What made you pick an AD 47-54

[RedneckRodder]

Having a father that was rarely around, yet had still somehow managed to instill his love for classic cars in me, I was always buying hot rod magazines and wanting one of my own. My mother never really cared for my projects in the driveway, but our neighbors were very helpful with my endeavors. Easily 2 of the greatest influences in my young life, Tony and Chris helped me finish a '47 Willy's CJ2A that someone else had given up on. They'd lone me tools, taught me to weld and made sure I heard about it when I did something wrong or unsafe. They also taught me a lot of the other stuff a young man should know, and never withheld the barley pops from me, which I truly appreciated. After that I was hooked. Much to my mother's dismay, and my wife's now, I continued to drag home rusty "junk" that needed someone to love it.

I hadn't had a project since before I joined the Navy when I felt the most recent itch. It had been almost 7 years since I sold the Willys before leaving for bootcamp, and my wife had her doubts. She'd never seen me with one of my projects, and I convinced her I needed another one. I had only lived in Washington for 2 years, and really more like 5 months when you subtract the time I was forward deployed, so I had no idea where to find my next project. I decided to do something that would be easy, a model that had replacement parts readily available, and was nice to look at. This way I could build a rod quickly and have something to enjoy while I look for, and built my dream truck ('33-'36 International 1/2 ton). Well, its been 2 1/2 years since I started, and it turns out things go really slow when you have to acquire your own tools to get a job done. It sure would be nice to have Tony and Chris around the corner now, but I'm getting there, and so is the truck. I've changed my mind more times than I care to admit, and I'm sure I'm not done yet, but I'm having fun. The only real downside I see is that now I have to buy my own beer.