This is the story of my 1948 Chevy pickup. I had always dreamt of having an antique that I had restored with my own hands, but it seemed that life and circumstances kept me from fulfilling that dream. Then one day I was at a surprise birthday party for my good friend, Wally, and Wally introduced me to Eddie, a friend of his who had an old Chevy pickup for sale.


Since we trusted Wally's judgment (Wally's been building rods and customs all his life), my wife, Linda, and I went to Eddie's house to look at the truck (and of course, we took Wally with us.) The truck was rusty, the bed was gone, the seat was pretty ragged, and overall, the truck was showing its age. But it was solid, it was all steel, and it wasn't missing any parts. Besides, Linda thought it was cute. :-)


So we bought it. Or rather, we gave Eddie a down payment and made arrangements to pick up the truck later, after I had gotten the rest of the money. So, one night a few weeks later, I picked up Wally and we went to Eddie's to get the truck and bring it home. Eddie drove, I rode shotgun, and Wally followed us in my van. We made it about five miles from Eddie's house, and the old truck shuddered to a stop. Trash in the fuel lines had plugged the filter. So, we cleaned it out, put the filter back together, and got back in. But the battery was dead, so the truck wouldn't crank.


Eddie jumped in the van with Wally, and the two of them went back to Eddie's house while I stayed with my "new" truck. A few minutes later, Eddie, Wally and Eddie's wife, Dolly showed, Wally in the van and Eddie and Dolly in Eddie's pickup. We jumped the truck and got it started, and off we went. About another five miles, we had to stop and clean the fuel filter again. Then we made it the rest of the way home.


So here I was, with my dream truck, and no idea where to start. I had noticed that Eddie was pumping the brakes a lot when we drove it to my house, so I figured I'd take a look at them to see what was wrong. Turned out there *were* no brakes. The front wheel cylinders were working, but the rears were frozen solid. The emergency brake didn't work at all, and the right rear had a broken brake retainer spring. I'm sure glad I wasn't driving the thing! I still can't believe Eddie drove that thing all the way to my house!