The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot Old Dominion Stovebolt Society (MD, VA, West VA, DC, DE and PA) December Wrench Day at Mikey's

Had a great day yesterday with the ODSS. Members present: Mike Roache (Host), Chris Sweet (Ranking ODSS Official in attendence), Billy Marlow, Hambone, Freyja, the pig and myself. AmtrakJoe joined us by text at various points throughout the day. More about the pig later ... Object of the day was two-fold -- 1. Get the Buddy Truck running and drive it around; and 2. Remove usable parts from the latest junk truck (a 1950 1-ton).

A little background ... Back in October, Hambone and I helped a co-worker of mine "rescue" an International-based firetruck and a second rolling chassis. Our boss let us use the 359 Pete and the Landoll 330 for the day (a Saturday). I drove the Pete and operated the Landoll, Hambone was the "Swamper." While extracting the firetruck from the fence line brush (and out from under the fallen tree ...) we happened to notice the unmistakable outlines of an Advance Design cab in the brambles. Our curiosity got the better of us and we looked closer -- It was a 1950 1-ton (dually) sans bed. Interesting to look at but it was pretty far gone and probably best left where it was ... After we got the International stuff on the trailer, and before we could get strapped and get out of there ... they tractor reappeared with the 1-ton on a chain. It was ours if we'd haul it away... Well, we REALLY weren't all that interested in dealing with it, we thought it would be rather unfriendly to make them put it back in the hedge row ... But we had no space on the Landoll and we didn't want to make a second trip ... we thought we had a good excuse ... until my coworker whipped out his phone and called his son to bring his truck and trailer for the '50.

Fast forward to yesterday. We had to get the truck off my coworker's hands as it was in his way. We moved it over to Mike's yesterday and we commenced the parts removal (dissection...). Also on the agenda was getting the BUddy truck running again and possibly drive it around some. The buddy truck has lived at Mike's farm since it left the farm formerly known as Stovebolt HQ.

We got to a point where we couldn't remove any more useful parts off the donor truck easily. Mike's wife showed up with lunch from one of our local BBQ joints (which was fabulous! Thanks again Carey!!).

After lunch, we moved over to the barn where buddy was (next to the barn and the hog pen...). After a lot of head scratching and battery charging and pig visiting. Yesterday was also Freyja's 7th birthday ... so her birthday present was being with us and a bonus was getting to meet a pig nose to snout. Wins all around!

We could not get Buddy to crank fast enough to start. So Mike broke out the Farmall H and a chain ... and ... Buddy Started! We spent the rest of the afternoon taking turns driving buddy around the farm. Buddy, as many of you will recall, is a large (3-ton?) GMC with a Clark 5-speed, giant Braden winch and ... air brakes! It is just a fun truck to drive.

A fun day for all of us to be wrenching together again. Plenty of jocularity and good natured ribbing.

A big thanks to the Roache family for hosting us. And a special shout out to Sally the Sow for her expert advice, warm friendship and for keeping Freyja company whilst we were out terrorizing the neighborhood in Buddy.

And thanks to my ODSS brothers for a great day of wrenching/Garage Therapy.

JM