Chuck Most

Monogram 8 bolt alloys from the '77 GMC and Ground Hawg tires, no more lift than what the kit comes with. MPC Desert Dog tires on the kit wheels with the MPC inner wheel halves glued to the back of the Moebius wheel to make up the difference in width. Again, no more lift than what the kit already has.

Day they were born... Vs now...

Those are all 15" id. You want the set from either the MPC Deserter GMC or the Jeepster Mountain Goat. They're actually 1:20 scale but MPC stuck then in the few 1:25 kits because reasons. I also used the Deserter inner wheel halves with the inside filed flat and glued to the Moebius wheels to make up the difference in width.

Dave Miller was about halfway through the restoration of his '71 F100, when a minor mishap occurred. That minor mishap was the fact that the powdercoat place burned down, while his chassis was there. Undeterred, Dave kept going with the project. He bought a 1971 F250 4x4 with a 7.3 Powestroke swap, but the body was in pretty horrible condition. Dave pried the body off the F250 chassis and rebuilt it with a lift and some new wheels and tires. The refreshed Highboy chassis was then slid under the restored sheet metal. So obviously the project didn't quite turn out how Dave originally envisioned, he's understandably pretty happy with where it ended up. This is the body and interior from the Moebius 1971 F100 XLT Ranger that I bought from a fellow modeler. It was already painted in Medium Lime Poly and Fiesta Tan from MCW, all I had to do was find a close match for the interior, and do the trim and decal work. The chassis is from the 1971 Custom 4x4 kit, with wheels modified to fit MPC Desert Dog tires, and an Iceman Collections 7.3 Powestroke diesel.

Quality Tire Center has been serving the city of Sickles since 1986. Apart from their speedy and cost effective service, they're also known for their shop trucks. For the last three years it's been a 1976 Ford F100 Flareside, but owner Leo Martin thought it was time for a change. His friend Roger had a '72 GMC he wasn't doing much with, so Leo snapped it up. Years ago Roger had swapped in a Cadillac 500 engine, but by the time Leo bought it that had been replaced by an LS3 with Cadillac valve covers after Roger managed to grenade the Caddy mill. Leo got the air suspension working, bolted on some Raceline C10 wheels, and slapped on his company logos. The F100 is sticking around for now, as Leo shakes down the formerly dormant truck, but he hopes to have it pulling various duties within the next couple weeks. The model is an incomplete original AMT annual kit, powered by a GM LS3 engine and rolling in Raceline C10 wheels and BF Goodrich tires from Jay's Resin Wheels. I don't recall what light blue I used (painted it a while ago), but the decals came from Gopher Racing. The license plate came from Best Model Car Parts. And if you're curious here's a link to the F100... https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/172248-1976-ford-f100-flareside/

So last year I built this... Now, here comes part 2... After being let go from his previous employer in 1995, Michael "Fat Mike" Agosti struck out on his own. Purchasing a crusty but reliable '70 Ford F350 with a Holmes 440 wrecker unit, it was treated to a light refurbish and a cosmetic makeover, and his daughter Sherilyn picked the color. Mike, who was color blind, often joked that blues and aquas were his favorite colors. When Mike passed away in 2009, Fat Mike's Towing went to his wife, Connie, and Sherilyn was put in charge of running the day to day operation. And that's just about how it went right up until 2024. At that point, Connie was wanting to retire, and Sherilyn was... Well... Having some personal problems that became legal problems. Which all led to Fat Mike's grandson Mike Slaughter taking over, having spent the last several years driving a wrecker. To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Fat Mike's Towing, Mike pulled the trigger on his long standing idea of treating the very first Fat Mike's wrecker to a restoration. Not a full restoration, as Mike wanted to preserve as much of the 2009 repaint as he could. It was the wrecker's third paint job since Fat Mike bought it, and he performed the paint job the week before he died, so Mike wants to keep it around for a while longer. So the existing paint was buffed and touched up, and the firewall and interior were finally matched from the factory white to the aqua hue. The interior was upgraded to Ranger trim and reupholstered, it was probably the second most changed area of the truck. The most changed part of the truck is the engine. It's the same 390 the wrecker was born with, but it's been rebuilt and fitted with a few Roush parts, and painted in a custom mixed metallic version of Ford Engine Blue. The truck was fitted with new wheels and tires, the old push bumper was replaced by a factory bumper, and bright trim was added to the windshield. The model is the '72 Moebius kit, with a '70 grille. I added antennae, spot lights, steps, a smoke stack, and air horns from the parts pile. The door decals came from Gopher Racing, and the whole thing wears a coat of lightly distressed Rust-Oleum Aqua. The wheels and tires came from the new custom 4x4 kit and were modified into duals in the back. I also used the '71 Ranger interior and upholstery pattern decals. And thank to the magic of scale modeling, we can see a before and after at the same time!

