What’s good out there?

Liquid Trucking?

Welcome to episode 22 of the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

I am your host,

Marcus.

Thank you all so much for being here with me today.

Uh I’m really excited about this episode because we’re turning the corner a little bit.

We’ve talked about some serious stuff here over the last couple of weeks.

And,

you know,

we also like to have a little bit of fun on this podcast.

So this week we’re gonna go that route and we are going to talk to some liquid drivers about their personal vehicles.

I know that being a truck driver sometimes lends itself to being a little bit of a uh mechanic,

some might say a gearhead and that’s why we titled the episode like we did today.

In fact,

these interviews that you’re about to hear went even better than I expected them to.

Uh,

we got to hear some great stories from a couple of Liquid drivers and the stories were so good that the interviews went longer than I had anticipated by a long shot.

That’s a good thing because I’ll shut it down if it’s not good,

if it’s not fun to listen to.

I,

I’ll go ahead and we’ll move on to the next thing.

But this was great.

I had a great time talking to Tony Brown and Matt Kleich about their personal vehicles.

I come from,

uh,

I won’t say like I come from a,

a line of gear heads.

All right.

My dad,

a couple of my uncles,

they know their way around the shop.

They’re pretty good with engine stuff.

Uh,

you know,

carbureted engine work.

Um,

my dad and,

and one of his brothers owned matching Ford Broncos back in the day.

Uh,

back when those things were real collector’s items and didn’t look like a miniature FJ cruisers like they do now and look,

I’ll tell you right now,

the Ford Bronco,

I’ve got a soft spot for it.

The new ones are growing on me but they just don’t look enough like the old ones,

you know,

the new Chevy Blazer looks like a spaceship compared to the old square bodies.

I like those old vintage trucks and,

uh,

and,

and the suvs as well.

Um,

and of course muscle cars who doesn’t like,

I’m a,

I’m a big 69 super sport Camaro guy all day long.

Um,

love me a dodge challenger from back in the day.

Not so much now,

uh,

love me a Dodge Charger even more from back in the day.

But I also come from a group of kids that used to,

uh,

see people broken down on the side of the road and when we were driving by them,

we would scream get a Mopar.

Um and that was always sarcastic.

So not a big dodge guy here.

I’m a bow tie,

dude.

I like my Chevy’s GMC.

Look,

I could take it or leave it.

Ford is definitely gonna be second for me.

I like a good Ford truck man.

My dad had the old uh 89 Ford F one F 250 Lariat diesel.

I swear to God,

that thing would still be running if he still had it right now.

Um That that truck was as resilient as anything.

Um I myself and you’ll hear me talk about this throughout the episode,

but my little claim to fame here as far as having a car that I was really excited about or a truck.

Uh,

when I was 14 years old,

there was a guy in my little town that I grew up in,

in the mountains in northeast Oregon that was selling a 1972 Chevy Steps side C 10.

Now,

this rig had actually been balanced and blueprinted.

It had a fully rebuilt engine in it.

It was pushing over 400 horse.

Uh It was actually a drag racing hobby car for the guy that was selling it,

but he decided to re gear the rear end and sell it to some dumb kid who needed his dad to cosign on a loan at 14 because it wasn’t even old enough to drive.

The damn thing,

uh,

bought it from him,

stored it in a garage for a year until I had my permit and,

uh,

then stored it again during the winter because,

uh,

the thing was so light in the back end that I couldn’t drive it in the mountains,

it would flip around,

but it would also bark the tires,

uh,

when it shifted into passing gear.

So,

the one thing I didn’t like about it is it was an automatic.

Ok.

But it was still loud.

It would set off car alarms when I would drive it down like a 20 mile an hour street.

Um,

and it was a hot rod in every sense of the word so much so that I was burning out trying to show off and blew the engine up.

I’ll tell that story a little bit later.

But,

uh,

I didn’t work a lot on this vehicle because it was pretty much done when I got it.

Uh We replaced the thermostat housing because the guy that had rebuilt the engine,

put a chrome one in there and it warped almost immediately.

Uh So we,

we had to fix that,

which wasn’t tough.

Obviously,

that’s like a,

a mechanics 101 type fix,

couple of bolts,

uh,

swap it out a little bit of a gasket there and you’re done.

That’s really as much as I hate to say it.

The extent of what I know.

I can,

I can change your tires.

I could,

I could do the brakes.

All right,

the brakes aren’t overly complicated.

I could change your oil.

Um,

but if you pull the engine out of the engine bay and,

and set it on the ground,

I’m pretty much screwed.

So I wanna hear from some of the liquid drivers out there that I know are not like me.

In fact,

I know that there’s drivers out there because we’re about to talk to a couple of them that could strip the thing down into nothing but a pile of scrap metal and build it right back up again.

Make it better than it was when they took it apart.

And that’s what I’m looking for today.

So strap in,

I,

I if you’ve got a five point harness,

definitely put that thing on because we’re going fast today.

We’ve got a couple of liquid drivers that are gonna talk to us about their whips right now.

Let’s get to it.

Welcome to the gold standard of podcast for the gold standard of drivers.

This is the Liquid Trucking Podcast with your host,

Marcus Bridges.

Joining me next on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

I’ve got Liquid Driver,

Matt Kleich Matt.

We appreciate the time.

Thanks for being here,

buddy.

Hey,

thanks for having me having me back.

Actually,

Mark,

I appreciate it.

Of course,

man.

We had a great time.

Well,

I think what is this?

Is this two now for you,

or have you been on more than two?

Number three?

Number three.

Well,

we always have a good time talking to you and,

uh,

you’re,

you’re easy to communicate with,

man.

I sent you a text the other day.

I said,

are you a gearhead by chance?

And you kind of wrote back a little paragraph about how,

not only you but your dad and,

and it sounds like you’ve got it in your blood a little bit.

This whole turning wrenches on,

uh,

on pieces of machinery thing.

Oh,

yeah,

I kind of grew up that way.

Yeah.

You know,

that’s kind of where it all started was with my dad.

He was,

uh,

in,

uh,

in the Air Force.

He was a mechanic in the Air Force,

uh,

for years and he just passed it on to me and my brother as we went,

you know,

uh,

watched him build a,

uh,

69 road RT.

Uh,

that,

that was actually kind of nice.

I remember that car real well.

I was just little though and,

uh,

that had a 426 Emmy in it and he blew that.

I remember that day.

He had to walk him.

He was so mad.

426 in that little car.

Yeah,

that would be,

it was a,

it was a Plymouth Roadrunner back then.

That was pretty much the muscle car of,

of,

of Dodge and Chrysler.

You know,

they had that,

the Plymouth Roadrunner,

they had that.

Dodge Barracuda,

the Hemy Ka.

But anytime he got that 426 Hemy in there,

that’s what he had.

And it was his dream car,

you know.

Oh,

yeah.

And he,

he,

he took it out,

uh,

we lived in Bridgeport and he took it out on old highway 385.

Kind of a nice straight highway.

He took it out with my,

I think it was my aunt,

he spun around,

he came back and he dropped the gear and he punched it and,

well,

the,

if I remember correctly,

he dropped the rod off the oil pan.

That’s heartbreaking.

Was he able to get it?

Uh,

no,

we never did,

he never did fix it.

He never did.

That’s one of those cars that’s so powerful.

You got to talk sweet to it or it’ll kill you.

Yeah,

they,

they were back then,

you know,

it was,

it was,

it was really kind of weird because,

you know,

very few motors had the same amount of horsepower.

They did cubic inch and that was what the 426 was,

had,

had a,

uh one horsepower per uh equivalent cubic inch.

Wow.

Now,

was that,

that 426 would that have been before they put out those 446 packs that they were doing for a while there?

Ok.

So the 446 pack was in the same time frame.

Ok.

