Howdy! Welcome to the insanity I named 'Tater. All the step by step details, trails, tribulations, and numerous other items of (dis)interest can be found on
my Big Bolts forum thread, but I'll throw down a basic run down of my crusty old girl for those that don’t have all day.
In 2006 I was looking for an old truck that I could modify to haul around my other money pit,
a highly modified VW roadster. I was hoping for a flat bed, but came across Tater instead. I just loved the look of those 55-59 grilles and had to have it. After getting it and realizing it would never be what I wanted without making a whole new truck I elected to keep her as is.
As for history, based on the paint layers it seems it started life as a county truck, then was sold to a local farmer, & finally went to a retired judge. Then I bought it from a 3rd party who had never transferred the title so it still had the original farm exempt sticker on the fender and the original title from the early 70’s.
Getting her home was a fiasco. The brakes worked, but only so long as I didn’t let the pedal come all the way up and drain the residual pressure. No return spring so I rigged a bungee cord to help, topped the fluid, and we headed out at a blazing 30MPH (it was stuck in low range).
Trip went well, old beast ran well when you consider I later found it was running with one totally dead cylinder and a carburetor for a much smaller engine. I stopped before the 1st town to check for leaks, add some fuel, and headed out again.
However,… Seems I forgot about the brake issue and let the pedal come up too far. Wouldn’t have been so bad except for the whole busy intersection ahead and the light was red. Good thing was the roads here have WIDE shoulders and the right turn lane was open. So I down shifted, engaged pucker factor 8, and swung that big old girl around the corner without entering the crossing traffic lanes. NOT cool, but a motorcyclists attention to detail, reflexes, & practicing defensive driving probably saved my hiney!
Needless to say I decided to have it towed to
a local tire shop for new rubber. Thankfully there was an old guy that knows his slit rims and had fun scaring the youngsters with my two widowmakers (2 outta 6, not bad!). The guys around the shop were calling her ‘Mater, I thought it’d be funny to call it ‘Tater, Tow-Maters big sister.
After she got some shiny new shoes I had her towed home and the real fun commenced.
It took almost two years to get the real work done, and I was very lucky finding some of my parts.
I managed to luck into a freshly rebuilt
270cu engine that had all the correct casting numbers for a ’56. A fellow on here hooked me up with a NOS factory correct Holley carb. And by some miracle I found a NOS in the box HydroVac on ebay for a mere $25. There’s also a local guy that kept all his generator shop toys and does full rebuilds in his garage for a reasonable price.
Now Tater is a working girl again. I take her to the local shows with my VW (
took home 2nd & 1st place respectively at this show) & I have done a couple jobs here & there with my company Old ‘N Slo. Business is hard these days, but those are the times we live in. It’s still a hoot takin her out, loading up a capacity
load of stumps or
load of dirt, even more so when I see what
over 200,000lbs looks like at the end of a long steep driveway & a longer day.
She may not be the purtiest girl at the dance, but she can still boogie!
These days I'm trying to pt together those parts I need to get the rust in the body fixed, as funding allows of course. Bein out of work for 6 months kinda skewed the fincnaces a few degrees off course. but I'm hoping we can get her near fully restored, as close to original as possible, AND still workin for her supper.