The Stranger Things Blazer built out of the box other than the Spotlight Hobbies sasquatch silhouette decal, finished in Tamiya Olive Drab and lightly weathered.

Dinner came in from the rain, so Patty and her kids are closed upstairs for tonight. I need to borrow a border collie to help corral those fluffy little agents of chaos. 🤣

Orange kitten was transfixed by the ceiling fan yesterday. 🤣

If I could make one minor gripe, your '87 has been retrofitted with a 1992-1997 grille. But maybe that's more observation than gripe. 🤣 These both look fantastic, what kit(s) did you use as a base?

Seth's Towing served the Lansing/Dewitt area beginning in 1988. Seth Hynnek and his team gained a reputation for fast, friendly, and reasonably priced service. That all changed in 1994, when John Derringer bought the operation. Derringer quickly fired Seth's people and ran the business into the ground. Seth's former wreckers were rumored to have been used to tie random vehicles to Derringer's chop shop, where parts would be resold or used in vehicles at one of Derringer's trio of sketchy "float the note" used car lots. Seth was so angered by what had happened he came out of retirement and started a new towing business, hiring back his former staff, and eventually handing over the new operations to his employees once he retired, for good, in 1999. The very first wrecker Seth bought was a 1982 Chevrolet C30 that had been fitted with the towing setup from a 1979 GMC Holmes Captain Hook. Though a bit of a hodge podge, it proved to be reliable. And it's the last Seth's wrecker known to still exist. Seth heard it was being stored behind a body shop in Mt. Pleasant (reportedly collateral for a bill left unpaid by Derringer), and Seth bought it. The truck is much rougher than it was in it's heyday, but mechanically it's still tip top. Seth jokes that the truck will probably outlive him. It's already outlived Derringer's shady businesses, and Derringer himself... who was found dead under strange circumstances in his office in late 2020. But that's a whole 'nother story. The model is the Revell GMC wrecker, fitted with a cab from the MPC Deserter '84 GMC. It has AMT C3500 wheels with Moebius tires, an Iceman Collections grille, and emblems from Rays Kits Decals North America . It was basically a quick weekend project whipped up to dispose of spare parts.

I had to fill some startlingly wide gaps after installing the bulkhead.

In 1975, Hank Harris swapped a 1967 Camaro 350 and the rest was history. Hank's Speed Shop made a name for itself making V8 swap kits for compact pickups. Hank and the shop are gone now, but Hank's grandson Jace Thum has the LUV. It's on it's third paint job, it now has a 1975 4 bolt 350, and has been swapped to five lug hubs to fit a set of Cragar S/S wheels. But imagine a cleaner version with sparkly paint and it looks almost like it would have back then. This is the Monogram kit, with Edelbrock engine dress up parts from an AMT '55 Chevrolet stepside, and some old MRC Cragars and Mickey Thompson tires. Paint is distressed Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch aqua, with Gofer Racing decals and a Best Model Car Parts 1973 Michigan plate.

New shoes, Monogram '77 GMC 8 bolt alloys, Monogram Ground Hawg tires. And I've reconfigured the original rollers for a dually.

