mattb73lt

11 minutes ago, Brocky said:

Matt, That was about the time I joined both organizations. I would say it is time to put your wife (just saw the word ex) back to work and write another article for both magazines. 😀 When I spoke with Darin, via email, about him writing an article about Dean's LJ truck after I sent in the pictures of it at the Dark Corner show he sorta bounced it back at me to write the article..  A project for me this Fall???

Well, she's long gone and I have a much better one now. After that conversation at Macungie, I figured I'd put together an outline and build on it from there. Shouldn't take too long, at least not as long as the restoration did.

Had some early morning fun yesterday. Moved an '82 DARE Corvette to a garage for some transmission and restoration work.

On it's first long distance run I was keeping track of the fuel to see how it does over the road. I think it might be a little better than this, because we ran pretty slow heading down there and I ran solo back. We were about 10 MPH slower than I usually run, 50-60. Where I set the truck up to run right around 65, which is 1600 RPM. I think it runs a little better at 1700 RPM which as right about 70 MPH. Anyway, the truck holds 125 gallons of which I burned 52 gallons for the round trip of about 450 miles. That's 8.6 MPG. Not too bad!! That average gives the truck about a 1,075 mile range. Damn!!

5 hours ago, mowerman said:

Wow, excellent job on the floor. Thanks for that Matt. Sorry I missed you. There was also a guy with an R model. green one all chopped down, nice and neat last I saw the information booth said there was 960 trucks showed up this year. Last year was a record well over 1000.

I'm bummed I missed you and a bunch of people!! Between talking and looking around the show, then the weather on Saturday, time went quickly. We showed up Thursday in the early afternoon. I thought that was early. Things actually start opening up and people arrive on Wednesday, now. Seems to get earlier every year. I think most people can only get Saturday to go as Sunday is Father's Day. If I go again next year I'll stay later through Saturday and maybe come back Sunday morning. The other thing I may do is put my name and phone number on the window of the truck so people can call me to meet up if I'm not there or meet at their truck which I did a few times Friday. Saturday just sucked with the rain and really put a damper on the festivities.

8 hours ago, 1961H67 said:

I remember following this thread for a few years when people asked if the B73 was going to be ready for Macungie,,,,, You Made it ! It was all worth the effort! Great job. 

I remember those conversations and thinking I really had no idea when or if I'd ever make it. Honestly, it was an epic trip for me and the truck. At times I never thought it would be there or I'd have something that would make it that far and be worthy of being seen there. Pulling into the park felt like I was high fiving myself. Pulling back into my driveway at the end of the trip was the validation of having completed a thorough restoration of a junkyard find, dead truck. Sharing the restoration here on this blog was so beneficial and to keeping everything on track. Having progress to report was really motivating, even though at times there were breaks and gaps due to other things going on. A cool side benefit was meeting and conversing with people like yourself and everyone else who added comments or pictures. It's been almost ten years since my first post and it has been one remarkable journey, all just to restore an old truck, and the journey continues on with new adventures. I can't thank everyone enough for their contributions and help along the way!!

Lots of F models represented there, which I find surprising. Where have all these been hiding, where did they find the parts?? This one sits on a Sterling chassis and the gloss on the floor boards is way beyond what came frome the factory. Just beautiful!!

Cute little cut down B61. I believe this sits on a Ford F350 chassis and was originally built by George Sprowl from Maine. The amount of work to narrow and section the cab and sheetmetal to make it look right is impressive.

Some of the sites:

So many things to see and so many people to talk to, really wanted to talk to everyone but there wqas only so much time. What a great show to see. The amount of restored ols iron and the efforts people have put into them is just over the top. Definitely more trips in my future to see it.

My parking spot!!

Well, It was quite the trip and quite the weekend!! Truck ran beautifully with no issues at all. The only wear and tear to it was the KRACKERJACK lettering on the bumper. It took a beating on the way home in the rain. I wondered how long it would last, being painted on the stainless bumper. Not upset at all about it. I'll have some vinyl letters cut to replace it and those should be more durable. The total trip was almost 450 miles and I got about 6.5 MPG!!

But the show was incredible. I did end up with an excellent parking spot under a huge shade tree!!. I had a hard time getting away from the truck and seeing the show, with all the people coming by with compliments on the job I did or just to talk. When I finally did get away, the trucks there were incredible. I took a lot of pictures, I'll try to post them separately. Lots of big collections from single people/companies were present. I saw a lot, but couldn't see it all with people coming and going to the show. A really great time and lots of socializing. Our chapter had a lot of members present and we ended up having a great cookout both thursday and Friday evenings. After an almost 25 year absence  from my last time, I'm going to try to make it a more regular thing.

The trip going down was long and hot. Met up with two othe chapter members at the I-95 Orange, CT rest stop and got on the road about 6:30 AM. And then a long slow exit from CT from Bridgeport to the state line. Coming and going, the worst traffic was definitely in Connecticut. The run down was a little slow and I hardly ever got into 5th Hi-split and the truck I was following would fall off on the hills causing me a lot of extra shifting. After a while I passed him and got in the middle where driving was much easier.

Coming back really sucked. Yesterday's rain made a tough trip for loading up and for about 3/4's of the drive. I needed to leave by noon as I had plans for Saturday evening. Getting the truck out of where I was parked and over to the loading lot was a chore with the rain and foot traffic. I was quick loading, but got completely soaked doing it even with the hood on my rain coat up. There was heavy rain for the first half of the trip and my wiper system and defroster fan got quite the workout. The wipers works perfectly throughout the trip and I'm so glad I spent the time to put them together. I ran a bit faster by myself, when it was drier to do so, on the way back. Couldn't be happier with how it performed the whole trip. Part of me still can't believe that it did the trip, considering what I started with and how long it took to get done. Every trip builds my confidence in it's abilities to go places safely and without issues.

33 minutes ago, 1961H67 said:

Y’all have fun, post some pictures, I’m looking forward to making it back to Macungie, my last time was with My Dad & Son in 2000 for the 100th anniversary.Hopefully I can get My Son and my Grandson ( My Sidekick) To make the trip in the next few years, As for now this time of year he’s right in the middle of All-Star Baseball. 

I think it was 2001 for me, just after I finished the B42. Then 9/11 hit and it was off to the races for me.