My brother “Hoss” as he was known bought this truck new in 1979 from our local dealer. He never drove it much he wanted to keep the miles low and never drove it in inclement weather. I used to get it out of the shed once a year and clean it up and wax it. He would drive it for a week or so then back in the shed it would go. In 1992 it would not start, I checked and it didn’t have any fire. He would not let me touch it and always replied ” I will get it fixed” This went on for several years so I finally just gave up.

In 2014 my brother passed and I told my wife that I was going to try and get “Hoss” as I call his truck, running some day. I never touched it until 2017 as it had become a catch-all and the bed was piled full of you name it. It hadn’t been moved for 25 years and it had that many years of dirt on it and the tires were cracked and wouldn’t hold air. I never took a picture at this time but wish I would have. I turned the engine with a break over to make sure it wasn’t freezing. I then cleaned out the bed and aired the tires up so I could pull it outside to the hydrant and wash it. I also cleaned out the inside of the cab as best as I could, the mice had moved in.

After cleaning up I started checking to the wire, figuring the mice had chewed all of it. All I found was the wire to the electric choke and the wires going to the safety switch on the automatic transmission. I fixed those and put a battery in it poured a little gas down the carb and it fired. I rebuilt the carb, dropped the gas tank, replaced the rubber gas lines, installed the new fuel pump and new tires. It only had 30,333 miles on it when I started working to get it running. It took about $2,000 dollars and most of that was tires, battery filters and fluids. It is all original except for the carpet, I couldn’t get the mouse smell out of it and was rotten and tearing whenever I moved it. It has my sweat, blood and a lot of cuss words in it. This was mainly cleaning the mouse smell and nests out of it, especially the heater system. The only things left to do are to get the ac going and also the auxiliary gas tank. I am glad LMC is there for all the parts I have needed and the ones I will need in the future.