47-59 What got you interested in trucks?

[LEEVON]

So...what got you hooked? Was it your first ride in your Grandpa's old Chevy? Or your first truck?

It was my Dad's '77 stepside. The truck wasn't anything special, just a small block four-speed but it took us everywhere from church to the fishing hole. This picture represents some amazing memories. Me, Dad, my dog Mellow and old "Betsy Blue". I've been playing with old GM trucks constantly since then.

[mongocanfly]

It was Dads 57 IH... lots of adventures and memories

[_Ogre]

i didn't realize we ''got interested in trucks'' i thought it was genetic
no trucks in my family, i just was and always have owned truks

[handyhands]

my Grandfather had a 1956 ford back in the sixties that (i loved first time for me). was sure my dad would get it when my Grandfather passed away. so i never said that i wanted it till it was too late.

[mr48chev]

What actually got me into AD trucks was my father in law telling me about a 75.00 beater pickup that a guy who was moving out of town had. It had been his truck when he needed to haul something truck for a few years. It came with a hand brushed green paint job and 4 very ragged 16 inch tires. But it ran good with a 194 out of a Chey II in it. I bought it, transferred the title and drove it to work as soon as I had it in my name. Blew one of the ragged tires the first week I had the truck and almost wrecked it when the drivers door flew open during a left hand turn two blocks from the house. I went straight to the Chev garage and bought new door latches and strikers for a total of about 20 1973 dollars.

What turned it from a work beater to a hobby truck was that we lived in Central Texas and the street rod nationals were in Tulsa in 1973 and my T bucket wasn't even close to being ready. A three month thrash took the 48 from 75 dollar beater to a painted and upholstered street rod with gold paint and Z28 rally wheels. I sold it once because I really wanted a 55/57 big window but ended up with a 57 panel that I ended up trading back for the 48.

My dad never had a truck and didn't have much interest or need to have one.

My grandfather bought a new 48 Chev one ton dual wheel cab and chassis when I was 2 and he and my dad and my uncle built the flatbed and cattle racks on it. I learned to work a clutch and drive a stick shift in it.

My then step father had a 54 Chevy 5 window with an automatic and the deluxe stuff but no junky added on trim. That was a super nice truck around 1960 and I actually learned to drive in it when I was 12 or 13 years old.

My first truck was a 67 chevy long bed with a 327 automatic, ac and all the bells and whistles, I traded it for a 69 Barracuda for my wife. It wasn't long after that that I got the 48.

I had the 70 long bed that my son had and over the years have had a string of 67/71 short beds that never seem to stay around long. One didn't even make it home, we took my buddy's truck and trailer to get it, and when we stopped at a gas station some guy offered me way too much money for it and we delivered it to his house.

I still want a big window and a 67/72 short bed but will probably not have either unless I convert my 71 3/4 ton to a short box half ton.

[fauXGT]

Grew up in Montana.
Almost everyone there has at least one.
And learning stick on gramps '66 Chev 3/4 4x4

[my56chevytruck]

Honestly, I bought my Gen VI 454 from a friend and had only owned 1 truck previously. My wife asked, "what you gonna put that engine in"?? I didn't realize she had found the idea of a vintage chevy truck and we found some on Craigslist and hooked up the trailer and headed out. Found my 56 2nd in Georgia and the rest is history. This my beauty the day I brought it home.

[dsraven]

grew up in British Columbia interior area. mountains, lakes etc. bought my first truck so I could haul dirt bikes, snowmobiles etc. it was a 63 GMV fleet longbox. in primer, ready for paint. 327 3 speed hurst floor shifter. well, not long after the first rain I noticed rust coming through here and there, yup, steel wool, paper towel, fiberglass and lots of bondo covering all the rust holes. being young and stupid I believed the guy on everything. turned out to be a 283, worn out, with super thick oil so it wouldn't smoke when I looked at it pre purchase. anyway, long story short, new engine, lots of home made patch panels and some dark blue metallic paint and a new interior and it was good to go. upgraded to power steering along the way. my buddies and I hauled a lot of recreational vehicles in that truck and squeezed in 4 guys sometimes, its a wonder the doors didn't pop off. haha. nearly always had a truck until the kids came along when we needed a minivan, then got a truck when they got bigger. my dad had a 59 chevy shortbox stepside, I loved it as a kid and how he could make that worn out column shifter grab allt he gears with a flip of his wrist. my uncle convinced him to sell it to him a couple of years before I was old enough to drive. that was a bad day for me. it is parked somewhere in a field rotten beyond repair now.
trucks are great, always loved them.

[MARTINSR]

We lived in farm land, though not on a farm but my dad always had a cool truck. He was a Buick salesman and in 66 he bought this 55 F-100 and brought home a 58 Buick that was a trade in. He had a mechanic from the dealership come and put the 364 Nailhead out of the Buick in the truck! Yeah, I was 7 or 8 and HOOKED on cool trucks.

It wasn't much later when my brothers friend had bought a new 72 Monte Carlo and sold me his 48 Chevy and that is my life since. LOL That friend just passed away a few months ago. Had a ruff life health wise. Always did the right thing, but just had a hard life.

My brother still has our dad's F-100.


Brian

[1project2many]

My grandfather owned a trucking company that delivered eggs until the '80s. My dad was driving in New England and New York before I was born. Cruising around in big trucks with my dad was the coolest. No radio, nothing to provide a distraction, just mile after mile of looking out the window and listening to the engine. Talking about what you see, looking at old farms, traveling through cities and farm country, small roads and interstates. And I knew the make of every truck that had been in Grandpa's fleet! Many of the companies in these pictures were still on the road back then. Folks from outside New England often don't realize how much work went into making each company's trucks look appealing and distinctive. The pin striping was amazing! It was like putting on a tux to go to work. And I loved seeing all of them.

