Who was building in the 60s?

[Dave G.]

 

17 minutes ago, Shark said:

When I was a kid, my dad made us paint all the parts in a kit, guess so we didn't finish them too fast. Everything was brush painted with Testors or Pactra. Didn't see anyone else mention this, but we used to rub out the paint jobs with toothpaste.

You might run into a couple of threads around here where I mention Colgate toothpaste even today. I use it in buffing Createx 4050 clear coat.

 

[slusher]

6 hours ago, Shark said:

 but we used to rub out the paint jobs with toothpaste.

Did tooth past really work? I had about waxing with toothpaste on scale auto and thought they was kidding…

[Nolan]

3 hours ago, slusher said:

Did tooth past really work? I had about waxing with toothpaste on scale auto and thought they was kidding…

It worked.  I forget which was the roughest grit or the smoothest, but I remember going to the drug store and sampling the various brands....before buying!  Squeeze out some and rub between finger and thumb, yup, plenty of grit in this one.  Kids, what are you going to do with 'em?

 

Nolan

[Dave G.]

4 hours ago, slusher said:

Did tooth past really work? I had about waxing with toothpaste on scale auto and thought they was kidding…

Colgate original, or the baking soda peroxide one. Yes it works. I have no reason to change from tooth paste and my follow up bees/canuba wax, wax formulation.

Always be sure your paints are well cured, whatever you use.

[peteski]

Yes, toothpaste as polishing compound. That trick has been around for a long time.

But it needs to be the white opaque colored paste, not any of the translucent gels that are out there.  Also, it's not the baking soda grit that does the polishing - that grit is way too coarse to polish paint.  Take some polishing compound for 1:1 cars and put between your fingers and you better not feel any grit. Should be smooth.  Polishing compounds use very finely ground abrasive particles.

Those opaque (usually white in color) toothpastes contain polish (those finely ground abrasives) to to polish your teeth.  As such, they can be used to polish other surfaces (like paint on a model car), but they are very mild - it will take a lot of rubbing to get a mirror-like surface.  I say you are better off using a polishing compound designed for the job of polishing paint.

[Rick L]

23 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

All the above, but as I was a railroad modeler and slot-car builder too, I was aware of a lot of things the majority of car modelers apparently weren't...like small number drills and pin-vises, basswood for more scale-appearing bed stakes and slats without fuzz, NBW (nut-bolt-washer) details, etc. etc. The slot-car guys routinely rewound their motors, and I borrowed their small diameter wire for plugs, etc. EDIT: Learned to solder brass tube for slotcar chassis too. Probably lucky to have been close to real hobby shops within walking or biking distance before I could drive, and seeing what the older guys could do.

I tried styrene shapes and sheet fairly early (turned on to it by model railroader mags again), for things like de-blobularizing one-piece chassis, even built a monocoque slot car that was so light it out-accelerated everything, but went flying off the track when the nose lifted, destroying itself completely.

I was never a good brush-painter, tried Pactra and Testors rattlecans with mixed results (only one I was actually proud of was a black enamel job on an AMT T-tub hot-rod), fell in love with AMT lacquers after finding I could consistently turn out decent paint jobs with their stuff.

Last model I built before quitting for decades, in about 1969, was an altered-wheelbase flip-nose '55 Nomad with a Ford teardrop-style hood blister, painted with hardware store rattlecan flourescent orange, misted all over with silver.

Slot car racing was huge back then. Slot car centers popped up everywhere. I’ll never forget my brother telling my mom to take a lap with his 1/32nd scale Cox magnesium chassis converted with a plastic model car VW bug. It was at Modelville Hobby in Framingham Ma. A big banked Sovereign track. Most cars hung on the bank by centrifugal force except my brother didn’t know anything about top heavy cars. Well, mom hit the throttle, full blast and didn’t know anything about breaking. That car went off that bank like it was slung off by a jai Alai wicker right into the pit stop area 30 ft. away. It was a quiet ride home.😆

Edited January 8 by Rick L

[Ace-Garageguy]

45 minutes ago, Rick L said:

...I’ll never forget my brother telling my mom to take a lap with his 1/32nd scale Cox magnesium chassis converted with a plastic model car VW bug. It was at Modelville Hobby in Framingham Ma. A big banked Sovereign track. Most cars hung on the bank by centrifugal force except my brother didn’t know anything about top heavy cars. Well, mom hit the throttle, full blast and didn’t know anything about breaking. That car went off that bank like it was slung off by a jai Alai wicker right into the pit stop area 30 ft. away. It was a quiet ride home.😆

You reminded me of a doofus move I made. I had a clear 1/24 Lotus 30 body with a cool fade paint job on one of the sidewinder chassis, probably Cox. I had seen the real Chaparrals with their big flapping wings and thought it would be pretty slick to try something similar. I made a rig that let the motor swing up under acceleration, down when you let off, with struts to a wing and a bellcrank to flatten it on go, flip it almost vertical for an air brake on decel. The mechanism worked great, but I made the wing out of something like .040" brass sheet. Way top heavy. You can guess the rest.  

