An Important First

September 12, 2014 – When I started building model cars back in the 1940’s, most of the kits were wooden models, many made in 1:24 scale by Ace Products of Pasadena, California:

They consisted of a box of balsa wood blocks and wheels:

and instructions suggesting how to glue the blocks together and what they should look like when you finished sanding:

I built an Ace Jeep in the late ’40’s. Unfortunately, this Jeep did not survive so the only pictures I have were taken back in the day:

My First Powered Model

I have always been fascinated with operating models, and since our trains were powered, why not our cars? The windup tin cars didn’t do much for me so I decided to power one of my static models. Choosing the Jeep for the power project is a decision lost in the fog of time but, I did get an electric motor, two batteries, a pair of rubber rear tires and a set of gears and had my operating model car:

I am proud that I actually put the motor under the hood and found a set of bevel gears to have a rear drive. The front wheels were neither powered nor steerable. It ran okay ‘free-flight’ in an open space but it didn’t have much pulling power because the rear wheels and tires, as well as the gears, were probably made for a fuel powered tether car, and created a ratio more suited to very high speeds.

My First Powered and Steerable Car

September 12, 2014 – Fast forward 60+ years and I finally got around to building a car that was powered and was also able to follow a road on its own. That story is HERE.

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