Posted by Cliff - 1952 FF on Saturday, February 22, 2003 at 8:13PM :
In Reply to: What was your first truck? What year did you get it? posted by Chris Lube Lublin on Thursday, February 20, 2003 at 4:22AM :
I'm a youngin yet.
My first truck - that I drove - was my Dad's 1970 something Dodge 100 (2WD). I could never forget that long, single piece dash board and the 4 speed manual transmission. To put it in reverse, I swear, seemed like moving that lever over about 1 foot and back another. We later got a Ram Charger.
My father was the QC manager at the Belvidere assy plant (Illinois) so we only had Chrysler products in our driveway. When I was young they were still building cop cars at that time with the 440 interceptor and of couse the 426 hemi. They were friggin awesome - he would stomp it and the 4 barrel made the coolest whoooom whoooom sound. He used to bring home Chargers and even the Road Runners and Barracudas. Friggin fast machines that pumped out nearly 400HP - straight from the factory. My Dad was a big shot at the plant and always brought home "overnights" - a new vehicle every day - for inspection. In fact he did this until some dumb butt got the feds involved saying that they were buying used vehicles (meaning cars that have been driven by executives that tested them - were somehow USED vechicles). What a bunch of bull - my Pop went through those vehicles with a fine tooth comb - with a pride that I can only hope to ever duplicate. I would much rather buy a car that had been test driven by him (every once in a while he would get a unit that the wheel was loose (dangerous) or guages were messed up - and they would log it and fix it. No one - and I mean no one inspected cars like my Dad. The door fit, the windshield seals, paint, form , fit, finish. Every morning I could hear his heals clicking on the driveway as he walked around the vehicle in the drive opening the hood, doors, trunk, etc. then filling out a form pointing out the flaws.
One day he came home with some black and white photos that had been blown up - they had stood over Interstate 90 and took pictures every 10 seconds for 2 min.. They circled all of the foreign cars - little boxy units. He told my mom that they were doing this everywhere trying to see how bad the situation really was. The tech center was setup in Detroit and they stopped building the 426s and big cars and quickly switched to the Omni and Horizon. They built them for a long time - 9 years at least.
I even drove that little Omni/Horizon truck called a Rampage - not really a truck.
Then I built the cars with my Dad at the plant and saved for college. $13.50 an hour at the age of 18 was damn good. Paid for my college.
I got my own Dodge - a Shelby (2.2 L turbo) - blew the engine. I worked third shift and my Dad first. Came home and left my dad a note - he took the car to the plant - and when I woke up the car was back in the driveway - with a new engine.
You see - I have always been a Mopar man. For me it was a way of life. We all knew where the bread and butter was coming from.
I now "green sheet" every purchase of Chrysler product. Have a 2002 Ram 1500 (yes I have thought about putting the Power Wagon stickers on it). Just missed the Hemi - got the 360. It guzzles gas bigtime. When I complained to my pop about the 1 gallon to 10 miles that I get - he said that when you pay $30K for a truck - you should not be in a position to worry about gas prices. I suppose he is right - I really can't afford the new truck or the PW for that matter - but what can I say - he got me hooked! I have 3 boys that are getting hooked too. :) :)
I found out after I bought my PW - that my dad drove one all the time at a summer camp where he was a counselor for handicapped and terminal children. Summer after summer he said that the truck was there for him. However - sometimes, alot of the times the kids didn't come back. :( I seen the emotion hit him as he told me the story when he looked at my truck.
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