The story of this truck began in January of 1979. The truck was originally purchased by my granddaddy. He used it as his daily truck and on our cotton farm. We have been cotton farming in our family for over 50 years. This truck was used to haul cotton to the cotton gin in town. My granddaddy drove this truck from 1979 until 1989 when he bought a new Chevrolet truck. This truck was retired for farm use only after that.

One of my first memories of this truck was when I got my John Deere pedal tractor. I remember standing in the seat in it as we were driving home from picking up my tractor. I remember how the truck smelled and sounded. In 1992 the truck was parked at our farm after the engine locked up. It set at the front of our barn and watched years and years of cotton being grown and picked. When I was a kid and I was on the farm with my granddaddy, I would pretend that I was driving the truck. I thought that maybe someday the truck would be mine.

Around the age of 13, a young boy starts thinking and dreaming about what he will drive when he is 16. Will it be a new vehicle or an old vehicle? On April 16, 2000, I remember calling my granddaddy to discuss the race from that day at Talladega. I remember telling him I wanted to restore his old truck to drive when I turned 16. He agreed to it, and we started to make a plan on how we were going to restore the truck.

In January 2001 we started restoring the truck. At the same time, I was learning and making memories I will never forget. We worked day and night through the spring and summer. My granddaddy taught me things he learned when he worked on cars when he was my age. As the restoration kept going, I could see the transformation of the truck take place. I would go into the shop at my granddaddy’s house during the day. I would get on a creeper and take a nap under my truck. I would think about what it would look like when it was finished.

I remember when we cranked the truck up for the first time because it still sounded the same way that it did when I was younger. I remember the first time I drove it around the neighborhood because it did not have any exhaust on it. It was extremely loud. After we got the engine running, we carried the truck to the body shop for it to be painted. The truck was gray and rusted from years of sitting outside at the farm. When we picked the truck up from the body shop in August of 2001, it was bright red. It was so slick that it looked like a mirror. It was hard to believe that this truck started out looking gray and rusted, and then looked bright red and shiny. When people see my pictures from the restoration, they are amazed that it is the same truck.

I drove this truck to school every day when I was in high school and some when I was in college. Still, to this day this is my favorite truck to drive because of my memories made while restoring it. All the hard work paid off when I started showing it in car and truck shows, and I won in my division numerous times.

This truck is an all numbers matching truck. We put an oversized cam and some other high-performance parts in the engine. We put polyurethane bushings and a three-inch suspension lift kit on the truck. We put an off-road suspension in the truck as well. We also kept the original white rally wheels. We also bought some aluminum wheels to go on it, but now it has the original wheels back on it. We reversed the color scheme on the truck. Originally, the outside of the truck was gray, and the inside was red. Now, the outside is red, and the inside is gray.

Every time I start the engine and drive the truck, all the memories from when my granddaddy and I were restoring it come back to me instantly. I have had numerous offers from people to buy this truck, but no amount of money will replace the memories I have. This truck has been a part of our family just like cotton farming has been for many years.