R.I.P. forum member FordWagonNut

[ChrisBcritter]

Sad to report that forum member Jon Valadez (FordWagonNut) passed away on January 18, 2017. He was a member of the Lake Michigan Model Car Club; Rob Cantwell announced his death at the monthly meeting last Saturday. According to the report, he was working on one of his cars in his garage and was overcome by carbon monoxide from a space heater. He was only 38 years old and a good friend to me and many others.

Ten days before he died, his AMT '68 Torino convertible won first in its class in the Model of the Month voting at our January meeting. While I try to get photos of that one, here are a couple shots of his other builds (he was very fond of fullsize American '60s and '70s cars, especially Ford wagons).

R.I.P., Jonny - you will be missed. 

Edited February 21, 2018 by ChrisBcritter

[High octane]

I remember Jonathan Valadez from the C.A.R.S. in Miniature Model Car Club. A good guy and I'm sorry he passed on. May he R.I.P.

[slusher]

Sad he was a young man...

[cobraman]

Sorry to hear this .

[Jim N]

Sad, very sad.  He did outstanding work.

[10thumbs]

So sad, such a young man.  RIP.

[mikemodeler]

Sorry to hear this, he seemed like such a great guy. We did a couple of trades awhile ago and talked at the time about life in Chicagoland as I am a former resident of the Northern Suburbs.

RIP Johnny.

 

[High octane]

Former resident of the Northern Suburbs? I know a few people who left Chicago and the suburbs to move to N.C. I've only been to Charlotte on a business trip.

[martinfan5]

That is pretty sad, he was about year older than me, too young to die.

[feretzrus]

Knew him personally in the Lake Michigan Model Car Club.  Talented in miniature as well as wrenching

the real thing.  He will be missed.  God Rest His Soul.

[ChrisBcritter]

Several of us from the LMMCC went to his memorial along with about a hundred of his other friends and family; it was a nice service. With Jonny's mother's permission his oldest friend set up a table with a lot of small diecast cars from his collection and encouraged anyone there to take one (I chose a teal metallic Matchbox '64 Continental). There were quite a few cars left over, so our club offered to bring them to our meeting that night and sell off the rest as a fund-raiser. We made $176.00 from the sale which went to Jonny's mother.

From the memorial's GoFundMe page: