The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk What do you like best about your truck?

In addition to family history, and it being my stationary "toy" when I was a kid, what I like most about my 46 1.5 ton is it's art deco styling and bare bones mechanical simplicity.
When compared to vehicles today with miles of wires and numerous usless gadgets, sensors and alarms, I just love being able to see the engine when I open the hood instead of it being buried under tons of wires, hoses, and plastic covers. I love how the heater is in plain sight and doesn't take a "factory trained techninian" 12 hours to replace it. I love how the fuel pump only takes about 15 minutes to replace and doesn't cost hundreds of bucks or is buried deep in the fuel tank. I could go on and on, but I'll save some stuff for the rest of you.

I agree with the simplicity and the ease with which repairs can be made. I like that you can fix most minor problems with a screw driver, a 3/8ths, 1/2 inch or a 9/16ths. I also like to be able to see the ground under the truck when you pop the hood and look into the engine bay(unlike the 2011 Equinox we just bought!) I like the 'old car smell' and the character of these old trucks.

What a cool question to ask, oakandiron! We're not into these antique trucks because they're a mainstream fad, that's for sure.

What I like best about the Blue Funk is a genre-type thing: My truck represents a perception, a time, a society, and a style in a universality sense. You know, simplier times, bright future prospect; determination.

Really, I guess it all comes down to personl times and memories. My dad had a '53 Chevy pickup from the time I was about age 7 to 12. That old truck, and now my old truck, represented a dream come true. Dad lived in the country when he was young and loved it. He always said he wanted to own a small farm, a tractor, and a truck. In 1964, he at the age of 35, He fulfilled his dream.

Those were good times. So, I guess the Blue Funk is a way of holding on to those good times and re-experiencing them today.

Hey- thanks for askin'.

I really love the style of my '57 Suburban, it is very cool and I fell in love with it the first time I saw one!
The other cool thing about my truck is that it usually puts a smile on people faces when I drive by, when I park it... It is a friendly truck!
And I can sleep in the back too!

As Davey already mentions,it harkens back to simpler times,when there was a definate class and style to designs.
If I say so myself there's a definate 'cool factor' too.
It'll sure beat driving around my computer designed 'Eurobox' any day.

I like all of the trucks from the 40's through the 60's.
If I had to pick a favorite, it would be the Advance Design trucks 47-1st series 55. These trucks were good looking and basic trucks that had to work hard for everything they did. I started driving our 1951 wrecker, and our 1947 & 1953 gas trucks as well as the other pickups we had around the shop. There are lots of great memories with these trucks, and they always got me home.
It was a great time growing up in the 50's and 60's.
Jim

For me its all in the teeth!
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2316057330083734483OBhtRy

The grill is really what started it all for me. I had to have one of these trucks. Little did I know that I would end up restoring it (and now a second truck), spending so much time on the coolest website around , becomeing a member of a few truck organizations, traveling and meeting great people and making lots of new friends.
I could go on and on about the things I like about my truck but another would be the steering wheel!
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1539102252083734483VMAggd
Just always thought it was cool!

Billy

I like the looks of Billy's steering wheel too! Especially when I steal his truck and watch him run to catch up to it!!

But really, the styling and the ride of these trucks is what does it for me. I don't think there is a single person who doesn't like the way these AD trucks look. I like the ease to work on them but the challenge they can bring to bring them back to life.

Nothing is more fun that to take a truck that hasn't moved for decades and get it running and driving again.

It is easy to work on and within my abilities.
Also it's paid for

For me, its taking off in low, loaded with two tons, and hearing the transmission whine running up through the gears. Then chugging along at 30 mph in high with the windows open on a sunny day, and hearing Perry Como coming from the AM radio.

I second what Davey Do said. My trucks are a symbol of a simpler time, a slower pace, a time when neighbors helped one another and people were trustworthy. When you owned a truck, you knew what you had and were reliant on yourself or your extended family members to keep it running. Too many people in society worship the new and throw out the old. That includes lacking respect for our senior generations, of which I'm now a part. As for myself, I've always had a fondness for old things, be they trucks, tools, or people.

Since owning my trucks, though, I've discovered an unexpected benefit. It has given my two sons and me something to work on together, and they are as excited about it as I am. It's one of the more fulfilling things we've ever done together, and it's fun to see them learning about old vehicles. They both are far more expert than me at working on modern vehicles, but I can't help smiling when they ask me things like, "Dad, how do you change a set of points."

"Vehicles of the 30's, 40's, and 50's were designed and built by artists, artisans, and craftsmen, and even derelict in the field, they're beautiful." Rust-a-holics Unanimous

Bill

If i could tell you that i could explain the meaning of life.

It rattles, has airleaks and rides hard. I wouldn't trade it for anything. The thing I like most about my Sub are the smiles, waves and thumbs up I get from people as I am driving it through our small town, especially from older folks who recognize it as from their era of gentler times. Complete strangers will come up to me and start talking about how they used to have one of these old trucks and how it brings back old times. Even the Harley guys give me the thumbs up. Funny how nostalgia can be such a powerful equalizer between generations.

Weeds

That's it's mine....

There is not another more functional vehicle, with more style per dollar, than a Stovebolt.

None.

Bill

My truck is a chick magnet!!!

It is straight up, honest, and worked hard through the years and unlike most of us it has someone to bang out the dings, dents and wrinkles of a long hard life to make it beautiful again, rebuild the strength of their hearts and let them shine in their golden years for all to ooh and awe at.
It is just a straight up good truck and deserves more than the crusher and was loved enough by someone to avoid that fate. Well not to mention the fat fenders and running boards, wood beds, testy cold morning starts and speeds that make you slow down and enjoy the ride. I am so glad that someone loved all those things to make it possible for me to have even found such a 70+ year old diamond in the rough. And it gives me something to spend my $$ on that I can see and enjoy. Enough said.

What a cool topic!

I am only 4 years older than my truck.

It is American made, designed by hard working folks, built by hard working folks and bought by hard working folks.

Every "blemish" it carries is from honest hard work... no excuses.

Working on the truck is like therapy. The world seems so crazy fast paced now, but my truck seems to be a shelter from all of that. It is a place to go back in time, to a simpler time, where form followed function, where less is more.

It drove through the last depression and it is driving through this smaller one too. I feel more in control with the fixing of things--no computers or fancy gagets needed to keep it going. I like the totally different look compared to nowadays and yet still does the same basic things=====dave

But tcox you live in Tennessee. i have to deal with these northern girls that want BMWs and JAGs.