Chuck Most

Jennifer Pearson blazed her own path. She grew up in a well-off household, always a Lincoln or Jaguar or occasionally a Benz in the driveway. Her father Michael was a surgeon, and her mother Anna was a chemical engineer. She was the youngest of the five Pearson children and the only daughter. She was on the pom squad, on the track team, formerly played trombone in the marching band, and was very likely on track to be Sickles High School valedictorian for the class of 1987. But despite her upbringing, Jen marched to her own tune. She wanted to be an automotive mechanic. Far from discouraging her, her parents supported her. After all, her older brothers had gone into their own careers. She was the only girl in Mr. Leonard's Auto Shop class in the 1985/86 school year. Naturally she got a little ribbing from that boy's club, though once she'd proven herself she more or less became "one of the guys". Once she'd warmed up to her classmates, it was said that some of her jokes and banter even made the guys blush. Sometimes, even the mostly unflappable Mr. Leonard blushed! Even though she did have a soft spot for her dad's old MG, Jen always felt more at home in a beat up old junker than one of her parent's luxury cars. Particularly old pickup trucks. And so it was that she picked out a rundown but running 1963 Ford F100 Flareside as her first vehicle. Every Tuesday and Thursday from 5 to 10 PM during the school year (and intermittently during summer vacation), Mr. Leonard would have "open shop", where the students could have (supervised) access to the auto shop to do whatever work on their vehicles. Jen would always try to carve out time for the F100. It was upgraded with a Twin I Beam front suspension from a wrecked 1966 F100 , lowered, and fitted with some old Radir wheels. It was resprayed in school bus yellow, fitted with bucket seats and a cut down center console from a '62 Thunderbird, and it was even featured in the "Reader's Rides" section of the February 1986 issue of Wheels Magazine. Many times Jen discussed her future plans for the truck. She wanted some kind of crazy engine that could still be theoretically practical. A Boss 351 or 429 frequently came up. One classmate suggested a 392 Hemi, and Jen was not dismissive of that idea. But for the most part she worried about upkeep and driving it any chance she had. Over the 4th of July break in 1986, the Pearson family headed to Great Smoky Mountains State Park, to celebrate the weekend with nearby relatives and explore the park. On the afternoon of the 5th, Jen went for a hike and never returned. Despite an exhaustive search, nothing would be found until 1990, when a homemade bracelet featuring a Ford emblem was found. A few weeks later, Jen herself was finally found in a crevasse. Years later her disappearance was hyped up and included in a certain well known series of books about mysterious State Park disappearances, and there were some weird Internet theories about extraterrestrials and portals... but let's not go there. Going back to the days and months following the disappearance, Jen's auto shop classmates took it upon themselves to finish up the '63. Ever hopeful that one day she'd show up, they continued working on the '63, hoping to surprise her in the case she reappeared one day. At one summer open shop night, a couple weeks after Jen vanished, Tom Andrews was visiting. Owner of Village Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, Tom liked to visit the auto shop to recruit possible new technicians. He noticed a group of boys working on a bright yellow F-100. When he asked what they were up to, they told him that the truck belonged to the missing student. As the conversation continued, Jen's engine ideas came up. When "Boss 429" was uttered, Tom's ears perked up. Tom introspectively scratched his chin, then told the boys he'd be back. At a quarter to ten, a new F150 with a dealer plate rolled up to the auto shop. Tom Andrews leaned out the window, nodded towards the pickup bed, and asked... "Where you boys want this?" In the bed of the truck, on a weathered wooden skid, was a dusty Boss 429 engine fitted with a dual quad intake. Tom said it was a "donation" from his father Gary, former owner of the dealership. When the boys asked how much they owed him, Tom just waved his hand and said "Nah... He's got three other ones out in the shed. Let me know if this one's junk, we'll haul out one of the others and give it a try." Turned out it wasn't junk, the boys had it in and running in pretty short order. The Pearson family and the community as a whole were supportive, and the entire town sort of took the project as their own, although the boys told the local papers to be vague because they didn't want the surprise spoiled. Again, Jen's ultimate fate was still unknown. Almost everyone in Mr. Leonard's class got some time behind the wheel, testing and tuning. It even towed the senior float for the homecoming parade in 1987 with Mr. Leonard himself at the wheel, and at that time it was discovered that the cooling system needed attention, as the truck had come dangerously close to overheating four times. When Jen was finally found, the F100 led the subsequent funeral procession in lieu of a hearse, with Mr. Leonard again behind the wheel. Naturally, Dr. And Mrs. Pearson followed in the old MG... After the good doctor and Mr. Leonard had given it a mechanical once-over the night before to ensure against any "old British sports car-related embarrassment". While the truck has changed owners on paper about 25 times since 1986, it's still referred to locally as Jen's truck. Current name on the title is Dean Whitaker, one of the former auto shop students who stuffed the Boss between the frame rails so many years ago. He has "owned" it since 2019 and other than replacing the tires, installing a new stereo head unit, and a fresh coat of paint in 2020 during lockdown, it's changed little since he and his classmates wrapped it up back in 1987. At some point it lost it's hitch and got a new bed floor. It used to spend it's winters stashed away in the Pearson family garage, but after they relocated to Tennessee, it now winters in an unused bay at Village Ford-Lincoln, and sometimes is in display in the showroom. As Dean puts it: "I don't own this truck. I'm just the current caretaker." The model is the Moebius 1966 F100, with the grille and front panel from the AMT '63. Since it's obviously not factory stock, I can refer to the Twin I Beam setup as a retrofit. It has a Boss 429 spliced together from various AMT Mustangs, '62 Thunderbird seats and console, and a scattering of parts box stuff. I don't know where the wheels came from but the tires are from a Moebius '65 Plymouth Satellite. It's painted with Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch Gloss Marigold. It's probably the thickest and most foul smelling paint I've encountered in a while, but surprisingly I got it looking decent. Front and rear plates came from Best Model Car Parts.