In the sleepy central Michigan town of Sickles, there's a damp, moldy, and poorly lit store on the outskirts called "Rachel's Resale". The shelves were cluttered with... shall we say... "vintage" trinkets, dusty antiques, and what seems like a random assortment of absolute junk. Sounds like a great place to find a bargain, until you see an extremely common (and worn out) AC/DC concert shirt for $55, a non functional "antique" General Electric clock/radio for $200, or a VHS tape of Nukie for $100. And those are some of the more reasonably priced items in the shop. If you dare to leave a negative Google review of Rachel's Resale.. or even a positive review sometimes... Rachel herself will be all over you like musty stink on any piece of merchandise in her store. She will reply with a tirade, and most often end her retort with her famous catchphrase: "You are hereby banned from the premises!" Being "hereby banned" is a part of the local lexicon, with many locals finding Rachel's ire to be an amusing badge of honor. Despite this, Rachel has been in business since 1998, with no ending in sight. People actually drive from all over the state just to buy something or visit, just to leave bad reviews, just to be hereby banned from the premises. To this day, nobody is really sure if Rachel really is as surly and incompetent as she seems, or if she's some bizzaro world marketing queen. Her company car is just as well known, and just as rough. It's a 1965 El Camino with a camper shell that's been modified with shelving inside, for runs to estate sales and the rare trips when Rachel tries her luck at a flea market. She's turned down numerous offers for it over the years, saying that she would not take less than $15,000 for it. Though she does have a reason for that price... pure sentimental value. As for her insane pricing on the stuff in her shop? That remains a mystery... The model is an incomplete, original AMT 1965 El Camino I bought years ago. I figured the kit had sat around for 60 years waiting to be built, so I did this with it. 🤣 It has MPC Dodge pickup wheels, hubcaps from two Revell Stranger Things Blazers, and parts from a couple of '65 El Camino reissues to fill in the blanks.

Wonder if he's the father of the orange kitten... Speaking of the kittens, a couple days ago they figured out how stairs work. So now whenever I forget to shut the door they're free to rampage through the house. 🤣

Also Oliver has a crossed wire🤣 https://youtube.com/shorts/yLxFt7Xnlpk?si=t3Hgk5B6gOVhv0_j

Finally introduced Dinner to one of the kittens, specifically the orange one. Boy howdy, he did not like that. 🤣

If I haven't already introduced him, here's Madhouse Miniatures shop supervisor Oliver.

The trim is bare metal foil with a little semigloss black painted into the recesses. The excess was wiped off with a thin cloth rag stretched tightly over the tip of my thumb.

From 1954 to 1994, Anderson Brothers Pontiac served Sickles, Michigan and the surrounding areas. And for a pretty good chunk of that time, they had a unique shop truck. Built by Steve's Auto Body in late '65 from a rear ended '65 Pontiac Tempest and a '65 El Camino that had been wrapped around a telephone pole, the Tempest pickup was a custom order. Steve Hill built a few different "what if" car-pickups, and elder Anderson brother Joe commissioned the Pontiac pickup for the dealership. The Tempest became a local legend in it's own time, and served the dealership all the way up to 1990, though by 1970 or so it had been joined by a series of Chevrolet and GMC pickups. It then ended up under the ownership of Darren Villarreal, who had started out as a salesman at Anderson Brothers in 1978 and had become general sales manager by 1985. He stayed with the dealership until 1995, a year after the Andersons sold the dealership to Andrew Russo, who eventually ran the operation into the ground. But let's not go there. Darren sold the Tempest to Lyle Abbott, owner of Acme Auto Salvage, in 1997. Lyle has, in his own estimation, completely rebuilt the car at least three times in the 28 years he's had it. Not all at once, but cumulatively. He recently treated the interior to a refresh, including GTO bucket seats and center console. The one thing that's never been touched? The bodywork Steve did back in 1965. And yes, the Tempest still sees regular use, even if it's just advertising Acme Auto Salvage with it's presence. The model is the new AMT Craftsman Series '65 GTO cut and spliced with the '65 Chevrolet El Camino. The door decals and most of the stuff in the bed came from several Moebius F-Series kits. Now if Round 2 ever trots out a '64-'67 Buick Skylark I can do a a trilogy of B-O-P coupe utilities.

Wished Patty a happy mother's Day as one of her brood tried using her head as a step ladder. 🤣 Meanwhile Dinner is enjoying the sun.

On

I remember getting one of the originals and being thoroughly disappointed. Can I get away with saying Xtremely disappointed? No? Okay... I knew it was the show truck, not a production Xtreme, and even though the side of the box proclaimed a 2.2 and a manual transmission. Pre-internet me thought perfect, I could make a neat little fleet truck. Nope,it had the same power train as the other S truck kits. Nice bench seat and floor shifter though. Lowered suspension proved once again that Ertl was blissfully ignorant of what a scrub line is, but the stance looked decent. Updated grille isn't going to move the needle much for me, especially if that's the extent of the updating. We're a long way from the 90s when they'd update things like the steering wheel and intake to depict the changes to the real vehicle for 1995, I accept that. I'm hopeful that if this version meets with a little unexpected success, maybe there will be a more thorough 1998-up S Series update later.

They'd need to throw in the '95 interior as well.