Introduction: Why the Fascination?
I don’t remember when I first started to build model cars, but it was pretty near to the time when my dad brought home an AMT 1959 Thunderbird model that required his help to complete – – I’ll never forget him wielding what seemed to be a framing hammer to pound the dense-as-lead hubcaps into those nearly rock-hard tires. I must have brush–applied five different colors of thick Testor hobby enamels on that model so that only the overall shape was discernible at the end of my efforts. I don’t know what happened to that now-rare model, but I’ll never forget it.
After that first model, I built others, too. From late 1959 through 1963, a good number of Monogram, Revell, AMT, Johan (and even a few Palmer!) kits (
That interest in building model cars just accelerated in the early Sixties. My buddies and I, in the fifth grade (1961), would take our Johan models to class in boxes, hiding them under the antique lift-top desks (you remember the ones – with the ancient ink well holes?) and build them when the teacher faced the other way. I got caught once: my fifth grade teacher slammed the desk top down hard onto my right hand, badly injuring a finger. My dad (World War II B-17 and B-24 pilot), when hearing about the incident, wasn’t happy with me because I wasn’t paying attention to my studies. But, the next day, after school, my dad “visited” with my teacher who, genuinely, didn’t look so good the following day – my dad didn’t take crap from anyone. I stopped building models in that class.
Whether in school, or at a friend’s house, a close group of friends and I built model cars furiously, purchasing them with hard-earned monies from cutting lawns and washing cars. We would ride our bikes to K-Fisher Drug (a neighborhood drug store in what was then very rural Salt Lake County) where we would buy our models: I persuaded the genial and patient proprietor to not only carry AMT and Monogram kits, but also allow us to put on a model car contest every few months! Those were halcyon days!
Later, as I entered junior high school (Fall of 1963, Olympus Jr. High School, in suburban Holladay, Utah (suburb of Salt Lake City), a cadre of friends and I would bring our current projects to school and hide them in our lockers. Once, in class, when a beleaguered substitute teacher was holding forth on Utah history at the front of the room, Mark Brown and I sat in the back row and passed around our just-finished models. I had an AMT 1940 Ford Sedan 
with me, of which I was pretty proud (it had my first AMT lacquer paint job!)
in reality, it was awful by any contemporary standard. Our attention to model car building was shared with class work, and punctuated by notably unsuccessful attempts to impress some really pretty young women at that school. Increasingly, my parents’ continuing admonitions to be a better student were heeded, and I became (but only gradually!) a much-improved junior academician. To “purify” my bedroom for studying, I moved my model building to a special area in an outbuilding at my home that my ever-patient dad told me I could use. My friends and I spent a lot of very pleasant hours there as teenagers.
Starting in about 1963, I started to build a series of AMT 1957 Ford kits based upon the venerable 1963 kit.
All those early model were badly built because I really liked the design of the car since I had first seen it when I was seven years old: I have an indelible young childhood memory of the time my dad took me to the old Bennett Ford showroom in downtown Salt Lake City to see the too-bright lights bouncing off finned fenders on multi-colored cars. As a mid-year teenager, I really got enamored with the 1957 Ford, and learned more about all of the different body styles offered by the factory: the sweep of the angled fins was of particular interest.
I also purchased a series of incredibly rare 1957 Ford dealer/factory promotional records from which a friend digitized the tunes.
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While I sort of liked the full-zoot ‘57 Fairlane 500, I grew to appreciate the more restrained Club Victoria with its simple trim fitted to the “tall fin” body.
Though the Club Sedans (both the Tudors and the Fordors) had identically-shaped rear quarter moldings, I’d later notice that the 2-door Sedan had a visually heavy B pillar that interrupted the flow of the roof and made the roof seem taller even though there were no dimensional differences in the two-door bodies.
Later, starting in high school, I sandwiched model car building in the margins between school work and dating. In high school, I entered my first adult-judged model car contest at the local Woolworth’s in 1967 and won my first award with an AMT Corvette painted metalflake orange and sporting wire wheels from a Monogram Ferrari kit!
Later, while a first-year college student (I eventually earned an Honors BA degree in Philosophy before I went to law school), model building continued but with a bit less frequency because of a very heavy class schedule and a concerted effort to find a wife; still, one of the models I built, at 19, was a quite-crude custom ‘57 Ford model that strongly hinted at the rear quarter panel design of the Club Vicky.
