A Pair That Stops Traffic!

My 1955 GMC 100 was locally purchased in 1995 immediately after buying the '62 Airstream which resided for decades in a Minnesota field. As these trucks were designed, developed, and built to be work trucks, this one would continue to be so. A few months were spent designing the Jimmy so that it could be a strong, safe, and reliable hauler to pull the Airstream, a kind of Wanderlust Hotel, anywhere in North America at anytime, weather permitting. The Jimmy's frame was excellent, the body mostly good, but all the external and much of the internal trim had been stripped and was gone. My other vehicles at the time were working GMC pickups as were their predecessors, but the '55 would be a special work truck capable of safely running with the big dogs while towing. All sheet metal but the cab came off, and all electrics were replaced as was every moving and non-moving part (except the nylon odometer worm gear which just broke...who knew?). The Blue Chip GMC pickups were low volume production and very, very few reproduction parts are available. Most of the difficult to find original replacement parts were scored from Old Chevy Trucks with Jim Carter personally pulling trim items from one of his Missouri yards (it is a rare circumstance to work directly with a company's owner for help, not once but many times). One of the key and very tricky safety items is the telescoping side view mirrors which came from a Chevy/GMC tractor of the same generation (1955-59). These were cut down and chromed so that vehicles behind the Airstream could easily be seen while using the original door mounting holes. The rebuild took two years before undergoing a flawless 1300 mile test drive to MN to retrieve the Airstream, another two year project. Since 1999, the GMC has averaged 13,000 miles/year, a testament to a great working truck. Hunt Jones, Mountain Lakes, New Jersey