Roscoe

Man, I hate to hear about this. My daughter and I came by the friday preceding, passing through on our way to Maine and was able to take a quick tour an hour or two before closing. We were very impressed by the museum, and she even enjoyed looking at the buses with me. I think she managed to drag home a souvenir in the form of a metal Corvette sign too..

I got Sam out for a bit. Slightly overcast but I needed to gas him up for a potential photo shoot tomorrow for senior pictures for my daughter's friend. I snagged a couple of pics, including a brief visit to pay our respects to Mr. Sam's, ( the old gentleman who I got the truck from), grave. I couldn't help but laugh a bit. HIs wife, Ms. Charlene, had badgered him for years to "get that old truck out of her front yard". And here I am, bringing it back, around- in front of her grave. 🤣

Really makes me stretch my brain...I started my vehicle love affairs at age 12 Still have ones marked with * 1) 1963 Dodge D100* 2)1989 GMC S15 3)1981 Honda Civic 4) 1987 Dodge D50 5)1981 Dodge D150 6)1993 Dodge Dakota 4x4 7)1996 Chevrolet Silverado 8)1966 Chevrolet Pickup 9) 1964 Chevrolet Pickup 10) 1952 Chevrolet Pickup* Bought it THREE times 11) 1964 AMC Rambler American station wagon 12)1955 Plymouth Belvedere 13)1979 VW Super Beetle 14)1992 Olds cutlass Ciara * (mama's old car) 15) 1966 Dodge D100* Bought for parts was too good to kill 16)2006 GMC Canyon* Dad's last truck 17)1956 Studebaker * 18)1991 Chevy S10- gutless wonder 19)1995 Nissan Hard body- boring but unkillable 20)1998 Lincoln Towncar- A couch. An undependable couch. 21)1995 Mazda Miata 22)1984 Corvette 23)1993 Corvette 24)1996 Corvette LT4- The ONE car on this list I TOTALLY regret selling 25)1997 Saturn 26) 2005 PTCruiser- purple. Oh, we were stylin' as a family. I traded my Sportster for this because of the daughter enroute. 27)2005 Cadillac CTS 28)2012 Malibu 29)2010 Lincoln MKX 30)2014 Lincoln MKX- Best family car EVER until a parolee busted a u-turn on a hill in front of my wife. RIP Lincoln 31)1998 GMC Jimmy 32)1998 Ford F150 Harley Davidson edition 33)1998 Corvette* Daughter stole 34)1994 Miata 35 1998 Miata* 36)1988 Barth Motorhome 37) 1930 Ford Model A* 38)2017 Cadillac Xt5 * 39) 2018 Ford F150* 40) Mid 70's Cadillac Eldorado- Given by grandfather for parts, wound up driving and trading 41) 1979 Corvette bought for daughter 42) 1979 Corvette, bought for project- Nephew stole. And motorcycles: 43)1982 Honda Magna 44)1994 Honda Magna (owned this one twice and still have tabs on it, possibly to bring home AGAIN) 45) 1994 Honda Magna- twin to last 46)1991 Honda Nighthawk 47)1992 Honda Nighthawk 48) 1986 Honda Rebel- for little brother then trading fodder when the little hothead used it for an escape vehicle for a two week runaway at age14 49)2005 Harley Sportster- only vehicle I've ever bought new- owned it twice 50)1998 Honda VLX- trading fodder 51) 1981 CB750- Trading fodder. 52) 1946 Chevrolet Truck*, Rusty the '46. How could I forget! 53)1994 Jeep Wrangler That's all I can remember for now....

You don't get the quality either, sadly. I can see where the search would be fun- but as impatient as I am, if it were something needed to be able to use the car- I don't know how fun I'd find it. LOL

The Graham's so ugly it's cool. But coming from dealing with vehicles that have readily available reproduction parts- where on earth would you find things like the missing head light lenses? Swap meets and online searches I guess...

