1946 Chevrolet Pickup
Personal story and photograph submitted by owners Dan and Kim MacNish
for participation in the the 2008 GM Century Cruise
Our Journey Began in June of 2002
Once upon a summer afternoon at a car show where my father in-law was showing his 1932 Coupe, My wife, Kim, and I spotted a 1937 Ford Pick-up. Kim thought that it was "cute" and suggested that that would be something that she would like and it would also be useful, too.
A couple of weeks later, during a meeting I noticed a calendar of "old trucks" on the wall of the gentleman I was meeting with. We started chatting about my dream of restoring an old car or truck but that I didn’t know exactly what I would like to have. He told me that a friend of his had driven past an old truck earlier that morning in Westland on his way to work –perhaps I would be interested in checking it out too?
I decided to take a drive that afternoon. I made my way to the corner of Cherry Hill and Wayne Roads in Westland and there she was! The owner came out and we talked for a bit about the history of the little ’46 Chevy. He had purchased it from Georgia and brought it to Michigan. He really hadn’t done much work to it. He had other vehicles that he was in the process of restoring, which were taking up most of his time, and he had had just been laid-from his job and couldn’t afford to keep it. The truck was in reasonable running order but needed lots of TLC. I explained to him that I needed to have my wife come to look at it so that we could decide if it was really what we wanted.
The interesting part is that on that specific day, I had forgotten my wallet in my haste to leave the house! So, with $5.00 (which I had borrowed from a guy at work) and a business card, I asked the owner if he would "hold" the truck until I had a chance to talk to my wife and I would call him later that evening. I talked to Kim that night and she said that if I thought it was a good deal that it was "ok" with her. The next day when we returned with the check to look at the truck one more time, Kim’s first comment was "it’s cute". So, my next comment to the seller was "SOLD"! With that said, we test drove the truck one more time together, sealed the deal with a hand shake, paid for the truck and were on our way.
The rest, my friends, is history as they say. We purchased the little Chevy Pick-up and have spent the last five years restoring her....The process has been long and slow – as any restoration buff will tell you – but the end result is well worth the frustrations and anxiety we all experience.
GM’s Century Cruise pays tribute to GM’s past and the passion owners have for their vehicles. On Saturday, August 16, 2008 this vehicle and more than 100 other classic GM vehicles will cruise from the GM Global Headquarters at the Renaissance Center up Woodward Avenue to the heart of the Woodward Dream Cruise in Royal Oak and the surrounding suburbs. One of these vehicles will be crowned “top cruiser” based on a text voting campaign.
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