Well about 7 years ago I contacted my neighbor about an old military truck that was parked in the corner of her property. She said her deceased husband promised it to another person. I watched the years pass by and after talking to her on and off until one day about a 2 month ago I was working on my 46 Chevy when I heard an odd sound, I looked out the door and seen it driving down the driveway, leaving a smoke cloud behind it.
A couple days later I was talking to my mother and she told me a coworkers husband (A friend of the family’s) had gotten the truck from our neighbor in trade for some work he had done. I didn't have any money so I let it go. A few weeks later our friend calls me and asks if I was interested in the truck. I drove to his house and we talked. He told me it was a 1942 GMC CCKW that he and our neighbor husband cut down to what it is today. He had to change the fuel pump out and put a battery in it and the truck fired up. He had topped off the fluids and greased the joints then drove it home on old fuel residue. Unfortunately I didn’t have the money, still.
Last weekend I gathered the $1500 and my friend and I bought the truck, we had plugged the block heater in (common up here in Alaska) and after a few hours it started at -15deg F all of use stood outside as the engine warmed and the heater defrosted the windows (Yes the heater worked quite well) My neighbor and I were off with him driving behind me at a speedy 4MPH I cursed and fiddled with the low gears until I figured out how to get it into high gears and I was off at 20-25 MPH with a combination of old gas and crusty spark plugs I wasn’t getting the power to shift higher than 3rd gear.
I was about half way home when the fuel ran out so I used the gas can I had brought with us I drove it the rest of the way home with the breeze coming through the windows since they didn’t roll up all the way. Then the final leg of the journey, I drove it into the garage and found the door was just scraping the top of the cab then had to lean on the parking brake hard to make sure it stopped before I drove into the wall since I didn’t have any brakes.
After about 7 years I had finally gotten the truck I was after.
http://s1191.photobucket.com/albums/z476/akguy34/1942%20GMC/