[Rick L]

4 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

You reminded me of a doofus move I made. I had a clear 1/24 Lotus 30 body with a cool fade paint job on one of the sidewinder chassis, probably Cox. I had seen the real Chaparrals with their big flapping wings and thought it would be pretty slick to try something similar. I made a rig that let the motor swing up under acceleration, down when you let off, with struts to a wing and a bellcrank to flatten it on go, flip it almost vertical for an air brake on decel. The mechanism worked great, but I made the wing out of something like .040" brass sheet. Way top heavy. You can guess the rest.  

Our Rube Goldberg constructions were the best part of racing.

[Jim Dodson]

Strongest memories from building model kits in those days... Producing psychedelic effects on the concrete porch out front from the overspray using the small testors and AMT spray paints got harsh words from parents and harsh chemicals on bare skin while removing said paint effects. LOL

Loved the F1 cars and drivers of those days and when the first wings started to appear I discovered the vanes from discarded HVAC registers could be hacksawed out & attached to the AMT and IMC lotus Indycars to recreate those earliest grand prix cars. Discovered plastic cement was worthless as a glue in this multi-media application, but DAP white bathtub caulk would hold the wings on. Repurposing learned early growing up as a poor kid! LOL  Jim D.

[thatz4u]

I was, the Ironside van is one I remember...

[bytownshaker]

I started building during the mid 60's. For tools mom's nail files and clippers also a Exacto soldering iron/hot knife, we only had Testor's paints and glues in my area. I still remember finding my first car model magazine on the magazine rack while looking for Hot Rod. Car Craft or Drag Racing USA which I still have today. Don Emmons and Hank Borger were my favorite writers in the mags. My friends and I used thread for plugs wires and toothpaste to polish the paint. I even remember bring the chassis of an MPC Duster to auto shop to drill holes in it to lower the front end.

[Wickersham Humble]

I began with aircraft models, ships and military until about 1958, when I got two of the Revell customizing kits ('56 Ford, and Buick -- still have some of the parts and decals, too!) and struggled with the multi-piece bodies current then.  Even so, the idea of a load of fender skirts, louvers, finlets, and other kitch appealed to the 12-year old me!  It was when AMT/SMP came out with the one-piece bodies (promo-based, but we didn't know that then!) that let a budding Barris or Starbird start hacking and filling from day-one that led me to give away all my other models, and concentrate on the 'restyling' feature of the 3-in-1 kit!  About half the kits I have today are from 1959-1965, and some still unbuilt annuals!  

Duro 'Plastic Aluminum' was my hardware-store staple for filling in or building up the styrene, and Duco Cement the standard until the better glues came on the market.  Who hasn't 'melted' a kit (usually aircraft) with too-liberal beads of plastic-solvent glues?  I switched to AMT's little tubes of putty, of course, on the way to using real Bondo and Red-Cap lacquer putty.  Plastruct or Evergreen: a '61 Lincoln 'sports roadster' kit I'm just finishing up has a solid tonneau made from a chunk of a family soap-dish, even yet!  Pieces of ball-point pens, shirt-box plastic, and straight pins were stand-bys.  I used Pal or Schick injector single edged blades, and a hunk of hack-saw blade (ouch!) for heavy slice & dice -- occasionally on my fingers.  I still have a '60 T-Bird turtle-deck from when I tried to build a 'Bird Ranchero, from Dave Shuklis'(sp?) plan, and the like-new bumper/grilles.  Also, what's left of a roll of 1-mm. wide foil tape that Auto World sold for chrome trim; and it still works!  

Spotlite Books small-format issue on Model Car Building was a revelation to me, in our tiny, isolated N CA town (oft said to be closer to OR and NV than CA!) and I first learned that Chevy make a fancy pickup called the 'Cameo' from it.  Some of the kits featured even had opening hoods and engines; V-8 kit motors were hard to find in 1960, man!  That set me to opening up all my older cars, and also hoarding engines from all and sundry.  Another still have it: the mill from the Renault Caravelle kit I botched up!  I have a model shops three-ring binder, acquired at a 1/1 swap meet, that has a solid inch of manufacturers sales catalogs and promotions.  Boy, I never saw an Aurora car kit, but did they make some fanciful ones!  ITC, Palmer, Pyro, and many others long gone; ooh, and that Renwal* 'Visable Woman"...

