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Off the Shelf: Bob Jackman and 6,000 parking places

Randy Rusk · 2026-02-22T18:14:04Z

Bob Jackman didn’t wake up one day and decide to become the caretaker of more than 6,000 model cars. The collection grew the way the best obsessions do, slowly at first, then all at once, built from a lifelong fixation on automobiles, a sharp eye for detail, and a willingness to let the hobby expand into whatever space it could claim. His car story starts early, back when he was a kid in St. Louis and cars weren’t just transportation. They were mystery, identity, and possibility. He’ll tell you the hobby really began around age seven, right after World War II, when the car companies were scrambling to get back to civilian production and new cars were scarce enough that buyers put their names on lists and waited their turn. Bob remembers the dealerships running promos, and he recalls doing the kid version of wheeling and dealing: making the rounds at the end of the model year, trying to talk dealers out of their promotional models—or, if he couldn’t charm them for free, buying them for a dollar. In truth, the spark may have been even earlier. He had a pedal car when he was four, a wartime gift from his grandparents, back when metal was being reserved for the military and a toy like that felt almost impossible to come by. While other teenagers might have been hanging around a mall, Bob was haunting used car lots, walking the rows, squinting at badges, studying shapes, and trying to understand what made one vehicle special and another forgettable. That curiosity wasn’t theoretical. He was the kind of teenager who would work for what he wanted, polishing cars, cutting grass, picking up shifts at a drugstore, anything that turned time into cash. That hustle paid off in a way that still sounds like a tall tale. At sixteen, he spotted an unusual car sitting in a dark lot: a 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow. He didn’t even know what he was looking at until he came back in daylight and started asking questions. The dealer explained the basics, V12 engine, mechanical brakes, and, more importantly, admitted nobody else had shown the slightest interest. Bob did. He scraped together the money, bought it, and drove home with the kind of story that only happens to someone who is both curious and bold enough to act. A year later he flipped it for a profit when a buyer walked into the drugstore and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. At the time it was simply a win for a seventeen-year-old who knew what he liked and wasn’t afraid to make a deal. Years later, when the same car sold at a major auction for a staggering sum, it became something else: proof that his instincts were real, and that “car crazy” wasn’t a phase. It was a built-in setting. As adulthood arrived, the passion didn’t fade. It evolved. Full-size cars remained part of his world, and not just as a spectator. Bob has been deeply involved with restoring cars his entire life, doing total restorations himself, the kind of work you only learn by getting your hands dirty and staying close to people who know more than you do. He hung around a body shop and absorbed what he could about paint, bodywork, and the old-school stuff he picked up back when bodywork was done in lead, not in modern fillers. He’s the kind of car guy who can casually mention that, as a teenager, he customized a Mercury the way kids did in the ’50s: an Oldsmobile engine, shaved hood and door handles, and louvered hood. He’s also the kind of collector who can talk about a Chrysler Imperial and then mention a Corvette or Thunderbird sitting outside, because those cars are still real and present in his life: a 1961 Corvette he’s owned for more than five decades, a 1963 Thunderbird Sport Roadster convertible that took him five and a half years to restore and has won national awards, and a 1955 Imperial he keeps original down to its bones. But model cars became the place where the obsession could become more expansive, more imaginative, and more unstoppable. A model didn’t require a garage bay or an insurance policy. It required only a spot, one more “parking place,” and Bob became very good at creating those spots. What began as a hobby turned into a household geography project. It wasn’t that Bob tried to take over the home. It’s more accurate to say the cars gradually convinced the home to cooperate. The earliest turning point came with a domestic compromise that still makes him laugh. His wife asked if the model cars could stop occupying the living room and dining room. Bob agreed, thinking he could simply relocate a modest collection to a modest display. They settled on the entryway, and the solution became a curio cabinet. Bob imagined a few hundred dollars, while his wife envisioned something far more substantial. The cabinet they bought wasn’t cheap, but it was transformative. Bob added shelves and counted capacity like an engineer: 81 cars neatly displayed, a small triumph that felt like a peak at the time. In hindsight, it was simply the first major expansion of a system that w...

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Bob Jackman

(@bob-jackman)

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25/02/2026 10:34 am

@mg-harv I have no idea what you are talking about commission. I ordered the model and sent the funds.

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John Kuvakas

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25/02/2026 10:59 am

I think Randy was referring to Vlad's pre-order system. You paid for the model up front. Some would call that "commissioning" the model.

John Kuvakas
Warrenton, VA

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Dave Gilbert

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25/02/2026 12:51 pm

Astounding collection, Bob! It's great to learn more about you and your passion for the hobby!

Dave Gilbert
Nashville, Tennessee

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Bob Jackman

(@bob-jackman)

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25/02/2026 1:46 pm

@daveg Thanks Dave. As a late friend used to say "he got started and didn't know how to stop".

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Curtis Parisi

(@parisi50)

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25/02/2026 3:56 pm

Randy, excellent article on Bob! I can't believe Bob had one of the five Silver Arrows made. Bob, if you only had a crystal ball to know what those cars would be worth today! A friend of mine has a 1934 Silver Arrow but not hardly the same as the '33. As for the models I can't even imagine what 6000 models looks like! More power to you!

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Harv Goranson

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25/02/2026 6:56 pm

@jkuvakas I see what you mean. My interpretation can be paralleled with the '66 Riviera in green by BRK/Second City - Jeff Lane 'commissioned' the building of these by Brooklin.

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