Some of you have been waiting for this to be revealed for quite a long time. While the person for whom it was intended was both obvious and oblivious (SWMBO).
I started to write this up in July when I realised that many of you would be interested in the full story, but of course, I could only let a select few in on what was happening in real time. What follows below is the story of how we got where we are today. You will note that I split the story into instalments (don't want to spoil you, now do we?). Each instalment was written to denote a different phase in the development of the surprise the latter of which were written and stored as if they were going to be posted at the time of writing. I will be releasing the historic instalments with a day or so in between each to ensure you don't over indulge all at once until we catch up to the present day. Feel free to comment in between installments.
As many of you know from following my other thread, back in April I convinced my long suffering wife that I should be allowed to buy myself a new project to replace two of the long standing projects on which I was making no progress.
I realised that my B-Reg 2CV, while ostensibly a 4 seater, was not the kind of vehicle I wanted to transport my children in. Likewise, it's stablemate, the 1960 2CV AZU van wasn't going to be a terribly practical vehicle.
In an attempt to be family friendly, I avoided my predilection for light commercial vehicles and chose to buy a 1947 Chevrolet Aerosedan that had been languishing in a horse paddock in Wyoming for the better part of the last 40 years. If you haven't had the pleasure yet, then feel free to peruse the story over here.
This move re-awakened my dormant thirst for American vehicle shaped metal, so I kept browsing the forums, eBay, etc and was always discussing the merits of various different vehicles with dearly beloved.
Much to my surprise, as these discussions progressed, SWMBO made it clear that she would like a pickup. I tried to convince her that a Suburban would make more sense as family transport, but her mind was made up. It had to be a pickup. This shouldn't have really come as too much of a surprise as SWMBO's father was/is an avid collector of American pickups (my favourite on his current fleet is a 1954 International 1 1/4 ton R120, much like the ones Grenade has been converting (see here) and old tractors. SWMBO having been driving iron wheel tractors from a tender age when the current generation are still pedalling about on push bikes (or beign driven to school in mommy's 4x4).
Well, with that in mind I started the exercise of pinning down what she liked and didn't. The list was gradually refined down to the '47-'53 Chevy Advance Design pickups with flat screens. This obviously fitted in well with my choice of transportation, so once again the thought of a sedan with a commercial stablemate reared its head.
I started taking note of what was available in the market in terms of these AD (Advanced Design) pickups and understanding the pricing, doing my market research, with a view that once my Aerosedan was on the road, I would then be well placed to acquire an appropriate project for her indoors.
More in the next instalment...
I started to write this up in July when I realised that many of you would be interested in the full story, but of course, I could only let a select few in on what was happening in real time. What follows below is the story of how we got where we are today. You will note that I split the story into instalments (don't want to spoil you, now do we?). Each instalment was written to denote a different phase in the development of the surprise the latter of which were written and stored as if they were going to be posted at the time of writing. I will be releasing the historic instalments with a day or so in between each to ensure you don't over indulge all at once until we catch up to the present day. Feel free to comment in between installments.
As many of you know from following my other thread, back in April I convinced my long suffering wife that I should be allowed to buy myself a new project to replace two of the long standing projects on which I was making no progress.
I realised that my B-Reg 2CV, while ostensibly a 4 seater, was not the kind of vehicle I wanted to transport my children in. Likewise, it's stablemate, the 1960 2CV AZU van wasn't going to be a terribly practical vehicle.
In an attempt to be family friendly, I avoided my predilection for light commercial vehicles and chose to buy a 1947 Chevrolet Aerosedan that had been languishing in a horse paddock in Wyoming for the better part of the last 40 years. If you haven't had the pleasure yet, then feel free to peruse the story over here.
This move re-awakened my dormant thirst for American vehicle shaped metal, so I kept browsing the forums, eBay, etc and was always discussing the merits of various different vehicles with dearly beloved.
Much to my surprise, as these discussions progressed, SWMBO made it clear that she would like a pickup. I tried to convince her that a Suburban would make more sense as family transport, but her mind was made up. It had to be a pickup. This shouldn't have really come as too much of a surprise as SWMBO's father was/is an avid collector of American pickups (my favourite on his current fleet is a 1954 International 1 1/4 ton R120, much like the ones Grenade has been converting (see here) and old tractors. SWMBO having been driving iron wheel tractors from a tender age when the current generation are still pedalling about on push bikes (or beign driven to school in mommy's 4x4).
Well, with that in mind I started the exercise of pinning down what she liked and didn't. The list was gradually refined down to the '47-'53 Chevy Advance Design pickups with flat screens. This obviously fitted in well with my choice of transportation, so once again the thought of a sedan with a commercial stablemate reared its head.
I started taking note of what was available in the market in terms of these AD (Advanced Design) pickups and understanding the pricing, doing my market research, with a view that once my Aerosedan was on the road, I would then be well placed to acquire an appropriate project for her indoors.
More in the next instalment...
