This story started when my then 13-year-old, Ryan, wanted me to build him a go kart. It was an experience for both of us as I gathered scrap iron bed frames and a lawn mower motor and proceeded to build his go kart. That felt great and at the same time bad, because I never shared the same building experience with my then 18-year-old, Gregg. So I asked him to look for a car we could build together. That’s when he found “Willy,” as the 1954 Chevy truck was appropriately named after its owner, “Willy the Well Driller.”

The truck was a rusty mess with holes big enough to put your head through. The deal was made for $900 dollars, and the journey started in 1990. Thanks to LMC we were able to complete the restoration and end the journey in 1999. It took us a while due to the fact that we lived in NY at the time and didn’t have a garage. We were only able to work on it in the summer, when it wasn’t raining, after work about three hours a day.

It became a labor of love for both my sons and – so much so that in 2014, while living in Florida, I was offered $102,000 for it by a truck collector, along with a limo ride back home from the Cocoa Beach car show. Needless to say my wife almost killed me when I refused the offer, but I explained that I couldn’t sell the memories of my sons and I bonding over Willy’s restoration. My family and my grandchildren have loved and enjoyed Willy through the years and contributed to the memories. You can’t buy or sell loving memories!