In October of 2021 we brought home a 1985 Ford F150. My oldest son had been bugging me to help him buy a truck. And I mean bugging!

He would come home and tell me about some truck up the road, that was either way too much and out of our league, or completely beat up, full of rust and not even a consideration. There was the daily Facebook Market Place links being sent and shown to me also.

I remember the night at dinner. My son asked me, “Dad, did you see that truck that just went up for sale up on 150?” After dinner we headed up to have a look. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was going to be the one. It had been cared for. Someone had spent some time both in the engine compartment, and in the interior. The price was in our range. We did our negotiating and a couple days later, it was in the driveway.

My son Tucker soon picked up the nick name at school – Trucker. His obsession with the truck, was unquestionably noted by his friends. The truck has been in restoration mode since then. Little bits at a time, with a large set back on the transmission. That’s a story for another time.

My son’s second job landed him in a body shop more or less barter system for learning the trade in exchange for tools and items sometimes money. More importantly he made a good friend. Unfortunately, his friend Joey, closed up his shop and moved to Florida. His last ACT was painting a firebird for a customer and helping my son paint his truck.

It was a solid 3-4 weeklong project. I was not able to participate in the deconstruction portion, but I was able to have the honor of putting it back together. My biggest accomplishment was putting in the rear window. I never did one before. My youngest stepped up and helped too. We wouldn’t have gotten the back window in without him.

At the end of the day, my son’s friend was able to get the shop packed and the truck painted and off to Florida in the timeline given.