Builder: Michael Gainey

I have a very specific memory of building this model when I was 10 years old. Finding it for sale in my 50's on eBay was a real pleasure. I bought it right away.

After revitalizing my interest in building the show rods from a time long ago I began to stretch my skill into scratch building, like I have seen others do.

This prompted me to remove all the molded in items on the back wall of the food area and make some with more detail. I found samples of various items on the internet, downloaded the images, made decals, and placed them onto the appropriately sized pieces of plastic to create the boxes and cans.

The hot dog "roller" was also assembled from sheet plastic. Steel rods were placed across the top surface to simulate the heating surface. The hot dogs were made from the same steel rod. I should have made the control knobs from sheet plastic as well but ended up using decals instead.

The original decals fell apart but fortunately I had scanned them first, so I was able to reproduce them and clean them up a bit.

The ketchup and mustard bottles were formed from brass on a small lathe.

I used a silver sharpie to lay down the thin chrome accents. The original tires were of course plastic, not rubber. There was no way I was going to use them. My only disappointment was using 1/24 scale rubber tires on a 1/32 model.