Howdy all, and welcome to Butter the Truck's thread! While Butters is not as big a project as many of the other trucks here, I figured it would be fun to have a place to show off our truck as she's slowly fixed up and restored (and I mean slowly!).
A little background on the truck: Butters was purchased new at a dealership in the Dalles and moved to eastern Oregon (near Redmond) where it stayed for many years. The original buyer stuck a camper in the back and used it for camping excursions but otherwise kept it indoors or under cover. When he passed away, the truck went to his son or nephew (there is some debate about who it was exactly). That gentleman did not know what to do with it and kept it stored indoors for a number of years until he decided it was better to part with it. In 2002, he sold it to its third owner, a very nice fellow who bought it thinking he would restore it or perhaps turn it into a fun little hotrod. He stuck it in his garage...and there the truck sat. In 13+ years of ownership, he put a whopping 3k miles on it.
In early June 2015, the 3rd owner decided to attend a good-sized car show in Sherwood Oregon. And seeing that he'd owned the truck for so long and had never gotten around to restoring it, he thought he would stick a for sale sign in the window when he parked the truck in a lot adjacent to the show and see if he got any bites. Well, we've made it a family tradition to take dad out for breakfast and to the Sherwood car show to celebrate father's day for several years now. As a stroke of luck (or fate!), we parked in the same lot as the truck, and dad spotted it as we were walking in. He marveled at its exceptionally good condition, and knowing we had need for a truck and that we had a tax return burning a hole in our collective pocket, he encouraged my husband and I to call.
I called and texted the owner, hoping we would get the chance to check out the truck while we were at the show, but did not get a call back in the 90 minutes we were there. When we walked back to our car, the truck was gone, and my heart broke a little thinking somebody else had leapt upon her. I got home and started looking online for a similar truck, and realized after shopping around for an hour both what in good shape and good price she was, and my heart broke a little more.
Then my phone lit up with a text message.
The owner and I, along with my dad and husband, met up an hour later and we went over every inch of her. Dad kept marveling at her great condition. I kept telling dad to stop taking away every bargaining chip I had
After a test drive, we agreed upon a price, shook hands, and the next day (Father's Day) we met with cash-in-hand, and I brought Butters home.
Here are some pictures from the day Butters came home:
We got the ugly canopy off her as fast as we could. Fortunately it was only on her briefly as we moved the canopy from point A to B.
And Butters first day of work on the job, hauling hay!
Obie the Dwarf goat approves of the new ride:
Last week Butters got her whites whiter!
More to come...