And,

and believe it or not,

that particular,

that particular 426 Hemi,

in that 69 had split fire fuel injection in it.

Really that old.

And it had,

it had fuel injection.

Huh?

I didn’t know that.

I’m not gonna give you an accurate date but I believe it was in the way early sixties when fuel injection first came out.

Ok.

It just didn’t get popularized until much later then.

Yeah.

It really,

you know,

after time it got popular,

you know,

but everybody back then it was the two barrel carburetors and the four barrels and the,

and the dual quads and the six packs and that,

you know,

you the,

the 440 with a six pack and the 440 with the dual quads with the high rise uh rock manifold in there and it was all that old stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well,

you know,

gas used to be like 25 cents a gallon.

So we didn’t worry about stuff like that back then.

Just burn through it just,

I’ll never,

I’ll never forget,

man,

when we were out shopping for trucks.

When I was in high school,

my dad and I test drove uh uh early seventies Ford and I wasn’t even 16 yet.

I think I was 14.

So I couldn’t even drive this thing,

but we took it out on the highway uh with the guy who was selling it and my dad just kind of pushed the gas in and he motioned over towards me and he nodded towards the gas gauge and we were watching the gas gauge move as we were doing like,

60 down this highway.

And he goes,

I’m the one paying for your gas.

I love this truck,

but you’re not getting this one.

We’re not doing this.

So,

you know,

I think that was something that was pretty common back then.

Uh,

with carbureted engines is like,

we didn’t have to pay for four bucks a gallon for gas so you could go through it a little quicker.

Oh,

yeah.

Oh,

yeah,

I remember those days.

Oh,

yeah.

So I watched many of gas gauges.

So what were the kind of the projects you told me about some stuff that you’d built back when you were a little bit younger and,

and getting started with your dad.

What are some of the projects you’ve,

uh,

you’ve built to fruition?

We,

we had a 1974 Plymouth Duster.

And the story behind that Plymouth Duster is when I turned 16.

My older brother Monty gave me a 1981 Chevy Love pickup and I was on my way to school about seven days after my birthday after I turned 16 and we got broadsided on the passenger side,

well,

destroyed that little pickup by the way because it was a Lincoln Town car that hit us.

And were you guys?

Ok,

because those loves are tiny.

Yeah,

there were three of us.

There was me and two of my friends and we just kind of squished the guy in the middle.

And uh yeah,

everybody was ok for the most part,

one of my friends did get rushed to the hospital.

He did have a,

a bone break off in his rib cage.

He came close to his heart but he was ok.

It didn’t take him long to recover.

I think so,

but they just wanted to move that bone down,

you know,

away from his heart,

but he was ok.

Um,

so,

yeah,

everybody was ok,

but the pickup was not.

I imagine so.

Well,

my brother came to the rescue and said,

I’ve got a friend that’s selling this Plymouth Duster for $300.

Do you want it?

Well,

I just wrecked my pickup.

Yeah,

I do.

And so I bought it and I got a couple of months into it.

My dad,

we were,

we had a,

my dad was a manager of a tire shop there at Fremont and my dad knew a guy at a junkyard had a 75 Dart Dodge dart with a 318 in it.

Ok.

And so we bought the dart just for the motor,

bought the motor and the transmission pulled them out,

brought them to our shop,

tore everything down.

Bowman,

blueprinted the motor built it up.

So now I had a 318 for a,

for my Plymouth duster.

Uh,

we pulled out the,

that would have been the 225 slant fix in that particular duster pulled that out and drop this 3,

18 in there at about 400 horsepower.

Wow.

So you had a hot rod?

You,

you don’t want to have a 16 year old kid with a hot rod.

II,

I do know that uh actually from experience um I,

I had uh I had similar problems.

I was 17 which means I was one year smarter than you,

but it didn’t matter.

I’m pretty sure where I was at,

at 13.

You were probably maybe three or four years smarter,

man.

Don’t give me that much credit because that 72 Chevy I had uh it doesn’t exist anymore.

So you,

you,

you had a,

what do you have a 72 Chevy what?

I had a 1972 Chevy C 10 steps side,

little short,

little short wide.

Um,

and it had a balance and blueprinted 350 in it.

Um,

ceramic heads.

Flowmaster three and a quarter exhaust.

I mean,

I talk about this truck like I just got rid of it a couple of weeks ago.

I blew the engine up in it when I was 17 and I’m still sad about it.

So,

you know,

that’s kind of,

that’s kind of the way it goes.

Like every now and then I’ll just have a cry session where I sit down with a photo of that thing and think about what used to be.

Yeah,

like where were,

where are you now?

Exactly.

So tell me what happened to the duster because I have a feeling there’s a story that goes along with the advice.

Don’t give a 16 year old 440 HP si I will let you know that I did lose the car.

My dad took the car away from me for a couple of months and so when he took the car away,

he didn’t just say I’m gonna take away.

Here’s the key.

No,

he actually drove the car from Fremont,

Nebraska to South City Nebraska to Fremont there up there where they could park it.

So I couldn’t get my hand on it.

It’s probably smart too.

Can’t have that thing within a couple of miles of your house.

You’ll just walk over there and fire it up.

Yeah.

So I got grounded from it.

But that’s ok.

I did get it back.

Well,

then I came across a 78 Ford F 100 older older truck had a 302 in it and I wanted it really bad.

And so I traded the duster straight across to this guy.

Oh,

wow.

And he was all about that,

I’m sure.

Oh,

yeah.

He had a brand new rebuilt motor.

I had a piece of crap too.

That truck didn’t last long.

It,

it just didn’t last long.

It cost me more money to keep it going.

Well,

it,

you know,

then my brother who had a 79 Meer Cougar,

um,

I bought that from him.

And that was back when those mercury Cougars looked cool back before they turned them into a grandma car.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah,

they were huge,

you know,

big square foot twin twin to the,

to the thunderbird,

you know,

beautiful car.

Just long hood,

you know,

long hood,

you know,

you can like king size blanket out over that hood,

never cover the fenders.

Which means you could also drop one hell of a big engine in it if you really wanted to.

Right.

Oh.

Yep.

Yep.

Didn’t have to though.

My brother had that 351 Windsor in that thing.

And that,

that was just enough for that car.

Got you.

Yep.

Yep.

That 351 Windsor and that was up against a,

I can’t remember what transmission that was,

that was in there,

but it was good transmission.

That was,

I can’t remember what that was.

I wanna say it was a torque command but that’s dodge.

But I can’t remember what transmission he had.

It was,

it was a nice setup.

My brother did really take care of that car.

So,

you know,

a lot of tinkering around,

rebuilt rear ends all the time.

Uh,

new drive lines,

new drive,

you know,

your joints because while you’re out tearing stuff up,

you know,

and that’s,

that’s all we did back then was,

you know,

cruising.

You were cruising,

I,

I suppose,

young guy.

Oh,

that’s all we did,

man.

I mean,

I,

I grew up in a town with only 2000 people.

We’d stop at a little mini mart called the little store.

We’d cruise down to the Safeway parking lot,

hang out there,

drive up to the lake,

turn around and do the whole thing again.

That was almost every weekday night when sports weren’t going.

Yep.

Yep.

That’s,

we did the same thing in Fremont drove around you.

That’s all you did.

And then when you stopped,

you talked about the fact that you were just driving around and everybody talked,

you know,

the hoods were popped open.

Everybody was looking at engines and,

and you know,

I will admit this because you guys,

I can tell that you yourself and uh talking to Tony Brown on this podcast,

like you guys could pick apart an engine all the way down to the screws,

put it back together,

drop it in and have it run.

I am not of that ilk.

I love to be there to help.

I want to be in there.

I don’t know enough about it to do it all by myself.

But I had a buddy who had a 72 Chevy as well.

And one day he decided he wanted to redo the gaskets and he knew how to do all that stuff.