Well, you shouldn't ask if you didn't want lots of reminisces!  About those balsa and tissue a/c model kits...    Ole' Wick  *Or was it...?

[OldNYJim]

There’s so many cool stories here - thank you SO MUCH for sharing everyone 

Question for those who were there at the time…how come about every vintage survivor I have in my collection was shot without primer?  Rattle can primer surely existed at the time, right?  Seems like the ol’ paint-right-over-the-styrene technique is the most common thing I see on a lot of these old builds… 

[Wickersham Humble]

It took me a couple of years to realize the benefits of primer in ratcans; mostly I used silver basecoats for candys or metallics, or what was often called 'hot rod black' aka flat-black.  I was proud of my three-layer colors by 1963: metallic silver, gold, or occasionally bronze first layer, then usually a dealer touch-up aerosol of some stock but attractive color, followed by a couple of coats of the appropriate candy.  Ford had a nice burgundy metallic color that came in a small aero touch-up can, and I followed it with (Testors? AMT?) burgundy candy, for a really nice finish.  

In my little town (Simon & Grafunkel?) we had only a 'five & dime' store and the old couple proprietors stocked a goodly number of AMT 3-1 kits -- all convertibles -- but no hobby shops, so it was the hardware store or new car dealership for paints, unless a rare trip to a 'big city' a hundred miles away offered, and there was a bick and hobby store that had candy and flashy metallic paints in the little squat rattle cans of yore.  Meant saving up the old pennies!

AMT/SMP kits at $1.39 -- printed proudly on the end of the carton; no allowance for inflation there -- were the staple for me, but in another town (where we now live) there was an 88-cent Store that sold JoHan kits (all MoPars; still have four or five) that were curbside, but only 88-cents!  By the time I was hot into car kits, I had a job at the local muni airport on weekends pumping gas, which was a city job paying >gasp< minimum wage; $1.25/hr in 1960!  Until I turned sixteen, and bought my first car (a bitchin' '55 Chevy Delray 2-door sedan, with 3/4 cam, solids, power-pack 4-bbl & duals!) I had a budget for kits; after car, and all my dead-beat 'friends' who wanted to ride but never kicked in gas money, I wasn't so flush.  Broke, most of the time, was more like it!

But, I used to keep all my kit 'chrome' bits in an old model box, and sorted them for recreation until most began to wear thin!  Thx!  Wick

[TonyK]

My memories of building in the 60's make me cringe remembering how I did things but I enjoyed it at the time. Used a pocket knife and twisted a lot of the parts off the trees. Used thread and for some reason I recall painting the air filter flat black when the element was visible. Don't know why I chose that color?! Never sanded the tires or mold lines. Mostly built drag racers and any other race car I could find.

My best memory was riding my bike to the hobby shop where you never knew what would be new on the shelves. Yep, the 88 cent store had models too but I think they were $1.88 when I bought them.

[bobss396]

I recall building a 1934 Ford pick up I got for my 9th birthday, on my bed. I had a pocket knife and an old pair of nail clippers with a file on them.

We had 2 walking-distance kit sources. A stationary store that sold Palmer kits for 99 cents.

The other was a bicycle shop that incidentally just closed under new ownership. That had roots in 1957 or so. The owner smoked cigars, ant kit you got reeked when we opened it. He was also a member of the Pagans motorcycle gang.

He had TONS of kits. The old pink-gray annuals went for 99 cents each. $1.50 kits were $1.27, $2.00 kits were $1.77.

Just about all of us in the 'hood built to some degree. I recall sitting outside with my brothers and friends at the picnic table for hours in the summer. Every cent we made doing chores went to feed the model car habit.

One kid in my class stood head and shoulders above anybody else. By age 11, he could have beat some adults, he was that good. He had a can of leftover AMT metallic red paint he donated to my 1965 Pontiac build. I sprayed, he coached.

That was in the day where we tried to see how many cars we got out of just one can. I have a couple of builds from 1969 to 1970... they were far from shiny.

[OldNYJim]

Ok, winding the clock back even FURTHER…I’m about to start work on a Monogram Midget - their first car kit, from the early 50s

Anyone here ‘experienced’ enough to have been building 70 years back?  I’m interested in learning some more about the paint products back then in particular…I’m guessing Pactra enamels were the hot ticket - but what about products for metal finishes?  I’m guessing the model railroad guys had some solutions figured out already but what were the car guys using?

