1979-85 Dukes of Hazzard TV Series: "WGL 02"This General Lee has been traced as far back in the TV series as the 2nd Season. During the TV series this car was titled "WGL 02". It was a close up car and would have only been used with the actors in the scene. Nine out of ten times, if the hood was open, a "Close-Up" car was used for the shot. This car had a black engine bay, smoothed and boxed firewall, chrome hood hinges, chrome upper grille/latch tray, and the engine was dressed up with chrome.
WGL 02 Characteristics:
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1992 Forever YoungIn 1991 The Dodge Charger Registry purchased 17 of the remaining General Lees from Warner Brothers. During that time, this car was still wearing it's General Lee paint job, so it wasn't used for anything from 1985-1991. Shortly after the 17 cars left WB, this car was freshened up to go on display at WB as a General Lee. With the fresh paint barely even dry, this car was pulled and prepped to be used for the 1992 Mel Gibson film “Forever Young”. This car was often rumored to be a 1968 model car because of the side marker lights which can be seen in movie. According to the VIN, this car is indeed a 1969 383 Charger. A 1968 Charger grille was installed and ’68 side markers were glued on the body. Why this was done, I do not know.
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Pre-ReunionThis is the earliest known pictures of the car after it was repainted back into it's General Lee colors. These were taken sometime in the summer/fall of 1996. The car basically looks the same as it did on Forever Young besides the paint job. Notice the wheels and antenna. Also notice the lack of the pushbar, windshield wipers, and older tan interior. This must have been taken just before the interior was freshened up.
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1997 Dukes of Hazzard Reunion: "GL 1"After “Forever Young”, the car was brought back to WB and sat until 1996 when the Reunion movie was given the go-ahead. Between selling off or scrapping the other remaining cars, the WB crew had nothing to go by when it came time to paint this car back as a General Lee. The crew figured if it was close enough, it would be alright. During that time, WB’s crew were not really diehard car guys. The car was quickly painted orange and slapped on a very thin border “01”. It wasn’t until John Schneider supposedly pointed out that the tail light panel wasn’t supposed to be orange and should be black. They quickly spray painted it so it would be correct for the rest of the production. During the Reunion Movie, this car was titled as "GL 1".
GL 1 Characteristics:
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2000 Hazzard in Hollywood: "GL 1"The car's appearance didn't change from 1997-2000. The car wasn't used nearly as much as it was during the 1997 Reunion. This time, the two nicer cars from '97 took a back seat to John Schneider's General Lee. The car was mostly used as a Stunt car for many of the driving scenes. It even busted through a fake brick wall. One scene that was shocking to see is when GL 1 was jumped towards the end of the movie. Thankfully it was a very small jump and it probably did not do any damage to the car other than maybe a bent front valance. The only bad thing that happened to the car during production is when it's original back glass was busted out for one scene. This glass would have had the car's original "WGL 02" etched into it.
GL 1 Characteristics:
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2005 Dukes of Hazzard Movie: "GL#002"In Oct. 2004 when the cars started showing up in Baton Rouge, LA, right off the bat this car was treated with care. Word spread that this was an original TV series car and from there on, this car was the most popular car amongst the rest of the Chargers that were used. This car's new title was "GL#002" and was the "Hero #3" car. Within a couple weeks of arriving, it received a woodgrain Grant steering wheel, a Verge CD player, and a full roll cage. The 383 was removed and a mock-up 528ci Hemi was installed. This car was used in a scene at Cooter's Garage in early Nov. 2004. After this scene was shot, the dummy engine was pulled out and the car was not touched for a couple weeks. In late November the crate 528 Hemi showed up from Mopar Performance. For some reason, the Hemi stayed in the blue shipping container through the Christmas break.Since #002 was a close-up "Hero" car, the original 383 was reinstalled and it rotated out to several filming locations in December '04, but for most of the month, it sat in the back corner of the transportation unit's lot. Aside from the scene at Cooter's Garage, this historic car was used as a backup car in filming on 3rd Street in downtown Baton Rouge and in some of the street scenes in Clinton, LA. It's interesting that the former "Hero" car of both Reunion Movies took the back seat to a pair of better looking cars. It is very unlikely that #002 was used for any driving scenes. So if you see a car in motion on the movie, chances are, it isn't this car. Throughout most of January 2005, #002 was rarely at the transportation lot, so it was used in a lot of filming in New Orleans, LA and Clinton, LA as well. On Jan. 2, #002 was back in the transportation unit's shop with the 383 out and the 528 being prepped to be dropped in. The crew was under the impression that filming was over and the car was being prepped for shipment back to California. On Jan 26, the 528 was finally installed but the crew had a few clearance issues that needed to be worked out. The 383 which came out of #002 was sitting on the shop floor and had a piece of tape on the valve cover that read "Came out of 2 BAD". The right cylinder head was blue while the right side was orange. The braided steel hoses were still on the engine along with chrome valve covers. By Jan. 27, the Hemi installation was complete and the crew was ready to crank it up for the first time. On Feb. 5, the car was on location with the stars. After filming was over they were celebrating what they thought was the end of filming all together. A precision driver named Darrin was showing off in the Hemi powered #002 much to the delight of the crew. He lost it and hit something with the car, destroying the passenger side fender and door. The impact must have have been pretty hard because, supposedly, the door would not cole and had to be tied shut. After all the filming was done, the car that had been treated so carefully throughout was injured in an accident from showing off. The wreck was a big secret, or so it seemed, as no one spoke anything else about it. All of the crew member denied knowing about the incident. #002 and #019 were loaded up on location in Livingston, LA and went straight back to California.
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