My '52 Chevrolet truck, Sam, I actually bought three times. Tried for over 20 years to buy it, finally succeeded. A couple of years later, with the '46 and a new daughter, I didn't have funds to restore, or time, so I traded him for a very clean '64 Rambler American wagon. (That got traded, one of the worst trades of my life, sight unseen for a '55 Plymouth. I was a man of my word, but when the Plymouth arrived, I deeply regretted it. But that's another story). A year or so later, my close friend was looking for an old truck and Sam came available from the guy I'd sold it to. I bought it immediately, and called my friend Jeremy to explain that if he didn't buy Sam from me for the price I'd just paid, Sam would become a motel because the wife would surely make me sleep in it. He bought Sam. Several years later, after my seller's remorse over having lost my truck twice, My friend called and offered to sell me Sam, with the condition that if I sell it, he gets dibs. I couldn't drive the 2 hours to his house fast enough. Now Sam's at home for the LAST time, and the next time he goes to ANYONE- even Jeremy- I will be gone from this life.🤣 Sam's my dirt road de-stress buddy and I plan for it to remain that way... Same model of cars- well, I've owned four different C4 Corvettes- and wouldn't throw stones at another if the right one came along. Hey, I like what I like.😂

Love the 120. I know that if I am to have the chance to be "the man that owns one" it will likely be a junior series. If I could afford the price of admission to the senior series, I'd struggle with any major repairs. And I like to drive them alot so there would be repairs. I admire the big full classics. They are works of art. But I think the smaller Packard would suit me better anyway. In rural Arkansas, it would probably have been more likely to see a 120 Packard that a Senior when they were new cars, anyway. And that Buick is beautiful even if it is an open car. Strangely, I prefer closed cars to convertibles/roadsters though. I'm weird, I guess.

Sam, the '52 Chevy with a 235, four speed and 3.07 gears seems to get 13 to 15 ish. The A, I'm not real sure- it doesn't seem to be real thirsty, but I haven't really checked it. It gets driven randomly, usually on dirt roads, and gets topped off at the local general store pretty much every few days. My daughter's old double hump headed 350 beast of a C3 Corvette that gives me heartburn every time I crank it is in the 12 to 13 mpg range. I just close my eyes, squeeze the gas pump handle, and focus on the smiles per gallon rather than the miles per gallon.😂

CTS-V? Because if it is, I am jealous. I've wanted one since I found out about them....If I ever find a good, unmolested version when I have funds, I'll snap it up.

Drawing to a close on this thread....I'll probably post some pictures of the truck at the farm and with the farmer's family when I get a chance to get some. But today, Sam the '52 came out for the first time in three years. I'll be honest, I am not a fan of the paint and body man I used. He sucked, but will likely be used again because he was free. ("He" is me). But the truck does look better than it did and is definitely more solid. We started with this: Without further ado, outside for the first time in months- And yes, the hood was not latched securely and I didn't notice it until after the pic.. Sam at the store he worked at for years... And ready to pull back into the driveway...country roads, take me home! I realized I made a mistake on the gas cap- I painted it, which handily sealed up the vents. I discovered this at 55mph halfway to town when the tank "popped" and Sam quit. I figured it out and got Sam to the gas station as he ran completely out of gas. I have a local sign shop working on a logo for the doors.

I quite agree. I am fortunate- I have a 17-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old nephew who has adopted me as "Dad", since his own prefers drugs to family. These kids have both became car nuts- my daughter loves driving a stick shift and has her own collection started, a '79 Corvette (which didn't seem old to me, but it IS 45 years old) and her 98 Corvette that was mine but somehow became hers. The nephew is a late bloomer but has a project C3 Corvette in addition to his modern truck. And the daughter has a young male friend who is spending more and more time here...mainly due to the daughter I suspect, but he's car crazy and will wind up in the shop every time he is over, helping me on something. In short- the next generation DOES have a few that know what the third pedal is for, and where the dimmer switch is. Maybe one day when I am gone, they will fire up Sam, or Rusty, my 46 Chevrolet truck, or the Model A and take my grandkid for a ride...and remember things we've talked about on those old dirt roads. Maybe they'll remember the distinct whine of the old SM420 transmission, or the peculiar chug of the Model A. And maybe, just maybe, it will do for them what it does now for me- transports them to a simpler time and place where the bad times are forgotten and the good times glow and come alive again. One can hope.

