Pickup Lines

It�s funny how your perspective changes throughout your life. When you�re a kid, the louder and brighter a hot rod was, the more you loved it. You couldn�t wait to get a little change in your pocket so you could have a cool car, too. You didn�t think much about your grandfather�s old pickup truck at the time. Then the time came and you did have some change in your pocket, but it wasn�t very much. That old pickup truck was about all you could afford to fool with. You wrenched on that thing and drove it like you stole it. Of course you traded that old truck off as soon as you found a deal on something �cooler� and faster.

What you didn�t count on, was spending the rest of your life wishing you�d kept that old truck

It was slow. The steering was just barely better than a farm tractor. It was squeaky and rattled like a coffee can full of marbles. It smelled like burnt motor oil and mud. It was dinged up and played out, but it was hypnotic and addictive. Old pickup trucks somehow find a way to our hearts. Maybe it�s because there�s always a fond memory that includes an old truck. Maybe it�s because they were cheap and often ended up in the hands of new drivers. Whatever the magic is surrounding old pickup trucks, they are most definitely loved by many. Many of us can remember intently watching Stacy David on �Trucks�. He�d be installing a new fuel tank or whatever on an old truck to get it going again. We felt like that was our truck being repaired, and in a way it was. So many of us, sooner or later have wrenched on an old truck. Whether it was the family trash hauler or grandpa�s daily driver, we�ve been there. These days pickup trucks are as popular as ever, and like everything else, restoring an old truck can get expensive in a hurry. The results are getting wilder by the minute, too. People are stuffing junkyard LS power plants and air bag suspensions into them left and right, turing them into legitimate hot rods. The immense popularity of the classic pickup truck also keeps even the most respected shops busy building incredible customs out of them. Restoring an old truck doesn�t have to be a $200,000 project. You can still build one on the cheap and plenty of folks are doing just that. That�s the attraction for many. You can find a pretty solid truck and get it running for cheap. It instantly becomes a blank canvas for the owner. From lifted 4x4s with slick paint to slammed 2WD trucks sporting their hard-earned patinas, trucks offer an incredible variety of creative choices. Not only are old pickups cheap to buy, they�re usually much simpler to work on. From wiring to interior, the simpler parts provide a simpler path to restoration, especially for less experienced wrenches. The biggest hurdle for many, is rust. It�s a little tougher to deal with. You can find replacement body panels all over the aftermarket, but sometimes you gotta breakout the metal working tools to fix them right. Before you start grinding though, even rust can become a form of expression. All of that rusty character has been embraced by tons of enthusiasts in recent years, leading to a new standard of what looks �good�. It�s almost ironic after years and years of perfecting paint and body work in restoration, it seems like many of us are now embracing the idea that a truck should look like a truck.

The dings, dents and fading paint is what you expect to see on an old truck and that�s exactly what people are doing with them.

Trucks were never meant to be luxurious. Most of them had cramped cabs and pitiful, if any insulation. They were designed to do work, and most of them did lots of it. Maybe it�s that blue-collar attitude and no-nonsense personality that draws us to them. Everything these days is just so complicated, and trucks really aren�t (until we make them that way, at least). Maybe the hammer-simple style is just what we need in our complicated lives. Whatever the magic, we see tons of old trucks at or cruise-ins and we eyeball �em just like the young kids do. There�s just something about them that captures the imagination and brings a smile to your face. Enjoy Some of the Cool Trucks that have Visited the Chattanooga Cruise-Ins [gallery ids="7555,7556,7557,7558,7559,7560,7561,7562,7563,7564,7565,7566,7567,7568,7569,7570,7571,7572,7573,7574,7575,7576,7577,7578,7579,7580,7581,7582,7583,7584,7585,7586,7587,7588,7589,7590,7591,7592,7593,7594,7595,7596,7597,7598,7599,7600,7601,7602,7603,7604,7605,7606,7607,7608,7609,7610,7611"]