We pulled that engine out and redid the entire thing and it was,

it was a great time.

I loved it.

He was endlessly frustrated because it was his project.

But I had a great time and uh I’m not,

I’m not as good with this stuff as a lot of people are.

But I’ll tell you,

man,

I could talk about it for days on end.

This stuff is so interesting to me.

Yeah,

I’m,

I’m uh like I said,

I grew up around it.

That’s what my dad and my uncle Tom did.

You know,

they worked on everything across the board.

My dad was even a,

he was even a mechanic for Burlington Northern in Alliance.

So he worked on a lot of different stuff.

You know,

he,

he got a chance to work on a lot of different stuff,

um,

within the Air Force and then the railroad and then,

you know,

like I said,

he grew up in,

ok,

when I say he grew up in,

ok,

he was back in the time when,

like the movie grease,

when the guys had the cigarettes rolled up in their t-shirt pocket.

We still got pictures of my dad that way.

That’s awesome.

So,

he wasn’t quite old enough to be working on,

like flathead V eights and stuff.

But that was probably his dad,

your grandpa that was working on those,

right?

Oh,

yeah.

Oh,

yeah.

My dad had some,

my dad can do some flathead V eight work.

Oh,

yeah.

That’s awesome.

Yeah.

He grew up with it,

he grew up with his dad doing it.

Oh,

yeah.

You know,

that stuff didn’t miss him by much.

Let’s see,

my dad’s 73.

So,

yeah,

he got into some flat FDA.

Ok.

So,

uh,

tell me about your 92 Ford Ranger.

That one sounds fun.

The 92 for Granger was a typical,

I,

I went to Deer Ford.

They had it,

I financed it through commercial federal.

There’s a place in Omaha called,

what the heck is that?

They,

they did lift kit and I’m trying to think what it is but they did lift kit.

It’s called.

So ride by Super Lift,

we lifted it up with a visible 24 inches of lift,

visible.

What’s that?

44 9,

we put 44 19 5,

16 fives up against the trillion front end.

And uh well,

they both came out of a three quarter ton four cut down and set one,

a meter up against all of that was powered by the V six,

a four point ov six and a and a horse feet.

So,

and what kind of ladder did you use to get in it?

Yep.

The milk crate.

Yeah.

44 19 5,

65.

There wasn’t much.

I couldn’t go over the top and I can tell you a little story.

We were at TNW tire on fourth street in Sioux City.

I went in to see my dad for a little bit,

talked to him about something.

We came back out,

walked right between the back end of my pickup and a car walked right between them.

So I knew the car was there.

Right.

Right.

Got my pickup back right up onto the hood.

Oh,

no.

Yeah,

that cost me shouldn’t have been parked there.

We didn’t have rearview cameras at that point in time.

So don’t park there,

you know.

Yeah,

that was my 92 Ford Granger.

I still got pictures of that.

I can send you some.

I’ll send you a picture of that.

I’d love to see it,

man.

I’d love to see it.

So,

so what happened to it?

Did you end up uh just selling it and,

or do you still have it?

No,

no,

no,

I was a young guy.

Well,

over my head in,

in,

you know,

borrowing money and all of that glamour,

you know,

trying to be more than I was and I lost it.

I got repoed,

you know,

which is sad.

I ended up driving a Mercury bobcat after that for a while.

I,

you know what?

We’re Kindred Spirits Matt because the very first car that was handed down from my sister to me,

uh was I believe it was somewhere in the mid eighties,

a Mercury Cougar.

I’m looking for pictures of them right now and the only thing that I can find are are coups.

Uh but it does look like they offered a four door sedan uh for 34 years across the generation.

So I just can’t find pictures of the thing.

All I remember is that my sister dropped me off at school once before she handed it down to me and I was sitting in the back seat and I had to kick the goddamn door open because the thing was stuck shut.

And,

uh,

that car we ended up,

it was,

it was like a champagne color.

It had wine red velvet interior,

which was very strange,

but,

uh,

we ended up selling it to a friend of mine and it caught on fire on the side of the highway and burnt to the ground,

like a few miles from my house.

So,

you know,

uh,

Mercury had some things going on,

some good stuff back in the day.

But,

uh,

I think as things crept into the eighties and early nineties things started falling apart for Mercury pretty quick,

unfortunately.

Yeah,

that happens for him too.

Yeah,

it does just,

uh,

you know,

ask,

ask,

uh,

ask many of those other ones like Plymouth.

That’s another one,

you know,

we’ve talked about Plymouth here.

You don’t see that out there anymore very often,

do you?

Huh?

You don’t see a lot of the good stuff anymore,

you know,

they,

they’ve just taken it all away,

kind of focal pointed into,

you know,

the major brands,

you know.

You know,

and,

and they’ve taken a lot of the good away from what’s really,

really out there and really,

really good.

So,

Matt,

what’s the,

what’s the personal rig that you’re driving now when you’re back at home time.

Ok.

I got two of them and,

and people call me a cheap ass because I am,

I will not finance a vehicle.

I’m that cheap.

I have a 1988 Ford F 250 factory high boy with a 460 in it.

It was the classic of all classics.

This guy,

the Ford XL T and uh,

you know,

I disconnect the batteries because it’s just somewhere in the,

in,

in the system likes to drain the battery.

And then,

uh I got a 99 GMC Sonoma with a two point some liter,

2.2 L four cylinder that gets like eight miles a month on it.

Oh,

that,

that’s what I drive.

That’s awesome,

man.

That Ford sounds like a good looking truck.

My dad had a 1989 Lariat diesel,

the F 250.

And I always remember that was kind of the,

that body style or that era of body style.

You know,

I’m a,

I’m a 1968 to 1972 Chevy body style.

That’s the,

that’s the primo for me.

But like when I think just the word truck that 19 kind of late 19 eighties Ford was always the picture in my mind.

Yep.

Yep.

As a matter of fact that Lariat that your dad had in my fork probably would have been sisters.

That’s and resemblance because the only difference between what you had,

what your dad had and what I had was,

I had the Larry at XL T,

but I had the,

I had the 460.

That’s the only difference.

Your dad had the de one and I had the,

I had the,

yeah.

Yeah.

And you probably spent a lot of money putting gas in that.

I would imagine.

460 inches of,

uh,

cubic inches of displacement will run through the gas pretty quick.

Yeah.

It,

it,

it does,

but it’s so low geared if you go 65 mile an hour and it,

you’re running about 3600 R PM.

Oh,

wow.

I do remember that about the diesel.

I thought that was only a diesel thing you could start my day.

You know,

it was a,

it was a five speed,

of course.

But that diesel that he had,

you could let off the clutch in first gear and the thing would just crawl forward it.

Now you didn’t even have to give it any gas.

It was so low gear.

Yeah.

Yeah.

My dad,

my dad’s famous joke about this,

Ford is it’ll pull,

pull a Sherman tank out of the Grand Canyon.

I’m sure it would have.

Man.

That’s awesome.

Well,

do you work on your,

your cars that you have?

I mean,

are you doing all the maintenance and kind of keeping those things up?

Yeah.

Yeah.

The,

the only thing that we have that I don’t touch and that’s the Nissan Altima,

but I bought service package with that.

So I just,

I don’t even mess with that stuff.

Yeah,

I can work on everything else that I have.

The question is,

do I?

Yeah,

maybe,

maybe when you get the free time,

if,

uh,

if you got a nice,

uh,

maybe a six pack of beer in the fridge or something like that and some jerky to snack on,

maybe you’ll be out there.

I haven’t changed the oil in my Sonoma in over two years.

Wow.

Well,

that means that it’s obviously really good oil in my,

I haven’t changed the oil in that board ever.

Are you serious?

Yeah,

I’ve never,

I never have,

I don’t know.

