The base kit came from a modeling friend I met through the Revell-Pactra contest. It was a motorized Strombecker Aston Martin DBR1. That model is a 1/24 scale car and that explains the size of the car. I don’t think you could fit in two Hemi’s into an Aston Martin! But the 1/25 motors and wheels worked well.Those front wheels are from the original XKE release. The model was unusual in that it has a full belly pan. I just left it that way. The body is reversed. The front-end styled after a Bonneville lakester that I’m currently trying to find photos from old magazines. I believe I used a 59 Caddy trunk but may have been the hood. The trunk was made from a 40 Ford trunk turned upside down. A 20 gauge solid copper wire was used to form the high belt line in the rear. Was this the first funny car ?? I certainly made it before they were popular !
The name came from the Pactra candy gold color. I built a display base for the car using balsa wood box to hide the mechanical parts and the standard display box of the day. The final name was chosen after looking through a lot of magazines for large font titles! We didn’t have word processors and computers then and couldn’t think of a better way to make a sign. The Gold Nugget is from two different sources. I remember using a travel magazine about Las Vegas and a NUGGET men’s magazine cover.
I couldn’t decide whether to show the car closed or opened, so I built a display to show it both ways. The hidden mechanics were a 115VAC timing motor and a big cam that had enough lift to raise the upper body half. The big cam determined the height of the balsa box. A spring steel push rod went through a brass tube to make the lift.
The frame was made from coat hanger. That soldered pretty well. I used epoxy glue to attach additional spring steel wire triangles. The frame was pretty much a free hand operation, just make both sides alike and trim away extra solder and glue.
After winning the Pactra-Revelle contest I received a telegram from Oscar Koveleski publisher of Car Model Magazine to send an article and photos. I had finished the Gold Nugget before the TelStar and thought I would sneak the car into the magazine. So, I just set it on top of the TelStar. It worked! I got both in the magazine.
