[bobs409]

Well, I finally made it to visit the original owner with the tow truck today. I pulled it right up to the front door and it sure looked GREAT! (if I do say so myself!)

Got to meet Vic and his brother. I didn't know he had a brother but had a great conversation with him especially. He told me he was the one that mostly operated the truck back in the day. We talked at least 1/2 hour out in the cold looking the truck over and he was blown away at how nice it looked.

He complimented me on my paint job especially and must have done so at least 20 times. (ok, maybe 10 or so) That's a great compliment coming from a body shop guy!

He told me he heard someone bought it and was restoring it which caught me off guard. I told him I wasn't sure if they would appreciate me bringing it back and didn't know what to expect but he said he was glad I did.

It was an interesting meeting. Turns out that after going out of business and closing up shop 3 years ago, they re-opened about a year later so they had something to do instead of just sitting around the house.

They don't do any major work anymore, just brakes and towing, etc. Vic is in his 80's and the brother looks a few years younger.

Told me it was a really great truck in it's day and it worked very hard. Said they hauled/towed some heavy trucks with it and it always ran great. He said that's back when they only had this truck and before they bought the larger wrecker & flat bed they had. He also mentioned it always liked it's gas and I said it still does! lol

He looked it over really good and asked many question. He seems to think the wheels were originally glossier than I have them so I will have to look into that. I used a semi gloss black. I told him I tried to make the truck look like it would have when it was new and he said that it did. I was glad to hear that because I never saw it in it's younger days.

So before I left, I handed him an 8 X 10 collage print for their shop that I had made up from 4 pics of the truck showing front, back, engine and interior.

I bet we'll be the talk of the shop for a few days at least. LOL

This is the first time I ever contacted a previous owner of any of my cars. Wasn't sure if I was going to get shot, chased or welcomed. Glad things turned out so well...