We kept the 68 Chevy for a long time as a 3rd vehicle. I only put about
13000 miles on it in over 20 years.
It actually rode pretty good as it had the coil spring rear suspension.
We also had new radial tires which did not hurt either.
It also hauled whatever I could put in the box as it had the half leaf
overload springs.
I truly enjoyed having it, especially in the earlier years when my
primary vehicle was a car.
But, it had its faults and they got more annoying as newer vehicles came
along.
It was noisy on the highway - mostly wind noise as the aerodynamics were
not nearly as good as the newer vehicles.
It was also pretty hard on fuel.
The last few years that we had it, we had it out at the lake. We lacked
parking at home and we did not really need it at home most of the time.
It was out in the weather and one could see the paint deteriorating etc.
It either needed some attention or to be sold.
I considered putting money into it but very quickly decided that $10K
was not going to make it anywhere near equal to a newer truck.
I was driving a 98 F150 4X4 regular cab shortbox with a V6 and a 5 Speed
manual transmission as my daily driver about then.
I paid $12K for the Ford and it was so much nicer to drive than the old
Chevy that I could not justify putting that sort of money in the old truck.
I already had my 300D as my extra vehicle so it again made it difficult
to justify the truck.
So, I sold it. My wife and my younger son are still annoyed as they
thought we should keep it but I still think I made the right call as I
don't have time to do it myself and I couldn't really afford to have a
shop do it. One needs deep pockets and long arms to reach into those
pockets if one starts hiring people to build custom antique vehicles. I
was never interested in having it be a show vehicle. If it is too nice
then one is afraid to use it. I sort of feel like that about my current
truck. I bought the 02 at about 5 years old with 90K miles and a few
dings so I did not mind hauling whatever with it even though it was a
nice Lariat with leather etc. The 13 has a hard tonneau cover and I have
yet to load anything really questionable in the box. It has become sort
of a big sedan with a big trunk in my mind.
I have the 13 Supercrew and my son has my previous 02 Supercrew so we
really did not need another truck.
If I drove a car all the time as my daily driver then it might have made
sense just to keep it at the lake to launch and retrieve the boat and
haul junk away etc, but we use the truck to run back and forth to the
lake to haul building materials etc and the new one is much nicer for
those trips - 175 miles each way.
So, the long and the short of it is, that I liked the old Chevy and I
miss it sometimes but all good things come to an end. It had ceased to
be practical and I preferred having my old 300D as my toy vehicle.
RB
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