It’s got,

well,

I got it with,

it’s got like 100 and 41,000 on it,

but I just don’t drive them enough,

you know,

to change it out,

you know?

And the fact that I’m lazy,

I just don’t change the world.

The Ford is,

the Ford is going to the,

the,

the,

the 88 Ford is going to my oldest son.

He’s gonna,

he’s gonna rebuild it.

He wants,

he wants a project truck.

So,

um,

he’s gonna do that and rebuild it and that’s his toy.

Very cool.

That was my dad’s truck.

So it’s a hand me down.

Yeah.

And it’s,

it’s gonna be for the rest,

you know,

he’ll probably give it to his son too because once he restores it gets everything on it all new that truck.

Will have another 40 years of life in it.

Yep.

That’s awesome.

That’s really cool.

Matt.

Well,

hey,

we’re,

uh,

we’re kind of short on time here,

uh,

today,

but I want you to send me a picture of your,

uh,

of your Ford Ranger.

If you haven’t,

I would love to see that little monster truck because that’s what it sounds like to me is a little mini monster truck.

Yep.

I will get that.

I’ll get home and I’ll get one sent over to you.

Awesome.

Well,

that’s Matt Kleich Liquid Driver.

We really appreciate the,

thanks for talking us through some gearhead stories,

my friend and,

uh,

we’ll get you back on.

I’d like to,

you know,

once you do give that truck to your son,

I’d like you to,

to keep me updated on that.

Tell me how that project goes for him.

How long it’s gonna take him?

All that good stuff.

I will do that.

All right,

perfect.

I will.

I will definitely do that.

Well,

thanks again,

Matt.

Be safe out there today and,

uh,

we’ll be in touch with you soon.

Ok.

All right,

Marcus Christian.

It,

thank you next up here on the Liquid Trucking Podcast.

I’ve got a real gearhead.

In fact,

when I started texting him about coming on this episode,

he said that I had him the minute that I said the word gearhead and that’s liquid Driver.

Tony Brown.

Tony.

What’s up,

man?

How are you doing?

Out there today.

Oh,

I’m doing great.

Marcus.

Can’t complain.

Can’t complain.

Beautiful,

uh,

beautiful weather.

Other than the fact I’m fixing to go through Chicago.

Well,

it doesn’t matter how beautiful it is,

it’s still Chicago.

Right.

Right.

So,

talk to me a little bit about your projects,

man.

I’ve got pictures here that you sent me.

It appears that you are a bow tie guy,

which is a man after my own heart.

Uh Love Chevys.

I’ve got a Silverado now because I loved my 1972 Chevy step side so much when I was a kid.

Uh You’ve got some,

uh,

some,

some projects you’re working on,

don’t you?

Yeah,

I do.

Uh Yeah,

I grew up in a bow tie family can’t ever say real men don’t wear bow ties if it’s a Ford,

I only use,

you know,

I use those as,

uh,

fill-ins when I have a big hole in the pasture and then,

you know that I need that.

I need to fill in.

I’ll drag o off in there and cover them up with dirt just to get rid of potholes.

But,

uh,

and what are,

what’s your feeling on Mopar?

How about that?

Mopar is not bad.

Um,

I grew,

you know,

we had a few dodges growing up if it didn’t have a 3,

18 or a 360 in it,

you know,

we,

we didn’t want it and it had been older for the new,

new Dodges.

They got too many issues.

But now for me it’s,

it’s Chevy all day,

Chevy all the way.

If it’s not a Chevy,

I’ll actually take a Toyota over.

Uh,

I’d even take a brand new thunder over a new Chevy,

believe it or not,

to be honest with you.

Um,

I’ve,

I’ve had a,

I’ve had a couple of tundra and they,

they blew my newer model Chevy out of the water.

Really?

What did you like about it?

So,

they were both.

Uh,

so the last one I had was a 2014.

It was four wheel drive and he has a four wheel drive than any of the two wheel drive.

Chevys on the market.

Wow,

that’s interesting.

It could,

it could literally turn circles around two wheel drive pickups and not have,

and even with it being in four wheel drive and still not have knuckle lock or,

uh,

which is where your,

uh,

your front steering knuckles are center popping and your,

your CV chap.

Right.

That’s interesting.

I mean,

they’re,

they’re good looking trucks,

man.

I just drove past,

I got this thing for white.

My,

my 72 was white.

My Silverado now is white and I drove by a white with black accents tundra just yesterday and I found myself rubbernecking at that truck.

It’s a really good looking truck.

Oh,

but they’re beautiful.

Mine was,

uh,

uh,

silver color.

The last one that I had and I,

I regret letting that truck go.

I wish I still had it.

But,

uh,

it is what it is now.

I’m just back to,

uh,

collecting the older trucks and,

uh,

rebuilding those.

Yeah.

What’s your,

what’s your current project right now that you’re working on?

So,

the current one I’m working on right now is an 81 K 10 long bed.

The,

I bought it for $2000 a few months ago.

Got it home.

You know,

she wasn’t,

she’s not gonna win any,

uh,

pageant shows anytime soon.

She’s,

she has quite a bit of rust.

Matter of fact,

the bed was so rusted out.

Somebody had taken sheet metal screws and screwed the bed to the frame to hold it down.

It was,

it was so badly rusted out.

So I got it home.

Meet a buddy of mine.

Uh,

we drove it back to the back corner of my pasture.

We didn’t even have to undo any of the bolts.

It was so rusted out.

I trailed the truck,

run and ran and drove,

but I trailer it home because I was worried the bed was gonna fall off the truck trying to get it home.

So,

we,

I,

and I had to take about an hour and a half,

uh,

from where I purchased it from a guy back to,

uh,

my place.

So we loaded it on a trailer and we get it,

I get it all the way home and we actually noticed the bed was sitting kind of cockeyed on the truck.

We’re like,

oh,

wow.

Yeah,

I’m glad I didn’t drive this thing home.

Yeah.

It sounds like it could have been a real bad deal.

I mean,

I’ve heard of,

you know,

maybe a mirror flying off or an antenna or something like that,

but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an entire bed fly off of a truck on the road.

It,

Marcus,

I’ve,

I’ve seen stranger.

Trust me.

Of course you have,

I’ve,

I’ve seen some stuff like that.

I mean,

my,

my stepdad had an old Chevy pickup that we,

the joke was you don’t wash this truck.

If you wash it,

something’s falling off and legitimately it was rust and mud holding this truck together.

He washed it one day and the bumper literally fell off the truck.

That’s why you gotta listen to whoever’s in that truck all the time.

If,

if they’re saying,

hey,

don’t do this,

don’t do it because they know enough about that vehicle to know that it’s a problem if you do.

Exactly.

But as I say,

so I got,

we got the truck home.

I drove it back to the back corner of my property.

We have a,

uh,

got a huge surplus of old scrap metal that I need to get my trailer fixed and get it.

Ha get it all loaded up,

halt the Recyclers.

But so we took it down there,

me and my buddy,

we stepped on,

stood on one side of the truck,

grabbed the side of the bed and just flip it up and off the side of the truck.

That’s how bad it was.

Rusted out.

Yeah.

And I see here in the pictures this thing doesn’t even have a bed on it.

It’s just a cab and a frame.

Well,

and if you notice in some of those pictures,

half of that frame is gone.

Yeah,

I’m seeing that now.

So some of those couple of the first photos I sent you there is the truck is the rear cross members.

It looked like somebody hooked a chain to the back of it and gave it a good yank and twisted,

the twisted,

the cross members bent them really bad.

We got to look and there was quite a bit of rust within the frame.

Um,

the leaf spring,

uh hangers.

So I was like,

you know what,

I’m just gonna cut,

I wanna,

I’m gonna shorten this thing up anyway because I’m not putting a bed back on the truck.

I’m actually building a custom uh flat bed for it.

So we sh i the same buddy of mine.

