TANNER'S '65
This is the history of a dark green short bed custom cab that my dad's brother bought new in 1965. He kept it for two years and sold it to a different brother of theirs, my other uncle, Bob.
I'm a year older than this truck and have always been a gearhead. When I was about 14 or 15 years old I wanted this thing so bad I couldn't stand it, what kid wouldn't have wanted a short bed custom cab with all the chrome? Ha. Bob lived about 30 miles away on a farm and we would visit a couple times a month. Occasionally I would have my dad ask him to sell it on my behalf, to which the answer was always no.
In 1982, the year I graduated high school, Bob bought a brand new truck and I thought I'd for sure get my hands on it then but he said he was going to keep it around because he didn't want to haul anything in his new truck.
As time went by I had pretty much given up on the truck and had owned a few hot rods and other trucks so I had other things to pacify my interests.
My dad passed away in 1988 and one day that fall out of the blue Bob called and said he was done with the old truck and asked if I was still interested in it. Although it was considerably more weathered than when I first had a craving for it of course I still wanted it. Out of fairness I gave him more than he offered to sell it to me for and took it home.
Originally I was just going to paint it and make a driver out of it but after stripping it and replacing the rocker panels it kind of got shoved to the back burner for a few higher priority projects. Over the next several years the old truck sat in a shed and I'd start it from time to time.
In 1996 along came Tanner, my son. From the time he was big enough to talk he would say this was "his" truck. I'm not sure why he picked this old dusty truck out in the shed over some of the shiny stuff but he did so I figured for all intents and purposes it was Tanner's truck. Partially for that reason I had left the truck as it was in case some day he might want to actually do something with it. But as he got older he didn't have a lot of interest in vehicles, probably because he basically grew up in the shop and at the drag strip and was burned out at a young age, lol.
Four years ago when he was 12 we had been to a car show and afterwards he mentioned that he wanted to start working on the old truck. I didn't think he was serious but he would bring it up every little bit over the next few weeks. I knew with my schedule this would be a long term project and I told him that if we did start it there were two stipulations, one, if we started it we were going to eventually finish it, and two, if he didn't do a fair amount of the work himself it was mine. So, eventually we got around to taking it apart and are in the process of doing the paint and bodywork now.
Here's a link to some pictures at photobucket to kind of show where we're at. Although it doesn't look like it we plan on having it completed this spring (2013). I have a few more pictures that I'll upload soon and will have more as work progresses...
http://s776.beta.photobucket.com/user/victorallen64/library/Tanners%201965%20Chevy%20Short%20Bed
