General Lee No. 1 was built by Warner Brothers in California and was transported to
Covington, GA where it jumped Rosco's police car in episode No. 1, One Armed Bandits, on
Saturday, November 11th, 1978 in front of Seney Hall at Oxford College, Georgia. This jump
is seen in the opening credits of every episode except the Coy and Vance episodes. As this
was the only General Lee to have chrome rocker panels, it's easily identifiable. Before it
was jumped at Oxford College, it was seen turning into the Boar's Nest parking lot and
then again having a broken slot machine loaded into the trunk and racing around Oxford
College square. This jump is also featured on the front of the American Muscle 1:18 scale
die-cast General Lee box, the back of the Ertl 1:24 scale die-cast General Lee box,
tee-shirts, a poster, and the three newly released Ertl three-car case sets.
This is what General Lee No. 1 looked like after landing, and within a week the car had
its doors, grill, tail light panel, and trunk removed.
It was then repainted Bluish/Green and had new doors and a trunk lid mounted back on it.
Larry West applied the 71 on the doors and roof. He also put the name 'John Merinda' on
the roof who was one of the original transportation directors. The sides of the car were
scraped up with cinder blocks to give it the"wrecked" appearance and given stock
car wheels supplied by Pete Hamilton (1970 Daytona 500 winner). From this point, the
car was used as the Richard Petty race car that was wrecked while filming a tire
commercial in Hazzard County in episode No. 4, Repo Men, where it was 1 of 11 used cars
for sale at Ace's Clean Used Car lot, and then being pulled by the General on a trailer
with Cooter riding in it.
While on tour with the Dukes of Hazzard Reunion Tour 2000, Gary Schneider and Travis Bell,
co-presidents and founders of the North American General Lee Fan Club, locate the car in
the Southern United States on October 10, 2000. The car is identified as "LEE
1" with a lable next to the VIN on the dash. (Seen in photo No. 34) It also has half
of a yellow parking sticker from a school in Los Angeles in the front window on the
passenger side.
On August 12th, 2001, Gary Schneider and Travis Bell returned to the Southern United
States to rescue this car from 23 years of neglect, 8310 days after the car first jumped
in front of Seney Hall. Special thanks goes to John & Michelle Parnell for assisting
in the rescue. The car now resides in the Midwest and will be preserved in its present
condition.
Added some gold slot rims and cleaned out the inside.
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