My project is a truck that belonged to my best friend, Terry. He bought this '62 wrongbed shortly before I met him, around thirty years ago. Terry was a typical starving artist who spent most of his time painting, but never sold much artwork. He paid the bills with this truck. For decades, he kept a running advertisement in the local classified ads. Back before Craigslist, the newspapers charged by the word, so Terry kept his ad short and sweet: "Have Truck. Will haul. 745-6075"
Most of the people who hired Terry were real estate agents who needed someone to clear up messes in the yard to get a house ready for sale, or clear out a basement. Terry built a steady business hauling stuff to the recycling center and the dump. He hauled it all in this old slick. I can't count the number of times I saw this truck driving through town, stacked up with junk in the most wildly precarious piles, headed for the dump. I wonder how many times Terry had to stop and re-load the truck after hitting a pothole!
The truck always ran, but it never ran well. It ran a bit like it looks: rough, loud, weak. But it was enough to get back and forth to the dump. Since Terry wasn't much of a mechanic, he just kept putting gas in it and driving it, until one of the wheel bearings started grinding into dust. Then he parked it.
Sadly, Terry had a stroke at age 50, and died a couple days later. His wife passed his truck on to me. For my part, I plan to make it run and drive well, replace the wrongbed with the right one, paint the new bed to match the patina on the cab, paint Terry's "business name" (Have Truck, Will Haul) on the doors in simple hand lettering, and then drive it. When Terry's son, who is eleven now, is old enough to drive, I'll teach him to drive a stick and give the truck to him. In the meantime, the truck project will give the two of us a good excuse to spend some time together.
Here's the boy, "helping" me get the truck onto a trailer after his dad's funeral:
The first project was to replace the seats. Shortly after Terry bought the truck, he had a friend install bucket seats for him. I only drove the truck a couple times because it was highly uncomfortable. You see, my friend Terry was "vertically challenged" standing about five foot nuthin' tall. Those bucket seats were mounted so that he sat up high, and could see over the dash. When I sat on the same seats, my head cocked sideways, pushing against the sagging headliner. Besides, the bucket seats were completely worn out after thirty years in the Wyoming sun.
Since I didn't have the original seat to work with, I started looking for a replacement bench seat. Then one day, searching craigslist for bench seats, I found the back seat from a crew-cab Dodge pickup. Since I own a Dodge pickup with a similar seat, I went out and started measuring. Sure enough, the seat would fit well, bolted to the custom-made angle-iron frame the buckets were mounted on, which incorporated the factory seat sliders underneath. It put the Dodge seat at the perfect height. Mounting it was as easy as bolting the Dodge seat on top of the existing base.That was easy!
Next up was some maintenance on a long-neglected engine. The thing ran, and got down the road just fine, but it rattled like half the valves were about to come loose, and the carburetor leaked horribly from the throttle pump. I ordered up a carb kit, rebuilt the carb, and adjusted the valves. OMG, the number one exhaust valve was so loose I suspect the engine was effectively running on seven cylinders. No way that loose exhaust valve would have opened more than a tiny crack. There were lots of other extremely loose valves too. After the carb rebuild and valve adjustment, the truck runs as smooth as butter!
Next on the list is a new shift knob, to replace the seventies-tastic Hurst knob, and then a custom floor console to hold my drink, phone and a hidden stereo. I guess I also need to add a steering wheel to the project list. This one still works amazingly well, for as little as there is left of it!
to Slick 60s! TR