I purchased my 1953 Chevrolet 3100 pickup truck in 1975 from my best friend’s older brother. Years earlier, it had been the first vehicle I’d ever driven. For the next 29 years, it was stored outside and used sporadically. In 2004, I half-heartedly began restoring it and finally got serious about the project when I retired in 2018.
After being exposed to Minnesota weather for many years, most of the truck’s wooden bed was rotten or missing. With a few sections that survived and the help of YouTube, I was able to reproduce the eight wooden boards close to the original ones. I used some black walnut that my dad—a woodworker for many years at a local grandfather clock company—obtained that wasn’t up to their standards. However, the truck’s original…
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Sailing World (Digital) - 1 Issue, Fall 2021