How I found My Truck...What's your story...?

[welsh kev]

Sweet Bubba; the truck AND its owner!

How it works this side of the Atlantic; I've owned Harleys for 22 years, always fancied a four-wheeled American to go with them. Gas is such a crazy price over here ( $8.15 per US gallon!) that it had to be something that could earn its keep, so as my present "castle" has two woodburning stoves, I opted for a pick-up.

Parked up at a truckstop in Whitchurch, Shropshire one night back in 2004, across the road was an old gas station with a mint 54 Pontiac Starchief outside. Had to go take a look of course, turned out the guy is a small-time dealer in old American iron, conversation turned to pick-ups and he had a 1970 Chevy long-bed CSD, wanted a fair bit of tin-work but I liked it so we cut a deal.

Trouble was, the guy suffered badly from depression(he did warn me)and when he was ill he couldn't work. Six months down the line, no progress and so I asked for my deposit back, which he did no problem.

Few months later I was passing that way, so I called in to see the guy and find out if he'd recovered. He was getting better but still not 100%; however he'd been to America on vacation, and of course bought a few things back, one of which was this;



That's as I bought it, rust where it usually is, bed wood rotted out, but overall sound, it had even passed our roadworthiness test (what we call an MOT,short for Ministry of Transport) though on closer inspection I'm not quite sure how!

I've owned it for over six years now; British weather is starting to get the better of the bodywork (cab roof rotting out from the inside) but it's been totally reliable till this weekend when the starter failed; but that could happen to anyone. Spends most of its time hauling firewood, and pretty much everything else, turns heads wherever it goes, and best of all irritates the hell out of enviromentalist tree-huggers and show-shiny concours freaks!



Believe it or not I've spent about $5K on the truck since I bought it; check out the fenders and door bottoms! That's all metal too, no Bondo here!

AFAIK there are only two 60-66 GMC's in the UK with their original 305 V-6 engine, and this is one of 'em.