He has another truck that was two wheel drive that he had the whole back,

three quarters section of the frame for a pickup that he was going to turn it into a trailer.

He’s like,

well,

you can have the back half of this frame since the because the front half of my frame on my truck is,

is fine.

There’s nothing wrong with it.

Uh,

it’s just that the back half was pretty bad shape.

So pulled that took that apart.

Um,

I cut the back half of the frame off.

I’ve got the truck setting in my shop setting.

Nice flat level.

Started getting a whole bunch of measurements and stuff,

writing everything down,

cut the back half off of the frame and started ordering parts.

Uh My brother brings the new frame,

the two wheel drive,

uh,

frame over to me,

there’s a bunch of stuff on the two wheel drive that will not work on the four wheel drive and stuff on the four wheel drive that don’t work on the two wheel drives.

A lot of that is the leaf spring hangers are a lot shorter on the two wheel drive.

The way they bolt onto the frame is in different locations.

The bolt holes are in different locations.

So I start cleaning the frame down and I start fill welding the holes in plug,

welding the holes,

um,

in inside and outside of the frame,

get it all cleaned up because I’m fabricating and putting,

I got brand new leaf spring hangers for it because the ones I had to order brand new ones,

the old ones were rusted out.

They’re shot.

Uh I was afraid if I had a big enough bump with those,

the leaf springs were just gonna fly up and just roll the rear end up underneath the truck.

So I got that all take.

So I’ve got new parts ordered for it there,

there in,

um,

I,

I,

where I cut and welded and spliced in the new frame,

I’m adding in a lot more support to it.

Uh,

because once you cut a frame it’s never as strong as it was from the factory.

Right.

That makes sense.

And,

I mean,

with all the,

the holes that you’re Phil Weldon in and everything like that too,

I think that’s just a foregone conclusion.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that,

that helps out with it as well.

That kind of strengthens,

you know,

because you think about like a windshield,

if you got a crack in a windshield,

you drill out either into the crack and the crack will stop circles,

circles don’t crack.

So plug well,

fill everything in.

But I made some gusset plates for the top.

I’m redoing the bottom as well.

And then I’m putting on some what they call fish plates on the inside of the frame where I welded the frame back together.

This is just gonna add a lot more strength and support because this truck is getting lifted.

It’s,

it’s factory four wheel drive,

but it’s getting lifted with a four inch suspension lift,

two inch body lift.

And I’m gonna be running 37 inch tires on it.

Wow.

What,

how on earth are you going to put anything on the flatbed?

You must have a forklift or a cat out there or something.

You can lift stuff up to that flatbed with.

Yeah.

Well,

it’s,

it’s gonna be,

it’s gonna be for the farm,

but it’s also gonna be for play as well.

Um,

because I’m relocating the fuel tanks,

the fuel tanks are no longer underneath the truck.

They’re actually gonna be up on the bed of the truck behind the cab.

Um,

your clearance a little bit there.

Yeah,

ground clearance.

I don’t have to worry about,

uh,

putting rock sliders underneath there,

any additional weight under the truck to protect the fuel tank because I like to play off road.

I like to go play on the rocks.

Um,

so anything I can do to prevent damage to fuel tanks because you puncture a fuel tank,

your sol when you run out of fuel,

you know,

three or four miles from the trailhead.

Right.

So my fuel tank’s gonna be up in the back of the truck,

not underneath the truck.

Um,

yeah,

we’re doing a lot of work to it.

It’s actually getting,

it’s got a,

it’s got the original 305 in it,

but that is coming out.

I kind of figured that’s not,

that’s not enough displacement for what you’re talking about doing.

No,

because the truck’s currently got 33 inch tires on it and at 305 will turn them.

Ok.

But when I go to put the 30 sevens on it I,

I want some power.

I’m,

uh,

in the process of getting my hands on an LQ four,

which is the six point OLS.

Uh,

it’s,

it’s the truck engine,

the,

the Chevy,

uh,

it’s more of an LT than it is.

The LS.

Um,

the L,

the LQ four is an iron block,

not an aluminum block or I may,

I may be mixing that up with a different one.

I’m just,

I’m excited about it right now,

but I’m putting,

I’m dropping an LQ four um,

LS in it.

I’m gonna do heads and cam,

I want,

I want some power to it.

Um,

I’ve already ordered a new radiator for it,

an all aluminum three core radiator with the electric fans.

So it’s,

I’ve ordered a bunch of stuff for it.

My wife made me put it on hold for just a couple more months.

I can’t order any more parts till the end of summer.

Um,

because we’re,

we’re going,

well,

we’re going to DC the first week of June.

So all the money,

she’s like no parts right now.

We want all that extra money so we can just have a good time.

I’m like,

ok,

you know,

makes sense.

Yeah,

I was like,

I,

I can handle that.

You know,

it’s because I haven’t had a personal vehicle in three years.

I had desert.

Well,

I say I haven’t had one.

My,

so I sent you a picture of also my 83 which is a three quarter ton,

two wheel drive.

Um,

that truck had a 350 in it.

I was driving it back and forth to work before it came to work for liquid.

Um,

I used to drive local down in Oklahoma.

I was driving it back and forth to work.

I ordered a brand new,

uh,

Edelbrock carburetor for it through o’reilly’s.

Uh,

the guys up there,

another buddy of mine works at that one.

He called me and said,

hey,

man,

your carburetors here because they had a special order.

They didn’t have it in stock.

I was like,

all right,

awesome.

I got off work that day,

drove 20 miles to where that o’reilly’s is at.

Got my brand and picked up my carburetor.

Now,

mind you,

it’s $550 carburetor.

I make it 15 miles from home and the engine locked up in the truck.

Oh,

no.

Yeah.

Uh,

I was coming down a hill and I went to Dell a little bit.

It had a four speed in it and when I went and it had some shifting issues,

it didn’t like to go into gear like it was supposed to.

And so I,

and accidentally what they did,

uh,

what’s called a money shift and drag racing is when you’re accelerating,

go from second to third and you actually jump back to first or go from third to fourth and you jump back to second or first.

Yeah,

you send your RP NS through the roof.

Well,

I was coming down a hill,

went to slow down,

went to drop gears and I dropped two gears since the RP stand at the moon spun the rod bearings that,

uh,

that ate the crank,

that,

that engine,

that engine’s toast.

Never had a chance.

No.

And I only had that truck for about three months.

Tony.

Oh,

yeah.

Well,

tell me a little bit about your 69 too because,

you know,

that’s,

that’s getting into that vintage where I was,

uh,

I was playing around in when I was a younger kid.

And that,

that little baby blue 69 that you’ve got is a beautiful looking truck from what I can see of it.

It,

it absolutely is.

It’s,

uh,

so that picture I sent it to you.

The only thing on the truck in that photo that it’s not factory original was somebody previous had put aftermarket wheels on it and had put an aftermarket steering wheel in it.

Other than that,

everything in that truck is numbers matching all the way down to the original GM 307 V eight.

Wow,

that’s amazing.

Have you ever thought about popping that out and putting in something bigger like a 396 in that thing or something or are you leaving it just the way it came off the lot that,

that,

that engine will get rebuilt and put right back in that truck,

that truck will never go be anything other than original.

That’s so cool and it’s so hard to do this far into the game.

I mean,

that truck’s over 50 years old.

It,

you don’t think that when you hear 1972 or 1969 but that’s a 50 year old piece of machinery still sitting there with the original factory parts.

I mean,

that there’s something to be said from that you deserve a round of applause for that Tony.

And it’s,

you know,

most guys they’re wanting to,

you know,

I want to get another one because I wanna hop it up.

I want a,

I want a sportier version,

you know,

a little more,

more muscly version,

but that one that,

that 69 is going to stay all original.

That’s so cool right now.

I don’t even have it on,

at my,

on the property.

