1965 Chevrolet El Camino: Rachel's Resale

Chuck Most · May 27

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.