By Barbara Jorgen Nance
This truck is actually a steel quilt, woven and welded together. In the beginning, we bought 2 -+ trucks, cut them up and pieced them together like a jig-saw puzzle. My husband, Sherwood, collaborates with me on my steel sculptures, and I help him restore cars. We've been a duet for forty some years now.
Some of the truck parts were useless, lost to time and rust. Other sections really showed their age, but the metal was so interesting looking, we resurrected them as much as possible. We left all the various patinas on the metal from each donor truck. It's a steel quilt that maps each of the trucks' histories. Every vehicle has a story to tell. But old trucks don't keep diaries or write their memoirs. So, along comes a writer, like me, and with a little imagination fills in some of the gaps in the storyline.
One must realize the rarity of these 2-+ trucks, especially since they were pre-WWII. Not many vehicles survived the two major steel drives for the war effort during WWII. Our country needed steel and folks could show their patriotism. Then later in the 70s, reclamation centers sprouted up like mushrooms and started paying for scrap metal, which could have been easy money for someone with fifty old cars in their yard. But our 2-+ trucks survived. They were retired and put out to pasture in rural New Mexico for years to come, until Sherwood came across them. The trucks weren't on eBay or anywhere for sale. It was just happenstance. He inquired to buy one truck, which soon turned into two trucks. Since the seller also had another half of a truck in the back forty, we ended up with 2-+ trucks. I about fainted when I first laid eyes on the rusted scrap pile of ancient truck skeletons. But the challenge and potential was there. We're used to working with scrap metal sculptures. The only difference was this new challenging sculpture would be on wheels.
The process of cutting and forging and welding our quilted steel truck body would be too lengthy to go into for this column. But I will say, when we finished, we had a cool truck. We named him Sparky. Next, we had to bring Sparky to life with a heart transplant. Well, a new motor. Well, sort of new. The donor motor, a 350 Chevy came out of a 1981 Camaro. It needed work, but Sherwood has re-built his share of motors, so he knows his way around an engine.
Sparky got new shoes, well, tires and rims. We ran across some bucket seats and other accessories. My least favorite job was the headliner, but Sparky was worth the work to complete. Now, with new registration as an official 1936 truck, which form the majority of the parts, we're on the road, streaming Pandora radio while cruising the streets of Silver City. I love driving Sparky around. It's a cool adventure!
Ponder On.