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Story of the famous Lost Zippo Car

A 1947 Chrysler ,with lighters stretching above the roofline and the word Zippo, emblazoned on the front grill. The lighters had removable neon flames that lifted out and were set in the back seat for travel between events .The lids of the lighters snapped shut. The car had a public address system ,a radio and even a tape recorder to play music over the p.a. The original cost of the car was estimated between $25,000 and $30,000
The Zippo car was a smash but not without problems .The weight of the huge roof lighters put enormous pressure on the tires ,which blew out easily ,also the armor-plated fenders made it impossible to jack the car up to change the tires ,which blew seemingly everywhere.
In the early 50's the car was sent in for a overhaul to a Pittsburg Ford dealer ,Toohey Motors .Zippo wanted to change the chassis to a truck's more durable frame. The Pittsburg shop tore the Zippo Car apart to retool it, but they only had bad news, the changes requested by Zippo would raise the car six inches over the legal height for a vehicle of it's class and the $40,000 diden't include the cost of eliminating those extra inches .Enthusisam for the Zippo car's restoration waned.
A few years past, somehow, somewhere the Zippo car disappeared .Zippo looked into the cars where abouts in the 70's,by than Toohey Motors was out of business and all traces of the car vanished ,To this day ,the fate of the original Zippo car remains a facinating riddle.
In late 1997,Zippo purchased and restored a second 1947 Chrysler Saratoga-New Yorker, which now has over 180,000 miles
That's the story of the lost zippo car

Lost Friend's

 Sally Photo taken of us in the late 60's In SLO, calif

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