The start of this dream goes back over a decade. I didn't get semi-serious until 2 years ago. And I didn't get real serious until a little over a year ago when I purchased the IH vehicles that would form the core of my build.
About 10 years ago I kept driving past a dead Travelette in the front yard of a house near Ruch, OR. (Edit - a "Travelette" is the model name of an IH Crewcab) Every time I drove past it something would tug at me. I think it was that it had sunk low enough into the weeds that it looked kind of cool like a cruiser. I kept saying "that sort of looks cool but not really - I wonder what it is about that look?"
But I never did anything with the thoughts and then one year the truck was gone and I stopped thinking about it.
A few years later a red one popped up in Sutherlin right along I5. This was a crummy - a logging rig. Seeing it revived my curiosity. I finally stopped and took some pictures. It was beat to chit. I went home and started playing around with crops of the pictures - trying to figure out what it was about the body that had made me think something that fugly had the potential to look OK.
I finally decided that IF:
a) the hood was shorter
b) the roof was lower
c) the bed was longer
d) the rear axle was further away
e) the crew compartment was a little shorter
That there was in fact a decent looking and very unique cruiser lurking inside the Travelette.
At that point it was fun playing paper dolls with photo crops. But once I had the basic look I was starting to get hooked. So, I said "hey what the hell - how expensive can a Travelette be?" So I hopped on the internet and starting trying to find one...
...that was in decent BODY condition..... but wasn't show quality.... and that was affordable.
Well ultimately I came to the conclusion that there wasn't such an animal. There are always a few Travelettes for sale but they all have had a hard life and their sheet metal is usually trashed. And then every so often there is a real cherry but it is usually available for top $$$$ and I AM A CHEAP BASTARD MOFO.
I pretty much gave up at that point.
Then I had a wild *** idea. If I was going to do a bunch of chopping on the cab anyway to get the unique cruiser look I wanted, then who said I had to start with a Travelette? I started wondering whether I could find a decent pickup AND a decent Travelall and then ... uh.... welllll um... just do some kind of magic whupass on the two cabs and make my own crew cab.
Well it didn't take much effort to find two trucks with decent sheet metal and for low $$$'s (pre economic meltdown $$$'s).
Sooooo..... I bought them!!!