I love to post pics. Almost as much as I love to look at pics y'all post. I was crawling around in the attic and I found a box with some pics I haven't seen in over 35 years. Some more recently but not for at least 20 years. Some of these things go back to 1960 or so.
Y'all are in for it now! I have spent 3 days getting some of them into my laptop and editing them. I was into 35mm photography while in the service and took a lot of slide film and mounted them in those little cardboard squares for when you use a slide projector. Unfortunately all these mounts have come apart and now the slides are all loose and I can't tell if they are even any good any more.
Most of them are Okinawa, Japan and Vietnam. The ones that Mean the most to me are the ones I took of John Wayne, that's right Ringo I actually got to shake hands and sit 10' away from him for nearly 2 hours with a small group of medics and doctors) I will go through them all as time and my eyes permit. I'm just about cross-eyed from just doing the prints but I WILL work on it.
I think the hard part is going to be getting them printed because they are all cut into individual single frames and the printers that I know about all require a strip of about 5 or so frames. Y'all keep your fingers crossed for me if you will.
The subject for tonight will be my old Chevy truck. It was a beast but I loved it dearly. I can't describe how happy I was when I found these pics and how happy I am to be able to show them to y'all.
I'm sure we've all had great vehicles that we loved but foolishly sold or traded only to regret it later. I've been through this a time or two myself. I once bought a 1981 Chevy pick up. It was a no frills 350 Custom 20 (actually rated as a one ton truck with extra oil cooler and extra leaf in the springs. It had the 4-speed floor shift with the "granny gear" super low for taking off with a heavy load.
It rusted out very badly so after 7 years I needed to make a decision...restore it or let it go. My best friend owned a paint and body shop and he was a magician. He had been after me for over a year to let him have it to work his magic on. I was at the shop once and he had the shell of a Datsun 280Z on the rack. The owner had tried to beat a train in it and didn't quite make it. So he had literally cut it in half and welded another back end on it. It was sitting on the rack with 3 coats of primer on it and he laid 100 dollar bill on the rack and said if I could find the weld I could keep the 100. I spent 15 minutes looking and even after he showed me where it was I still couldn't see it or feel it. He was good I'm tellin' ya!
The first pics is how my beloved Chevy truck looked when I rolled it off the lot. Very plain. Painted mirrors and bumpers, Cheap interior with rubber floor mats and no headliner, and cheesy seat covers.
The next 4 pics are the "after" pics. Chrome mirrors and side marker lights, Deep drop cowboy bumber, Slider back glass, Custom interior with over stuffed bench seat, carpet and headliner. And it was custom striped by "Buckey" one of the better known artists of the day who was later killed in a plane crash. Mine was one of the last vehicles he pin striped. Even Put my name on the drivers door and Miss Pam's name on the passenger side door. I remember taking pics of the interior too but I didn't find them with the others.
He painted it with the bed removed and still the lines came out perfectly even. I couldn't even go to the store in it. I come out and people are crowded around and want to know all about it. My neighbor refused to believe that it was even the same truck.
I kept it for another 4 years and although I hated to do it I let it go because it just started breaking down about every 200 miles and it was eating me up.
Y'all are in for it now! I have spent 3 days getting some of them into my laptop and editing them. I was into 35mm photography while in the service and took a lot of slide film and mounted them in those little cardboard squares for when you use a slide projector. Unfortunately all these mounts have come apart and now the slides are all loose and I can't tell if they are even any good any more.
Most of them are Okinawa, Japan and Vietnam. The ones that Mean the most to me are the ones I took of John Wayne, that's right Ringo I actually got to shake hands and sit 10' away from him for nearly 2 hours with a small group of medics and doctors) I will go through them all as time and my eyes permit. I'm just about cross-eyed from just doing the prints but I WILL work on it.
I think the hard part is going to be getting them printed because they are all cut into individual single frames and the printers that I know about all require a strip of about 5 or so frames. Y'all keep your fingers crossed for me if you will.
The subject for tonight will be my old Chevy truck. It was a beast but I loved it dearly. I can't describe how happy I was when I found these pics and how happy I am to be able to show them to y'all.
I'm sure we've all had great vehicles that we loved but foolishly sold or traded only to regret it later. I've been through this a time or two myself. I once bought a 1981 Chevy pick up. It was a no frills 350 Custom 20 (actually rated as a one ton truck with extra oil cooler and extra leaf in the springs. It had the 4-speed floor shift with the "granny gear" super low for taking off with a heavy load.
It rusted out very badly so after 7 years I needed to make a decision...restore it or let it go. My best friend owned a paint and body shop and he was a magician. He had been after me for over a year to let him have it to work his magic on. I was at the shop once and he had the shell of a Datsun 280Z on the rack. The owner had tried to beat a train in it and didn't quite make it. So he had literally cut it in half and welded another back end on it. It was sitting on the rack with 3 coats of primer on it and he laid 100 dollar bill on the rack and said if I could find the weld I could keep the 100. I spent 15 minutes looking and even after he showed me where it was I still couldn't see it or feel it. He was good I'm tellin' ya!
The first pics is how my beloved Chevy truck looked when I rolled it off the lot. Very plain. Painted mirrors and bumpers, Cheap interior with rubber floor mats and no headliner, and cheesy seat covers.
The next 4 pics are the "after" pics. Chrome mirrors and side marker lights, Deep drop cowboy bumber, Slider back glass, Custom interior with over stuffed bench seat, carpet and headliner. And it was custom striped by "Buckey" one of the better known artists of the day who was later killed in a plane crash. Mine was one of the last vehicles he pin striped. Even Put my name on the drivers door and Miss Pam's name on the passenger side door. I remember taking pics of the interior too but I didn't find them with the others.
He painted it with the bed removed and still the lines came out perfectly even. I couldn't even go to the store in it. I come out and people are crowded around and want to know all about it. My neighbor refused to believe that it was even the same truck.
I kept it for another 4 years and although I hated to do it I let it go because it just started breaking down about every 200 miles and it was eating me up.