[Wickersham Humble]

As I noted, I began building -- mostly aircraft -- in third grade; 1953,  One source of car colors was OEM touch-up paints, either in those slim bottles with the brush in the cap, or later aerosols. Dealerships often had a rack; usually depleted.  I used both, but also hardware-store rattle cans -- with mixed and disappointing results.  I didn't use nail polish much, because it mostly came in reds and pinks then; not for me! AMT had a line of candy color cans by the early 'sixties that go a lot of use.  Testors and Pactra, of course, and some other mfrs.  I eventually went to PPG (and any other brand I could score cheaply!) when I started doing 1/1 car stuff, and cycles.  I painted custom bikes for a niche bike guy; two frames, sand-blasted and painted for $25, but he supplied the epoxy paint.  1/1 paint with high voc's and plenty of resin was so great and easy! I learned air-bushing in the Army, no less, but didn't have my own until about 1970. I suppose I've tried about every kind of paint method and material by now.  Wick, age 79 in N CA

[bobss396]

I was about 10 when I learned about "hot" paints on bare plastic. Before 1997, I never heard about priming a model.

That crinkled up body gave birth to a demo derby car. We really built models to smash up. We did them at recess at school in the gym... for a very short while until it got banned.

I filled the front of my car (hidden of course) with plastic steel. My dad had a can in the garage.

[bytownshaker]

Just remembered, as I didn't have tiny drill bits to make holes for sparkplug wires etc we would heat up a pin with a lighter and us it to poke holes in the plastic. Usally made a mess.

[Carmak]

On 1/7/2025 at 9:01 AM, Dave G. said:

In my case, fortune ( in kid terms) came young, in the form of a 108 customer paper route. In a time when layman's wages were all of $85- $100 or $125 a week, I was doing nearly half of that. I always had money, enough for models, supplies, a Fribble at Friendly's Ice cream whenever I wanted. And a new bike. I did OK as a kid, but worked for it too. Once I got that paper route I was out from under the pennies a week allowance for chores category. So happens I made a friend through church, a fellow modeller who had that route. I used to go on the route with him, ride the paper truck from the corner market to where the route was. I just helped out, got to know everybody, from the one kid, to truck drivers, even a visit or two from the paper manager guy. So when the kid's family decided to move out of town, I was already in position to take that route over, no charge ( in those days, they used to sell the routes). Well, lets face it, in those days kids were allowed to do the work ! Not today.

Although I was born in the late 60's I also had a large early morning paper route (actually three routes), and the pay was good. In the late 70's/early 80's nobody wanted the routes. There were times I would do a couple extra routes white the paper company was looking to hire new carriers (the pay for these routes was 2x but it was really tough doing 3 hrs. of routes in the morning).

Every penny went to model cars. I would get done with the route and have an hour of modeling before I went to school.

[OldNYJim]

22 hours ago, Wickersham Humble said:

learned air-bushing in the Army, no less

What use did the army have for airbrushing, out of curiosity?

[Wickersham Humble]

In the big green machine, you go where they say to go, and do what they say to do; period.  When my local board ended my student deferment in 1968 by agreement, I'd gotten my B.A. in Art/Education.  One of the luckiest things that ever happened to me: they assigned this grunt to a 'C.A.S.' (civilian acquired skill) M.O.S. (military occupation specialty) as 81E20: 'graphic arts/illustrator' -- sent me to Ft Sam Houston/Medical Field Service School as a curriculum support guy.  There I stayed for two years -- luckily avoiding VietNam, and put my education to use. It's hard using an air brush and keeping your fingers tightly crossed for 24 months, believe me!  I went from buck private (E-1) to Specialist 5th class (E-5 = buck sergeant), and did every 'art job' you could think of -- including putting 'halos' on the portraits of generals with titanium white through a Badger air brush -- you know, like the promo photos of all realtors, nowadays?  Also worked in the Army Medical Museum a day per week, usually.  I got my ETS date, bought a new 240Z, came home to CA and married my wife (of so many moons, another lucky thing, believe me!), and grew my hair back!, Also, dug out my collection of kits, built and begun, and found out that someone had put a very heavy object atop the carton, and broken most of them!  Wick 

Well, hey; this was all in response to a nostalgia question, huh?  I think I was a decent bargain, at between $106 and $278 per month...

[OldNYJim]

Love hearing stories like this - thank you for sharing (and for your service!)

[Spooker]

I can relate to 90% of the things mentioned, either tools or materials!  I was also a model railroader and slot car guy (HO, still am) and learned to solder and wire controllers, control panels and layouts.  I used tons of the Testors square bottles, still have quite a few, some with 12 cents price on them that are still good!  One tool not mentioned that I still use with those pesky square bottles (and others) is a nutcracker, the pliers kind, to open the dried on caps, works like a charm.  Fun thread!