That truck is actually with my wife’s grandmother in Wichita,

Kansas.

Ok.

Well,

that’s a grandmother truck right there.

I mean,

that’s perfect.

Is she,

she gets so many looks.

She actually gave um her car that she had before.

It was a little uh fiat 500.

She actually gave that to one of my wife’s nieces and only drives the,

the 69 right now.

Wow.

I gotta meet this lady man.

She sounds like a hell of a gal.

And what’s crazy is I found another one the same exact color out on I 80.

Um Just before you get to,

uh Wyoming,

there’s one on the north side of the road set on,

set on this,

uh,

on this property.

And I’m like,

oh,

man,

if I could have pulled in because I wanna make him an offer because there’s,

it’s another one and it’s the same color.

Um,

and it looked between 68 to 69 as well.

Ok.

Well,

that’s the best vintage,

man.

I,

if you ask me to pick out a Chevy truck anywhere between 68 and what,

72 before they change the body style there.

Those are,

those are my absolute favorite.

I mean,

I know you didn’t ask,

but I just got to tell you because I’m so excited about them.

Oh,

absolutely.

It’s,

I,

I love those older trucks.

I’m only 42 years old but my grandfather had old vehicles when I was growing up.

Um,

we had four,

Chevy two Novas,

263 sedans,

162 sedan and I had a 62 ss convertible,

two door convertible.

That’s awesome.

Um,

and they all,

they all ran and drove at one point and then,

uh,

we wound up selling all of them and kicking absolutely kicking ourselves,

especially for letting that convertible go.

Yep,

I feel it,

man.

I,

uh,

I,

you know,

I didn’t talk about this in the opening because I figured we’d get to it.

But I was,

I think I was 17 and,

uh,

there was a little ice on the ground.

You know,

my truck had been built by the guy that owned it before me for drag racing in,

uh,

at the drag track over in Boise,

Idaho.

And he had regeared the rear end so that,

it was not just crazy.

I mean,

the one thing I would change about it is it was an automatic.

That was something that I really wished it didn’t have.

I wanted the four speed,

But,

you know,

you don’t get everything.

And,

uh,

I,

that truck had more power than I needed for sure.

It was,

I,

it was running the 350.

It was fully rebuilt.

I mean,

it was pushing 400 just,

just as it sat there and then if you gear the rear end down for drag racing,

I think it would do even better than that.

But it was,

it was such a nice truck man.

And I pulled out of the theater and there was this guy in this old ratty 78 Ford that used to piddle around the town that I lived in and he saw me and he started burning out and I was like,

oh,

well,

I’m on ice right now.

I’m just gonna let the,

let the back end of this thing go because it sounded so good like that.

It had,

uh,

it had Flowmaster three and a quarters and it was due out on both sides in front of the step sides.

And I mean,

you know,

ceramic heads.

I had the Edel Brock four barrel too that you were talking about that thing.

I love more than certain,

uh,

relatives and I started spinning out on the ice figure and everything was fine and the smoke just started pouring out of the exhaust.

And,

uh,

what I came to find out Tony is that the only thing that they didn’t replace when they replaced that engine was the radiator.

It had a factory 1972 radiator in it that was trying to cool down this big heavy engine and it didn’t,

it didn’t cool it down.

I cracked the block.

Uh It,

it was,

it was a,

I had,

I think $1800 in my savings account as a 17 year old and it was $2000 to fix it.

Uh I,

I had to put it on that makes,

that makes you want to cry.

I still to this day it’s like something that hits me in the chest when I’m talking about it.

I can feel the emotions and I,

so it was this,

this truck was entirely put together in this little county that I lived in.

Not no more than 8000 people in this county.

People from every town had a hand in it.

And uh the paint job I came to find out,

I sold this thing on ebay Motors.

A guy from Sacramento drove up,

got it,

put it on a trailer,

took it back down engine was fixed.

He,

it was gonna be his daily driver and he was gonna show it and everything like that.

The first week he parked it at a safeway and somebody backed into it and he calls me and he says,

what’s the paint coat on this thing?

And I said,

well,

let me call the guy that painted it and I called the guy that painted it and he said,

there ain’t no paint coat on that thing.

I mixed that,

that’s a one off.

You’re never gonna match it.

So the truck ended up a different color.

A week after I had it.

And I just like,

I think about it sometimes and I have these little memorial sessions where I just sit and look at pictures of that truck and tear up a little bit,

man.

I mean,

these things will do something to you.

You talked about having it in your blood from a young age.

I haven’t,

I haven’t had an old truck for all these years and it’s still in my blood.

You know,

for me growing up on a farm,

if you didn’t have a truck,

you couldn’t do anything.

And,

you know,

you know,

I,

we had a,

there is a couple of old Fords that I wouldn’t mind having.

Um,

one of them my grandfather had was a 72 camper special four wheel drive.

Um,

it was,

it was a farm truck.

Um,

it had a 400 something big lock in it.

This thing,

this truck was just nasty.

It was running 35 inch tires and it was a farm truck and that’s what I,

that’s,

that’s what I learned to drive there on the farm.

That and a tractor.

Uh,

where I,

you know how I learned to drive.

Good for the job too.

Yeah,

I got my first taste of,

you know,

of the mud life with that truck.

Uh,

you know,

that’s,

that’s the one truck and it was baby blue as well.

And that’s the one truck.

If I could find another one,

my grandfather gave it to,

uh,

my uncle’s father-in-law years ago because they pulled the engine out.

We’re doing something with it and my grandfather just gave up on it and said,

you know what,

here you can have it.

And it,

next,

last,

last I heard it was somewhere in,

uh,

around Salt Lake City area.

Utah.

Um,

was it out like crazy up there?

I’m sure.

Yeah.

So if I could ever find another one,

I want one,

a buddy of mine that I was in the service with,

he had one identical to it.

Only,

it was white.

That was the only difference.

And there’s more to that,

that I’m not gonna get into.

But I,

I would,

I would love,

I would have loved to,

uh,

bought his truck from his family.

So my first truck was an 85 K 5 jacked up four inches with 35 inch tires.

Me and my grandfather rebuilt that K five took the original 305 out of it dropped in a,

a cruiser inboard boat motor.

It was a 2000 model 350 roller motor that I bought for $500.

Bought this engine for $500 from Mercury Marine in Stillwater,

Oklahoma when they were still in business there.

And because I worked there at the time,

the story on this engine was it Mercury Marine is kind of like Walmart.

They’ll take anything back.

Well,

this engine was purchased by uh a boat repair place at Keystone Lake,

which is about 20 miles from my house to go in this lady’s boat.

Well,

they put the engine in,

the boat,

went out to run it and it had a bad vibration.

So my cruiser is like,

all right,

send it back to us.

We’ll figure out what’s going on with this boat.

With the,

with this engine.

They put it on the Dino Abso,

they went through it.

Absolutely nothing wrong with this engine nine times out of 10.

If you miss a line,

the uh an inboard motor in a boat by half an inch,

it’ll cause a vibration.

So they figured that’s what happened is they misaligned it.

So I wind up getting this engine.

Nothing wrong with it.

Ready to drop in a fully Marinis ready to go in a boat.

If I had one for $500 as a warranty return.

So I get this engine,

send it to another buddy of mine that the engine swap that also worked at Mercury Marine.

He rebuilt transmissions and did motor swaps on the side in his garage at home.

So we load the engine up in the back of his pickup.

He takes it home.

I get my,

I drive my truck over to his house and two weeks later I go pick my truck up from him.

This because I had to go buy some stuff because we had to pull all the Marinis equipment off of it had to get,

but went with hooker ceramic headers on it,

ceramic coated headers.

Uh long tubes got rid of the fuel injection system that was on it and put a four inch Edelbrock high rise intake on it with an Edelbrock 800 CFM carburetor on it.

