(aka: MY Truck - Zoola)

This is how my truck looks today.  We have traced her history back to one of the trucks sent to Korea at the end of the war.  From there she was sent to Japan for rebuild and decomissioning, then returned to the states where she was sold at auction to a carrot farm in mid-Michigan.  They cut her bed and tail assembly off and fitted her with a flat bed, painted her red, and put her to work in the fields hauling manure and other refuse, until sometime in the late 80's.  In dire need of cleaning and maintenance she was again put on the auction block and sold to Charlie Werger of Richmond, MI where she sat in his outbuilding until my husband found her and brought her home to us in the fall of '97.

Then the fun began.  First the engine was froze up and my husband had to bust a few knuckles working on that.  We had to go to southern Indiana to find some one with the tail assembly.  Picked up a few odds and ends there since he had 30 trucks in different states of demise (pinal hook, windshield wipers, mirrors, tail lights).  We managed to pack every thing into the back of our S10 Blazer and trucked it all home.  Once the old bed was removed, my husband had the joy of cleaning the many years of dried cow manure out of and off the frame (he was having so much fun he didn't even ask me to help!).  He then welded the 'new' assembly back in place.  He made a pattern for the bumpers and had them made.

The tires were all dry-rotted and needed to be replaced (More fun!  More cow manure!).  We found a contact at the Finley, Ohio show who said he had a few pallets of 'take off' tires up in Benton Harbor, MI.  So the next weekend we rented a U-Haul trailer and went over and picked up 11 tires and brought them home (the poor Blazer really weezed on that one).  The transmission had been butchered to make it into a stick shift so we had to find a shifter assembly (aquired from Herb Ambs - don't remember where he lives).  My husband rebuilt it and the transmission and installed them.  Then Doug Brown in Jackson, MI said he had a box for her, but it's really from a M35.

We found a cargo canvas at the swap show in Nike Park and had it cut to fit (which eliminated some of the rips in it), some original paint from 1953 and the whole truck went back to the original OD green. 

Last fall we bought a new muffler and pipe.  Last spring we ordered a NOS windshield for her and Rat installed it. 
Bill Back got us a winch that needed alittle work.  Ordered some of the parts from Memphis Equipment, others he made, and Jeff Lester kindly donated some cable.  Now we need a PTO assembly, and seat pads to finish her off.  (He keeps talking about a 50cal mounted on a ring over the passenger compartment, but I don't think so!)

If nothing else we saw quite a bit of country in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.  And I learned something -

Women:

1. Don't complain about your husband's hobbies, it could be worse!
2. When he asks what you think, DON'T tell him the truth if you value peace and harmony!
3. When he says he's "only looking" start putting money away because he's bringing it home