Don Trebesh's father, David, owned Trebesh Oldsmobile from 1947 to 1962. After that operation folded, he worked for a couple dealerships in nearby Sickles, starting at Hope (later Schumacher) Oldsmobile from 1966 to 1972, then Village Ford-Lincoln-Mercury from 1972 until his retirement in 1983. So naturally, Don was exposed to lots of Oldsmobiles and lots of Fords in his formative years. His F100 reflects this. Don bought the truck in 1999, back when it had a 352 with a blown head gasket. He drove it home, but that was about all the life that FE had left. It ground to a stop a couple seconds after he parked it in front of the garage. Originally, he'd planned to just rebuild the 352, but after he wrecked his '85 Cutlass Supreme at the drag strip, he got the idea to install the 1970-vintage 455 into the Ford, thus combining his two favorite automotive marques. The truck's body was in decent shape, Don hammered out some dents and dings, patched a little rust and resprayed it in a dark metallic red. The interior was redone to match, and a set of '71 Mustang front seats replaced the factory bench. The Western wheels came with the truck, Don just polished them and replaced the center caps. Don has gotten a little good natured flak for his engine choice. As a concession, he's thinking about swapping a 5.0 into a Cutlass to balance everything out. This is the Moebius 1966 Styleside with a '65 grille. It has a cut down AMT '60 F100 tonneau cover, traction bars from an MPC '76 Dart, a parts box floor shifter and the aforementioned Mustang seats. It's been lowered front and rear. The engine is from the Revell '85 Cutlass Supreme with an AMT '69 three carb intake and valve covers from a Johan '70 442. The paint is Testors Mythical Maroon, with Krylon Satin Burgundy for the "upholstered" interior stuff. The plate is from Best Model Car Parts.

In the late 1960's, Neil Overla worked full time as the service department manager at Village Ford-Lincoln-Mercury in Sickles, Michigan. But he also had what we would call a "side hustle" today... He drove a couple of Village Ford sponsored race cars, most frequently the "SOHC Puppet" altered wheelbase Ford Falcon and the later, Cougar-bodied "flopper". That was, until a firey crash in 1971. Neil was unhurt, but it was at that point Village Ford owner Gary Andrews (who would frequently drive the drag cars himself when Neil was unavailable) decided to pull the plug on dealership sponsored racing. As his severance package from his side gig, Gary basically handed almost everything off to Neil, including the two 427 Cammers they had. One complete, one... well... one had a big hole in the side of the block and some of the rotating assembly was missing. But all the SOHC stuff was still there. Neil continued racing through the '70's and by the dawn of the '80's he'd sold off pretty much everything except the Cammers, both of which were in running condition by then. Neil sold one along with several spare parts in the '90's. Strangely enough it was his wife Wanda who gave him the most flak for that, on the other hand, the SOHC basically paid for their retirement house with quite a bit to spare. But he promised Wanda they'd do something fun with the other Cammer. It wouldn't be until 2012 when Neil would finally find a home for the 427. On his 70th birthday, he was presented with a 1972 Ford F100. Rather than another boring restomod with a 5.0 (or LS...ick...), Neil got to work wedging the mile-wide Cammer into the Effie. Progress was reasonably quick, although Neil hit a brick wall when the time came to choose a color. Not wanting the simple black and white factory finish,he stumbled on picking a new color. That all changed when he watched Ironman with his grandson. The metallic dark red and gold of the Ironman suit struck him, and he chose a similar color scheme for the '72. And for the next several years, Neil and Wanda would cruise Ironman, though Neil rarely ever "floored it", fearing damage to the rare engine. That was until 2022, when then 82 year old Neil backed over his own mailbox twice in one day and figured it was time to surrender his car keys. (As an aside, these incidents happened in the family's 2007 Ford Freestar, not Ironman.) Ironman slept in the garage until 2024, when Neil's son Ralph (father of the Ironman fan grandson) got it. While Ralph initially yanked the Cammer to install something more practical, he ultimately decided Dad had the right idea all along and left it in place. A little paint touchup, a new set of Halibrands, and an interior refresh, and it was back on the road. Ralph has run it from his home in Indiana to his parent's place in Sickles a couple of times now, and it gets just as many double takes now as it did when Neil first built it. And that's before people see what's under the hood! Despite some ridiculous offers to buy the truck, or even just the engine, it's safe to assume it's an Overla family heirloom at this point. I got this model from Dave Metzner of Moebius. He started the project and gave up on it at some point. He did the paint, chassis and body assembly, added the wheels and tires, and fit the Cammer. I finished the interior (paint and assembly, AMT '64 Cutlass floor shifter), fit the radiator, added the foil trim, and did the final assembly. I also lowered it a bit in front, Dave more or less had it set up at stock height, and I felt like it needed a little more rake. And of course, I made up a backstory for the whole thing. It has an old Preston Model Car Parts Indiana plate and a Best Model Car Parts front plate.

