Fifth Avenue Antique Auto Parts Goes to the Movies By Randy Rundle Sometimes going to work can be fun, especially if you get to do something out of the ordinary now and then. I had just such an opportunity recently when the owner of Picture Cars East, a large movie studio car rental company located in Brooklyn N.Y., called early on a Monday morning asking for help. It seems his company had rented four cars to the Lucas Studios for use in film- ing the new Indiana Jones IV movie, and those cars were overheating on the set. He wanted to know if I knew how to fix them and could they be fixed by yesterday. I asked how they got my name and he said from the transportation director over at Warner Bros. Studios. The Warner Bros. transportation director had told him, “he did the cars for us in “LA Confidential’ and we would highly recommended him…” “LA Confidential” was my third movie studio project. I prepared the six police cars and two plain detective cars much like I would for the cars entered in the Great Race using my 6-volt alterna- tors, 6-volt electric radiator cooling fans and gear driven electric fuel pumps, and doing the same kinds of modifications. I quickly e-mailed a proposal to the Picture Cars East office highlighting what modifications I would recommend to the cooling systems and why, and I offered to build him some high output 6-volt radi- ator cooling fans, and with that, they would be in business. Twenty minutes later an e-mail comes back with only two words…“Send it!” So I sent the studio a care package for each of the cars, a 1950 Dodge, 1950 Hudson, 1950 DeSoto, and 1951 Dodge Suburban being used in the filming of the movie. I heard nothing for about six weeks, meanwhile I was calling by the second week (and leaving messages) until finally the Picture Cars East owner calls back. I am thinking, “this will be a really good or a really bad phone call’ Turns out it was a good one. “We modified the cars doing just what you said, installed the fans and everything worked perfect. Thanks a million.” I was much relieved. Doing studio car projects are a challenge. Typically you cannot work for any studio unless you are in the proper union and locals get pri- ority over out-of-state members. If you are in the union and want to work in another state you have to get a written referral from the local union asking for your services. And it goes on from there. But because nobody does what I do…the studios find ways to hire me and buy my products. In “LA Confidential” for example, my title was “transportation technical consultant.” This did not mean much, except I sold parts to and was paid for my consulting work by the transporta- tion director himself, who was in turn reimbursed by the studio for “outside expenses.” For the Indiana Jones movie I sent the parts directly to the studio set and the billing went to the rental company. Because I am not a member of the union (and can’t qualify) I cannot go to the stu- dio and put the parts on myself… even at no charge, nor could I go and supervise the work. It has taken me a while to figure out the system and how to get things done with the studios. Nothing is as simple as it first appears and very political. It is interesting and fun to be a part of the movies and while most people do not give much thought to how an antique car survives on a movie set there is some self satisfaction in making things work and seeing it appear on the big screen. The Indiana Jones IV movie is scheduled to be released on May 22. You can go to my Fifth Avenue Web site www. fifthaveinter- netgarage.com to learn more about past movie projects, then click on a link that will take you to the official Indiana Jones Web site so you can watch the movie trailer. Randy Rundle is owner of Fifth Avenue Antique Auto Parts, Clay Center, Kan. ETRE! © 2008 Lucasfilm, Ltd.