Restoration of 1950 Chevrolet worth the wait

The ratty three-quarter-ton 1950 Chevrolet pickup Hugh Brough bought for $275 in 1981 sat parked in his garage for nearly a quarter century before he decided it was finally time to restore the truck.“I bought it from a man who was driving that old Chevy one morning,” Brough recalled. “He had been to an estate auction and bid on it and said now that he had it, he didn’t know what he was going to do with it. I said for him to bring it to me with the title the next morning, and I would buy it.”Brough figured he would parcel the parts out for sale at a swap meet. The truck had been used on a farm and probably had not spent much time on the open road. It was rust-laden, and the metal had its share of gaps and holes.But when he drove it, he realized its rugged appearance disguised a great-running motor.“I had it going 60 or 70 miles an hour on the way home,” Brough said. “It ran so good, I hated to tear it apart.”So he pulled it into the garage at his house on Ind. 45. And left it there.Once in awhile, he’d go out and survey the truck, pondering its future. “I kept walking around it out there in the garage, and then during the last part of 2004, I started thinking I should do something with it.”He was retired and had spare time on his hands. “I needed a project,” Brough said. So he dismantled the truck down to just the frame and cab and hauled it off to Jeff Taylor at Iron Pit Restorations, located not far from his home. Brough would work on parts, then take them to Taylor as he reassembled the vehicle.“Piece by piece, we put that truck back together,” Brough said.Four or five months later, the project was finished. The old Chevy truck was shiny black, with a hand-constructed red oak truck bed Brough created. On July 4, 2005, he drove the truck in Linton’s Fourth of July parade and won an antique vehicle award. He was proud.But what made him more proud was his grandson’s request to borrow the truck so he could pose with it for his senior pictures. Nathan Cobine was graduating from Eastern Greene High School last May and arranged to have pictures taken outside the old Yoho general store in Solsberry.“He liked the old truck, and he asked if grandpa would bring it out there to take pictures,” Bough aid. “I think they both turned out looking pretty good.”Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an email to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, IN 47402.