The day that time stood still.

This is your place to post stories related to 1/4 scale. These could be experiences, historical stories or inside scoop of the old manufacturers!!
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Mike Casey
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The day that time stood still.

Post by Mike Casey »

Ever since I started QSL i was searching for the original manufacturers so I could get their stories and information for the site. A high profile guy I was looking for was Steve Skellenger from SEco (Skellenger engineering) He was originally local in southern California, but I learned that he had moved. I had a couple leads, but nothing very good. I did major research to see if I could find him. I was sending letters to addresses that I had narrowed down to possibly being him. NOTHING. 2 years of searching and no word or new leads. Then one day I bought some literature off of ebay and in the literature was a leter from SEco II?!? It was signed by a Bob Skellenger and the address was in the state that I thought Steve was in!!! YES! finally another lead. So I sent Bob a letter stating what I was doing and that I was looking for Steve. About 1 week later Bob emailed me and told me that indeed Steve WAS his brother and he lived 2 miles from him! I told him to please pass the letter onto Steve and that I really wanted to speak to him. Bob and I emailed back and forth for a few weeks when finally his email stopped working. No emails would go through. I figured the lead was dead and that Steve had no interest in talking 1/4 scale anymore. At this point I knew that Steve knew I wanted to speak to him and if he did not want to speak to me, that was OK. I understood. I wrote it off and figured I would never get to speak to this legend...

About a year goes by and I get a phone call. The lady on the other end tells me she is Bobbie Skellenger and she asked if I knew who she was? I said "I SURE DO" while I was drooling and sounding like a retard from all the excitement. She said that Steve and her had recieved my letters over a year ago and they dicided to give me a call!! After a few awesome conversations, I found out that things were not as good as one would hope for such great people. They confirmed that all the original SEco tooling was still around and it had been in storage in their basement. Times were tough and they were considering selling the tooling. They really did not want to and they wanted to make sure it went to the right person. We negotiated a bit but the money they wanted was more then I had ever spent on 1/4 scale in my life by far. It was totally worth it, but how do I justify this with my family i thought? I declined the offer to buy the tooling. I just could not justify that much money. After a few days and some very long talks with my wife, she convinced me to take out a loan and to buy these molds that I had considered to be the holy grail of 1/4 scale. Without her support... well, i just cant say how much I love this woman!

I called them and told them I was going to buy them. They did not want to ship them because of the risk of damage or losing them, so they loaded them into their car and headed to southern california to deliver them. This was going to be a very special day indeed. I even invited my good friend Lance Love (PRC) and his wife since they were close friends with the Skellengers back in the day.

When Steve and Bobbie showed up, they were really great people, fantastic company and they had some amazing stories about the old days. Steve went over the molds with me in detail and even explained how he made some of them. One of the last things he brought out of the car was a rear end. It was special he said. Its number 6. I picked it up and it was the 6th rear end they ever produced!!! Although the Skellengers were at my home for hours it only seemed like minutes and before I knew it, they had to leave...

This is a day I will NEVER forget!
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Mike Casey
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Re: The day that time stood still.

Post by Mike Casey »

Number "6"

Note the smooth side covers. These were produced before the ribbed mold was done. Also look at the bottom of the rear. No logo or anything was on the molds at the time so this part does not have them.
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harley573
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Re: The day that time stood still.

Post by harley573 »

So what are you doing with these molds now? Are there drawings of the rearend available?
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Mike Casey
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Re: The day that time stood still.

Post by Mike Casey »

We are making parts off them...

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=488

Drawings exist but full drawings are not available to the public.
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