small handful were actual Furys.
It took the film makers almost 2 1/2 years to locate them through DMV records and ads. Ironically, like Arnie, I was able to pull parts off the wrecked cars. Most of my front and rear stainless came from the burn car. They had used rubber cement and poured it all over the car and set it on fire. The sport line trim came from some of the ram cars, and out of the 57 and 58 Belvederes in the yard I was able to put the interior together. I was 20 years old when I found Christine and put her back together. I did not set out to build a show car, just a nice driver and she is still running and looking good after 18 years.
