My dad owned a 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner that he had nearly perfect & straight, he bought it in 1997, a year after I was born. Around 2012 he got into competitive biking, like in the Tour de France, and sold it. I told him not to and that he'd regret it, but he did anyways (mom wanted that side of the garage back).
Nearly a year after, he had a problem in his right leg, he couldn't feel from his knee down. Went to the doctor, they took him into intensive care because of a huge clot in his knee. Long story short - lost his right leg from above the knee at 50 years old, and could no longer bike. He soon after regretted selling his Roadrunner, and wanted a new project. But he is the type of person who wont shell out the money unless it's literally a steal, he went to see tons of cars for sale, but never acted on them until they were gone.
So I decided to just get my own, so I saved up for a few months and had $900, looked at tons of trucks, found one I wanted to buy but someone stole the key so no one would buy it until he could. And then I found my truck, 1970 longbed fleet, 350 v8/saginaw 3 speed and took out a loan for $1100 (first loan, only 17) and drove it home. That was the first time I ever drove a manual trans, and as my dad only has one leg, I had to drive it and learn right then and there. Drove it 30 minutes home.
It's funny the things that change your life completely, I was never into cars until my dad lost his leg, and all of the sudden I absolutely loved cars.
As for the reason for the truck, I just loved the way the 69-70 looked with that big grill with 'Chevrolet' across it. The grill sold it for me, and I always wanted a longbed (not a big fan of shortbeds). I also wanted to do burnouts.
