Sales & Service Teams now available 7 days a week!

Cherry Bomb

This '54 pickup has spent its whole life in my family. My father bought it new in 1954, and drove it daily until he got the hot rod bug and parked it to do some "hop-up" mods. Sadly, he became ill and passed away in 1964 at age 48, well before I was old enough to drive.

When I got my license, I managed to get the truck running in stock form in 1968, before I got the feeling that it needed a new exterior look. I threw a "quickie" paint job on it, and drove it until it wore out in 1982. At that point, I put it back in the barn, where Dad had planned to modify it, and it stayed there until 2003, when I finally had the money and time to restore it properly.

Dad used to love setting off cherry bomb firecrackers on the Fourth ofJuly, and that, along with Dad's forgotten pile of speed equipment, inspired me to turn the old truck into the eye-catching "Cherry Bomb" he always wanted. I did a total frame-off restoration myself, and I only farmed out the interior sewing and engine machine work. I finished it in late 2005, at which point my daughter Vicky and I joined the "Long Haul Gang" on the 2006 Hot Rod Power Tour. The TouJ weny straight through Orlando, and Vicky attended Full Sail College there. The truck was featured in Right Coast magazine in 2007, and won "Best Truck/Van" at the 2009 Motorama indoor show in Syracuse, NY. It is still in show-stopping condition, and has won several first or "Best Of " prizes in numerous shows.

I'm well past retirement age, but I have not yet retired-there's still too much I want to do for me to consid­er retirement. I still run Summer Hill Auto Salvage full-time (where, incidentally, my truck was restored to the condition it's in now), and I still have my trucking company. I also have a couple other classic Chevys, including a '57 Bel Air convertible and a 1935 Chevy panel truck, which is on loan to a local museum (CNY Living History-Brockway Truck museum), which my grandfather bought new. I'm also a lifetime member of the Antique Truck Historical Society, the Antique Automobile Club of America, the 7 Valley Street Rods club from Cortland, NY, and Chevy Classics International.

There are a lot of people I'd like to thank, including Jim Hopkins, my tal­ented helper at Summer Hill Auto Salvage, Rick Rude at Groton Auto Supply, who mixed paint and provided materials, Joe Hora, who did the machine work on the engine rebuild, and Dick and Jan Smith. Dick has since passed away, but I still miss hearing him answer calls with a cheery "Groton Auto, Dick speaking!"

Chevy Classics - November 2018

Search engine powered by ElasticSuite