My first truck, a “short” story…

[Chris H]

My dad emailed me this picture that he found at home recently: (thats me laying under the truck, and my younger brother helping).


This picture brought back a lot of memories, so I wrote some of it down, here goes...

The year was 1983, and I was 15 years old. My father and I were visiting a local farmer, and somehow the discussion turned to the old truck in his shed that was covered (literally) with household garbage. I could only recognize it by the taillights, as that was about all that could be seen. We were walking by the shed and he looked in and said it was time to haul the garbage to the dump, and this time he was going to call the junkman to come get the truck. I asked how much a junkman gave for a truck, and he said $50. I asked if he would sell it to me instead, and he said he would for $75. My father approved, and shortly after we were digging the truck out of a large pile of garbage bags.
What we found was a 1967 Chevrolet C20, home to many mice and missing its small rear window. We pushed it out of the shed, and lifted the hood to reveal a 283 V8 2 barrel with no PS or PB. Of course it had the manual 4 speed with granny low. It was still wearing its factory red paint, although very weathered looking. I noticed assorted dents and scrapes, but for now it was perfect. It was mine!
I don’t know how long the truck had sat in that shed, or how much time had lapsed since it had run. We gave the battery a boost, and after a few shots of gas down the carb it fired up and we drove it about 5 miles home. I remember the ride home, windows down on a very cool spring day in MN to try to avoid the stench that can only come from mice and rats making themselves at home. I remember my dad trying to honk at some kids on the way home, but the horn didn’t work. Instead he leans his head closer to the open window and hollers at the top of his lungs “HONK!! HONK!!”. I think I was amused and embarrassed at the same time, but we got a good laugh out of it.
I spent many hours working on that truck to get it ready to be my driving to school ride when I would turn 16. First was a massive cleanup, and I remember waxing the truck before we even started any mechanical work. It had to look good after all, as my older friends might drive by and see it! Next, dad took me to a few local junkyards so we could find some needed parts. Got a small rear window for $10 at one yard, and a very nice black bench seat out of a suburban at another yard. I think I had to pay $40 for that. Those were the parts that we needed to get going, but I know we made a number of return trips to the local yards for bits and pieces.
Then we got started on the mechanical issues. Dad walked me through a good tune-up: plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and points/condenser. It ran better but still not great, so we set aside a few hours one Saturday morning to rebuild the carb. After that and some miscellaneous rubber lines, and a new fuel pump, it ran great. We used it quite a bit that summer for yard chores, lots of firewood hauling and dragging stumps around. I bought some great used tires from a friends dad, and the old truck was just about ready to be hauling me to school. It did need brakes so we did the fronts in the driveway, but didn’t feel we had the knowledge to do the rear brakes. We drove it to the local gas station, and had them done. After fixing the rear brakes, the shop owner popped the rear brake line on the test drive. He ordered up some line and parked it outside the shop for the night…

That night (or early the next morning), a driver “feel asleep” while driving home. He jumped the curb and nailed my truck hard in the right front fender and door. So hard in fact that my truck hit the truck parked next to it, which hit the car next to it. I was totally crushed, all my hard work down the drain. His insurance company did end up totaling the truck, and somebody else did end up fixing it and driving it for a work truck. If I had known then what I know now, I would have kept it and fixed it myself.
At any rate I took the insurance money and bought a 1967 GMC K10, but that is another story and somewhere around 25 trucks ago…