The return of Li’l Red…a reunion story

[Critter]

THIS IS THE TRUCK THAT STARTED IT ALL FOR ME!

It’s December 1990 and my older brother has just turned 16, I will be 12 the next month. He had saved his money and with a little help from my parents he bought a 72 swb stepside from a shop down the road that specialized in these trucks. We were told it had a 305 HO and trans from a mid 80s Monte Carlo SS (installed at that shop). Overall it looked pretty nice. It had obviously had some body work done to it but a recent red and white paint job looked good from 20ft away. My bother soon gathered a lot of attention driving the truck that was dubbed "Li’l Red" by him and his group of buddies. It was loud, fast, and could usually be seen hauling @ss around at all hours of the night on weekends (my brother snuck out of the house a lot!) Over the next couple years I was right in the middle of things when my bother would work on the truck; exhaust pipes, window tint, stereo install, etc. All the fun stuff that teenage boys do to their trucks was performed in the driveway with a little bother looking on. I was, of course, infatuated with this 72 of my big brothers! It was the first 67-72 I ever sat in, the first one I ever drove, the first one I ever worked on, you name it. Around 1995 my bother traded the 72 to a guy in a neighboring town for a ¾ ton crew cab. By this time I was fully infected by the 67-72 bug and a few months later I bought a 68 step side that I put a lot of work into after I turned 16…but that’s another story for another time.

The new owner never intended to keep the truck, he just took it for trade because he was a friend of a friend and he knew it had some value. He soon sold it to another man in the same town and at that time we lost track of the truck. A few years go by, I sell my 68, leave for college, and all the other stuff that comes along with growing up. In the summers I go back to my hometown to work with my father and sometime around 2000 I happened to run across the truck in the neighboring town where my brother had traded it. A few months go by and I notice the truck moves around in the driveway but that’s about it. I stop and ask the gentleman if he would sell it and of course he wouldn’t. A few more years go by and the truck disappears from the house but not long after I spot it a few miles down the road. This goes on for a few years, the truck would appear and disappear each time looking a little more faded and run down. The last time I saw it was September of 2010…until 2 nights ago when I ran across it on craigslist. First thing yesterday morning I called the owner and set up a time to meet. Today I drove the 90 miles back to the town it has been in since 95 and bought it.

After speaking with the owner I found out that the entire time, over all the years, it had been in his family. The gentleman that I stopped to ask if it was for sale years ago was the father of the current owner. At some point a nephew had owned it then he moved to a different house, etc. This explained all the moving around that it did in that small town. The whole time the family had it they didn’t really do much to the truck. The transmission was rebuilt a few years ago, the blue fender had been put on, but other than this and the fading paint it was largely unchanged from how my brother owned it. The 93 model steering wheel, the mid 80s rally wheels, the sloppy driveway tint job, the dented up front grill, all things my brother did that are still there! The guy I bought it from was about to have it painted so a few things were recently upgraded. He installed a brand new Vintage air system, a new wood bed and replaced pretty much all the suspension components front and back. The bumpers were removed and the truck was sitting at a body shop waiting for paint and body when the owner changed his mind and decided he needed the money more than the truck. If he had followed through with the paint job I would no longer recognize this truck in the community and you wouldn’t be reading this right now.

The truck is rough, no doubt about it. I now realize that the shop back in the day had mixed and matched a few parts and emblems when they were getting it ready to sell, but oh well. The cab needs the usual rust repair but no worse than the majority I see in this part of the country. The green paint showing through the red is because the truck was originally a US Army truck, the spid confirms this. My brother and I didn’t know much about these trucks originality back in the 90s but since then I have absorbed the knowledge of this website and uncovered a lot. There are also the government codes which are interesting to me, never seen those on other trucks before.

I know this is extremely long-winded but I am as excited as I can be and have to share with others who understand. I have followed this truck around for 17 years. I can trace my love/obsession with 67-72 trucks back to this exact truck! The course of my life has been changed by this truck! Starting my own business in the auto performance industry can be traced back to this truck!!! Now if I could only track down my old 68…

Here are a few crappy cell phone pics from tonight and a couple from the craigslist ad, obviously more will follow as I can take them in the daylight. If you made it this far, I'm surprised! Thanks for reading.