The Adventures of Buzzy and Buckwheat: I Have This Old Truck

I've heard that the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 is somewhere around $250,000 and part of that includes the cost of a first car. Well my parents may have come in slightly under budget on that score. The car I received as a senior in high school (I had driven our 20 year old family car for the year before that) was a 1975 Ford F100 purchased for somewhere in the neighborhood of $700. To be fair, it wasn't like they just got me the cheapest beater they could find. This truck was a jewel. A very close family friend had recently inherited from his father and in essence gave it to me. It had been kept under a carport and only had 70,000 miles. The paint and interior were in fantastic shape and it ran pretty well for a 30 year old truck. Of course since I was 18 there were a few things that had to be changed immediately. It had a camper shell, an AM radio only, and a single side exit exhaust tip. I removed the camper shell and used all of my savings from working the previous summer to get a spray in bed liner, a truck toolbox, and dual exhaust. Then for Christmas I got a CD player. Oh and shortly thereafter a dixie horn. Oh yeah! My brother and I would laugh that we had to be mixed up. He drove a Volkswagen Cabrio to NC State and I had to be the only student at UNC with a dixie horn on my truck.

Dog's love trucks! When I first got it, before the bedliner and toolbox

I loved that truck and drove it everywhere. Back and forth to school, to Myrtle Beach, on my college externship to Craven county. Needless to say the miles added up and staying outside in my parent's yard took a toll on the paint. While it had looked great when I got it, everything was old and getting older and starting to show some age. I was attached to that truck though and not about to get rid of it for anything. My big dream through college was just get a job where I can make enough money to get my truck fixed up so it will last through dental school. I did graduate and get a job, but suddenly the truck took a little bit of a backseat. I met this beautiful girl and suddenly I was more interested in spending all my time with her and putting money towards a ring. Thankfully she somehow accepted me and took my now rusty old truck along with the bargain. Eventually I got back to looking for places to work on it, but kept hitting dead ends. Every place I looked into either didn't do all over paint jobs, or wouldn't take on anything with rust, or wanted to do a full on classic restoration that would cost thousands more than I wanted to spend and take upwards of 6 months.

That beautiful girl in my old truck

In the meantime I took it over to Simpkin's shop by the Wake County Speedway and had some mechanical work done. It was leaking oil like a sieve and had developed some concerning squeaks in the drivetrain. Since it was going to be pretty well pulled apart I figured it was a perfect time to add some much needed go fast bits (umm I mean fuel consumption reducing if you talk to Kristin about this). I had all of the 70s emission control restrictions removed and a new dual port intake manifold, a 4 barrel carb with open air cleaner element, and long tube headers installed. For a straight six it sounds really good! A nice deep lumpy growl that makes you want to dig your toe in a little.

I started Dental School and we moved to Greenville, but the condition of the paint kept worrying me. Now was the least oppurtune time to decide to move forward with a paint job, but if the rust wasn't stopped there wouldn't be anything left to restore 5 years from now when we could afford it.

About a year before painting it was already looking pretty bad

My mom wast the one who found a body shop for us out by my parent's house that was willing to tackle an all over paint job on a rusty old truck for a reasonable price. It turned into a much longer and somewhat more expensive proposition than we had all anticipated, but the outcome is incredible. This old truck looks like brand new. I'm back to driving it all over the place and having an absolute ball!