The finned valve cover...I've always liked the looks. And the old guy only truely has to make me happy. Lol The dual carbs...I still haven't made up my mind on them. They are cool in a vintage way and when we get around to rebuilding the 261, they may or may not find a home in service of Sam. As I have a dual carb'd intake and a triple carb'd intake, there's no telling what will wind up under that big ole domed hood. It will almost certainly get dual exhaust since I love the rap of a dual piped straight six. In other news, I was a tad concerned about the wiring job since it was my first time to try that and the old wires were too badly damaged to even use as a guide. And Sam's 5 year old battery was dead. So dead it wouldn't throw a spark if you grounded the posts together, so I couldn't check myself. Today I replaced the battery and with some concern, hit the light switch. I was pleased. They are much brighter than the pic here shows... This weekend's goals are... wiring taillight and brakelights....painting the wheels and removing the nasty portawall fakes..and maybe bedliner on the running boards and in the bed. Lots more little things to address, but this will get him roadworthy and the first real drive in a couple of years..and man, I am ready. I ordered a new pair of Roundhouse overalls just for the occasion.🤣

Well, progress the last two weeks has been in increments. But after ordering new headlights, and new Chinese-ium headlight trim rings, then realizing that of course since I chose to NOT be smart three years ago when I begin trying to improve Sam and buy a wiring harness (too expensive-ha!) I had more work to do. I had previously rewired everything under the dash, plus the alternator/ignition/starter wires- one wire at a time. It would have been so much easier and cheaper if I'd bought the harness. The wiring was toast. Amazon loves me, and soon, several different colored spools of appropriately sized wire was on the way. I also bought a new relay kit with new plugs for the headlights. Today, with a bit of Sam time, I got the buckets and bezels mounted, and went to work with a soldering iron and heat shrink. Been a few days since I solder anything, but I was able to get respectable results. The new headlight bezels though- well, they definitely are NOT stock quality. When I have time, I may work on cleaning and polishing the stock bezels up. But at least Sam is looking a bit more like himself. I'll be glad to get a bit further along and get the dust washed off of him...

I know it's been months since I posted- and to be truthful, I haven't worked alot on Sam. Got kinda annoyed at the old boy and went off to sulk. The paint job has fought me tooth and nail and I'm not pleased with it, but I'm at the point I'm going to wrap it up, polish it up the best I can, and drive him. Maybe in a couple, three years, I'll try another go at it, but right now I need him on the road. Rusty the '46 still needs some work, and the A ...well, she's a story in and of herself, the cantankerous old biddy. I finally quit sulking, and installed Sam's new door handles I'd hoarded back. I hadn't planned on replacing the originals, but the pitted pot metal looked tacky against the shiny paint. That was enough of a chore to irritate me, and it took me two weeks to find time to work on the rest. Finally, with help of a drill, different pry tools, and assorted jacking devices, I managed to get the grill mounted and the fenders bolt securely, and installed the front bumper. I was annoyed even more to discover I managed to chip the less than pristine grill badly, specifically on the passenger side, but again- project annoyance has crept in. And, who knows- I may just get me one of those cool license plate mounts, install it about there, and hide the chip with a license plate with his name on it. At any rate, Sam looks somewhat better than he did when I started, DEFINITLY is more structurally sound, and looks decent in pictures. And from the driver's seat, I won't see the chips. As soon as Winter quits storming in and yelling "Oh, and another thing!" and lets my warm weather come home, I'll get the headlight buckets and bezels mounted, headlights wired up, taillights installed, and do the running boards and bed interior with the bedliner I have stashed back. Then I'll wash and polish it up, and head for Mr Sam's farm for a few pics.... Still trying to decide about door art. I'm bad tempted to have something drawn up to pay homage to the old truck's life as a delivery truck, and honor Mr Sam's memory at the same time.

Man, seeing it in this condition makes me want to cry. That is one of the most beautiful body styles of car I've ever seen. If I had Jay Leno money, I'd own it and have it restored just because it deserves it. I'm like a previous poster- At the risk of being beaten by the good folks here, I'd restorod it just to keep the old girl on the road...