Size: 18” x 6” x 4.25”
Weight: 3 lbs
Finished: 08/10/99
Hours: 100

Price: $3,000.00

So, here I am at my local hardware store rummaging around, and I pick up some O-rings. They've got lots of sizes. So I get an idea and end up buying at least twenty or more different sizes.

The first thing that comes to mind is the Southern California Special car. SoCal was located in Arcadia I believe. It's the next town down the road from El Monte where I grew up. The LSR cars (Land Speed Record) at the time had used WW2 airplane surplus fuel drop tanks as bodies.

The surplus stores back then were made for Hot Rodders. You could buy things like rod ends or Heim joints or U joints or sheet metal parts - for fraction of their cost. It was heaven or at least Christmas for us scavengers.

This was actually my second belly tanker model. The first was a ghostly thing (unfinished) with turned acrylic wheels - another car I started in plastic and lost interest in.

The wheels were made of some aluminum scrap I had. I marked them out with some dividers, cut them out on the band saw and finished them on the lathe.

Those were the days for the adventrous types. TV was new - we didn't spend our days in front of it.

- Will Neely, November 2008