We all I think enjoy knowing our trucks history. Who bought it, when, where and so on. I thought I had a good bit of good information on my truck as provided by the Ebay seller I trusted back in 2013. At the time I was working in North Dakota in the Bakken oil play. Spent a lot of time to scouring the internet for old trucks and in particular old truck info, that's how I found the 'Bolt. The truck I now very originally call the The Green truck, popped up Ebay one day for sale by a small museum in Indiana. After several conversations with the seller a deal was made and check written, truck bought sight unseen.
The seller was a great help with Green's provenance, he had the original title, a letter detailing the trucks 43,000 mile history and helped arrange shipping to my house in Arkansas. The story was a farmer bought the truck new, it worked for a living on the farm in Indiana until the old farmer died in the 1980s and it was forgotten in the barn. A kid down the road bought the truck from the widow, dug it out of the barn, did all the necessary work to get it back on the road to include a pretty decent cosmetic restoration.
OK, now for the Amazing part of this story. Earlier this week with a cold snap and temps in the teens predicted, I was curious how many amps the block heater on the old '95 Dodge Cummins required. Didn't want to overload the extension cord. So, go to the TDR site (Turbo Diesel Registry forum) and do a quick search. I've been a member there since the 1990's and it's a lot like the Bolt. Back in 2013 I was still a active poster, but not in a few years. Back in 2013 I posted up pictures of my new to me (and at the time unseen) 1951 Chevrolet 3600 driver work truck in the Other forum. Had lots of responses and interest.
Yesterday while on the TDR for the first time in many months I saw I had a reply on the above mentioned post. Reply said:
"Old thread but I am a prior owner-drug it out of the barn in 1988 on the farm next to mine. Yes, those are the original miles. I put 3,000 miles on it driving it to college.
If you want history or what I did to it, let me know. Good old 216.5 with a rope rear main seal and a granny gear!"
Now that's amazing, the TDR post is 11 years old. I did (via a PM) contact the author, he's the kid (now 55 years old) down the road that bought the truck from the original owner, the farmer's widow. Got the full scoop, the 43,000 mileage was original, unbeknownst to me the head was pulled and hardened valve seats installed, all the wheel bearings were changed and the drums were turned along with a new master cylinder installed. That info explained a lot.
So, I guess you can never predict when or where you'll find a Easter Egg. The trucks 2nd owner joined the TDR this Tuesday to leave me the comments above and I got on the site 3 days later and found his comments.
RonR
