A Man and His Truck (or "why Stephen loves NM")

Rust. It is the bane of the car guy's existence. And New York State is famous among car guys for its 24-hour dry road policy, which entails salting the roads before a storm even begins. The amount of salt used in NY means that no matter how often you wash your vehicle, it is going to rust before your eyes. That's why car guys put away their collector cars in October and don't get them out again until May. But you can't put away your beloved (and very expensive) truck for the winter!

One of the first things Stephen noticed about ABQ is that people are driving around in trucks from the 70's and 80's, and they aren't restored or modified -- they're just trucks. Work trucks! People also drive their collector cars year-round, which is like a NY car guy going to heaven.

Here is a picture of the Silver Beauty in her youth.

And here's what New York did to her:

The floor of the bed had rusted to the point that stuff was falling out of it and the back fenders were gone. A couple of weeks ago, Stephen found a guy on Craig's List who was selling a practically pristine silver bed that he had removed from his truck in order to replace it with a tool box bed. Stephen used the car trailer to pick up the new bed and bring it home. Last weekend he removed the old bed from the truck using a torch since the bolts were so rusted.

Last night when I got home, he was positioning the new bed.

And here's the Silver Beauty looking a little more beautiful. Stephen wants me to point out that he has done all of this in our driveway in January and February, sometimes without a jacket!