I would be excited about this kit, if not for the undersized wheels. I could use a set for a couple local cars, a Fiero and a VW Golf. Not sure if the GTZ wheels were ever a popular swap,but at least two guys in my area thought they looked good enough to retrofit. What's even more baffling is the fact that Ertl HAD THE CORRECT MODEL AND SIZE OF TIRE by the time this version of the kit came out. And yet, they chose to shod this thing with the '70s compact tires.

If I remember, the S chassis wheelbase could be relatively easily adjusted for such swaps because you could grind away some welds and "telescope" the frame rails. I actually used the Xtreme chassis under this '50. https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/162345-1950-chevrolet-turdy-one-hunnert/

The kittens have names now. The aforementioned Gregory, Stanley, Bear, Poopie, and Baby Patty (last one subject to change). I've been keeping Patty outside because she's taken to attacking them for so much as looking at her the wrong way.

I've been having a time finding homes for the kittens. Then last night my mom was petting the orange one and because she's even more mush mouthed than I am, she tried to say Ginger but Gregory came out. So the orange one is now named Gregory on complete accident. 🤣

This is the Jimmy Flintstone kit, originally built in May of 2010. Back in April of this year my cat had a litter of kittens, and they've grown into wiley little bastards. So, occasionally, stuff gets knocked off of shelves. 🤣 Guess what happened to the Nash? After the cat-astrophe, it was rebuilt. I redid the bumpers, grille and bezels with Revell chrome, removed the wing vents (in the hopes the interior would be easier to see), replaced the yellowed resin headlight lenses with Revell Model A lenses, and added new white line tires from the AMT '70 Monte Carlo lowrider. I added a new battery and an electric fan. Originally it was set up on a cut-down '66 Mustang promo chassis, and powered by an AMC V8 cobbled from Johan Rambler and Revell Jeep J10 parts. I repainted the engine from light blue to dark metallic red and added new plug wires.

I don't know which one of those wiley little bastards did it, but one of them knocked a Flintstone Rambler off the shelf. It's currently in the body shop getting mended. 🤣

The kittens had some leftover meatloaf.

Of those four, one has calico markings and is the only female, one of the gray tabbys is fluffier than the others, and the last two have identical markings but one is slightly bigger than the other.

They're a long way from the tiny blobs of fluff they were back in April.

It's just a solid mass of semigloss black, I did absolutely no detailing to the chassis.

That's the way that paint comes out. It's actually a little glossier than I expected so I left it.

Roger Liss was born in 1985, the year his dad started selling cars at Schumacher Oldsmobile. So it's a given that most of his early automotive memories revolve around the departed Rocket Division of GM. He's owned this 1964 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 since 2003, although it wasn't in this good of condition back then. It ran and drove, but that was about all. It served as an auto shop project and occasional summer cruiser, though it soent most of it's time under a tarp in his parent's carport. As the years went on, it eventually morphed into what you see today, a bright green pro street machine with twin Judson superchargers. 22 years into his ownership and Roger thinks it's almost done. He might install a stereo system (hopefully something better than the rattling sub box it had in 2003), but overall, this is just Roger's "fun" car. This is the AMT '64 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 plopped onto the '67 Chevelle Pro Street chassis. The Oldsmobile kit engine was retained, and the whole thing is painted in Testors Lime Ice.