#1: The Beginning

I'm going to try this blogging thing as a way to document the process on my "project truck." We'll see how that goes!

BACKGROUND:

I've always loved old pickups- particularly Chevy short bed stepsides. I think this has it's roots in two things:

1. In my early childhood, my Grandfather, Murray F. Tidwell, used to cart us (meaning his grandkids) all over his part of Roger Mills County, Oklahoma in his 1967 Chevy stepside. While it's a "no-no" these days, we'd ride, mostly, in the bed- to and from the big garden or out to check the cows. He had a Ford in later years, but many of the older of the Tidwell cousins have memories of this pickup.

2. My first taste of teenage freedom was when my best friend from elementary and junior high bought a mid '50's model Ford pickup from a really great older gentleman that we both knew. They put it back together and painted it, by first by hand (it didn't look great- you could see brush strokes in the black paint), and eventually by professional. He gave me rides home, and I can remember "dragging main" in my hometown with the windows down listening to Quiet Riot as loud as the Kraco cassette player would crank.

As an adult, I've sort of always wanted to have an "old truck" to work on- tinker with, and restore.

OPPORTUNITY:

When we lost Debbie's Grandfather in November, there was talk not long after about the need to have a big auction to sell off decades worth of farm equipment and vehicles. I knew that there were a couple of old early 60's model Chevy short bed stepsides that would be in the sale.

When the family had the auction in early May, we went to the sale because it was a family event, and Debbie and I decided to try to buy one of the pickups.

$350.00 later, we were the owners of a 1960 Chevy Apache 10, 1/2 ton, short bed, stepside pickup. It needed a wheel, and we didn't know if it would run, but it was in reasonably good shape for the use it had been through and the for the time it had been sitting out in a field!

So, now, we have a pickup that I can play with, that David (our 7 year old- the one you see in the picture) and I can work on together as he grows, and that both Debbie and I can enjoy sentimental attachments to. I'm really excited about this!

Now we just had to get it home...