papajohn97

Worked on medical device product dev. for +40 yrs, retired in 2016, married to beautiful smart Dr. Michele (PhD in psychology) who has a thing for red XKE roadsters. I’m a 3rd gen. So. Cal native, grew up in Lakewood, CA in the ‘50’s -‘60’s, 8 miles from Lions DS, fond memories of the golden age of CA car culture. My older brother Dan and his buddy’s talked about visiting Larry Watson’s paint shop and cruising Harvey’s Broiler in early 60’s. Dad and Bro took me to Lions for my 11th birthday (1964), came home reeking of nitromethane and fully converted to car crazyhood for the remainder of my life. Built lots of AMT, Revell, Monogram models as a kid. Learned to drive in my mom’s nearly new ‘66 Chevelle Malibu. My first 1:1 cars were shoebox Chevies, a ‘56 210 two-door turquoise & white 265 V8, $460 then a ‘55  Bel Air 4 door 235 stovebolt 6, purchased for $265. +20 cars later, I cruise to the store and PO these days in a 4 cyl Mazda but in my mind I’m street racing around town in ‘64 Mopar 426 Max Wedge....
Started building models again with my friend Joe during our single dad camp outs with our kids 10-12 yrs ago. We would slap old models together on a folding table under a pine tree by an eastern Sierra mountain stream while sipping Wild Turkey. (40 years since my last model build), I had an epiphany: I’m so much better at this than I was as a kid! Even a little buzzed on WT, I avoided glue fingerprints on the windows! This is fun! Think I’ll do this when I retire! Maybe I’ll even paint ‘em!