Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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Walk into his room, you will get younger by the minute. For almost 50 years this guy has kept as many pictures as he could, in many cases replacing pics lost in fires, tornados, bad divorces, mean kids etc. He has a treasure of pictures from the golden ages of NCRA territory. Here is an example of one of his models up close. Yes Edna, THAT LETTERING AND THOSE GRAPHICS ARE HAND PAINTED!

How about his collection. 5th row outside is the Gregory 6(161 Wayne Cox), it is being restored. Next to it is the Singin'5 being restored. As are the sedan, and the Edmunds last row outside.

Remember stickers? Looka how! He did the artwork on the red and white bumper stickers. You see the Shady #9,#17. In fact the only car not finished here is the Parson in the 3rd row. I'm sure you recognize the rest of the cars.

Do those bumper stickers look familiar? Those Leep stickers were on the back off the Suchy cars.

The photographer blew his schoolin' money on video games, so the focus is off, as well as the lighting, but you get the idea

See the image of the Indy car on the rig? THAT IS HAND PAINTED! I checked to see how the light bounced off of it, yes it is painted. The truck is handmade, the cars here are diecast,

There are so much more pics to put up, but I have to go to work tomorrow. Put 'em up when I can.

Thanks Mike! If I got foggy headed on ya after a while, I was overwhelmed.

Met Mike back in the late 70's thorugh Rusty Manning who has pics posted on RFTP , both were Big AJ Foyt fans then and was at Mikes house one time and seen all the stuff he had back then and looks like he has added to the collection of old models of the NCRA and Lawton days, see Mike when he does come to a race on occassion.

Really good work that Mike does with Models, I remember him telling me that it took several models to make those older Supers back then, No Sprint die cast stuff was around back then from what he told me. Pretty good replicas.

Mike is a great guy, the history & pictures he has is something. I have seen his models and a few of his pictures. Some one needs to get his knowledge of the Lawton Super Era down on paper, there is a lot of history there. Great Stuff Mike

I think he said it took 13 kits to do the 76 car. The term is "kit bashing". The kit might have one part, but in order to get it, you have to buy the whole thing. Yet he still had to make the bodies by hand. There is only so much the model industry provides, even today.

I would pay $50 for the Leep super. I know it is worth a whole lot more but Leep always was my favorite driver and I love models. Those are sooo cool.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

David you need to get down there and see the guy. Don't think the models are for sale these days, but I'm sure he can show us a few tips on how to do things.

Just to give you an idea of what he has seen in terms of interest, John Zink would not take 'no' for an answer, and he did manage to get 2 from Mike for $50 each in the late '70s(?).

The cool part is, If you REALLY want a Leep '76, there is a way. In the end it would take a little patience, but most important, getting the right decals(which really wouldn't be too hard to make), and of course a little airbrush time.

Luckily we have more access to things Mike didn't have 30 years ago.

On fredsresinworkshop.com,

Jim White, yes Gil and Wes's brother, has a Nance body he has mastered. Take the tail section from this, fashion a Parson style top, over a Grant King style sprinter model or a Don Edmunds super.** You could also try the Challenger kit of Sammy's from Monogram(might be closer to the real thing). What would I do? I'd use wire coathanger, go by a sketch of the frame design. Roostasix has pics of the Willingham 6 without the body. That frame and the 76 are almost identical, then you go on out to front torsion.

Keep the side panels, find a 1/25th scale '32 Ford grille shell. At 1/25 scale, a 100" wheelbase is 4". Stretch the wheelbase out to there to get the longline look, use the cowl from the resin Nance kit, make a hood long enough to fill the gap(just like the original) and you're in the ballpark. Colors are easy, and some say decals aren't all that bad.

The top can be cut out of soda pop cans. You want shiny aluminum? Get a Coors Light can. If you want it more bendable, heat it up with a lighter just enough to blacken it on both sides.

Slot wheels are easy to come up with in resin, tires too. If I wasn't so busy , I'd build it just to get my Suchy 76 fix!

Might want to file that spoiler down a bit though on the resin kit.

What an awesome collection! I am totally impressed. As a kid I built several models based on the old Edmunds kit, but nothing like this.

Just an incredible collection, keep saying no & never let it go, some things are just NOT for sale!

Tom Manning built the truck and trailer. He also introduced Mike to the Dremel Moto-Tool. They were good friends.

I think Tom is Rusty Manning dad. Me and Rusty went to a bunch of NCRA races in the late 70's , it was where I got a bunch of my pics from , those 4 or 5 years.