This could take a while. When I came to Orcas Island on a 50 year old boat I had fixed up in 1976 the first guy I met was Norm. Maybe ten years later, both established local business people, me woodworker, Norm in excavation ran into each other in the bank parking lot. Norm was by now a serious collector of native american artifacts and had a fringed buffalo shirt he bought at an auction in the Dakotas. For some time he had been harrassing me about building a wood framed glass display cabinet for this shirt. I was so busy building cabinets for the mega waterfront homes that I had shined him on repeatedly, and besides with a houseful of kids, a stay at home wife home-schooler and one income I couldn't go off building stuff for working class friends on a 'trade'. Well what Norm had to say that afternoon changed my life forever. He had a one ton '38 ford in the woods near his dad's place that he had gotten in a trade with a friend for some dirt work. He said it ran and had been a 'crash truck' at the local airport in Friday Harbor on a nearby island. In my early 'single days' I had bought a 1928 Ford AA for some cash and a rowboat and loved it and drove it for two years.... Until I got married and promptly sold it.....Norm told me how to get to this '38 and thanks to my dad always insisting I keep a camera, I got some pics of it. Norm had said "take the two skinned wires that were hanging below the dash, twist them together and hit the start button on the dash". Vroooom. Instant flathead V8. Never heard one in my life. Pushed in the choke, better yet. Eased it ahead. Drove about a mile down the road to the waterfront jobsite we were working on. Big hit. Norm had been asking me about this display case for six months with no dice from me. This test drive was on a Monday. On Thursday I delivered the finished display case to his 'museum' and collected the title. Of course I didn't drive it the 20 miles to my place. No friggen way. The general contractor on our job was old school and said to run it up to his shop and I could work on it evenings after work. I had a lot of excuses about 'working late' the first two weeks. Here it is how I found it. to be continued.....

 

Great story GB. What's sticking out the front? Did it have some kind of pump?

 

Excellent! Can't wait for the next installment. Oh, and don't forget to drink your Ovaltine.

 

Do we have enough popcorn?

 

Nope! I'll pick some more up after I get more beer.

 

Deal!

 

Yes, there must have been a pump on the front end. The last 4 bars of the grill were gone too. Looking back at what I know now, this wasn't a good candidate for restoration. I decided to get it for the same reason men climb mountains."Because it was there".

 

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I can't tell if you are being serious or not. I reference it all the time and have posted pictures a lot. Mike I think you are having fun with me... Which is fine because if this site isn't fun then I'll just go hide under a rock somewhere.

 

Well a few weeks went by and now we are sitting in a plane at Sea-Tac airport heading to New England for my wife's parent's 50th anniversary party. Since I had paid 1/3 of the cost of this party and airfare for family of 5 I decided it would be a good time to tell the missus that I was involved in the restoration of an old truck. I handed the picture from above and she said "what's this?".... Upon return I got to drive it about 3 times before the catastrophic engine failure took it off the road for a few months. I was able to find a 21 stud '37 engine in the 'little nickel' want ad paper down in Seattle. This had been more or less thrown together with used parts and started making noises soon after installation. The guy I bought it from said 'no guarantees', but if I was interested he had a 47 tonner pickup with an 8ba, runs well, 900 bucks. I decided to go for that and abandon my '38. This '47 was far less of a project. He agreed to drive it up to the ferry dock so I could just walk on the ferry and bring it back to the island. I boarded the 7am ferry and took a seat. It was just like Christmas morning when I was a kid..... Just before pulling away from the Orcas dock a voice came over the intercom saying will Gary Sisson please disembark the vessel, your trip has been canceled. Whaaaat? I went straight to the phone booth at the dock and called my wife who explained that the guy bringing the truck up had lost his steering and piled it into a jersey barrier and totaled the truck. This was not going well, but by this time I had read everything I could get my hands on about flathead V8s and old ford lore so I was hooked. I still needed an engine.

 

It sounds like you got to the dock plenty early. Ok I've got my coffee. Were you scolded by the X? What happened to the '47?

 

Don't rush him! He might leave out some of the really good stuff.

 

OH boy, another old truck story. Hooked already. Subscribing so as to miss nothing! Merry Christmas to all.

 

Well i would love to continue but my stepsons' inlaws are due here in about 5 minutes. I just helped my wife make up cheese and hors'devoures plates and I put a 12 pack of IPA's on the front porch for the Christmas Eve festivities. All my kids are staying in Seattle for Christmas because grandkids traveling etc etc and we already had a total hoedown for Thanksgiving anyways. Glad you like my story. Oh, company is here. Merry Christmas!

 

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