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Bessy
I really don’t know when we started calling the truck Bessy. We’ve had her in the family since she was brand new, I can’t remember calling her anything else. The Plan Originally the plan was a simple
one. Fix up the body, lower the truck, and hop up the inline 6. The plan has
changed a little since then. The current plan is to paint Bessy Omaha Orange, If you live in Iowa it’s the exact same color as the state
trucks,
install a mustang II front suspension, and a 12 bolt rear axle. The motor of
choice is between a 396 Big Block from a ’69 SS Impala or a 235 inline 6 out
of a Gleanor Combine. It's actually a 235 chevy motor. I have a Dual quad
intake with a matched set of carter afb’s from an early 60’s 409, finned
aluminum valve covers, and a 4 speed to go behind it. I keep waffling back
and forth between the SS396 and the inline 6. There are perks to both, but I
guess you can't have everything. Where would you put it? I’ll be running
chevy rallys , 15x6’s and 15x10’s. The interior will be grey leatherette and
tweed using the original bench seat. I will be padding the dash and
installing a tilt column from a mid 70’s chevy pickup. I’m still planning on Omaha Orange with a Dove grey interior.
I’m actually looking at material used for office furniture, there is a wide
selection and its durable. I’m putting newer mechanisms in my stock guage
cluster and I bought original style radio bezel that I’ll be putting a modern
AM/FM radio in. I thought I was going to be original and Paint my truck an
odd color, turns out chevy offered ’52 chevy’s in Omaha Orange. So I guess
I’m more of a restorer than I thought With 16” upto 22” wheels being so popular right now I
might go with a set of 17” steel wheels with original hub caps and low
profile tires. It sounds cool. Recently the Discovery Channel has 2 episodes
on West Coast Choppers and Jesse James. Man that guy builds some beautiful
bikes. He’s kind of inspired me to go a little wild with my truck. By that I
mean Tribal style flames on the tops of the front fenders and maybe the rear.
Here’s the kicker, I want to go emerald green with blue outline! That with
17” Wheels should be very cool! The History of Bessy
Bessy, as far as I know, has
spent her entire existence in Iowa and Nebraska as a farm truck. I will work
backwards from today and try to give as much detail as I can. I've had the
truck since 1986 when I talked my Dad out of it. I was 16, had my drivers
license, but no vehicle. The truck had been with us as long as I could
remember, was bone stock, and started everytime. Plus, it was just plain cool
with those round fenders, inline 6, and that horn. I just plain loved this
truck. Anyway I drove it for about a year, then one day taking a girl home I
was pushing the old inline 6 with around 300,000 miles on it, to hard and I
spun a main bearing. Babbit bearings obviously weren't intended for high RPM.
Anyway, Dad took his truck back. We put a 235 Chevy inline 6 out of a Gleaner
combine in it. You know, those big corn picker machines. I ended up with a
beat up '74 Chevelle. Not a bad car, but still not my truck. After High
School I went into the Army, Then on to College. I never seemed to have the
money to do the truck up right. Now that I have a real job I decided to redo
Ol' Bessy. My Dad told me Bessy was bought,
brand new by his Uncle Jim. When he passed away his son James got the truck.
One night he got a call from Jim, He was Mad! The truck had died on him on a
dirt road and he was livid! Dad agreed to go help him. By the time he got
there Jim was so angry he offered to sell the damn thing for $5. Dad took him
up on it and gave him a ride home. The next day he went back to get the truck
and noticed that the glass sediment bowl was full of crud. After popping it
off and cleaning it out the truck fired right up. The truck didn't have a
dent in it at this point. Then comes my Mom. Not the
worlds worst driver but not the best either. She had a habit of crashing the
truck into almost everything. One day while backing out of the garage, the
truck was in low, foot slipped off the clutch, and she pushed Dad’s work
bench through the back of the garage. The grill is now all bent up and has a
square hole in one of the bars from the vice that was bolted to the bench.
She later ran it into the garage door, grandpa's car, a piece of farm
machinery, and my Dads one and only brand new car. A Buick Wildcat. He's
never had a new car since. The box on it isn't the original, it was replaced
after backing into grandpa's car. There is a dent that my Dad put
in it. He and Ronnie Gerkie (sp) were unloading hay into a barn, Ronnie
pushed dad, he fell out of the loft and his knee hit the rear corner of the
cab on the drivers side and put a nice dent in it. I've fixed most of the dents
in the cab and will just replace the fenders and grill. The worst I did to the truck was
cover it in mud. We went puddle jumpin' one day and you couldn't tell what
color the truck was when we were done. Dad was unhappy with me to say the
least. That and blowing up the motor were the worst injuries I inflicted on
Bessy and now I'm going to fix them all. If I can find out where Bessy was
first purchased I'm going to see if I can get any copies of old records on
her. |
Not Actually my truck but very close to what it will look like |
