Chapter 48

Six months of steady consistent work came together yesterday and I got to drive my 1965 ford pickup truck about a half mile down the road and back. This is the truck that we plucked up out of a cow pasture where it had been sitting for the last 24 years, almost exactly 6 months ago. 35-36 years ago this 1965 pickup truck was the one I was driving when I was courting my wife of 34 years. Back then it was an old truck! Now it is a really really old truck. Interestingly it still had the same engine in it that my dad and I put in 36 years ago. Now that old engine is laying in the shop waiting for a rebuild project.

One year ago this month, my dad I started rebuilding a 1967 289 Ford Small block V8, and when we finished 5 months later, we realized that we had nothing to put it in! So we found the truck in the pasture and started working toward combining the two. That was six months ago. It is more than a little astonishing to experience all the work that goes into a rails-up restoration. I certainly had no idea really, how detailed and involved a complete restoration is honestly. Now I know. And its expensive!

But I am learning so much, it levels the cost factor. Few people ever get the opportunity to first hand experience this level restoration project, and probably few people really want to. But they aren’t making old any more, and you can’t capture those old days without getting your hands very dirty. Of course this could have only happened in a Coronavirus world, where we are stuck in the same spot on the planet for 6 months, isolating and social distancing. 

Best Covid-19 project ever.