Editor's Note: Our newest field correspondent came at me this week with another article that he wanted to publish and once again, I'm left impressed. So fellas, please welcome back Joey Ukrop. And Joey, keep this up and we are gonna have to make yo... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
it reads great. as with any well written article, it flows and feels natural much like a conversation would. keep up the good work.
got 2 of that revell model car need to build it someday, perhaps when kids are grown up in like 20 years...
I've got 10 or so of this kit, as the ch***is is perfect for many more bodies to be fitted to, just never got around to building them yet!
Excellent, well written article. You obvously have a proclivity for prose, young Joey! Now that Ryan is getting up around retirement age, I suppose we will be enjoying more of your motor oil (or Testors) induced memoirs!
Sounds plausible to me! In addition to being a fun build in its own right, that's one of the top ten "parts kits" ever! A lot of credit for the success and memorability of that model should go to illustrator Jack Leynwood, who created many iconic box illustrations for Revell and Aurora kits thoughout the '60s and early '70s!
I have another B&W shot of Antieau's Ace on one of my Hd's at home, if its on the computer thats connected to the internet, I'll post it later.
Nice read. I've always been crazy about model cars especially those old revell kits of tri 5 Chevys, where everything opened (and more especially the 57 Nomad).
I read somewhere years ago (probably in the early 90's when I was really into models)that the Studebaker Body was added to the ch***is kit in 1968 or so, and that the original ch***is was for another body. I don't remember what body, but the story is very plausible. I have the remnants of the kit in an old metal chest with a bunch of other parts.
Wow, this kid is good! If I didn't know better, Joey reads like some of the veterans that I grew up reading. As an ***ignment in college I wrote a paper about 'Design A Body For Racing and I used an altered wheelbase '53 Studebaker for the application. I also had a little tamer version for street use. Those were the days, Carp
Very nice piece Joey. Here's a reply from an SDC Forum member, I cross posted a reference to your writing on the SDC website and I hope this member and others will pop in to HAMB and help answer your questions: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?70989-Miss-Deal
That was one of my all time favorite models as a kid. I keep telling myself one day I'm going to build a life size version of that car.
Nice conjecture article, but unfortunately it is wrong. Before merging with Monogram Models in the early 1980s, Revell was located in Southern California-Venice to be precise. Two of Revell's kit engineers were Jim Keeler and the late Bob Paeth. These are two of the three names on the orange 55 Chevy atop the kit box above. I have had the privelidge of knowing both of these men. In the Early 1960s, AMT and Revelll were both working on stock 53 Studebaker models. The AMT was going to be a pillarless hardtop while the Revell was a pillared coupe. The AMT kit got to market while the Revell kit was in the wooden master phase of development. Figuring that there wasn't enough of a market for two 53 Studes, Revell shelved theirs. By the late 60s Revell, like other kit manufacturers, was looking for ways to jump aboard the Funny Car bandwagon. Paeth came up with the idea of revising the 53 Stude body, using a Parts Pack Show Car ch***is and throwing in some other pieces to result in a quickly developed and fairly inexpensive funny car model. Thus was born the Miss Deal kit. I never heard where the box art or kit name came from, but the kit to this day is a fun build with a lot of usable parts for g***er models. By the way, Jim Keeler lives in a suburb of Salt Lake City. If any of you will be attending the model car championships there May 2-5, you can ask him to give you the story straight from the horse's mouth.
Well I don't care if it's not how it happened, I like the way your mind works Joey! Nice read, keep up the good work. We need more young guys like yourself to keep the interest in the history alive and well.
Don't get me wrong- Joey's piece was very well written and entertaining! I had never heard of the 63 Fairlane, and it was brilliant how he noticed the similarities between it and the model kit. But since the thread is called the "mystery", it invites input of the relevent facts. Although the current Revell-Monogram company is located 40 miles from the strip at Milan, the original independent Revell was about 2000 miles away. Please continue writing, Joey. You have tons of potential.
I saw this thread posted on the front the other day, with only a couple replies...and I thought "I'm not going to open the thread for a while, because SOMEBODY here will know the answer or the details to whatever question is being posted... that's when I want to read it." That is truly the beauty of the HAMB--post up a question, a cool old pic, an interesting topic or part or "Does anyone know...??" and SOMEBODY will come up with the answer. This place is the Wiki of rodding. -Brad
Hosted on Fotki Here is a link to a picture of the 1/10th scale master of the original Revell 1953 Studebaker Coupe body, circa 1964 or so. This photo was taken at the International Model Car Museum in Satl Lake City, Utah, about four years ago. To the best of my knowledge, the body is still on display as of today. As Don mentions above, once Revell heard that another manufacturer was doing a '53 Stude kit, development of this stock 1953 Coupe kit stopped. Several years later, Revell modified the body master to replicate some of the typical mid 1960's A/FX design cues, added a modified ch***is from their original Custom Car FRame Revell Parts Pack, most of the Early Chrysler Hemi engine from their "413" (their displacement error, not mine) early Chrysler Hemi Parts Pack, and several parts including the entire front suspension from one of their two Dragster/Hot Rod Accessories Parts Pack. Having said that, like the rest of you, I still enjoyed reading the "What If" post that started this thread. Best regards...TIM
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