# Researching fixing up an old truck **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Created:** [August 20, 2007, 5:13pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/researching-fixing-up-an-old-truck/3394 "2007-08-20T17:13:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![righterbee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@righterbee](https://community.cartalk.com/u/righterbee)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 5:13pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/researching-fixing-up-an-old-truck/3394/1 "2007-08-20T17:13:46Z")
I’m a children’s book author who doesn’t know diddly about cars. (But I still love Car Talk.) In the book I’m writing, I want a boy to help an old man fix up a truck that’s been sitting in the garage a long time. It stopped working years ago and he never bothered to fix it. I have two questions for all you car geniuses: 1) what kind of truck would be good to use, i.e. one that they could work on themselves; 2) what kind of simple repairs might they do to get it working. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Cadalzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@Ed\_Cadalzo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Ed_Cadalzo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/researching-fixing-up-an-old-truck/3394/2 "2007-08-20T17:24:57Z")
The truck could be a Ford F1, and they would have to change the ditributor cap and points along with the maybe the tires that are by now empty. Hope it helps. ---
**Author:** ![Tester](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/tester/32/15976_2.png) [@Tester](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Tester)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/researching-fixing-up-an-old-truck/3394/3 "2007-08-20T17:25:20Z")
[b]A good truck? A 1953 Ford F100 pickup. Classic! Some repairs? Rebuilding the carburator, removing and replacing the gas tank for a new one, replacing the fuel pump, and flushing the fuel line. This would all have to be done to get a vehicle running if it sat for a long time. You could also include new sparkplugs, wires, cap, and rotor. Tester[/b] ---
**Author:** ![righterbee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@righterbee](https://community.cartalk.com/u/righterbee)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/researching-fixing-up-an-old-truck/3394/4 "2007-08-20T18:26:41Z")
Thanks a lot! Those things all seem reasonable for the boy and the old man to do and I will research how to do those things further. ---
**Author:** ![Triedaq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Triedaq](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Triedaq)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/researching-fixing-up-an-old-truck/3394/5 "2007-08-20T19:51:06Z")
There is a book that I think would help you. It is by John Jerome and titled “Truck: On rebuilding a worn-out pickup and other post-technological adventures”. This book is fiction, but is technically correct. It describes the adventures of a person who moves to the country and needs a pick-up truck. After much searching, he finds a 1950 Dodge truck which hasn’t been used in a long time. He spends the winter rebuilding the truck in his barn. The book is a social commentary on today’s technology. The truck, when it is finished, is named the Harry S Truman, because the truck was made in the Truman era and the author believes it possesses the same traits as Harry Truman. ---
**Author:** ![Triedaq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Triedaq](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Triedaq)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 8:14pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/researching-fixing-up-an-old-truck/3394/6 "2007-08-20T20:14:33Z")
Actually, almost any truck of the 1950 era was simple to work on. I owned a 1950 Chevrolet truck when I lived in the country. I bought the truck used in 1972 for $110. Parts were, and probably still are, more readily available for Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge trucks, than were the parts for Studebaker and International Harvester trucks. There was also a Jeep pick-up truck made by Willys motor company of Toledo, Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![righterbee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@righterbee](https://community.cartalk.com/u/righterbee)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 10:38pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/researching-fixing-up-an-old-truck/3394/7 "2007-08-20T22:38:10Z")
I will definitely try to find the book - I’m not sure I could fix the truck but I’m feeling more confident about writing about it!