Remember Your First Model Car?

1956 Chrysler.....the kit was missing a wheel cover so my Dad fab'd one out of tin foil!
I was 7 or 8 years old........that was the start for me......built many more after that one.

 

First model kit-'40 Ford coupe ( I bet I built 5 of them!). ( and '32's)
1st real car? '40 Ford coupe Deluxe, '56 Olds V-8 with tri-power
Age?- 15, no license
Cost?- $150. ( 1964)

 

It's one of the few things I remember from my early childhood. 32 Roadster by AMT with help from dad.Built a lot more in my teen years before I got my first real car. Amazed I never got hooked on that glue.

 

I wish I could say that! Model Car glue, my drug of choice. Ron...

 

Wow. "Baron's Hobby Shop" on E. 222d Street in Euclid, Ohio. Right up the street from my grade school. He would sponsor a model car contest very summer. Of course, you had to buy the kit and all the supplies at his place. Boy, were we gullible. There would be five of us all working on different cars at the same time in somebody's basement! (Man, I can still smell that Testor's glue! Yikes!) Our group policy was, "Hurry up and finish it so we can see what it looks like." It mattered little as to how much glue we slopped on the chrome pieces or windshields. It was cool! I remember turning a VW Beetle into a rail job dragster by extending the frame with pieces of coat hanger wire. Good times! I can't believe how expensive models are now. Surprisingly, there's a drugstore in my neighborhood that sells them. I have a couple unassembled ones sitting a shelf waiting for my retirement. Can't wait to dive in. I think I will take my time this time.

 

1/10th scale XKE

 

Even though Mr. tomato head is 11 years older than me I still had plenty of time to waste my paper route money at Barrens hobby shop. The place was so cool I can't even stand thinking about it. Model kits, HO/Lionel/N gauge trains, rockets and gas powered airplanes and cars. Always had a killer window display. Building is still there.
JT

 

_____ 1967: My uncle, had a fantastic collection of model car ''parts'' he'd been storing and collecting for years of various model cars. He hid the multiple drawer, pull-out drawer hobby box from me, because I was always into everything. I found it!!!...........it had everything, from fenders, wheels, hoods, and anything to build several cars that he'd picked up at yard sales with his paper route money. I figured out what things went with what "sorta'', with grubby fingers of mine digging into every nook and cranny of that big old box. With glue, scotch tape, and sticky fingers, I remember I put together a 40' Ford coupe....by definition anyways!
When my uncle found out I'd found his stash, and glued a car together....he was a bit ''miffed'' and didn't say much to me (my mother was standing behind me), and I remember his ''red'' face....I was scared! But, when we went to visit a few weeks later, he pulled me aside, and gave me my very own model, the ''Red Baron'', that I could build without ''hiding'' in the closet, ingesting an open tube of glue, ...and allowed to build it at HIS WORKPLACE in his bedroom! He helped me, and showed me ''what'' I was supposed to do, and I will always remember his ''tolerance'' to me during ''that moment'' ....I think he figured out I had the beginnings of a ''car guy'' and didn't retaliate & beat me to a pulp (like usual).............he still yelled at us for screaming and running of course, but never said a thing about what our new found ''car thing''....I went on to build lots of models, and he eventually ''gave'' me that big old box of parts of vintage car parts.....great memories--- Ray