Skip's 39 Ford PU. How it happened

[Skip]

I've quit this hobby a number of times for various reasons. But like any sickness/addiction, in this case I am happy to report relapses happen. Twenty years ago, I found myself in Portland, OR. Broke, apartment dwelling, but with a great job that I loved. I was making money, and paying off a huge debt load, caused by another run through college, a short-lived marriage & divorce, and saving for a house. Life is grand.

One day I was cruising Craigslist, and found a pair of fat Micky Ts for $100, tubes and all. That is kind of when the plan hatched. Build a cheap hot rod from parts I can score on CL! I then expanded the criteria to CL and the Portland Swap Meet.

I ran into some rat rod guys at the swap meet, and I was hooked. I started a search for an appropriate vehicle. I was looking for something I could go minimalist with. Open wheeled, V8, automatic. Pretty standard basic hot rod. Nothing too outrageous, as I had never built a car from the ground up. Lots of modified cars over the years, and quite a few aborted projects. Life is like that.

Fast forward a couple years.
I finally got a house that I could barely afford. One car garage, and NO SHOP! I spent another year making the house habitable, and having a shop built in the back yard. The biggest thing Portland would let me have, without a variance, was 24x24x10@mid eves.

By this time, parts were stacking up in the garage, but no project yet. Then I saw the CL ad for a 38 Ford PU cab. $400. The guy also had an ad for a set of 38 fenders for another $400. After chatting with him, I bought it all for $500. Now I had to build a full fendered project? I also had to find a lot more 38 Ford PU parts. Is nothing simple? Not when Skip is involved. Other body parts trickled in from CL and the swap meets over the next couple years. Hoods, grilles, grille "chin", hood sides that looked like they had been used to get out of a mud hole.

Next came a $200 stripped out 89 S10 short bed, standard cab. Then a low mileage but badly beat up, but great running, 85 Monte Carlo for another $250 came my way. Both were delivered for less than the cost of renting a trailer.

Then another much better cab showed up on CL FOR $500. Grabbed it, too. Finally, I found a 56 Ford PU dash, and a 47 Chevy bed. All the basic parts were in hand.