It was clear that I was a fan of – maybe becoming obsessed with! – the ‘57 Ford Club Vicky and the historic AMT ‘57 Ford kit (with all of the customizing and styling parts!). My beautiful and sainted wife, Janet, knew of my hobby when we got married (I cleaved to the idea of full-disclosure I learned about in the first semester of law school!) in January of 1974, and she’s graciously endorsed my hobby since then. In fact, Janet has been incredibly supportive and has been an integral part of the GSL Championship and the International Model Car Builder’s Museum: without her help, neither organization would exist today.
After I passed the Utah State Bar Exam in 1976, I started to build model cars, again, with much greater interest and skill (well, comparative skill) because I had finally had the time to spend: My interests were split between custom and replica stock building including these models. As another example, in late 1976, I built a factory stock ‘56 Ford Fairlane, and a pair of ‘61 Ford Starliners that were the subject of articles published in Special Effects Modeler: these were my first published articles and models featured in a hobby publication.
One of these 1961 Ford models was dead factory stock two-tone which featured the optional (and really ugly) continental kit, and the full custom version
was an early Sixties-style vintage custom (which won an Auto World “model of the month” contest).
One day in the summer of 1977, at an outdoor car show at the University of Utah, I approached a fellow who was standing by a white-over-blue ‘57 Club Victoria, and learned that the car had less than 44K miles on it. The car was in good shape, all the glass bore the Ford “Carlite” scripts, and was presented factory original: paint (which was substantially chipped on the front end), upholstery, chrome, and the like. I also learned from the exhibitor – – actually, the second owner – – that the car had been originally owned by a Salt Lake City woman who had won the car in a Libby Food “jingle” promotional contest in late 1956. Little did I know the role that car would later play in my life.
That blue and white ‘57 Club Victoria stayed in the back of my mind, and that interest was piqued when I purchased some original ‘57 Ford factory brochures and related items from a literature dealer who sold through Hemmings Motor News. Those brochures further educated me on details of the factory ‘57 Ford production cars. I soon poured over those photos, pamphlets, shop manuals, promotional photographs and related items. From another vendor, I purchased a few advertisements that featured the Vicky – the ad writers seemed to favor the Vicky.
Much of this factory information was a revelation to me since my prior interest in the 1957 Ford was largely limited to how that car could be restyled.
Sometime after seeing that ClubVicky at the University show, I decided that I needed to build a scale model of a factory-stock 1957 Victoria. I grabbed an original (1963) issue AMT kit and started to convert the body to feature the Vicky trim level.
I removed all of the Fairlane 500 windshield trim on the front fenders, doors and rear quarter panels. Also, I deleted the heavy chrome trim on the drip rails, and the wide chrome molding above the windshield: and the factory structural “rib” was added above the windshield (this structural shape is covered up on the 1:1 car when the more effulgent Fairlane 500 trim is in place).
Evergreen-brand strip styrene was used to create the trim on the rear quarter panels (later covered with the then still-fairly-new Bare Metal Foil product).
Using Evergreen-brand strip styrene, I added the rear quarter trim which wasn’t quite accurate in its shape (I had no direct access to a 1:1 car at that time). The rear leaf springs were scratch built from strip styrene (which turned out to be too fragile), with the somewhat crude AMT kit “Y Block” detailed to what I thought, in my ignorance, to have been factory specs with some plumbing and wiring; when this scale engine was built, I had not actually seen a Ford “Y-Block” up close and I relied only upon a few photos, from Hot Rod Magazine and a spark plug wiring diagram! I also hinged the license plate to reveal the gas gap.
I commissioned noted Salt Lake artist Ted Nagata, in 1978, to create in-scale Ford decals for the valve covers – they were rub down transfers, and a neat detail. Emergency and hydraulic brake details were added (generically correct, but inaccurate), based upon prototypical (not Ford-specific) mechanical drawings I located in a back issue of Hot Rod Magazine. The local DuPont jobber (thanks, Byron Bowman!) mixed up the factory-authentic Cumberland Green and Colonial White in DuPont Centari acrylic enamel which was applied by custom-filled spray cans: this was before master painter George Layton taught me how to airbrush acrylic lacquer. Initially, the factory Fairlane scripts were hand-painted on with a 6-0 brush,
but were later replaced by photoetched nickel scripts that I once marketed through The Putty Thrower
– my aftermarket company (one of the first in the model car hobby) that I owned for a few years in the mid-to-late Eighties. This was a detailed model, for the time, and Tim Boyd graciously told me that he really liked this model.
