Sunday, May 17, 2015

The maiden voyage...

Open road, the final frontier...
These are the voyages of 'Little Crusty'.
Dad's five year (give or take) mission: to explore odd old junkpiles,
Seek out interesting parts and new cylinders,
To boldly putt down the road, where no A has gone before.*



Sooo, to explain.  My Dad has been working, quite truthfully, for about 5 or so years on this little pickup truck.  He started with a frame.  That's what he started with, all that was sitting in the shop.  

Then Dad and I went to various swap meets, and he would bring home bits and pieces, from small stuff, to things that filled the vehicle we were bringing it home in!  Let's just say, we had to be rather creative to get a full fender and running board combination in the truck.  I held it away from my left ear the whole way home...

He started finding the BIG stuff, like the cab, and it eventually started to look like a truck.  Well, like a tore up, tattered, abused truck.  But a truck.  Dad then talked to a... cousin... (Ok, let's put it this way, we call him cousin, but the actual relation is more removed.  He is family, but I think he's like 2 or 3rd to me...)  Said cousin does repair work on vehicles, and somehow, Dad and him made a deal to repair the cab.  It took a while, but cousin did do it. And a wonderful showroom job, too.  (And said he never wants to do another A again, but that's beside the point...)  

Dad had a small gas can with a hose in it to test the engine a couple times, it was funny, you could almost see it as a cartoon, I half expected little lumps to flow up and into the engine, with associated slurping noises!

Somewhere around this point, he adopted the name "Little Crusty", because, as he said, a lot of the parts were kinda crusty, and he wanted a vehicle that was nice, but not so much that he'd be terrified if someone sat on a fender. 

But soon, it was together, and he worked on getting it licensed and insured.  And painted.  Soon, it was getting all together, and he build a wooden rack on the back, so it could actually haul something, if needed.

He went out, and it shimmied and shuddered so badly, he turned around immediately and went home.  Kingpin problems.  He worked on it, and after my making a quick trip to get wheel bearing grease from his son-in-law, delivered by his daughter, he was able to get it revamped, and ready to road again...



And this is what showed up today!



Dad is so happy, and I saw several people slow way down past our place to get a look at it, Dad said that several were waving on the way over.  Something tells me Dad is going to find lots of excuses to get out and road Little Crusty now...

*Dad and I are both Trekkies, and I just had to come up with something when he said it had been about 5 years working on this thing... 

4 comments:

Lisa said...

That's a sweet little truck! I'd slow down to look, too!

messymimi said...

Wow is right! Such fun as he's going to have, and he deserves to after all the work. And i hope he's given you a ride in it, too, especially in light of having a fender resting nest to your ear!

Sharon said...

It is absolutely beautiful! How wonderful for your dad. I'll bet he is popping buttons with pride!

Mary said...

I love it! That's quite a truck! And quite an accomplishment to boot. :)