1972 GMC PICKUP CARRIES A CHILDHOOD WORTH OF MEMORIES
It’s a ‘full-on sensory experience’ to drive this old truck, Dale Edward Johnson writes.
When Stephen King of Regina first came across a 1972 GMC pickup truck three years ago, he knew it was for him.
“It was exactly what I wanted — a truck that didn’t have one wheel in the grave, but also wasn’t in such good shape that it would be prohibitively expensive and I would be afraid to drive it,” King says.
It’s practical enough that he’s taken it on plenty of long-distance trips.
“I have driven the truck to Ontario and back twice for canoe trips, and also camping in Banff and Jasper and B.C. I use it a lot in the summer, and I would trust it to go anywhere,” he says.
He will soon be parking his truck for another winter, but the rest of the year he enjoys the admiring looks it receives.
“A couple of times a week — usually when I’m filling it with gas, of which it consumes quite a bit — people stop and tell me what great shape it’s in. I’ve had a number of offers to buy it as well, but I’ll never sell it unless I am absolutely forced to. My five-year-old nephew Evan has laid claim to it, so he will inherit it someday,” he says.
King says there are sentimental reasons for enjoying this truck.
“My family had a 1971 Chevy Custom 10 pickup when I was growing up,” he says, “and my very first memory is of standing on my dad’s lap, holding the steering wheel, while we drove the truck around North Portal where I grew up. I was three years old and thought I was driving. Times were different then — seatbelts and car seats were optional,” King says.
He eventually learned how to drive in that truck, which he later inherited.
“Our truck was a three-on-thetree standard, and as old vehicles always do, it had a distinctive smell, which I think is a combination of vinyl, exhaust, burned engine oil and gasoline,” he says.
“It got passed down through my siblings and eventually to me, and by the time I got it, it was in pretty rough shape. I had to sell it when I was in university because I couldn’t afford to run it anymore, and I always wanted to get another one.”
The main reason for wanting a truck just like Dad’s: the memories.
“The look of the dashboard, the feel of the steering wheel and the sound of the door closing were ingrained in my memory from an early age, so whenever I saw a Chevy or GMC from that era, I would compulsively look in the window at the dashboard. It always reminded me of the time I spent driving with my mom and dad when I was a kid,” he says.
But his current 1972 GMC isn’t quite identical to the one his dad had — this one is bigger and more luxurious.
“It has three features that are new to me,” he says, “because the truck I learned to drive in did not have them: a radio, power brakes and power steering. This is a three-quarter-ton rather than a half-ton, and the box is actually eight-and-a-half-feet long, rather than eight feet. This is technically a GMC Custom Camper, and the Chevy version was called the Longhorn, which is a better name.”
King has been able to find out a bit about his truck’s past.
“From an old inspection sticker on the window, I can see that it was in British Columbia in 1982, 10 years after it was manufactured,” he says. “Given that it was originally an automatic and has been converted to a standard, I suspect that it was used to haul a camper through the mountains quite a bit, and the transmission had to be replaced at some point.
“It eventually ended up in Moose Jaw, where a couple used it to haul a camper. Darren Helstrom in Emerald Park bought it from them several years ago, did a lot of restoration on the interior and used it for his business Nordic Electric. So I am at least the fourth owner since it was manufactured, but I suspect there have been a few more in the intervening years.”
With help from Dallas Baillie of Baillie Boys Towing in Abernethy, King has had some repairs done to it, including electrical work, redoing the carburetor, replacing the leaf springs and fuel pump, getting the second fuel tank working and replacing the headlights.
“The work I have focused on is pragmatic rather than esthetic,” he says.
He says there are a few more things to do.
“There is a bit of rust on the cab corners, as is typical of these trucks. So some year I hope to get some bodywork done, but that’s a long-term project. My main priority is to keep it running and in good mechanical shape because I drive it every day,” he says.
King decided to go shopping for a truck after a close call on his motorcycle.
“While on vacation in Utah in 2014,” he says, “I was involved in an accident on my motorcycle at highway speed, but I escaped almost unscathed. I decided — and my wife concurred — that it was time to sell my Ducati and buy something that had, for lack of a better term, a strong exoskeleton.
“My wife Cara suggested that I look for an old truck as a replacement. She knew that I had always wanted one, and the fact that the truck is built like a tank also appealed to her.”
King says the best part of owning this truck is getting behind the wheel.
“My parents, Jim and Claire King, are both deceased, but they are never far from my mind because I think of them every time I drive my 1972 GMC,” he says. “Driving the truck is a full-on sensory experience, and everything about it takes me back to memories of them and the 1971 Chevy truck that my family loved so much. You have to expect that there may be the odd breakdown, and it requires more maintenance, gas and oil than a new vehicle would, but as long as I take reasonably good care of it, there is no reason that it couldn’t have another 45 years left in it.”