Truck was originally purchased in Albia, IA, by the soil conservation department. My great uncle Carl Henderson bought it off them in '65, and it's been in the family ever since. At some point, he gave it to my grandfather, William A Henderson, who used it as a farm truck for many years. It spent the majority of it's life there, until it was parked. Growing up, I was always curious about the old truck sitting in the barn. It had so much dust on it, you couldn't see through the windshield. When no one was looking, I'd sneak in the cab and pretend to drive it (I don't know why I thought I'd get in trouble??). When I was approaching high school, I finally asked grandpa about it for the first time. He told me the history and just said it wasn't used anymore...I asked him if it was possible to get it running and he wasn't sure. We got the local mechanic, Howard Thomas Sr. to come take a look at it. To our shock, it didn't take much other than some penetrating oil and some new plugs for her to fire! We got it backed into the garden before it stopped again. Lived there for a couple more years and Howard did SOMETHING to the transmission (I don't remember what) and we had her going for good! Grandpa would take me down the back roads outside Albia and taught me how to drive a stick. I killed it so many times, but she was tougher than I was stupid. He ended up gifting me the truck for college graduation. I do my best to continue to keep her running right and continue the legacy of both the truck and my grandpa. I do have plans to have her restored to factory original condition (it's what Grandpa would have wanted). That includes a complete body overhaul, and a new paint job with the exact factory color. The plan is to leave the inline 6 and transmission alone.
|