Pat Ganahl was a model builder too...

[Ace-Garageguy]

                         https://patganahl.com/2022/03/21/models-from-the-50s/

[Bainford]

Thanks for that, Bill. That was a fun read. Some creative period stuff, and the dragster frame scratch built from coat hanger is impressive. I had read once that Pat was an avid model builder but that's the first I've seen of his work. 

[Ulf]

Pat was a very, very good editor. He wrote in a Swedish car magazine in the late 70s-early 80s, it was pure education, US report something. Among other things, he wrote about NNL, it was the first time I ever read something adult about car kits. Although there was no time or peace then, that text has been safely saved in the memory and popped up sometimes when there was a gap.

[FoMoCo66]

I love this article. So many impressive detailing techniques.

[styromaniac]

Another notable hot rodder who built models...guitarist Jeff Beck.

[Mark]

Pat Ganahl later built a '60 Plymouth wagon that appeared on the cover of Scale Auto.  I'm pretty sure he also built a model of the John Milner Deuce coupe in an article that appeared in Street Rodder magazine.  This was around the time the movie was current, several years after the AMT '32 coupe kit was (at that time) last issued but prior to the mid-Seventies reissue.

[tim boyd]

5 hours ago, Mark said:

Pat Ganahl later built a '60 Plymouth wagon that appeared on the cover of Scale Auto.  I'm pretty sure he also built a model of the John Milner Deuce coupe in an article that appeared in Street Rodder magazine.  This was around the time the movie was current, several years after the AMT '32 coupe kit was (at that time) last issued but prior to the mid-Seventies reissue.

Pat aiso wrote an article circa 1975-ish for Street Rodder on building a 1929 Model A Roadster on a '32 frame...not so easy do with the kits available back then.  His article inspired (in part) my first '29 on '32 highboy model.

Pat attended the second-ever NNL West back in January of 1983 at a hotel in Millbrae (just south of San Fran- I had invited him to attend).  Pat always had his camera with him, but I did not know that he took photos and sent them to the Swedish magazine per Ulf's note above. 

Ulf, do you recall if his writing was for "Wheels" magazine in Sweden?  Several of my models were pictured in the "ModelKornan" (sp?) column written by Hans Kihlen in that late mag back in the late 1970s IIRC....TB   

[Ulf]

7 hours ago, tim boyd said:

Pat aiso wrote an article circa 1975-ish for Street Rodder on building a 1929 Model A Roadster on a '32 frame...not so easy do with the kits available back then.  His article inspired (in part) my first '29 on '32 highboy model.

Pat attended the second-ever NNL West back in January of 1983 at a hotel in Millbrae (just south of San Fran- I had invited him to attend).  Pat always had his camera with him, but I did not know that he took photos and sent them to the Swedish magazine per Ulf's note above. 

Ulf, do you recall if his writing was for "Wheels" magazine in Sweden?  Several of my models were pictured in the "ModelKornan" (sp?) column written by Hans Kihlen in that late mag back in the late 1970s IIRC....TB   

Yes, it was Wheels magazine, Hans' Model Corner and Tim's US report were different and yes, I remember that Hans also included your pictures.

Pat's US report was continuous for quite some time, as I recall. Not even Deeptranslate translates the Swedish word folkbildning correctly, education of the people becomes a sentence, but having said that, I think it is important to point out that Pat's texts were enlightening, it was not just rim width and how many inches the roof was lowered. Since the USA and Sweden are very different countries and cultures, his texts made a deep impression.

For almost fifteen years I freelanced for a chopper magazine and some car magazines and I know since that time that 1. if an issue of Wheels magazine did not have two pages of model car kits the subscribers were disappointed and 2. several other major publishers were jealous of Wheels magazine for their continuous model car kit pages.
In short, there is a modeler in almost every car guy. As I recall and now add(edit) many of the street rod and chopper builders had models on their shelves.

That I like you, Pat and Hans have had the opportunity to photograph, write and be published is one of the things I am most grateful for in life, it led to a thirty years profession (another) and at one time a new employment but that is another story.

I will take some pictures if I find an old issue of Wheels magazine. 

Edited April 12 by Ulf
Supplementation

[tim boyd]

5 hours ago, Ulf said:

Yes, it was Wheels magazine, Hans' Model Corner and Tim's US report were different and yes, I remember that Hans also included your pictures.

Pat's US report was continuous for quite some time, as I recall. Not even Deeptranslate translates the Swedish word folkbildning correctly, education of the people becomes a sentence, but having said that, I think it is important to point out that Pat's texts were enlightening, it was not just rim width and how many inches the roof was lowered. Since the USA and Sweden are very different countries and cultures, his texts made a deep impression.

For almost fifteen years I freelanced for a chopper magazine and some car magazines and I know since that time that 1. if an issue of Wheels magazine did not have two pages of model car kits the subscribers were disappointed and 2. several other major publishers were jealous of Wheels magazine for their continuous model car kit pages.
In short, there is a modeler in almost every car guy. As I recall and now add(edit) many of the street rod and chopper builders had models on their shelves.

That I like you, Pat and Hans have had the opportunity to photograph, write and be published is one of the things I am most grateful for in life, it led to a thirty years profession (another) and at one time a new employment but that is another story.

I will take some pictures if I find an old issue of Wheels magazine. 

Thank you Ulf.  That is great stuff! 

Like you, the knowledge I gained building model cars early in my life directly led to my "competitive advantage" during the early part of 35 year career at Ford Motor Company, and later on, my first book and writing background gave me invaluable credibility with our Design staff when I was transferred from global sales and marketing to a senior level business oversite and chief of staff for the Global VP of Design role.  Probably didn't hurt too when I was eventually assigned management/leadership responsibility for our three global advanced design studios.   You just can't make this stuff up.  I doubt much if any of this would have happened had 1) I not been a model car builder, and 2) had Pat G. not given me the opportunity to start the Modeler's Corner gig when he was Editor at Street Rodder. 

BTW, congrats on your own writing and career.  I understand and respect your gratefulness as you explain it.  It is also great to hear how Wheels magazine's readership endorsed model cars.  It was exactly the same here during my 17 years writing the model column for them.  Cheers...TB 

[RancheroSteve]

Just last week I was going through some of my old SAE magazines - looking for another unrelated article - and I came across this:

[bobthehobbyguy]

Some great work.

[mk11]

On 4/12/2024 at 5:34 AM, tim boyd said:

Like you, the knowledge I gained building model cars early in my life directly led to my "competitive advantage" during the early part of 35 year career at Ford Motor Company...

Sooo, when are you going to write about that ?    

[tim boyd]

4 hours ago, mk11 said:

Sooo, when are you going to write about that ?    

Ummm....not likely.  I'd have to shed too many company secrets....(smile)....TB 

[hustinettenbaer]

On 4/11/2024 at 10:49 PM, Mark said:

Pat Ganahl later built a '60 Plymouth wagon that appeared on the cover of Scale Auto.

This was the Landshark, not on the cover of SAE, it was Car Modeler Mag Sept. 92!

[ea0863]

Great article Bill, thank you for sharing!

[stavanzer]

On 4/15/2024 at 6:17 AM, hustinettenbaer said:

This was the Landshark, not on the cover of SAE, it was Car Modeler Mag Sept. 92!

Anu body have a photo of that build?

[stavanzer]

Pat's Ike Iacono GMC Dragster is Featured in The Rodder's Journal issue # 44, on Page 10.

A 1 to 1 scale model. Great Pics too.