Built by: Dave Hessler in Bradenton, Florida

Truth be told, I've never been a fanatic for show rods......PLEASE DON'T SHOOT ME! But there were some kits I built as a kid in the early ' 70's, when I was 9 or 10, that I wanted to build again as an adult and utilize the skills I've developed over a 30+ year span. I wanted to build the kits box-stock and do them justice. You know, build them now like I wish I had been able to do as a kid. There were 5 kits I wanted to do. They were all in the same series and featured Dave Deal box art:

• "The Kookie Kab Meter Cheater"
• "Dr. Kook's Patent Pending Traveling Medicine Show"
• "der Guber Wagen"
• "The T-Bone Stake"
• "The Amazing Moon Mixer".

Unfortunately the prices folks were asking were out of my range. Shoot, I wanted to BUILD 'em! Anyway patience paid off and over the course of a couple months I found three of my "Holy Grails" at prices I could afford - "The Meter Cheater" that is pictured here; "der Guber Wagen" and "Dr. Kook's Patent Pending". I'm currently at work on the other two.

"The Meter Cheater" was built straight out of the box and was painted with Testor's Boyd True Blue Pearl and clearcoated with DuPont ChromaClear 2 part urethane. I added some Chimneyville woodgrain decals to the "flower boxes" and to the interior roof. Also, the kit's chrome was a bit faded and, well, "old-looking", so it was all stripped clean and then Alclad II chrome lacquer was applied.

Otherwise, as stated earlier, the kits were built right out of the box! I had a blast building one of my child hood favorites and I am very pleased with the way it turned out! I hope to have the others completed soon and pictured here in Dave's "Guest Gallery".