Wallace Lench's Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild Napoleonic Coach

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In 1931 fifteen year-old Wallace Lench of Flint Michigan assembled and entered the coach featured here. Because this model was built from kit parts and shows very little, if any scratchbuilding, it wasn't a contender for the top awards. But in 1933, when Mr. Lench was about seventeen or eighteen years-old, it served as his three-dimensional resume. He went to Chevrolet Manufacturing looking for work, when they asked, "What can you do?", he showed them the model and said, "I built this." Recocognizing what the model was and represented they hired him as an apprentice die-maker. After graduating from the second apprentice class of 1936, he spent forty more years there, until his retirement in 1976, as a Journeyman die-maker.

John Jacobus recently purchased the model through an on-line auction and after contacting the Lench family had the model authenticated by Mr. Lench's widow, Genevieve. She recognized a bit of minor damage done when the coach was dropped in the mid-1950s.