Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket I grew up in a home that was all about drag and stock car racing. My uncle who raised me let me kick around the garage while he spent years and years restoring a '39 Chevy Sedan and continually tearing down motors after Saturday's race. For a long time, I just wasn't interested in what the Old Man was doing.
But I see now that the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree. It started out with me wanting to restore a '39 Chevy truck he has rusting away in the backyard. Seeing that this was much too big a project for inexperienced me, my eye started getting drawn to Chevy trucks from the early 60's.
I found Ole Scrumpy on Craigslist on January 20th, 2012 for $1,500 in Eugene, Oregon. I needed a daily driver and this truck was it! I originally wanted a '62, but read that the parts were harder to come by and more expensive. When I went to check out the truck, it started like a champ. A little rust here and there ... but that's to be expected. A decent body (finding more bondo by the day), a V8 (once it stops raining for a minute I'll get in there to check the numbers on the engine and tranny), and a decent manifold and carb.
My wife immediately named the truck Ole Scrumpy. Scrumpy is a hard apple cider, typically homemade in small batches. She said the truck was the color of a withered apple and besides, the name is a combo of scrappy and grumpy ... which actually fits its personality perfectly.
I've never restored a car before ... in fact, I've forgotten just about everything I learned as a kid in the garage. What I do know is that transforming Scrumpy into a worthy street-machine is going to be a challenge and a heck of a lot of fun.
