A humbling reminder from the past

[jonboy1]

I was chatting to my old childhood friend a week or so ago reminiscing on the old cars we had back in the day. One in particular was the Kyosho Mini Cooper I begged and begged my dad for that my friend had bought off me. He reckoned it was up in his parent's attic so was going to take a trip there soon to have a look for it.

Unfortunately the Mini had been sold, but he did find a couple of other interesting items, one of which, as the title described, was quite humbling.

This is the text taken from our chat:

"Hey Jon, do you remember that Terra Scorcher you had?"

"Yeah, I sold that to you didn't I?"

"That's right"

"Is it up there?"

"No, I sold it. But the spare body is up here."

"Spare body?"

"Yeah - you mean you don't remember it?"

"No - are you sure it's mine?"

"Oh, positive. It's from your "flame" phase you were going through" (unfortunately I have to admit this is true - I did go through a phase of wanting flames painted on everything, including a 1:24 mini cooper....)

"Oh no."

"Sending you the pic now"

In my defence, I didn't paint the rear wing! Mine had flames on it.....🤣😎

Anybody else have some embarrassing paint jobs from back when we were kids (in age only - as we are all still kids at heart)?

[Re-Bugged]

Who didn’t like flames in the 80’s??

There was something obviously wrong with you if you didn’t, they were awesome 🤣😂

Not so much an RC car for me, all I had then was a red toy grade beach buggy, but my pocket money mostly went on 1/24, 1/25 scale model Trucks (lorries) then.

I loved the Volvo Globetrotters, the only annoying thing was that it came in the 4x2 axle version instead of a more manly 6x4. Revell later on did a 6x4 though.

Anyway I was invested into an Italeri 4x2 when me best mate (also Truck nut Steve) mentioned that Jamie had a Globetrotter that fell off the shelf in bits. Well that got the grey matter whirring. So with the thought of converting my kit to a 6x4, the next opportunity we had we made off with great haste on our Raleigh MTB’s to see Jamie.

He did indeed have the same once built kit now in pieces and he was willing to part with some of it. For a price though. So with my emergency bus fare from the sleeve pocket of my snorkel coat (couldn’t have been more than £1:50) a rear drive axle, chassis, mudguards, and a few other bits and bobs were in my possession to build a ‘custom’ 6x4 Globetrotter. (I can still feel that highly content feeling now) Luckily I never needed that emergency bus fare.

So naturally such a project was going to need a special paint job, flames obviously 😁 Hand painted as you can probably tell.

I built this when I was about 14/15? I later bought a Tanker trailer and painted it to match after this photo was taken by my late Uncle.

This Truck with its trailer won me a best in class at Model competition held in Rochester Kent too.

Taking of painting I’ve got a Ford GT MK2 that needs finishing, no flames on that though 😉 Cheers.

[Big Jon]

Man, I'm glad that there are no pics of the bodies that I painted in the '80s. The best was awful. I even messed up one color jobs somehow.

[94eg!]

Since my dad bought the Stray Cats vinyl record when I was a kid, I've loved flames on cars.

This one was done about 2001. Not quite 80s.

[Andreas W]

No flames, but I painted my Nikko Dictator matte black. I liked it dark and mysterious . It got stickered up with stickers from me and a friends sticker bin, so it is "sponsored"  by 3 or 4 different oil -companies. I'll post pics of it tonight. It's in it's box down in the basement. 

 

Here it is in all it's glory. Apart from cracked wheel adapters in all 4 corners it works just fine. 

[Grumpy pants]

Nice thread JJ 👍

Now I maybe wrong...Didn’t you paint a Pumpkin with flames not so long  ago? 
 

I thought you did and it looked fantastic 👏

A lot of the hot 1.1 cars at shows BITD had flames, fast Fords and the like, was this the inspiration? 

[moffman]

I actually painted this a few months ago because I wanted a retro looking body that i remember when the turbo optima originally came out and all the guys at the local club back in the day were painting the bodies with different styles of flames then in the 90s that turned into tiger strips!

[Aerobert]

I love flames on cars. I have a Blitzer Beetle with flames on it.

And about 22 years ago I had an Ford Fiesta Diesel which was self-painted flat black with flames on it. 

31 minutes ago, moffman said:

then in the 90s that turned into tiger strips!

Nothing of that is from the eighties or nineties. 

 

[jonboy1]

7 minutes ago, Aerobert said:

And about 22 years ago I had an Ford Fiesta Diesel which was self-painted flat black with flames on it. 

 

You are my hero! Best Fiesta I've ever seen. Thank you for sharing that  

[moffman]

42 minutes ago, Aerobert said:

I love flames on cars. I have a Blitzer Beetle with flames on it.

And about 22 years ago I had an Ford Fiesta Diesel which was self-painted flat black with flames on it. 

Nothing of that is from the eighties or nineties. 

 

That fiesta and it's a diesel  oh mate what can I say? You've taken the flame design to a different level I remember I was in the market for a escort rs turbo back in the day and I wanted an unmolested standard one with nothing on it no manhood extension exhaust or stupid dump valve definitely no tiger strips but I looked for months and months and never found one I ended up buying one with tiger strips and the stupid exhaust and changing it all back to standard the performance centre I took it to to reverse the rubbish on it did me a deal with the exhaust and taking the strips off in return for the manhood exhaust they took off.......win win for me!

[Saito2]

43 minutes ago, Aerobert said:

I actually prefer these flames to the box art, which always made the Blitzer look like it ran through some gloopy, sploochy orange and yellow glop.

[jonboy1]

6 hours ago, 94eg! said:

Since my dad bought the Stray Cats vinyl record when I was a kid, I've loved flames on cars.

This one was done about 2001. Not quite 80s.

 

80's??? 80's???!!! Mine were done in the 90's!!!!! 🤣

[jonboy1]

4 hours ago, Grumpy pants said:

Nice thread JJ 👍

Now I maybe wrong...Didn’t paint a Pumpkin with flames not so long  ago? 
 

I though you did and it looked fantastic 👏

A lot of the hot 1.1 cars at shows BITD had flames, fast Fords and the like, was this the inspiration? 

I'm humbled you remember that - I almost never mention it monthly

But as you have raised the subject, why yes I did GP !!

I guess it was things like Street Machine and Custom Car magazines that were the inspiration - I mean, what self respecting boy in the early 90's didn't want a '40 Willys coupe with a candy flame job?

No? Just me then  

[No Slack]

Not so long ago I decorated the bin in my home office with flames. Bored during the lock down period.

[Ferruz]

10 hours ago, Aerobert said:

 Ford Fiesta Diesel which was self-painted flat black with flames on it. 

 

 

Sick ride, mate!!! Love it! 😎😆👍💥