Well, This Is A Lot Harder Than It Looks

John sat down to try to impose a photo of the truck onto this old Studebaker garage picture, thinking that anybody could do it. Well, yes, anybody can do it with a little patience and two stiff drinks and with the help of Tracy (and give or take two hours of swearing at the computer.) Not bad for our first try. We know the truck doesn't match the time period that the photo was taken, but we like to think it's artistic license. Hmmm....maybe we need to get out more......... (We're starting to wonder what it would look like in the JFK motorcade...The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade....On the track at Daytona....)

Got Ink?

I guess getting pin striping is a little like getting a tattoo. It's mildly addictive! Ever since we had Joel Nelson do the pin striping on the inside roof of the cab and inside our door panels, John's been looking for another "bare spot" for him to tackle. Actually, as awesome as the pin striping has been, it's in a place where people seldom look, so we were looking for a little more detail that would draw everyone's eyes into and around the cab. This new section does the trick!

John has been toying with the idea of adding a logo to the back window, and since Tracy was a little afraid that was going to be added to her list next (the logos on the door were challenging enough), we had Joel work on that, as well.

Although John's initial choice was "You #2 is our #1 business," Tracy was more comfortable with this neutral choice:

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can also see (in the bottom right corner) that this truck is "Unit no. 3." John says this is his tribute to Tracy (since she's his 3rd wife!) That would explain the saying in the lower left corner: "Driver carries no cash."

Joel Nelson has once again done an awesome job for us and we love the new additions to our truck! We can cross another item off of our list. Now, if only Santa reads this blog...

A Clean Slate.

There's nothing that feels better than a clean garage! After countless weekends of being the stage for the truck's re-wiring saga, the garage was in a pretty sad state. Tools, metal filings, and spare wire tidbits found their way into nooks and crannies unimaginable. It was time to take charge! With a little surprise thunderstorm providing some background music as we re-organized (hey, rain is gold in Arizona!), it was hard to get upset about the few leaves and twigs that blew back in.

While we were at it, we updated our "To do" list. Hmm...think Santa will see our subtle hints?

You Light Up My Life........

With the new wiring system, many old features became new again, like this map light. The heat that the light bulb puts off will replace the heater that John removed during the clean up process!

Look Mom, no holes! As a certain someone was cleaning out the garage (which consists of throwing away everything not attached to the truck), he came across an old paper bag that came with the truck. Inside were these lenses for the light bezels (the rectangular lenses covering the truck's running lights). Who knew?

The running lights are actually working now that the truck has been re-wired, which was another reason why having the proper covers for them was so exciting.

This is the new tail light that we put in. John's been looking for one of these for a long time. This is a case where having a reproduction light has been better than having an original (Tracy was so happy that John didn't win the one he was bidding on via Ebay).

It's probably best not to mention how difficult it actually is to install one of these lights without breaking the glass lens.

After three attempts (numerous bulbs, a fuse, and a full dustpan of glass), it was literally time to "Stop!" the insanity. Luckily, the end result is worth it!

1st Annual Queen Creek Safeway Breast Cancer Car Show!

The truck is up and running, so we enjoyed an evening show down the road at our local Safeway shopping center. The show was small, but very well run. Hopefully they will make it an annual event and it will grow as word gets around.

The Queen family joined us and we all brought the kids. Since there was no jumping castle, John popped them all in the back of the truck and we watched them jump around a bit and test the shocks (that always makes the fellow car show people a little nervous!). This raised an interesting question: just how many small children CAN you fit in the back of a '55 Studebaker truck?

A Few From The Road.

All right, so you can't make everyone happy ALL the time. Those who are strictly Studebaker fans may not enjoy all of these pictures, but occasionally we see some other vehicles that catch our eye. All of these vehicles are right off the interstate at Desert Gardens Mobile Home Sales in Quartzsite, Arizona. We stopped by and wandered around a little bit on our way back from Disneyland.

This whole set-up was pretty awesome.

This old Studebaker Champion was sitting in a back lot.

We also spied this Studebaker (Hawk?) as we were making the rounds.

This beauty ('41? Studebaker President) has mis-matched front hubcaps. The back wheels match...they don't have any hubcaps at all! Is it just us, or does this price seem a little steep? Oh well, fun to look at in any case. You can find a complete listing of their cars for sale at www.classiccars.com (click on Desert Gardens) or www.desertgardenscars.com. The gentleman we spoke to said that they have over 25 Studebakers for sale.

Studebaker?

Probably not, but this was the closest thing we could find at Disneyland! When it's a cartoon car, you can't always tell (haha...we can't always tell, anyway). Anyway, it's a Studebaker in our hearts and at Disneyland...everything is what you make of it!