I was 20 and it was after I’d worked for my dad’s marine diesel repair business, in the Arctic Ocean rebuilding the generator engine on an ocean dredge, and I found myself with a lot of money for the first time in my life.
I was driving a 3 ton truck, delivering soap, when one morning I spotted what looked like an old Kenworth cab in a junk yard. I parked and went to investigate and sure enough, there it was, a very old and forlorn Kenworth. One headlight was smashed out, all the gauges were smashed, the windshield was gone and it was sitting on a bunch of flat tires. So I squinted and imagined it as a fully restored truck. I negotiated with the old guy in the junk yard and for $1500.00 it was mine. I wish I still had the pictures but they were all lost in a house fire.
I had it towed to my dads shop and when he saw it, he blew a gasket. “What the hell are you going to do with this old piece of crap?” Or something to that effect, were his first words when he saw it. “I’m going to restore it”, I said full of confidence. “You’re an idiot!” and a few other choice words was all he said. It only made me more determined to finish what I’d started.
Being a diesel mechanic, the first thing he did was put a big wrench on the crankshaft and turn it over. Expecting some resistance in the old Cummins from compression, it spun with almost no effort. “This engine is garbage! It doesn’t have any compression! You’re an idiot!” Maybe I was a bit naive but there’s something to be said for brute force and ignorance. I was determined to prove him wrong.
There were layers upon layers of paint on it. It was rusted through in a lot of places. The cab roof looked like Swiss cheese from all the holes that had been drilled. It soon dawned on me that my goal of a few months might take a bit longer.