2015: Year of the Truck

Anyone who has ever undertaken a total amateur project like this knows things never go as planned. When we first got it running three and a half years ago, I figured I'd be cruisin' soon after. But then I realized that the rear end was leaking on both sides, two of the brake drums were so warped they couldn't be turned, I needed a new front panel and stake pockets for the bed, and in my wallet was little more than some lint and a bunch of old business cards. I was unemployed at the time and the money wasn't there, so all that stuff would just have to wait. For a while.

The job situation has finally stabilized somewhat, but it's still not what it needs to be to maintain the every day bills and this project. I'm currently working on expanding my commercial driver's license with the hope of opening up new (and better paying) opportunities. In the meantime, I've thankfully been able to free up a few bucks here and there and we've been inching toward that monumental first drive, which WILL happen this spring.

Here's what's left on the to do list:
1 – Mount new dual feed master cylinder, run brake lines, finish brake job
2 – New battery
3 – Registration and insurance
4 – Drive

If the price is right there might be a new rear end in the mix to give us five lugs all the way around (5 lug front disc kit is already installed), but that does not need to happen before we take the first drive.

And that's pretty much where we're at. I have to say how much I appreciate the interest people are showing in our little adventure here, especially the sudden explosive growth of our Facebook fan base. One week ago we had just under 450 fans. This morning as I type that number is over 1100, and I did not pay a dime to get them. It only happened because some very cool people who manage a few pages with much larger audiences decided to share the John's Old Truck page. So once again, a big time thanks to those new friends and everyone who has hopped on board with us.

Stay tuned and we'll see ya down the road!

John


###

Kickstarter Postmortem

I have to say I was not shocked when we hit the 30 day deadline last week and were not even close to having the project funded. Ours was far from the typical Kickstarter effort. I did pretty much everything that someone with precious little spare cash can do - blogged, promoted heavily on social media, wrote press releases and enlisted the help of crowd funding professionals, all to no avail. I did get a bunch of messages from people trying to sell me expensive marketing campaigns, which might have helped. But if I had all the money they wanted me to spend, I probably wouldn't have needed Kickstarter in the first place.

So I won't be going on any cross country road trips in the old truck anytime soon. But I will drive it for the first time in the spring of 2015 after dreaming about it for 33 years, and that will be a great day. We'll also have a great time hitting local cruise nights here and there. Really looking forward to hangin' with friends who have some pretty cool rides.

See y'all down the road!


###

Then and Now / Kickstarter Update

Just fidddlin' with some pics this morning and decided to do a "Then and Now" post. Top is brother Pete with the truck in 1981, bottom is as it sits in our driveway today...



Eventually she'll be sportin' the original Forester Green that many of these trucks came with from the factory. For now we just want to get down the road, which WILL happen come Spring 2015, the first day of which is only 125 days away! It's just a matter of finishing up the brake system, throwing in a new battery, then registration and insurance and we'll be rolling.

KICKSTARTER UPDATE:
16 days and $34,530 to go. It's a long shot, but that's pretty much par for the course on Kickstarter, which has a 44% success rate across the board. Still, I believe anything can happen (you know, like potato salad guy) and we'll take this thing right to the last hour. I'd really appreciate it if you would check out our Kickstarter link, contribute if you think it's worthy and/or share with friends. Anyone with any questions on the project can contact me directly anytime from that page. Thanks again!


###