Chapter 17: Mother Trucker
or: The Suburbamaniac meets the Paneloid Truckophrenic

"Donor vehicle for your parts." --MT	"It was packed with goodies in the back. It was also packed with pack rats. Musta been why there were so many snakes around it." --MT

19 July 2000 A few weeks back, I was scanning the want ads on chevytrucks.org and I came upon a fellow (Mother Trucker from Tucson, Arizona) parting out a '56 GMC Suburban. I quickly emailed him with an inquiry about trim panels (mentioned in chapter16). I was most pleasantly surprised when he had them, and for a very reasonable price!

The trim panels are scheduled to arrive tomorrow or Friday. That near-mystical bonding between members of the unspoken brotherhood of ol' truck people has occurred yet again: David Miller suggested an off-the-cuff improvement, I considered it a good idea, and POW-- there's someone offering the needed steel!

When the deal was made and the trim items were boxed up, Mother Trucker enthused: "Isn't it great being a suburbamaniac?" To which I replied: "Sure is. I'm more of a 'paneloid truckophrenic,' but the symptoms are the same." I propose these clinical names go into wide use. I'll even add "Cameotonic," "Fleetisitic," and "Stepside Syndrome" for the pickup-owning majority out there.

"My '51 3100." --MT	[Inside his 3100. --S]

20 July 2000 The trim panels were delivered to my house in a box large enough to ship a stripper in (there were no air holes in the box, so I knew there wasn't). The three 4-foot long panels were in there, as were the 4 mating plates. Also included was a small stack of captioned photos. I guess The Mother of all Truckers got a chance to see the site! : ) All photos on this page (and most of the captions) are courtesy of Mr. Trucker.

Well, I just want you all to know I have no trouble logrolling a fellow providing such a service to the Old Truck Community as he does. He buys, sells and trades truck parts for primarily Advance Design Chevy and GMC (1947 - 1955.1). However it looks like the occasional Task Force Chevy and GMC truck (1955.2 - 1959) shows up as well. He can be reached at (520) 570-4824, or emailed at Mothertruckeraz@aol.com.

"My '49 3800." --MT

His own words: I have been messin' with old trucks since 1977. That's when I bought the '51 1/2 ton I sent you pictures of. I bought it from an old guy who lived around the corner from my parents in Los Angeles when I was 17. The truck was in rough shape, but I have had 23 years to work on it (it's still sucking money out of me).

When I moved to Arizona in 1980 I started collecting parts and old trucks. When I first came to Tucson trucks and parts were plentiful and cheap. Not any more-- Most everything has been picked over. There are still old trucks out there however: You just have to know how to sniff them out and spot them from a mile away in fields and on farms.

"Some day I will get to my 2 ton COE." --MT	"Some kinda weird radiator installment. Don't mind that new Dodge truck in the foreground, but Damn-- Ya just can't beat that Cummins diesel! --MT

Perhaps I'm devoting a little too much space to this most definite diversion from the actual Beast rebuild. Believe me: you're not missing anything. I'm still steeling myself for repainting the inside and installing the new panels (which might not fit that nicely over the door hinges, I don't know yet).

It's just.. Well, anybody out there ever spend the summer in San Francisco? Mark Twain wasn't lying*. It's been foggy, cold and damp every friggin' day since Memorial Day. One of the coldest Bay Area Summers on record. Some days Frisco has been competing with Seattle, Anchorage, and Fairbanks for title of coldest city in the United States. Summer, my favorite season, is slipping away, and it's starting to get on my nerves a bit.

"Another donor of your vintage. This truck gave life to many trucks. It sits on it's final resting place." --MT

Then today-- about 56° outside, low fog, even a little drizzle-- I get a stack of photos from Mother Trucker of a place that's hot and dry. The clear desert sky stretches on forever. And it's not only the authentic Summer-like weather-- the place is populated with old trucks! Look-- behind the donor GMC Suburban-- there's a Saguaro cactus! I'm sure to most people it's just a dusty collection of rusted trucks, but to me, sitting in a walk-in refrigerator of a city inside a Ping-Pong ball of a sky, there's a touch of paradise to it.

I suppose sometimes there doesn't have to be grass for it to be greener.

* "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Widely attributed to Twain, he apparently never said it.

Previous Chapter - Next Chapter