Zombies eat brains. You're safe.

Hi. My name is Craig and I'm a car guy.
("Hi, Craig")

It started when I was a teenager and didn't know a muffler bearing from carburetor fluid. My gateway drug was auto shop class in High School where I was probably the only kid in the class who had never held a wrench. I quickly realized my brain is hardwired to respond to vehicles, that I respond to them differently from most people. And because I live in a culture where all things automotive are readily available, my slide into complete gear-headedness was almost guaranteed.

I went to the Barrett-Jackson and the Russo & Steele auctions last month. Not a good place for a junkie to be. I felt the tug of old pickup trucks, and it didn't help that the price on them is going up rapidly. They are where muscle cars were a decade ago, and it's easy to see why; pickup trucks are distinctively American and distinctively cool.

Thus began the hunt. I read, researched, trolled eBay and Craig'sList....
I thought I had the one, a '57 roller (no engine) on eBay, located in CO. With 48 hours left in the auction (I hadn't placed a bid) I asked the seller a question and learned he did not have a clear title, only a bill of sale. Nope! Not taking that risk. In conversation with a couple of guys at church last Sunday about my decision to run from the deal, Lyle mentions he drives by an old truck every day that's been sitting in a front yard (rural neighborhood) for almost two years.

Three hours later I'd agreed to a price with those neighbors, and this morning we brought it home. A 1959 Chevy Fleetside longbed with a non-running 235 straight six and 4-speed on the floor. Yeah, we're pretty much talking this junkie's big score.

This is why I signed up for the auto body classes. After a terrible experience with a paint guy who kept the VW for almost two years I decided I'm going to learn how to do body and paint myself. And instead of sending out the engine (though Steve at Performance VW did a GREAT job with the VW's engine) I'm going to rebuild this one myself.

I don't know what I can't do. And I'm not going to go through life limited by that. I don't know how to do body work, but I will buy a truck and then go about learning. I don't know how to rebuild an engine, but I'll buy a book, watch YouTube videos, and go after it. If I hadn't started stuff I didn't know how to do I'd have led a really boring life. Instead, I jump in the deep end and figure it out. I've had all kinds of fun with that approach. "I don't know how" is a horrible excuse. OK, there are some areas where that might be reason for staying away - bomb disposal, surgery. But most of this stuff is pretty straightforward, and while I won't do a full-blown professional job I'll do well enough, I'll have a ton of fun in the process, and at the other end of the project I'll be able to say that I did it myself, I didn't just write the check.

This is what I think I'll do for a paint scheme, a '59 factory combination. I won't have the extra chrome on the sides where the taillights are, but other than a few other details, this is the goal, at least at for now.

So for those of you who are bored by my car posts, you'll find more of those appearing over the next couple of years as this truck is taken apart piece by piece and put back together. Deal with it; I'm learning and having fun (as well as making a handsome profit in the process, not a bad combination).