Been working on this for a while now and then it finally happened this afternoon when I took the pickup out for a ride. Beautiful day despite the chill in the air. Made me wonder how many times this truck & speedometer have done the cycle.
Nice truck and looks like it is brand new from the pics, or damn near it! I love those milestone kind of pics and I take them too. Somewhere I have a picture of my OT 2002 Ford F150 turning over to 250,000 and the speedo reading an easy 90 mph. It now has 285,000 and will still do that mph all day long, but I digress, as this story is definitely OFF TOPIC and is nowhere near as cool as your truck!
if I had to sell it I could call it a “Demonstrator”. By the way I haven’t seen dealers around here use that term to describe the cars used by salespeople they sold before hey hit 6000 miles. Yep- it helps keep him warm. Mrs Avater made that for him.
Brings back memories of us teenagers running all over and getting excited watching an old used 50-60’s car run past 100,000 miles. Nowadays it’s no big hurdle in everyday drivers.
Nice truck ! My dad had a 58 Lincoln that turned 100k on the way to trade it in. It was smooth & quiet, and ran like a scalded dog. The only thing replaced on it was the resonators.
Pete, I'm happy for you. The truck still looks like new. Thanks for your Veteran's Day message, I appreciate it.
Thank you all for your kind words. Been looking forward to rolling over the odometer for some time now. Let’s see how much farther she’ll go.
Hey A, That is an amazing feat. I am sure it was a wonderful feeling to be in the great looking truck when it happened. It is hard to imagine what was seen during all of those miles. It is too bad there wasn’t a recording device to show the past events in the truck’s lifetime. When I bought my 1965 El Camino, I did not know I would be driving it over 100,000 miles, too. I was coming home from a So Cal photo shoot and saw that I was getting close to the magical marker. So, I pulled over in a residential neighborhood and slowed down until it was at 99999. At the time, it was night and I just sat there thinking of all of the episodes this El Camino has gone through over the years. It was one of those chilling effects despite the warm evening of the So Cal summer. Then, it was rolling forward to 000,000 and then to the magical 000,001 on that tiny gauge. Those Eastside Long Beach neighbors, near the LB Airport, seeing the red El Camino rolling slowly in their neighborhood probably thought it was a robber casing the houses… But, it was just me at a high point in car ownership and longevity. Actually, it was late 1964 that I purchased the new 1965 El Camino. I was getting ready to drive 450 miles to Northern California for school. My folks said I had to have a new reliable car/truck to get me there and back countless times over the next 4 years. By the end of January 1965, I had driven the longest trip in that El Camino and it purred like cat for the next 12 years. The ownership went through years of college, meeting my future wife, going on long road trips, forays into surf spots South of the border, into the deep deserts of California, up to the forests of Northern California, the ski trips to the Colorado River, down the coast countless times and making room for our little guy that showed up one year, prior to selling it. Jnaki After the moment of 99999 to 100000 and then to 100001, I looked forward to further adventures in the El Camino. Little did I know as a 20 something ,that it would last 25000 more miles with only one repair in its history, a water pump replacement. Some happy go lucky surfer from Dana Point bought the El Camino with 125k miles on it, but still running like it was brand new. The clear plastic seat covers did its job, despite 125k miles at the sale, the interior looked like it rolled off of the showroom floor. It must have been built in Fremont, CA on a Wednesday, no holiday on either side and the GM workers hard at midweek quality. My nightime photos of the 1965 El Camino’s historic moment got lost in the many household moves and house cleaning purges. Congratulations on a historic milestone on your cool truck. Many happy more miles to go for you…
Jnaki, Thank you for your kind words and story. Nice accomplishment with the ElCamino as well. Getting all those miles out of that vehicle with such limited repairs is a testament to your maintenance as well as vehicle durability. I have to admit I felt like a kid when the odometer rolled over. Trucks back when that one was built most often had a rough life. My dads ‘49 Chevy pickup hauled more stuff, taught several how to drive and over all worked very hard all it’s life when it finally left us many years after a donor ‘50 car engine was transplanted. Knowing what that truck lived trough made me ponder what my vehicle survived from its past. Thank you for sharing!
I see Pat and Tina were looking after the Speedo... Contrary to much popular opinion there is a lot of spirit in that...like my Avatar...earned...
Oops-totally missed that one. Re build thread: No. Bought the truck before I knew of the HAMB close to 15 years ago. I did swap out the transmission for a wide ratio set of gears after breaking an axle and changing to 3:55 gears for better highway manners a number of years back. Added turn signals because I got tired of angry responses when I hand signaled. Aside from that, not much else. It has a sweet running flathead and I leave that alone save for maintenance. Thanks for asking.