This thing would pass everything but a gas station.

That’s so cool though.

I love the,

took the injection off and carbureted it.

So it sounds like it should.

Well,

because it was going to cost us almost at that time.

It was going to be almost like another 1500 to $2000 to have a computer that came with that engine re retuned and burned for it to run on the road versus on the water,

the water because a thing with these Marinis engines is they have a different cam in them boats and rvs stuff like that.

They have what’s called an RV cam or a marine C,

they’re the exact same thing.

They just,

they’ll use two different words on it,

but they’re the exact same cam.

They have to run constant load because if they’re under a constant drag you all your everyday four Wheler running up and down the road is not under constant drag.

They’re only under a load while accelerating.

Ok.

So this thing,

this thing,

we nicknamed it the Tort Lobster because two weeks,

two weeks after having the engine put in that truck,

I completely grenade the uh transmission.

It couldn’t handle the torque.

So my buddy who rebuilt transmissions,

rebuilt the transmission for me.

He said,

I guarantee you you have the on he goes,

you have the only off-road ready,

off-road ball hall ready transmission in Payne County.

And he goes,

he goes,

and when you get out here on the highway and you hammer down on it,

don’t let out of it.

He goes because it’s gonna break your neck.

I said what?

It,

Chirk.

It was an automatic and it was still barking those 35 inch tires when it grabbed third gear.

Oh,

that’s amazing.

This thing had so much torque.

I went off road with it,

went off road with it about a month later and snap the chain in the transfer case.

Wow,

we got rebuilt the transfer case.

Put it back in there.

It lasted two months and that wasn’t even playing off road.

That was just on the,

it just couldn’t handle the torque broke it again.

So my grandfather busted out the credit card and we went with a full Atlas gear drive trans transfer case in it.

Very expensive transfer case.

Put that in there.

Well,

a week later I shelled the rear end doing a,

I was doing a standing doing a burnout and the spider gears in the rear end were in about 12 pieces.

Each absolutely obliterated.

The rear end had a full spicer rear rebuild on the rear end.

My grandfather’s like,

well,

while we’re at it,

we might as well go ahead and beef up the front end too.

So the truck sat on blocks.

So he took the front end and rear end,

took them to a shop.

They did a full spicer rebuild,

put those back in it.

I drove it for a few months and I was sitting at a stoplight.

A kid that I went to high school with had,

I can’t remember what year it was,

but he had a 351 Cleveland inside of a Galaxy 500.

And this,

this little car was nasty,

but we went down to river,

we went down to river road which had been recently paved from dirt to asphalt.

And that was our new drag strip.

We had a quarter mile painted on it and he goes,

I don’t think that big old Chevy of yours can keep up with this for.

I said,

well,

you probably weigh half of what I do.

Your tires are a third of mine.

I said,

so we’ll,

we’ll give it a shot.

We lined them up.

We took off.

I had two inches of daylight underneath my front tires.

When I took off that thing,

Tweed and lifted and just took off.

I was like,

wow,

that was great.

He goes,

well,

he goes,

you got lucky.

I wasn’t ready but run it back.

I was like,

I was like,

all right,

put your money where your mouth is at.

I said,

put your money where your mouth is if you want to run it again.

So we grew up,

you know,

it was,

we’re high school kids.

So 50 bucks each and went to take off and I twisted my drive shaft and I twisted it so hard and it looked like a barber’s pole.

I twisted straight out of fast and the furious one.

Right.

Yeah,

I twisted that drive shaft so hard that the counter ballot weight that was on it or the counter when those drive shafts are balanced,

they put a little,

it’ll just look like a washer and that was tack welded on there.

It twisted so hard that it broke the welds on the counterbalance.

Counterbalance was crazy.

So my grandfather got to do with way more power than my grandfather’s like,

this is really starting to cost us and I would spoil.

I was,

I’m,

I’m the oldest grandson.

I was,

I hate to admit it.

But,

yeah,

I was absolutely spoiled.

Uh,

you get a hobby that your grandpa likes like that.

That’s easy to do.

Well,

and I’ll,

I’ll get to one of the reasons he’s actually grateful we put the money into this truck is so he went to,

he’s got a hold of Tulsa Driveline specialties and they built a custom,

the solid core aluminum drive shaft for this truck and went ahead and built custom front drive shaft as well.

Telescoping drive shaft.

My grandfather was like,

you’re gonna break this one.

I know you’re gonna break the front one at some point.

He was just rebuild them.

So time by the time we’re fully said and done,

we probably had close to 25 to 30 grand wrapped up in this K five with all the repairs to build everything in it.

He got his tractor buried in the mud out in the pasture.

My K five pulled this tractor because he was pulling his welding trailer that welding trailer sunk and when the trailer sunk to the frame,

it buried the tractor down too.

I he’s like,

let’s see if let’s put your truck to,

he goes,

let’s put that blazer to the test and see if this money is gonna pay it,

pay for itself.

Now we hooked a chain to it.

I drugged that tractor and his welding trailer up out of the mud.

The funniest part is when we get it up,

out of the mud and we get back up on the solid ground.

I finally turn and look back and my grandfather’s John Deere tractor is brown.

My grandfather is covered in mud.

You got to know where to stand in that situation,

man.

Because there was,

there was no top,

there was no top on this tractor.

It was an open,

you know,

open,

fully open cab and,

and I’m throwing 30 40 ft rooster tails,

all four of them.

I just romped on it and hey,

it was coming out one way or another and we got it out.

Yeah,

you did.

You probably unearthed a few,

uh,

dinosaur,

uh,

fossils too in the,

uh,

in the process.

It sounds like that truck and pull pretty much anything out of the ground that it needed to.

Yeah.

Well,

then,

so the truck sat,

I went to Iraq in 2003,

my first deployment.

Um,

I came back.

Um,

nobody had really done anything with my truck while I was gone.

It sat in a barn under a tarp.

We pull the tarp off of it and we immediately start getting this aroma.

Something’s not right.

Something has been living in my truck.

The field mice and pack rats had claimed Mike K five as their new home and had chewed probably 75% of the wiring and all the hoses out of my truck.

And they had done that and they had done that within a 15 month period of my truck sitting unreal,

absolutely destroyed it.

They,

it destroyed the interior,

the fuel line.

They had chewed through fuel lines.

I was like,

I,

so it just sat for a few more months.

I had a buddy,

I had a buddy of mine that had a motorcycle that he was wanting to get rid of.

I was like,

I tell you what,

let’s make a tree.

I was like,

I’m so frustrated with this thing.

Now,

we traded straight across for an 82 Suzuki Gs 750 gsgsxr.

It was the grandfather to what today’s jigs are.

It was,

they hadn’t,

so this bike didn’t have the fairings on it yet.

The 83 is when they started putting the fairings on them and that’s when it became the Jer.

So mine was just the G FX,

ok.

And then,

but I never got that bike running and sold it and sold that bike for about 300 bucks.

Wow.

So that’s what you got out of your $30,000 K 5 then is uh 300 bucks and I’m kicking myself,

my grandfather about beat my ass.

I have,

I’ve slammed my head against the wall many,

many times.

Um,

regretting,

regretting.

That was probably the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life except for a couple of ex-wives.

But uh that’s so I’ve been on the hunt for another K five ever since I want another 85 I’ve got a 77 K 5.

It will never be street legal when I’m done with it.

It will be a trailer.

It’ll be a trailer queen because it will not be street legal when I’m done with it.

Um It’s gonna be a fun bugey and I plan to use,

I plan to use either my 83 3 quarter ton or my 81 day,

10,

half ton to trailer it to the playground.

Very cool when it’s done.

Well,

man,

I’ve got my fingers crossed for you that you find the one that you really want,

but I’m glad that you have one to kind of take the edge off a little bit while you’re looking for the one that you really want.

