My name is Mike Garroutte. I live in Clarkesville, in the Northeast part of GA. I am 69 years old.
I had parked this truck about 14 years ago, with the rest of the old trucks, in my friends shop yard. They were getting his '55 Chevy truck ready for the up coming shows. I thought to myself I would like to have this truck. I had just finished restoring my 1955 1st series so I didn't say anything.
But two years ago, I was wanting another old truck -- the 1st series was sold a few years ago. Well I just happened to run into the man that owned it at a store. The amazing thing is he lives in Florida and I live in Georgia. So we struck up a deal - $1100 with a great running 235 Inline 6. Wow what a deal~
The truck was in pretty rough shape from Baltimore but the frame was awesome. So I bought another truck from him, just the cab and bed. It was an Atlanta truck - $250. Another great buy. I had always liked the '55-58 body style. I had a 1958 Fleetside truck when I was 20 years old so I was excited to buy this one from my friend Jerry.
I got it running first thing. It had sat for 12 years but within a couple hours, with a few new parts, tuneup parts, she was running great. I wanted to drive it home but the brakes were shot - it needed everything. So I had it hauled to my house about 6 miles away.
My plans were to keep it original and drive it every day until I am gone. I am 69 years old now so I have plenty of time left. LOL The following week I started taking it apart. It took a couple weeks to get it all done.
I started on the the frame and engine, cleaning and scraping. It was a mess. It took abut 4-6 weeks of heavy scraping. The Baltimore frame had a heavy undercoating on it. But to my surprise, underneath the undercoating was beatiful black patina and only a couple spots on the frame had minor rust.
