Chuck Most

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.

I did a '53 a thousand years ago...

Ted Doyle wanted a '64 Chevelle forever. For one thing, he was born in 1964. And for another, a '64 Chevelle was the frumpiest looking car he could think of. He'd always wanted to build a pro street car, and now that he was retired from driving a Package Car for UPS, now was the time. He managed to find an older restoration of a '64, and it was painted a rather bland shade of green, too. With the help of his son and a few buddies, the Chevelle was tubbed and treated to a triple carb 409. In keeping with the dull sleeper look, he went with plain black steelies, not bothering with hubcaps. Ted is enjoying every second of wheel time with the Chevelle, and even his wife Angie has taken a shine to the boxy tire shredder. He's thinking about adding air conditioning, and maybe a supercharger, but for now Ted is just happy living the dream. This is the AMT '64 Chevelle on the '67 Pro Street chassis, powered by a 409 cobbled from '59 El Camino and '62 Bel Air parts. Paint is Krylon Italian Olive, with Moebius F100 front wheels and MPC Dodge Monaco rear wheels.

Brad Kraft works as a mobile truck mechanic, so he spends a lot of time on the road. He also likes to make a solid first impression. His "escalated" Silverado is a comfortable place to be for long trips, with it's full Escalade interior conversion, and people remember it, with it's Escalade sheet metal, custom Cadillac style LED taillights, sterling silver paint and custom wheels. It had 250,000 miles on it before the conversion, he's hopeful to get at least that many more miles out of it now, even if it needs a drivetrain rebuild between now and then. This is basically the front half of an AMT 2005 Cadillac Escalade EXT, with the rear cab bulkhead and window from a Revell '99 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. The rear half is a Monogram 1977 GMC 4x4, and a Moebius service box. Wheels and tires came from the Moebius 1971 F250 4x4. It's painted Testors Extreme Lacquer Diamond Dust, powered by an Iceman Collections 6.6 Duramax, and registered with a Best Model Car Parts Michigan plate.

Why did I read this letter in a posh English accent even though the guy is from Joisey?

For the last seven years, Erik Alyea has worked as a steel procurement manager for Three D Machine and Fabrication. Erik's metallurgical instincts are second to none. He can tell you if it's carbon, alloy, tool or stainless steel from 50 feet away just by how it smells as the torch cuts it. Well, okay. Maybe he's not that good. But he's been working with metals since before he graduated high school and, learning from some of the most experienced guys in the local industry, and he's educated and connected enough to have given Three D a serious competitive edge since he took on the job in early 2018, after operating an Awea Five-Axis milling machine for the better part of a decade. Profession aside, Erik finds himself working with metals as a hobby as well. Quite a bit of metal movement happened to make his 1960 Ford F100 possible. In effect, it's a 1992 Ford F100 Flareside with a 1960 cab. Basically, fond childhood memories of the '60 (bought new by his grandparents) and the '92 (his high school ride), and the atrocious condition both trucks were in, led to Erik merging the best of what was left into one vehicle. Eventually, Erik is thinking it'll get some steelies and wide whites, and maybe some pinstripes. But for now, he's enjoying the truck as is, and giving his grandfather the occasional ride in it. Grandpa really appreciates the air conditioning carried over from the '92, especially on those 92F days accompanied by 75% humidity! This is a mashup of the AMT 1992 Flareside and the '60 F100. Essentially, it's the '60 cab in place of the '92. It's sprayed off in Krylon Anvil with a flat clear coat.

They're getting new homes here in the next week or so.

I actually wanted to do a camo pattern, but since this was built for another magazine and a deadline was looming I just went with flat olive. Eventually I'll do the M1009 but I need to build an M880 first. 🤣

The agents of chaos are about three and a half months old now. Dinner still hates them 🤣

