[Shorty Cox]

Thanks for the post. I did enjoy. Looking at the photos made be “harken back” to a project I did about 15 years ago before the time of internet, digital cams, and this site for me. A friend had purchased a “Revell model kit of a ’64 Chevy C-10 for me as a gift. On one cold winter evening, after not putting a model kit together in some 30 years, I took it out of its box and proceeded to start assembly. Initially I was going to make it my “dream truck”. You know the truck I always wanted. However, while doing so, the thought of an actual truck that I see in my area came to mind.
In my area, there is a “handyman” that drives an old beat up mid-60s truck. Flat bed, rust eaten, dirty, trashy, and a combination of several different trucks put together over the years.
The more I thought about it the more I knew I had to build a model of that truck. So, for the next few weeks as time allowed, I would go to places where I knew the guy was known to “hang out”. I’d park next to his truck and study it. Doing so, I learned many things about the truck. It started life as a ’64 Chevy SWB, pale yellow with white top. Bed had been removed and a flatbed fabricated (two model A Ford flatbeds fused together to make one) installed. Saddle tanks (from a “Gleaner” combine) placed under the bed in front of the rear wheels. Both doors were replaced with orange doors, hood, and hood corners from a GMC. The bed has a huge cross bed tool box painted orange.
I gained much enjoyment fabricating parts, creating rust, dents, lights, trash for the dash board; tear in seat, west coast mirrors, and putting that model together. I even made miniature tools, winch, ladder, headache rack, and junk to place on the bed. Upon completion, I wanted to show it to the individual. Not really knowing the Individual other than by name, I was not sure what his reaction would be. After hauling the model with me several days, I finally located him at a café. I walked in with model in hand. As I passed the table he was seated at, I set the model on the table without explanation, then proceeded to the table behind him. I had no more than sat down when he turned around with model in hand and said, “This is amazing”.
I never intended to give the model to him, however after his reaction I could not take it back.
End of this long story. Several weeks later, I wrote a check to pay at a store. The clerk read my name on the check and asks, “Are you the guy that made the model of my father’s truck?” She told me he put the model on a shelf then instructed everyone in the house to never touch it. To this day, when I see that truck on the road, I think of that model truck and wonder if it is still on the shelf.
Wish I had taken a photo.
Shorty