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TLDR: I finally managed to acquire the 1959 3200 that introduced me to TF trucks back before I could drive and started a lifelong obsession with four headlight Task Force trucks. And no one died.

The saga begins back in the dark ages, soon after the Dark Wizard Zargothrax was defeated. My dad drug home a 1959 Chevy truck that he found in a field for $100 and declared that he was going to rebuild it with my older brother. It was a forbidden love, because it was not my truck, but it thrived anyway.

It had a straight 6 with no head, a dash covered in sheepskin, a frozen rear axle, and a fairly mangled bed. My brother was never interested in it. He went to college, got a couple Mustangs, came back, and moved on without ever touching the Apache.

I lobbied for several years to get to build it because I thought it was the greatest truck ever made, but my advances were rebuffed. I don't have any pictures from this vintage.

Fast forward a few years, I finished school, got married, and had money for projects. The truck had not moved for a decade.

By this time, it was sunken to the rims in the dirt, the windshield was broken, and there was a tree growing through the bumper.

I was hauling the last of my goods out of my parents' place (in Alaska) and wanted to get the truck while I was at it, but my brother lived a couple hours away and that was his truck.

After a few more years of being told no, I finally gave up trying to get that truck and went in search of another long-bed, Fleetside, four headlight, TF truck. Those of you who are in the know are aware how hard of a combo that is to find, but I eventually found a '58 over in Montana and took my son on a road trip to pick it up.

By this time, my parents had moved out of that house (but still owned it) and my brother had moved out state. The '59 still languished in the mud, sad and lonely.

I took the kids up to visit their grandparents and the shop where the truck was stored collapsed under the snow load. The truck survived, but its tailgate was lost. With the building collapsed, my parents were finally ready to get rid of the property and the vehicles stored there needed somewhere to go. It was decided that I could have the '59 -- I just had to move it.

I couldn't find anyone that was willing to haul a non-running truck, so I made plans to fly up and tow it down. Then came a little incident called covid and Canada closed the border. Defeated.

I told my parents that they should sell it because they needed to get it off the property and I couldn't come up with a way to get it down here (plus I had gotten the '58 as a replacement). My Dad took that as a personal challenge and decided that one way or another, he was going to find a way to get it here.

As things began opening up again, Dad went and cut down the trees, chased out the vermin, and got everything loaded on a trailer to come down. But by that time, it was too late in the year and hauling it through Canada with potentially inclement weather seemed like a particularly bad idea.

So he sat for one more winter, shivering in the snow but excited about getting more attention than the previous 20 years combined.

Now things start really picking up...

A couple weeks ago, the weather was good, the trailer was loaded, all the fluids were changed in the Escalade, and Dad was ready to hit the road. He left Alaska on Wed afternoon and was expected down here Saturday-ish.

Jump to Thursday afternoon. I get a call that Dad lost a wheel outside Destruction Bay (near Whitehorse).

At the time, we didn't really know how bad it was other than it needed towed and repairs. Dad was able to get back on the road after about a day and a half and a new tire, new brake line, some wheel studs, and lug nuts. None of the doors close right anymore and the back deck hits on one side when you open and close it. But he is back on the road.

He stopped in Coeur d'Alene for a couple days to get some rest and visit with my brother. I get a call later in the week that he tried to leave, got half a mile, turned right and the Eacalade just up and died and he smells smoke. They towed it all back to my brother's house and after a couple hours of remote diagnosis, we determine that something in the fuel pump circuit has shorted and it is blowing the PCM/FP fuse when it tries to run the pump.

Rather than go up and fix it and risk it breaking down again, I talked one of my buddies into loaning me his truck and another buddy into bringing his Duramax Suburban so we can just haul everything down here and fix it where we have good tools and such. So we load up with a trailer and take off north. We promptly stop and turn around when we pick up a nail and get a flat tire. Got that fixed.

About a third up Whitebird hill, the borrowed truck starts getting real hot. We slow down, kick it down a couple gears to get the fan speed up, shut off the AC, but nothing helps. We end up pulling over and letting it cool off. Ok, not a huge deal. It is a hot day.