Etter's Tree Service has been serving the city of Sickles Michigan since 1988, though it was called Paul's Pruning and was just a side gig until 1992. It was then that Paul Etter went into it full time, and reorganized into Etter's Tree Service. Today, Paul is retired, and Etter's is in the capable hands of his youngest son, Nick. Nick has continued the tradition of award-winning service and satisfied customers. And he's continued another tradition... Eye catching company vehicles. Nick's primary business vehicle is a 1997 GMC Sierra C3500. A former show truck, it has a 2005 Escalade front clip, a 4/6" static drop, and a pastel paint job. He bought it at a police auction and has been using it for years. But parked in front of the office you will find a crusty '64 Oldsmobile funny car emblazoned with the Etter's logo. It hasn't moved under its own power in decades, but it grabs people's attention, and basically serves a the sign for the business. Built by Hope Oldsmobile Company of Sickles in 1964, it was originally raced by the dealership in stock form. By late 1965 it was an altered wheelbase, straight axle, full-on drag car named "Hopeful Hellion". Hope retired it in 1967, and the car changed hands numerous times. At one point it was being bracket raced with a small block Chevrolet, and was a street freak for a brief period before it got parked in 1978. The previous owner, inspired by the buildup of the Wilshire Shaker Nova in Hot Rod Magazine, started a restoration. He eventually gave up after buying a finished altered wheelbase Nova. Nick bought it, minus the engine and transmission. He added his logos to the quarters and parked it in the corner of the asphalt in front of his office. At some point Nick wants to drop a drivetrain in it and take it to shows. But for now, it's busy serving as the business sign and as a landmark. This is basically the AMT Chevelle funny car chassis and interior with the '64 Olds body stuck on it. I had no real reason to build it other than one day the thought of putting the Oldsmobile body on the funny car chassis crossed my mind and I just had to try it. Neither kit is particularly great but I don't know, I think the finished result looks interesting enough. The dually is an AMT kit with its own post elsewhere on the forum, and the trailer is a box stock Wes's Model Car Corner kit.

Okay. Maybe I was conflating the 3/4 ton springs with the rest of the running gear. If I ever find a 6.2 diesel believe me, I have an actual M1009 planned. 😁

In 1978, Patrick Goreham had an idea. Trucker culture was big in the cultural zeitgeist, everyone and their grandma had a CB radio, and you couldn't escape trucker slang and cowboy-adjacent trucker clothing. While not everybody could be an actual long haul trucker, Pat reasoned, anybody could embrace the aesthetic with one of his conversion kits! Using his own heavily modified 1973 GMC 1500 as the test subject, Pat designed, prototyped, and produced a fiberglass tilt nose for the 1973 and later GM pickups that, if you squinted in poor lighting, almost didn't quite make your Chevrolet resemble a Peterbilt. Goreham Conversions produced somewhere between 75 and 100 of the Sneaky Pete conversion kits in 1978 and 1979, before Pat folded the operation and went back to his full time job... repairing and maintaining carnival rides. Pat's '73 GMC changed hands a number of times, before recently landing into the possession of Frank Kroll. The truck had been through seemingly every level of hell since Pat had sold it in 1982. But Frank remembered seeing a Goreham Conversions pickup in a magazine when the kits were new, and even in black and white, he was smitten. He'd never imagined owning one, much less THE original one, but after happening upon it listed on Facebook Marketplace, and paying quite a bit more than he'd hoped, the GMC was in his garage. It had been in the possession of a (now defunct) landscaping business in northern Illinois for a number of years, serving as the official rolling business card. But after sitting abandoned for years, it was sold after the city got tired of complaints about all the debris on the property. Being, essentially, the prototype, Pat's truck has a few details that differ from the production models. It is the only one to have a GMC logo on the grille shell, all the others had "Pete". It is the only one with an aluminum front bumper, production units were chrome plated steel. And it had Pat's existing street machine modifications, like a solid front axle, Corvette drivetrain, and more. Though the truck shows all the weather, wear, and tear you'd expect to find on a 52 year old truck, Frank says the fiberglass hood has held up unbelievably well. The stepside bed was replaced with a wide bed at some point. Frank has started a registry for the Goreham Conversions, and so far, the whereabouts of five complete trucks and two hoods are known. And if course, Frank is planning a full restoration for this one. He's recently managed to hunt Pat Goreham down (he retired to Guam in 1999), and Pat's son in California is going through his things looking for period photos and literature he still has. The model is a 1993 reissue of the Revell Midnite Cowboy. I bought it centuries ago for the wrecker unit, and I basically started this project to dispose of the rest. I wanted to go for a "barn find" kind of look. Since there was no way I was going to go to the trouble of having the tilting hood line up, it's glued shut, but it still has the full engine and radiator. The bed is from the MPC '84 GMC. Actually, the bed and tailgate trim came from one '84 GMC, and the tailgate itself came from a second '84 GMC.

Didn't the M1009 have 3/4 ton axles? Or is that just a seemingly common swap?