When I was about 13 or so I was with my dad and a friend in Old Yeller ( 1978 Chevy scottsdale custom deluxe) we were taking a drive and saw a corn combine on fire in the field. We jumped the ditch and hauled ass over to the combine to warn the farmer of the imminent danger he was in. As he shut down the combine we cut loose the bungees holding the cover down and grabbed a shovel from the bed of the truck and put the fire out. The farmer had no idea that the thing was on fire and was so grateful that we came to his aid and rewarded us with as many apples as we wanted from his orchard. We left with 3 grocery bags full of apples of different kinds and my grandmother made apple pie and sauce for us. I realized after this I was going to be a truck guy, suv or pickup all the same to me. After a while Old Yeller was getting in pretty bad shape so I talked my dad into letting me fix her up (she needed a head gasket). It took a lot of work (and needed a lot more than a head gasket I might add) but I got her running tip top for an old girl and I learned how an internal combustion engine worked.
Off Topic Old Yeller
- Thread starter RATequila
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
- Messages
- 13,321
I had a Ford F150 when I was in high school - but traded it off for a mustang. Later, after I was married with kids, I bought my ailing grandfathers 1980 Chevy C10 work truck - 250 ci inline six and three speed manual on the tree.
Grandpa was a little eccentric, and he didn't realize that the truck required unleaded (more expensive) fuel, so he cut the catalytic converter off and used a piece of gutter downspout to fill the gap. He also chiseled out the filler tube to allow use of leaded gas.
Grandpa owned a bunch of rental houses in Carbondale Ill, the home of SIU, and he used the truck as his rolling workbench. It had paint sloshes all over it and it sported grandpa's custom iron-pipe cattle-rack (was intended as a ladder rack, but cattle rack is what all my friends called it...) stuck into the holes in the bed walls.
The truck was gold in color, and had the poverty caps in white on the wheels, and white painted bumpers.
When I bought the truck it had a bad brake line, so I took a complete brake kit - calipers and all, down to carbondale from my home in Peoria and fixed the truck all up and drove it back home, and I paid grandpa $800 for it.
I later passed it on to my son, who almost immediately killed it by driving it home from a place he should not have been without a fan belt - effectively warping the head and killing it.
Sadly it went to the scrap heap, but it is a memory my son and I will always have, and grandpa died knowing I was driving his old work truck.
Before I moved to TN, I had to cut the cattle rack up to take to the scrap yard - I was using it to rest my rowboat on.
Wasn't there a Tom T Hall that referenced old trucks? Found it!
best
mqqn
Grandpa was a little eccentric, and he didn't realize that the truck required unleaded (more expensive) fuel, so he cut the catalytic converter off and used a piece of gutter downspout to fill the gap. He also chiseled out the filler tube to allow use of leaded gas.
Grandpa owned a bunch of rental houses in Carbondale Ill, the home of SIU, and he used the truck as his rolling workbench. It had paint sloshes all over it and it sported grandpa's custom iron-pipe cattle-rack (was intended as a ladder rack, but cattle rack is what all my friends called it...) stuck into the holes in the bed walls.
The truck was gold in color, and had the poverty caps in white on the wheels, and white painted bumpers.
When I bought the truck it had a bad brake line, so I took a complete brake kit - calipers and all, down to carbondale from my home in Peoria and fixed the truck all up and drove it back home, and I paid grandpa $800 for it.
I later passed it on to my son, who almost immediately killed it by driving it home from a place he should not have been without a fan belt - effectively warping the head and killing it.
Sadly it went to the scrap heap, but it is a memory my son and I will always have, and grandpa died knowing I was driving his old work truck.
Before I moved to TN, I had to cut the cattle rack up to take to the scrap yard - I was using it to rest my rowboat on.
Wasn't there a Tom T Hall that referenced old trucks? Found it!
best
mqqn
Last edited:
although I have never owned an F150 I have worked on plenty of them and I have to say that is a pretty nice vehicle.
I have owned 2 ford rangers a 1998 and a 1985 and I was pretty impressed with both. The older one was my beater but I let my sister borrow the 98' and she crashed it into a telephone pole on a foggy night driving home from work. She was working full time and gong to school full time so I let her use it because she needed a dependable vehicle. Ironically I was working at a junk yard crushing cars and I actually ended up crushing my truck. I was working with a friend he said to me "that looks like your truck man same dent in the box same interior". I instantly called my sister and asked her how my truck was doing (kind of as a joke) and she came clean about it. I was shocked but happy that I was actually able to a see it off into the end of existence and crushed it and loaded it up and sent it to the scrap yard.
I have owned 2 ford rangers a 1998 and a 1985 and I was pretty impressed with both. The older one was my beater but I let my sister borrow the 98' and she crashed it into a telephone pole on a foggy night driving home from work. She was working full time and gong to school full time so I let her use it because she needed a dependable vehicle. Ironically I was working at a junk yard crushing cars and I actually ended up crushing my truck. I was working with a friend he said to me "that looks like your truck man same dent in the box same interior". I instantly called my sister and asked her how my truck was doing (kind of as a joke) and she came clean about it. I was shocked but happy that I was actually able to a see it off into the end of existence and crushed it and loaded it up and sent it to the scrap yard.