Shortly after finishing the factory stock Vicky, I built a restyled version of a ‘57 Vicky featuring traditional custom techniques with a lot of then-current custom paint techniques: panel painting, scallops, lace printing, and candy fogging. This model was built on a whim to quickly explore what a customized Vicky might look like. Frankly, the result wasn’t good – the after-thought front end styling was lazy and particularly awful!
I did take two “comparo” pictures of these two models which, as it would turn out more than 34 years later, would play a roll in the 1957 Club Victoria Project!
These comparison photos have strongly influenced this Victoria Project – I’ll be restaging the vintage photos with two new models.
At about the same time, I was so interested in scale model cars as a hobby, in fact, that I was getting involved in the “infrastructure” of the hobby. The legendary builder and writer Dennis Doty and I became fast friends, (Tim Boyd had introduced us to each other) and soon I found myself assisting Dennis with subscription lists for Model Car Journal (an enthusiast magazine that can be fairly said to have kept the model car hobby alive in the time following the collapse of Car Model and Model Car Science magazines) that Dennis and Robert Woolley were then publishing.
About six months before Gary Schmidt launched Scale Auto Enthusiast, I got a call from Dennis one afternoon, and he told me about a new magazine that Gary would soon offer. That call was significant because my work with Dennis gave me, of course, access to hundreds of file cards with contact information on model car enthusiasts across the United States, Canada and a couple of other countries.
Dennis gave me Gary’s number and said it would be okay for me to share with Gary the subscriber list of Model Car Journal. I soon called Gary and introduced myself, and we talked about his new magazine and his hope to create a leading and pioneering publication – – which he certainly did! I sent Gary a photocopy of the entire MCJ subscriber list, and Gary used that information (to which he added many additional names that he had) as the mailing list to distribute the first free issue of SAE (no recipient was charged for that first issue of which just around 900 copies were printed).
My initial relationship with Gary, unintentionally, was soon to become a bit rocky due to my ineptitude. Prior to the time that Gary and I became acquainted, I had sent a few photos of, and text concerning my ‘57 Club Victoria model to Bob Woolley for possible use in Model Car Journal. At virtually the same time, I submitted a re-written feature article (and my first PuttyThrower column) to Gary which article also featured the same Club Vicky model. As “luck” and my naivete would have it, the same model appeared on the covers of both magazines (MCJ # 28, March/April 1979
and SAE May/June 1979
– nearly simultaneously. Gary called and was wroth with me: he was justifiably upset and I was greatly embarrassed since I had no intention of harming the integrity of either Scale Auto Enthusiast or Model Car Journal (I got no call from Dennis). Foolishly, I hadn’t given a thought to the interests and objectives of editors who wanted exclusive editorial content. The problem was made more acute because Gary put my model in the inaugural issue – and on the cover – of his new magazine: and Gary printed the entire feature article and my inaugural Putty Thrower column. Though it wasn’t a great way to start our friendship, things were soon patched up with Gary, and I freelanced for him until he later sold Scale Auto Enthusiast and Car Modeler to Kalmbach. After I finished the Vicky, I returned to my first interests and built a series of street rods, customs and faux design study models that were published in Scale Auto, Car Modeler and the 2007 Scale Auto Contest Annual.
In the Fall of 1989, a friend called me and asked if I might be interested in purchasing a 1957 Club Victoria from a local “special interest” car dealer that just a year before had for sale a really nice ‘57 Ranchero that I almost bought. I rushed to the dealership in Bountiful, Utah, after meeting with a client, and I just about collapsed when the car in question was the same 1957 Club Vicky I had first seen in the late Seventies at the University of Utah Concours! I poured over the car which was still in terrific condition: I later learned that the Starmist Blue color had been resprayed (though the color was a bit too dark and not quite the right shade of blue) probably because there was a lot of paint chipping on the leading edge of the front clip. The dealer put the car up on a lift where I discovered that the drive shaft still had the factory paint stripes (albeit quite faint!) on it and that there was NO rust underneath the car (if only for the reason that grease and oil were caked everywhere). In fact, the United Airlines bill of lading – stamped in indelible ink or paint– still could be clearly seen under the driver’s front gravel guard.
