Chapter 16: The Opening Act's Headliner

Asleep At the Wheel.

22 May 2000 I got an email:

Howdy from Texas, My name is David Miller and I have a similar truck. My truck is a '55 and I too am on the restoration trail. Not only am I a consummate old-car-nut, but I'm a traveling musician as well, and I'll be in your area on June 29. Just recently, I had the good fortune of stripping a 1959 suburban for goodies. Would you be interested in a straight front headliner trim? Yours for fifty bucks delivered to the Garden theater in Saratoga... I play Bass in a group called Asleep at the Wheel, we're opening for Kathy Mattea.. Clear your schedule, and bring the truck, we'll swap parts and commiserate together......David

WOW! I mean, isn't this neat?

For those who might not have heard of them, Asleep at the Wheel is a Texas-based Western Swing band that has been around for thirty years or so. Under the leadership and vision of front man Ray Benson, the band has won a ton of Grammy awards and have recorded with the biggest names in country music. You can check out their website here.

I admit I'm not a huge country music fan (I do have a Shania Twain calendar near my desk, but that's for her... ahem, crossover appeal), but I have heard of them and heard their music. I'm familiar with Texas Swing and Bob Wills (Asleep at the Wheel did a great Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys tribute album last year). The wife is very much a country fan. I wanted a new headliner for the Beast (there's a crease above the door I can't seem to get rid of). David's deal was a no-brainer:

David:

Well, hello back! Pleased to meetcha!

Headliner trim for $50? SOLD! Try as I might, I couldn't get all the creases out of the one on the truck. Hey, even if it's in the same shape as the one I have, this story alone validates the expense!... I'm trying to think of what sort of components I have in surplus right now, and unfortunately I'm drawing a blank. Pretty much everything I've torn off the truck was either worn-out or non-spec. It was in good enough shape when I got it not to need a donor vehicle. An efficient way to rebuild, but does not make for good horse trading. About all I have to offer is an authentic after-market 1956 trailer hitch. You don't want it... I know the Garden Theatre in Saratoga... It's at Villa Montalvo. Personally, I couldn't think of a more delightful place to purchase used truck parts. Sure beats pick-and-pull! : )

Me driving The Beast home from Saratoga. Actually, that's not true-- it's a carefully lit shot of me in the garage, pretending to drive. Dan Bodenheimer took this shot. I love the green-gelled inky standing in for the dash lights.

28 June 2000 So time passed, more emails were exchanged, tickets were arranged, and the concert date rolled around. Eileen and I hopped in the Beast for the 45-mile journey to Saratoga. Eileen had never taken such a long trip in the truck before, and made a rather frank admission: she didn't mind the ride or the noise or the lack of radio but she did not like the fact there were no headrests on the seats. When I'm driving, especially from San Francisco to parts South, she tends to sleep, and she can't with her head bobbing in midair in a tumble-up passenger seat.

Villa Montalvo (our destination) is a former robber baron's mansion turned arts center situated at the foot of the Santa Cruz Mountains in what is arguably the best neighborhood in Silicon Valley. It's an incredible set of Italianate buildings set on rambling enormous gardens, signs prohibiting pretty much everything, as remarkably and tediously clean as Disneyland.

So imagine the barely contained disdain of the valets when the ancient rust-spangled Beast pulled up at the gate-- the only thing sweeter was the fact we were on the Artist's Guest List!

David Miller. Plays bass for Asleep at the Wheel. Old truck enthusiast.

I met up with David Miller right next to the Asleep at the Wheel tour bus (bought from Willie Nelson at a pretty decent price a few years back, I found out later). I actually recognized him from a publicity photo on the website-- how cool is that? He was a tall, clean-cut fellow dressed in a un-flashy Western casual style-- most un-Texan, but he's from Orange County originally, which explains the missing accent. I chatted with him briefly, made plans for meeting up after their set, then we made out way to our excellent comped seats.

