Rebuilding A Childhood Memory

My Dad bought this pickup out of high school and drove it for many years as his daily driver. As a kid, I remember riding in it and loving the sound of exhaust. Even got to pilot the old beast from Dad’s lap as he ran the pedals! The cab mounts and cab corners were rusted very bad, allowing the cab to settle, causing the shift tube to break. Dad parked the pickup in the weeds. Even though he had offers to sell it, he gave it to me knowing how much I wanted it.

A few years had past before I decided I wanted to do something with it. I was 14 at the time, thinking it would be an easy fix to get the rust bucket fixed and road worthy. Once I figured out that had did not have near enough money to fix it the right way, it went back to setting. A couple years later I found a rust free cab and started putting the pieces together as I went.

Things fell into place and I was finally making enough money to get moving on it. I had it painted in pieces to the original color and assembled it carefully. It took quite a bit of time to finish the body. With help from LMC, I got all the trim, interior parts, and many other odds and ends to bring it all together. I had it running and driving, but I still wanted to build a new engine. So I built a 428FE engine for it to set it over the top.

It was a total of 12 years to put this thing together. Many times I thought about quitting on it, but that memory from that little kid was still there. Every time I drive it, I feel just as excited and thrilled as I did as a kid!