I used to collect trucking industry magazines and cut out the pictures to tape on my bedroom walls. Pete, Mack, White, Western Star, General, Freightliner, Autocar... It didn't matter the truck brand or whether it was snub nose or conventional. If it looked good it went on the wall. And America loved trucks back then. Rock, folk, and country music stars all had recorded one song or another about trucking. There were trucker movies, trucker tv series, trucker stories and magazines. Gas was cheap, trucks were cool, and pollution trash on the roadside, not toxins in the air.

I've owned trucks most of my life. I dragged a '28 Chevy doodlebug (Chevy truck engine and chassis, Ford truck worm drive rear axle, two speed gear box behind the prime transmission) out of the woods when I was 12 and worked without much help to get it running (not driving) by the time I was 14. I learned a bunch along the way from anyone who would take a few minutes to answer questions. My father was not a car guy and all he could do to help was to give me a book titled "How to fix your Chevrolet" that his dad had given to him in the early '60s. Later my uncle's (by marriage) kid brother had a '55 Chevy BBW long box for sale for $50 so I saved up paper money and bought it at 15. The bed was in pieces and not attached. It had homemade fenders over the rear wheels. Six cylinder and Hydramatic trans. But it came with an original FSM which I read cover to cover and referred to frequently in order to teach myself how to fix the truck. I wanted a short box so I just started picking up old, parked trucks and figuring out how to get them home. Mom's boyfriend had a car trailer, a farmer in town had one also. The local tow guy took a liking to me as well. I used six trucks to build my first one. '58 Chassis and bed, '55 cab from the original BBW truck, '62 283, various pieces from a '56 GMC and a '57 Chevy, plus swap meet stuff. I registered it the same day I got my license.

After all that, I guess I don't know really what got me interested in trucks. The interest has been there as long as I can remember.

[vintovka]

Mine was basically free so theres that.

[nvrdone]

I grew up in Oakland CA and my dad had a Shell station by Lake Merritt. We always had pickups as station trucks and I learned to drive on a '53 GMC with 3 on the tree. Anyway, seems like I've had a pickup in my life. My latest is a '49 Chevy 3100 that I bought in 1973 for $235.00. Towed lots of boats, hauled lots of landscape materials. Now it just hauls my wife and me

[Dan in Pasadena]

Dad was a brick mason. He had a couple different AD trucks and then later a 59 longbed Fleetside. As a kid I "helped" him swap out the 235 six for a 283 and then later a 348.

[Father&son56project]

As a teenager, I fooled around with cars (mostly stuff like novas and dusters). Nothing serious, just basic tinkering and poor quality bodywork. I loved driving “cool cars” but then I went and got an education, family, career, etc. and I didn’t have a toy to drive for decades. When my youngest son Brian was 17 he was very interested in vehicles, but unlike all his friends he liked old Detroit Iron. We found a Mustang to work on but discovered it was beyond our bodywork skills (turns out we underestimated ourselves!). We got rid of it and found something more solid to play with:











This ‘56 was perfect for us so we got to work. I took welding courses at the local community college in the evenings, we outfitted ourselves with a compressor, 120v mig welder and basic tools like grinders & stuff. We did everything together AND he paid for ½ of everything as it was “our” truck (I don’t just hand stuff to my kids-they need to understand the idea of earning what you get). It was an awesome project, not only in terms of learning new skills, but primarily for the time spent working alongside my son. This kind of time is priceless, and I am so glad we did it. It also showed me how much nicer it is to work on a truck than a car, and it hooked me pretty badly back into the world of cool old vehicles. We ended up with this when we were done:










After that we did a 1970 Ford F100 shortbox, then we did a '56 Chevy wagon. Doing a car reminded me of how awful they are to work on, so the next project was an S10 swap on an old truck (Project Fargolet). I'm searching for my next project now, and yes, it will be a truck!

[Chopped53]

[QUOTE=Father&son56project;9059615]As a teenager, I fooled around with cars (mostly stuff like novas and dusters). Nothing serious, just basic tinkering and poor quality bodywork. I loved driving “cool cars” but then I went and got an education, family, career, etc. and I didn’t have a toy to drive for decades. When my youngest son Brian was 17 he was very interested in vehicles, but unlike all his friends he liked old Detroit Iron. We found a Mustang to work on but discovered it was beyond our bodywork skills (turns out we underestimated ourselves!). We got rid of it and found something more solid to play with:

Nice before and after pics and story.

[e015475]

My father had a egg and cream route and had a couple of AD trucks. He bought eggs and cream from local farmers and sold it to the cooperative in town. I remember riding in the cab of the cream truck with my dad and my uncle on the 'cream route' occasionally. He went out of business when his brother grabbed for a farmer's egg check blowing around in the cab and put the truck into a ditch and totaled it.

I remember riding in an AD stake-bed truck late into the night with a load of pigs going to the stock yards with my father and a farmer friend of his. Still think about how whiney and slow that thing was.

Later we lived in town and my dad bought a '54 Chevy truck at a surplus auction held by the local university. I think he paid $400 for it and it sat in the back yard and he used it to haul trash and get firewood from the reservation. He taught me how to drive in it - still remember the three-on-the-tree. First AD I'd ever seen that wasn't green.

In high-school, one of the 'cool' guys had an AD with a V8, gold paint and mags. I'd pedal by his house delivering papers and told myself that someday I'd have a cool truck - 55 years later...............I do.