It cools off. We keep going and this time both the engine and the trans are getting too hot. Both trip over-temp codes in the computer and we stop to take a longer break in the 100 degree sun on the side of the road. While there, I scavenged a chunk of aluminum from a car that burned to the ground at that same pullout.

After a while, everything cools off enough and we get back on the road. The rest of the trip was spent going extra slow and careful up hills to avoid overheating again.

The six hour trip ends up taking close to eight hours, but we got there. We hooked the '59 on its trailer to the Suburban and loaded the Escalade on the trailer behind the truck. We discovered in the process that the Apache had been loaded on the trailer with only about 300lbs of tongue weight for a ~7000lb load so we rearranged a few things to get the tongue weight up.

Another 7+ hour drive back (2:30am), and we got to my friend's farm to stop for the night and look things over. We stopped fot gas and snapped one of the pics below at the truck stop. The duramax converted suburban 2500 pulled the 58 and the crew cab 2500 pulled tje escalade.

We figured the fuse blowing was from the harness getting pinched somewhere in the accident. So it shouldn't be too hard to get fixed and be able to drive the Escalade the rest of the way home. I climbed under it to discover that of the six body mounts for the cabin, three are torn completely off, two are bent beyond recognition, and only one is actually holding on right. Additionally, the left rear spring mount (at the top) is completely torn off and the whole thing has been riding on the four-link and the air-ride shocks. The receiver hitch was bent and a couple of its welds were cracked. The body moved enough to smash the right rear fender against the tire while it was still moving. The windshield buckled and cracked, and the whole body was twisted top to bottom enough to keep the hatch and doors from opening and closing right.

Long story short, it suffered catastrophic damage in the accident. It was a miracle that it held together during the accident and even more of one that it got him back into the states safely. We are finally home and getting some rest before we decide what to do next.

And because no story is complete without glamor shots, here is the '59 safely ensconced at the farm. He is a little worse for the wear, but there is plenty of good meat left on these bones and a lot of story to tell.

My daughter is the one with the naming sense in the family, so he will have to wait to meet her before getting a forever name.

I admire your vision. My 54 that I bought in 1983 was very sound in body and only needed rebuilding of the steering. Then I went overboard in 2012. Good luck.

You MUST keep the side mount pipe rack and the right front, 2 stripe whitewall tire.

Kudos to you for sticking with the dream and bringing him home!

So glad that your Dad is safe after that ordeal and will wait patiently (haha) the results of your Daughters naming.

Looking forward to future chapters of this story.

Dan

Great history, story, rescue and saga! Congrats in getting your lifelong dream safely home. Looking forward to this build!

great story, congratulations on getting it all home!

Indeed. Good story. Thanks for taking the time to write all that.

Sometimes the toughest things bring the sweetest memories. Best wishes and good luck. Just 15 minutes a day will accomplish miracles. Look forward to riding along with you.

"The Ballad of (your daughters name here)

Jason, Good story. And it must be a good truck if it was used by a plumber (noticed that pipe rack, too.)

Sorry to hear that your dad's Escalade will likely be totaled. Sounds like some serious (expensive) damage.

Quite a story!
So are you going to keep the '58 also?

At this point, yes. My plan is to take the nicest parts from both and do a long term really nice build with an LS and modern amenities, then take the next best parts and do a "patina" build with the V8 and SM420 that I have in the 58 now. It is not original to the 58, but it is vintage appropriate.

I will have to decide which cab/vin gets the fancy treatment. Both cabs need work, but different work. I am leaning toward the modern build on the 59 because it has my family history. On the other hand, the 58 has a lot of significance to my kids because they helped fetch it and work on it so far.

I don't know what the right answer is yet, but I will definitely keep the pipe rack.

That's quite the saga. I'd like to meet your dad someday. He sounds like a very interesting person. It's too bad his Escalade didn't survive the adventure.

Glad to hear that you finally got it home.

Thanks for posting.

John