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El Camexican
08-24-2015, 06:29 PM
My uncle bought this truck at an auction for my cousin in 1981. It was a brush painted red that had faded to pink with plenty of dents. He bought it because the City of Moose Jaw had a black one he would see driving around as a kid back in the 50’s that he always liked.

They decided to fix it up and ask if I wanted to spend my 1982 spring break vacation prepping and painting a truck, so I bought a gallon of Bondo, and enough Dupont Centari paint to cover a truck, grabbed my sanding block and got on a Grey Hound bus headed west to the farm my Mom grew up on. I recall my shops class teacher let take the schools paint gun and let me leave school early once he found out what I was going to be doing. Come to think of it all my teachers were happy to get me out of their classes early.:naughty:

We (my then 14 year old cousin and me 16 at the time) started taking the truck apart and stripping off some 4 or 5 layers of various colors of paint. When we got down to the original layer it was black and low and behold there was a City of Moose Jaw badge on the door! It was the same truck my uncle fell in love with 30 some year earlier! The chrome was all rusted, but I had my cuz rub it all down with fine steel wool while I worked the body.

We toiled day and night for over a week to get it prepped except for Sunday which my religious uncle refused to let me work regardless of my pleading. The day we painted I recall it was about -5F outside and blowing snow, but the shop floor was heated with a boiler, so ambient temperature was about 50F inside. When it came time to paint my uncle brought in a load of wood and we got the shop up to about 80F before I started spraying. We had a grain silo drier fan set up to draw fumes out but that took all the heat with it, so between each coat we shut the doors and brought the heat back up as the stove had to be closed up to spray.

So anyway, The photos I have from back then are small and pretty blurry from all the overspray that was in the air that day and I was headed to the bus starting at 5:00am I never took any after shots in the light, but he’s got it for sale now and sent me a few photos taken last week. He drove it from 16 till sometime after he finished and went overseas and then it went uncovered into a barn where it got sh*t on by pigeons and subjected to Canadian prairie temperatures for over 20 years.

It’s pretty special to me as it was the first vehicle I ever painted, I was only allowed to shoot primer in school. He mailed me to ask if I wanted it a few months ago before he puts it on Kijiji, but I just can’t take something like this on now. It’s got the original power train and interior and still drives. I just don’t have a place to put it and Armstrong steering and 6V lights don’t appeal to me much anymore.

For 34 year old paint on a 69 year old body I’d say it’s held up pretty well, I wonder where it will be in another 34 years:wondering
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onformula1
08-24-2015, 06:43 PM
Very cool truck, the paint still looks good, sure you don't have room?

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hublake
08-24-2015, 07:08 PM
You have to find room someplace for that truck!!!

atc007
08-24-2015, 08:19 PM
Coolest story I've heard in a while. Thanx. Good thing it doesn't live close to me :)

yaegerb
08-24-2015, 08:26 PM
Love the 46. My first resto was a 50 and then I did a cameo. I will do another one someday. Would love to have that but low on funds.

Jwheeler
08-24-2015, 08:46 PM
Nice truck . Great piece of history. It needs to be you " El " . Thank you for sharing.:Bounce

El Camexican
08-24-2015, 09:09 PM
Thanks guys. I'm 100% sure I don't have the room. It has been hashed over for hours, believe me. With the daughter at 14+ we're already looking to add another cage to the family that will need to sleep outside. It pisses me off that had my garage been just 2' wider with supporting walls instead of columns it would hold 4 trucks instead of two, but such is life. At least it holds a bunch of bikes.

Besides, what do you do with it? To modernize it would be a shame considering how original it is, but to leave it stock means you run the risk of grandpa Walton passing you while driving around. It would end up just being for show.

tripledog
08-24-2015, 09:40 PM
No way I would let the opportunity to own that truck slip away, especially given the back story. MAKE room, El... it is well worth it for such a beautiful truck!

Mr. Clean
08-24-2015, 10:41 PM
It is in my humble opinion that you need to figure out how to keep it, not necessarily delivered to you today but in time.

You rarely get to reacquire things in your past. I will post more details in a bit....1957

coolpool
08-25-2015, 09:05 AM
If you still have a place to store it in Canada, those storage sea cans aren't that much money. If you took the time to preserve it properly you could keep it in there until life events let you reclaim it. Great story! BTW 14+ year old daughters are precious and evil in the same way. You'll see, lol. The truck will be easier to understand!

6speedthumper
08-29-2015, 02:31 PM
A piece of family history that should stay in the family. Would love to read that you figure out a way to keep it.