Chuck Most

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?

Dennis Brown bought a brand new Sierra in 1982, the only new vehicle he ever bought. After he passed away in 1992, it spent a lot of time just sitting at his old farm. When the Brown family sold the land in 2009, Dennis's granddaughter Danielle Corradi got the old Sierra. With the help of her father Gil, she got the truck running in time for her 17th birthday, and by the time she graduated in 2012, the original 305 and 4 speed had been swapped out for a 1990 350 (retrofitted with a 4 barrel intake) and 5 speed, tge interior was refreshed, and the truck was lowered and rolling in some aftermarket Chevy Rally wheels. Other than keeping it up, Danielle doesn't do much other than drive the wheels off of it. Even though she never actually met her grandfather, the family connection and her own attachment to the truck have pretty much guaranteed the old GMC isn't going to leave the family anytime soon. This is the MPC Deserter '84 GMC, and I had raided a bunch of parts from it, so I built the rest as a curbside. The '82 grille came from an old MPC glue bomb. It's sitting on printed AMT Firestone tires and 1967 Camaro wheels. Paint is distressed Krylon Italian Olive, with a Best Model Car Parts plate and fender badges from Rays Kits Decals North America. Inside is a narrowed Moebius F100 bench seat with Gopher camo decals and a floor shifter from a GMT 400 kit.

From 1946 to 1982, Sullivan Brothers Esso provided 24 hour fuel, maintenance, and repair for motorists in and around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Sullivan siblings owned a number of Esso (and later Exxon) service stations in Pennsylvania, as well as a couple in Ohio and West Virginia for good measure. But the 24 hour Harrisburg location was the flagship of the family business, and as such it was the first to get new equipment that would normally end up at the smaller locations. Such was the case in 1976, when the Harrisburg location got a brand new wrecker. Well, technically they got a a new 1976 Ford F350, two wheel drive, with a 351 and an automatic as a cab and chassis, and retrofitted the wrecker unit from the 1969 model it was replacing. As a nod to the bicentennial, it was treated to some patriotic graphics and pressed into service. Over the years, it was updated with a 1979 grille, and after it was sold to a private owner in 1983, the Sullivan markings were removed and the by-then-retro Esso graphics were added (the Harrisburg location was rebranded to Exxon by 1976). He also stuck a couple of flag decals over the holes in the fenders where the F250 emblems used to be. That owner was Neil Owens of Harper's Ferry, WV, who owned Neil's Repair and Salvage. He owned the wrecker until 2025, when he sold it to a relative of the original owners... "Scary Jerry" Sullivan of Sickles, Michigan. A few MCM forum members might be familiar with Scary Jerry and his exploits. Suffice it to say that after his numerous infamous business ventures and company vehicles, Jerry is now enjoying retirement (much like Neil) with his wife Cheryl and his step daughters Nikki and Erin. Jerry had tracked down the '76 in the '90's, pestering Neil every few years about selling the wrecker. Though Neil never wanted to sell...he was using the wrecker for his business, after all... Neil always maintained that when the time came, it was only going to Jerry. It was the last wrecker Sullivan bought new, and Neil couldn't think of a better home for it. And he and Jerry formed a pretty solid friendship out of it, as well. Though it looks shabby, the old Ford runs and drives like new, and everything works. It has just over 240,000 so obviously it's far from a numbers matching original at this point, but it's endured. Jerry never was really close to his Pennsylvania uncles and cousins when the service stations were in business, social media and whatnot being a faraway dream then. But Jerry is still happy to now own a piece of the family history. I started this model maybe six or seven years ago, and had the basic chassis cab finished pretty quickly. It's the AMT '79 F350 with a 351 from the '77 E150 van, some Scenes Unlimited dually wheels, a C channel front bumper, and Moebius mirrors. It sat in this state until this month, when I finally got serious about the wrecker body. That's a modified Revell Midnite Cowboy piece. I tried mocking up a Moebius wrecker body but I just liked the look of this one better. I was using the salt technique when I built the cab, which I don't really do anymore, so I went over it with some dry brushed Vallejo acrylics to tie it to the wrecker body a little better. So there. A two weekend project stretched out over the better part of a decade. 🤣

I don't know why everyone thinks this is an M1009. It's a flat green Blazer. 🤣 Wrong engine, wrong axles, wrong wheels and tires, and no military spec equipment on it.

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. 🤣