My Grandfather's pick-up

You are indeed fortunate, as are your kids that they’ll learn the value of family memories. I’m always sad when I see a car on line that has been in a family for 50-60 years. And there is no interest in hanging on to dad or mom’s old whatever. Maybe it’s the end of line, but more often than not, I think it’s just a family trying to get the buck before dads cold. Sad world we live in.

 

No, there's only two of them. Older one is the one who will be driving down the road with his hands at 10 and 2 and the needle hovering just below the posted speed limit. The younger one will be trying to figure out how he can jump his pick-up over the irrigation ditch.

 

Thanks Denny & Mercman.

 

No one in my families past cared for cars, except to get to work and shopping, much like our kids today. I'm impressed when Grandpa Smith leaves his old car to a family member who keeps it in good shape or restores it.

The following story has been repeated many times. Hopefully your toys will survive and live for others to enjoy.

When we relocated back to beautiful Illinois I gave my unfinished 1948 Chevy panel truck mostly done and customized to my son in law. It is filled to the roof with what's needed to finish it, spare parts, and things I'd collected to become yard art, like it was in Florida. Three and a half years and it still sits with my junk in it in his brand new large garage. At least he went to Florda with his own trailer to get it.

The day our cars left Fl at the end of the year, it was sunny and in the 90's. By the time the shipper screwed around all but the panel truck went thru snow, sleet, rain, and hail ....... which remained on them until after we finally moved over 6-mo later. Road salt is not paint or chrome friendly!
There they sit on loading day in the Florida boonies, all bright and shiny.----- (See avatar).....

My oldest got my 1939 Ford deluxe coupe with a very low mileage, new at the time, 307 and powerglide. No hot rod but it was dependable and a fun driver. It has sat in various garages for over 45 years waiting for "someday". I had it tuned up, with new battery and battery cable from trunk to front, New aluminum 1955 Chevy radiator and more. All it needed was fresh gas to be running. Then new tires to replace the new looking bias ply tires I put on it back in the 60's with 60's air in the tires. After delivery to Illinois it has sat for 3 1/2 years untouched by my oldest son who wanted an old car project!

In my barely big enough 20X20 garage is my 1955 Chevy wagon, once driven daily anyplace we wanted to go. Beside it sits our yeller 1941 Ford Chevy powered 2-dr customized. It had also been driven regularly until our health failed. Both filled with misc. parts and sitting 3 1/2 yrs also. The kids and a few friends want me to give everything to them or sell everything cheap. Sadly all are now bsically short block cars, missing the new shiny parts on them when I drove them. The exteriors suffer road salt dmage and all chrome is shot.

I'm sure everything will be sold dirt cheap after my wife and I are gone. We don't all have the same hobbys or dreams. We have friends with even more car junk and families waiting for them to die to get a few dollars to buy beer or clothes.

It makes me smile to see the photos and new stories about Orthman's family pick-up and the good memories they are making.

 

Thanks Denny. Happy to hear that.

The brake kit arrived a couple of weeks ago, but was short the hoses. I have been in contact with the vendor and they have been agonizingly slow.
So, I am waiting impatiently for the hoses to arrive so I can continue with the project.

 

Well, been slow getting parts, and even slower putting the parts on. But here is a little progress report on the front disc brake conversion.

 

Well, it's been close to a year from when I started this project, but yesterday I was able to drive my pick-up again. It's had a full tune up/carb rebuild, front disc brake upgrade, brake lines and proportioning valve, new heater core, reconditioned A/C, new sending unit, temp-gauge unit, coolant overflow tank, windshield washer fluid reservoir...
I think there's more, but that's all I can recall at the moment.

It sure felt nice to have the ol' girl back. I drove it to work today and though it's been a while it feels like it never left.

 

On a related note, the lower section under the A/C vents had to be removed to do the A/C & Heater core work. There's a little glovebox down there that I had never really looked through. Since that piece had to be removed, we cleaned it out, and boy was that neat. It was full of all kinds of treasures!



The original operators manual:

Complete with the name of the original owner, Joseph Yellig, and when it was purchased:


The registration from when Grandpa purchased it in 71

Mr. Yellig traded in this truck when it was less than two years old. Grandpa purchased it in April of 71. As of this morning the truck has 56K miles on it.

 

Also in that little glovebox were a number of old road maps from the 60's and 70's as well as this super groovy AAA membership packet!



Complete with the letter welcoming my Grandparents to AAA and the stickers they were supposed to put on the truck!

 

Those are from AAA's 75th Anniversary; you ought to reach out to AAA WA and see if they'd be interested in these photos for their archives. But finding all that stuff was very cool.

 

I was pretty excited to come across all of it. I had never looked in that little compartment that closely. My buddy was shocked it took me this long to discover these.

 

Wow. How cool is that. It’s like wearing a pair of comfy shoes that you thought got thrown out. It just feels so great that you have them, and you remember how great they were. It had to be wonderful to climb back in the cab and drive it like ole times.

 

When was the Washington Tripple A started? Early 1900’s? That provenance is so nice to have. I love finding cars with all of that background. PS. It’s so good to see you back Dennis. Not enough ‘60 Mercury’s around here. Lol it’s funny looking at the letterhead the only office listed with a Zip code is the main Seattle office.

 

Yeah, 1904. And yes, when correspondence comes to a member (I used to be one), its letterhead is always from the main office in each State and province.

 

That's exactly how it was Mercman, exactly.