Well, it began a long long time ago, in place far far away. I bought a
'62 Plymouth convertible, and a '55? Chevy TF truck just for the windshield
trim, mostly. I got the convertible to my aunt's farm, and kept it for 4-5
years before reselling it to an Ohio collector. The truck, however,
lanquished in the weeds where I'd left it, the seller was hard to get ahold
of, I tried every so often to catch him in the small town where it was at,
but he lived 4 hours away, and only about 10 miles from me at that! But I
only got to talk to him twice on the phone in all that time, he rarely
returned calls I made to his answering machine, or answered mail left in his
small town mailbox at the storage sight. So, it just so happened I was down
that way again this weekend running an errand for my Aunt. Since I was
passing by the place, I decide to stop in and see if he was there ( fat
chance! ). There was a big sign up, Lot for Sale or Lease, I drove around the
side, the gate and fence were down and gone, and most of the former vehicles
were also gone, but the old blue truck hulk was still there! I decided to go
knock, no one was living there anymore, so I walked back to the truck itself.
The trim was still there , in the windshield rubber....hmm. Well, it's now or
never, I decided. I got some tools from my pickup, and pried the windshield
out and got my trim , which has been paid for for 6 years. Also got one piece
of U-trim on the door that was left. Wasn't much left to the truck, the cab,
frame,a door, and that was about it. I had only wanted the trim anyway, but
the guy wanted me to buy the whole truck. So, for $40, I did. I was worried
about trespassing, but hey, he's been impossible to track down, and it WAS my
trim, and with the building and lot up for sale, I might not get another
chance to snag my parts! So they went back to the truck with me. I hopped in,
hit the key...nothing! Damn! battery cable was loose, battery was dead.
Luckily, where I was supposed to go was 4 blocks away, so I walked, got a guy
to come back to jump-start my truck, and back to pick up the stuff I'd come
to get. Got back to my aunt's farm, and discover the alternator was ok, but
the battery had a bad cell. Luckily, Auntie had a spare new battery, and I
got home after midnite, tired but at least I had my hard to find windshield
trim! Got a wasp sting from trying to get some of my AMC car parts out of my
stepvan storage the night before, so it had been a ruff weekend for me. But
all's well that ends well, I'm glad I was able to finally get the stainless
I'd waited so long for to put on my '55 Suburban. It seems to be missing
several of the little pieces that tie the 4 main ones together, there were
two there, but two were missing. Oh well, I do have several other partial
pieces of trim somewhere off a truck, maybe i can find them, too, someday. :)
Hope the dead battery wasn't an omen, but it WAS over 4 years old, so it was
about time, probably. Just happened at a REALLY inconvenient time and place.
:) So, I'm back home , back at work, and ready for another fun-filled week
of stripping a car down, dissecting a pop-up camper to make into a utility
trailer, working on an AMC Matador so I can get it out of my driveway, and
other wonderful projects. Luckily the weather is warming up, and I can work
at night under the stars now...darn, do I feel a fever coming on? Sheesh,
what luck! probably my usual Change-of-season sickness I get twice a year.
Well, that's all for me, I'll go back to watching the Discovery Channel and
resting. Sayonarra, Ole Truckers! Until my next adventures in
parts-retrieval, I'm signing off...
Jerry in northern Virginia...
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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