I negotiated the price of the car which I purchased on October 23, 1989. With Mike Smith’s help, who tagged along behind me in case of a breakdown (though the car drove just fine), I drove the car to my garage whereupon Mike and I thoroughly examined the Vicky and made a list of minor work that needed to be done. Within a few days, Mike tuned up the car (new plugs, points, set the dwell and timing) and installed new front brake shoes (the rivets on the replacement shoes were about to score the inside of the factory-original drums) and then bled the brake system. At the same time, we drained the radiator, pulled the radiator hoses and back-flushed the block and radiator and then poured in fresh Prestone antifreeze. After that, I thoroughly washed the car, touched up a few chips in vintage Colonial White synthetic enamel (using DuPont Centari paint-matched by Byron Bowman of Superior Paint Supply), and applied two coats of wax before detailing the dusty interior and trunk (where the spare wheel still sported the original factory tire). Later, Mike pulled the steering column so we could clean the shifter mechanism on which a lot of ordinary dirt had become imbedded in too-much lubrication that had been applied over the decades. Mike and I would later discover that the caked grease was a mixed blessing!
About this point in the mid-Nineties, my oldest son, Eric, (when he was about 18) and I drove the car a bit around my shop and on local roads before I took the car home so my long-suffering wife, Janet, and I could drive around the neighborhood for a couple of summers. With the car in my driveway, I compared it to my 1978 model, and discovered a significant number of detailing miscues and errors in my model, and several areas where I just about got things right on (the different roof trim was a success). At this time, I pledged to myself that, one day, I’d build an improved version of my first Vicky model. In 1998, I put the Vicky into my storage garage and there it sat until I had it trailed to my father’s airplane hangar in St. George, Utah, in 2002 where it shared space with my dad’s restored Stearman for more than a decade.
It was an interesting scene there: a vintage Ford parked near a vintage restored Stearman (my dad flew weather reconnaissance in World War II in B-17s and B-24s): he had the Stearman restored in 1989. My dad – – who passed away in September of 2011- – wrote about his war experiences in a book titled Away We Go; it was laid out by noted book publisher Paul Anagnostopoulos.
Fast-forward to early Summer 2009: with the 30th Anniversary issue of Scale Auto approaching, I started to think about fulfilling my decades-old decision to build an upgraded, high-effort scale miniature, factory-stock ‘57 Vicky – to reprise my 1978-built vintage 1957 Ford Club Vicky model. As I did decades ago, I also intend to design and build an accompanying restyled Vicky on which I could display my restyling acumen. To launch the 1957 Ford Victoria Project, I thought it would be appropriate to create a display advert in Scale Auto Enthusiast to celebrate the 30th year anniversary of the magazine which focused on the first issue of SA that featured my Club Vicky model. I turned to Bob Wick to design the display advert in that Anniversary issue: I took the picture that Bob had designated;
‘57 Ford Victoria Project webmaster Mark Benton did the actual digital layout work and he sent the same to Scale Auto. It was a wonderful happenstance that my celebratory SA advert was placed over another advert for Galaxie Limited – a model car company owned by SA founder Gary Schmidt!
I extend my deepest thanks to Bob Wick for designing this display advert, and to Mark Benton for doing the production work. And, thanks to Scale Auto Editor, Jim Haught, for this fortuitous ad placement.
As 2011 dawned, I decided it was time to get serious about reprising my historic factory-stock ‘57 Club Vicky model as well as building a scale modified version of the same car and an heretical model – a sophisticated and concours-detailed 1/25-scale slot car of a Club Victoria! At about the same time, I prepared a few display sheets that were presented at GSL-XXIII (2011) to announce the Vicky Project which was limited, at that time, just to the construction of replica-stock version of the Vicky.
Unfortunately, this project didn’t get underway as soon as I intended because of my father’s final illness and his passing in September 2011: his death devastated me for more than a year – we were very close – – and I had to spend just short of three years to close his estate.
With estate issues now resolved freeing up more discretionary time, I’ve put together a great team to help me with this project, and we’re underway now, finally, in December 2014.
You’re invited to spend time here to learn more about the Jackson car before its restoration, original Ford brochures and data, the original model, and my new Vicky project. You can even enjoy a few Ford-sponsored 1957 tunes from back in the day.
Welcome to the 1957 Ford Victoria Project!