One piece at a time

I’ve been a different aspects of the car industry all of my life, and on my bucket list has always been to restore a vintage truck. I especially wanted a 47 to 53 5- window body style. My dream was recently realized when I completed this 52 Chevy pickup truck after about 3,000 hours of work.
In 2016 a friend of mine found it in a cow pasture in Gerald Missouri I bought it sight unseen for $800. After a 14 month legal process, I was able to get a Serial plate, have it titled and a vintage license plate.
the first thing I did was to get it sandblasted so I could determine which body parts had to be replaced. 11 body panels, floorboards, cab corners and bottoms of doors had to be replaced and the rest sandblasted and reworked.
My wife asked if I had a name for it and I said no I didn’t but I got a song for it, you know the Johnny Cash song “One Piece At A Time”? And so it went. One piece at a time… With a variety of parts from around the country, including some handcrafted parts and parts from LMC I was able to get it drivable by April 2019.
It has a 78 Chevy Camaro front end suspension and a 350 engine, an 87 Oldsmobile transmission, a 2003 Lexus differential under the back end of it, a Monte Carlo steering gear and an S10 Chevy front seat. It’s got an aftermarket heating and cooling system and am_fm radio to name a few modifications from stock. The paint is a custom color, “Quasar Blue” from a paint company in Georgia.
When you have a truck like this, you are never really finished with it. You’re always changing, improving and fixing it. I wanted to be able to drive it anywhere.
The truck has won awards in local car shows.