Brought Home My Next One

[Indyuke]

A few years ago I sold my one remaining C10. An olive green 1970 CST/10. Had it for almost 10 years.

Always knew I'd get another, but couple of months ago the C10 bug starting really started to bite. I found this blue 1968 about a week ago, and the wife said you can have it if I can claim the purchase as your birthday present from me to you. Of course, you can!

So we drove out to see it. It had been sitting for 15 years in eastern WA. The owner's title dated from 1986, and the tabs were from 2003. His handwritten bill of sale from '86 said he paid $1,000 for the truck then. He had aired up the presumably almost 20 year old tires the day before, put in a new battery and fuel filter, then gotten it running good enough to drive it around his small lot. That was it.

It was filled with probably 50lbs of beehives and dead bees. Beehives everywhere. But we checked the tire pressure, and I took it for a test run and got it up to 60mph. Surprisingly it tracked straight, brakes seemed strong and didn't pull. The engine ran rough but the 4 speed shifted well.

Spent about an hour checking for fluid leaks afterward, checking belts, doing an oil change and thought, well I'm going to drive this thing home. Seems like it'll make it. Put a loaded toolbox, extra oil and brake fluid in back, made sure the spare was good, and swung by the gas station to fill it up and head back home.

I thought for sure it would break down or I would blow a tire. Twenty years of sitting in eastern WA summer sun and heat and the winter's snow and ice, no chance any tire will survive that and then put up with a 200 mile run at 65mph over a mountain pass.

Well, the truck ran beautifully the whole way, though I didn't push it too hard because of the brakes and tires.

Only two things happened. Getting on the freeway I had to make a hard right on the onramp. My wife calls me frantically describing a large amount of fluid streaming from the left side of the truck. Yep, lost about a gallon of gas past the rotted gas cap.

Next episode... stopped in Seattle on the way back to grab something to eat. Came back out and the truck wouldn't start. Starter was completely non-functioning. Looked underneath and realized the headers are literally within a 1/8" of the side of the starter and no heat shield. Probably cooked that thing to death. No problem, the kids piled out of the SUV, we all gave it a push start and away we went. Everyone was high-fiving everyone else.