But,

uh,

Tony,

yeah,

my wife’s so mad at me right now because I got that 81 and she’s like,

all right,

you’re gonna have to get rid of one of the other ones.

I said,

no,

I will never,

they are not getting sold.

I will not,

I will not part with them.

It’s,

it’s not gonna happen.

Well,

take my advice here and don’t tell her that you just did a 40 minute podcast about all of your toys either because that only makes you want to go out and play with them more and put more money into them.

Uh,

no,

she’ll be listening to it.

She’ll,

she’ll hear it.

She’ll hear it.

She already knows she’ll hear it.

Keep your eye out,

keep your eye out.

I am looking for a late seventies to mid-eighties.

K 10 short bed steps side.

That is my absolute dream truck.

I want a square body short bed steps,

side,

four wheel drive.

That is my absolute dream truck.

Well,

it sounds like one heck of a dream man and I will be uh on board to uh follow the story whenever you do find it.

And I wanna thank you today,

Tony for coming on and,

and sharing all this stuff like,

you know,

we,

we talk about a lot of serious stuff on this podcast all the time.

But I was really excited when we came up with this because I knew I was just gonna get to talk to some gear heads and that’s exactly what we just got to do for 40 minutes,

man.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you for coming on and we’re going to follow the saga.

You keep texting me.

If you find it,

you find the truck that you’re looking for or you make some updates.

Uh,

next time we do one of these episodes,

we’ll get you on here and see how,

uh how things are coming along for you.

All right.

Oh,

yeah,

absolutely.

Because I had every time I,

anytime I go home,

my wife gives me one day to work on whatever I want to work on and then the rest of the time it’s honeydew.

Sure.

Sure.

That’s,

that’s the,

that’s the,

uh,

most married guys are in some sort of bucket that looks like that.

So,

I’m glad that you got your day,

man.

Keep that day.

Hold on to it,

buddy.

Oh,

abso,

absolutely.

And she wonders why,

you know,

when,

when those days come,

I’m,

I’m up before the sun comes up and I don’t come back to the house until the sun goes down.

Right.

I’m down,

I’m down in my shop,

working on that truck every absolute minute I can.

That’s awesome.

I don’t want these projects getting strung out five or six years to get them built.

Yeah,

for sure.

And,

and all they do when they string out five or six years is start stringing out the checkbook too.

They just start costing more.

So,

because I’ve already got a sticker for my truck bill.

Not bought.

Perfect.

I love it,

man.

Well,

again,

I thank you so much for coming on here.

Keep us in the loop.

Uh,

I would love to hear about the projects and just be careful out there on the road and watch your fingers while you’re working on the trucks.

Of course.

Oh,

yeah,

absolutely.

I greatly appreciate you having me on here.

Sorry.

It was a little long winded with some of that.

But,

uh,

hey,

it’s a,

it’s a,

it’s a passion I can tell,

man.

And I would sit here and listen to you talk for a lot longer than what you just did.

So,

uh,

it’s not a problem.

You don’t have to apologize to us.

It’s great content.

We’ll keep you in the loop and we’ll get you back on here again soon.

All right,

Tony.

All right.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Ok.

So,

now you understand what I mean when I said this was an awesome episode.

Uh,

listening to Tony and Matt talk about coming up as young kids,

uh,

you know,

learning the ways of the mechanic,

uh,

building their own vehicles,

having their own cars that they’re really stoked about.

This is all things I just,

I could talk about this all day.

In fact,

if,

if Tony and I hadn’t have kind of run up against the clock there,

we’d probably still be talking to be honest with you and Matt as well.

Uh,

really want to thank Tony Brown and Matt Kleich for coming on sharing their stories with us.

And you may notice when you downloaded this episode that it is titled Part One Gearheads part one because I had such a good response here and we ran out of time so quickly that I’m gonna bring this episode back.

We are going to do a part two part three.

Hell part four.

We’re just gonna keep doing them for as long as you liquid drivers want to talk about your whips.

Now we’re not gonna do them right in succession.

We gotta work some business in here.

I gotta,

I gotta actually do my job rather than just sit here and have shop talk with the boys.

Uh But that being said,

I do want to come back to this and I want to extend the olive branch to anybody out there that might want to come out and talk about their rigs.

Um You can send us an email.

It’s really easy podcast at Liquid trucking.com That will end up in my hands.

All right.

So if you want to talk about your restoration projects,

your hot rods,

maybe you’ve got a rock crawler that you’re building.

Uh,

maybe it’s a boat.

Like let’s talk about your boats,

man.

I know out there liquid throws some lake parties from what I hear and I imagine there’s probably some pretty nice boats out there.

Let’s talk about that.

Let’s talk about your camp trailers or your motor homes,

your motorcycles.

I also know there’s a lot of bike riders out there and you guys take big pride in those little two wheeled machines or big two wheeled machines in a lot of cases.

I want to hear about it.

I’m not,

I,

I won’t do discriminate against anything.

You got a really sweet 18 speed huffy.

You wanna tell me about,

send the email podcast at Liquid trucking.com.

We’ll get you on here.

This was a lot of fun and,

uh,

you know,

it’s just the,

the job kind of lends itself to a person that has this aptitude,

especially liquid drivers.

You guys got to know all sorts of different skills that a lot of drivers don’t learn.

I mean,

if you’re hauling around a drive van,

you probably don’t have very much plumbing aptitude.

And I imagine that,

that aptitude can,

uh,

start to creep in when you’re replacing hoses and everything like that in a normal,

you know,

combustion engine or even an injected engine.

So I want to hear these stories again.

I’m,

I’m gonna stop beating this dead horse because we’re over time as it is before we even got to this wrap up segment.

So,

one more time for the homework and then I’ll get out of here podcast at Liquid trucking.com is the email if you want to join us for the next Gearheads episode or any other episode for that matter.

I’d love to hear from you.

If there’s something else that you would love to hear from.

This was just kind of an idea on a whim from Jason when we were meeting a week or so ago.

He’s like,

what about liquid whips?

Like talking to some of the drivers about their cars.

I had no idea when he brought this idea up that it was going to be such a great idea.

Uh,

but it was so let’s do it again down the road.

Some,

send me that email and,

uh,

of course,

if there’s anything else you want to hear about if you just want to be included,

maybe you’re one of these guys.

See,

I got some of these liquid drivers that will just say,

I don’t care what we’re talking about.

If you need somebody,

call me,

if you’re one of those types that will just talk about whatever it is that has to do with Liquid Trucking in some way,

shape or form.

You’re perfect for this podcast.

So also send that email.

I know I already said one more time,

but I’m gonna do it again one more,

one more time podcast at Liquid trucking.com.

You can also head over to Liquid trucking.com and click the podcast link up at the top of the page where my picture is and it will send you to a place where you can,

uh you can get that email address if,

if you’re having trouble remembering it or whatever.

I totally get it.

My mind turns to mush after like four hours in front of a computer screen,

you can’t imagine what your mind’s turned into after 11 hours,

uh,

driving across this great country with £80,000 on your back.

That’s gonna wrap up at episode 22.

Liquid Trucking.

You’re greatly appreciated.

I want all you drivers to stay safe out there.

Keep the shiny side up.

And since we mentioned them earlier,

it’s that time of year.

Keep your eye out for motorcycles right now that I’ve seen more of them out on the road in the last week or so than I have in the previous months combined,

the weather’s starting to turn those guys are taking those nice bikes out for a ride.

So make sure you keep an eye out for them and,

uh,

you know,

bicyclists,

Children,

all that stuff.

We’re coming up on the nice season and all those hazards are going to start to,

uh,

multiply out there on the road,

so stay safe.

keep the shiny side up and email me.

Would you thanks for tuning in and being the gold standard of drivers on the road.

Be sure to like and subscribe to the channel and tune in next week for another episode of the Liquid Trucking podcast.