Needless to say, Asleep at the Wheel put on a wonderful set, playing of medley of old and new songs, and a few Bob Wills classics as well. They played flawlessly, energetically, with a sense of fun that was undeniable. They got the pressed-blue-jeans, Bass Weejums, handmade-vicuña-sweater-combo crowd going as well as a crowd like that could get. The audience even got close to keeping rhythm during a whole song and did give the band a standing O at the end of the set, but that might have been a GroupThink Pavlovian thing.

After the show David took the headliner out of the luggage compartment of the tour bus and I paid for it. It was in perfect shape (it's sanded and primered now, and in even better shape) and even had a pre-cut hole for the passenger-side sunshade. I carried it over to the Beast and we got to chat a bit as David checked it out. We have a lot in common where it counts: We're both from California and our Task Force trucks are in very nearly identical states of rebuild. Turns out our basic philosophies on old truck restoration are about the same as well-- keep it original, get it as close as factory spec as possible. He said "A truck is original only once," and I realized that was something of a minor epiphany.

These got left out of the last chapter. They're the restored oak rails restored to rich luster by my pal Jeff.

He gave me a few other ideas as well. One was to get some 16" tires on the truck. The increased diameter would give it more speed, and with the new 3.38 rear end gear (soon, soon!) it would give the Beast an effective ratio of 3.08. Another idea he had was to find interior trim panels from a Suburban for it. These are a continuation of the headliner trim all the way around the inside, over the back doors and everything. Stock panels did not have this trim item, but they would look so damn sharp and finish the back of the panel so nicely I must get them. If they're even available.

After dark had fully descended on Saratoga we parted company, hopefully he was as impressed by The Beast (and me!) in the flesh as he was by the site. I certainly was impressed that someone would go through the trouble of pulling a big piece of sheet steel out of an old truck, put it in the luggage compartment of the tour bus of a Grammy-winning band, drive it all over the Western United States, and deliver it to me, but not before entertaining the living s**t out of me and my wife for free. But I like to think that all that transpired was a near-mystical bonding between members of the unspoken brotherhood of ol' truck people. Except I'm speaking of it right now. Never mind.

Before we left, Eileen and I thought we'd check out the headliner-- er, Kathy Mattea. We took off after one song. I'm sure she's a fine Country chanteuse, but after the rollicking Western swing of Asleep at the Wheel her Celine Dion-esque, Garrison Keillor-approved brand of singing just made us drowsy. Looking over my shoulder at the rapt expressions of the audience, however, it appeared the $7.00-bottled-water, dot-com-stock-option crowd had found it's muse. (Did I mention I was a bit of a commie?)

New Sites! If there is a common theme to this chapter, it's Communication With The Outside World.

One correspondent is Paneltruck Doug. He has a truly world-class website devoted exclusively to Panel Trucks. It's got tons of pictures and articles devoted to the Panel in all it's incarnations: GM, Ford, Chrysler, Monster-panel-trucks, those weird 40s and 50s marques, and so on. He also has the nicest link for this site on the web, including a lovely picture and glowing text. His site's address: www.paneltruck.com.

Chris' 1965 Bond Equipe. Unique, huh? This picture was taken in the UK before it was shipped.

I've also been corresponding with Chris, an old pal of mine. We used to hang in Santa Cruz back in the early 80's. He was my manager for a period of time at a movie theatre. He played a German-speaking cab driver in a movie I co-directed called The Torment Of Ivan. He's in the process of importing a 1965 Bond Equipé from Great Britain, a rather rare (there were only 500 of the 1965 series made, and there are only about 5 in the U.S.) and very stylish custom sports car based on the Triumph Spitfire Mark II. Chris was inspired by this website to start one of his own about the Bond, which he will put up (and I will link) as soon as the sports car in question actually arrives at Port Hueneme. The purpose of this paragraph is to put unbearable pressure on him!

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