Picture from original online ad

Impulse is a real thing. I don’t know how else to explain it so I’ll just tell you what I’m doing. Late one night, I was cruising the online classified sites when it hit me. 2 tone sea foam blue over white paint with 50 years of patina on it - probably the best looking truck I have ever seen. It was over at that point, it was equal parts beautiful and attainable. I didn’t hesitate.  I called the owner the next day and bought it- a 1968 Ford F100 with the bullet proof straight 6 and a four speed manual transmission. Perfect, I was the owner of a sweet truck of an era I could work on myself. Only problem is its 4000 km away on the West coast of Canada.

Picture from original online ad

 After I bought it, I hadn’t seen it and wouldn’t for about five months. In my room in Toronto, I did some research on the VIN and found that he truck had been assembled in Oakville Ontario. Wild, we’re driving her home! I mean kind of, British Columbia will always be her home. It’s where she spent her life as a farm hand hauling stuff on an orchard 5 km from the US border. She’s headed for the complete opposite now. I like cars, I am a car guy, whatever that means. This will be my first truck and I’m pretty excited.

The owner is a man named Uli who was the second owner of the truck. He wanted to find it a good home because he knew it still had a ton of life left in it. It’s old, it’s pretty clean says the mechanic, which I don’t doubt because it lives in BC, the land of rust free metal. It has a notoriously bulletproof engine that was used for 30+ years in these trucks.

Important to note that Truck can’t always go Google suggested speed limits

I’m currently in Vancouver writing this to you and I know impulse had a big part of what drove me to buy this truck, sight unseen (I still haven’t laid eyes on it). But the truth is there is something else that pushed me to buy this gem. It’s country music. Ever since I was a kid my Dad would play tons of Outlaw Country - Waylon, Willie, Johnny Paycheck, George Jones, all of it would come on the stereo Friday night on the way to the cottage or on a Saturday morning when it would be used as an alarm clock to let us know it was time for chores. The line from Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys by Waylon Jennings is burned in my mind- “don’t let them pick guitars and drive them old trucks…”. Some how these two things are linked for me.  

Here we go, across this unbelievably big and beautiful country. I just know its full of trucks. Feel free to give a listen here to some songs to drive a truck to and follow me and my buddy Don as we drive 4200km clean across Canada, back to where we are from and where truck was first born.

Nothing like some Waylon, Willie and the boys to make you want to hit that open road regardless of what you drive. These are some of my favorites, have a listen. 

After we woke up, coffee, food, gas and then, bam….there I am standing in front of Truck on a dirt road with the JF Kustoms shop behind us. Keys on the seat, ready to go. We immediately jumped in and started to drive it. Don had the Camera and I found myself trying to drive something pretty alien to me. I mean, I understand how to drive things but the gearshift felt like rowing a boat. I put it in reverse when trying to reach 3rd. There is no power steering or power brakes. Whatever, no time- we had to go. It was Penticton first with Don chasing me in the rental to the return shop. Then on to Kelowna headed for Calgary. Its 1:30pm.

Picking up the truck in Osoyoos

So what do you do? I have to learn how this Truck drives- how fast will 4 drum breaks stop a 3400 pound vehicle? 3rd gear is right next to reverse, so look out. You take all that knowledge you have gathered from driving different shit and you freak out a little bit and then you do it. But you drive it knowing you will learn how and that it’s going to get better regardless of how spooky it is at first. This heightened awareness, it keeps you safe. Truth is, Truck was a Billy Goat in the mountains. It was me, who was a little shaky. At one point Truck stalled at the top of a pass, but we could roll off and restart it. Maybe the altitude, or more likely I, had messed with the idle adjustment because it was idling really high after it was on the highway for a few hours.

Gas stop in the mountains

The mountains are beautiful. There are a ton of descriptions of them but nothing is really going to show them to you but you going there. Run through valleys and climb over ridges blasted through the granite. Use caution. Use your mirrors to look at those mountains as much as your windshield. The guard rails around every corner are beat to hell so when it got dark we stopped in Golden at a motel for the night. Don’t drive the mountains in the dark if you don’t have to.  It's dangerous. We saw it all over the side of the road.

Trans Canada hwy on the way to Golden

When we got into Calgary we went to see Perry who we met on the FTE Forum. Perry had been driving across Canada since the 70’s in all sizes of truck. He had a 1978 F250 dump bed for his daily driver and a couple projects out back. Including He looked over the truck with me and showed me a bunch of stuff I need to know. Biggest learning was that the Truck doesn’t like to go over 60/65mph tops. Its not hard to hear, the engine is starting to scream when you get to 70mph. She will do it but not for long. Anyway, thank you Perry you woke me up to how this truck works.

Ford Gothic

Frankie basically runs the shop

Gettin' deep

It was one of the best and most relaxing drives I’ve had. It took a while to settle in to going what probably averaged to 55mph while cruising, it was good, we need that sometimes. So much landscape to witness. When you get going the same speed as a train going your same way, the landscape seems to shift and whip by so that your eyes focus on a further away part of it- kind of something like how vertigo works. The mind wanders off and you’re going to have to be alone with it. If you can’t be, then maybe you should look at that.

Between country music, Norm Macdonald, and taking photos, we would just stare at it all. I would tuck in behind a passing 18 wheeler, get behind their big wind pocket, feel the wind calm down and the gas peddle become light as we slipped along in the wake. You can feel the easing on the engine and transmission as the wind loses its purchase on you. Truck has huge mirrors and a fisherman’s cap on the back with roof racks. I think the roof racks were bolted on after the fact but I’m not sure. It’s good that Truck has a ton of torque because it needs it just to go normal speeds.

The transmission is short, sweet and really good at what it does. It pulls things and hauls things. 55mph/88KMH is a great place to be in this truck. 60 works and 50 does too but you gotta listen to it. The engine will tell you where it is comfortable. These aren’t hot rods the way some people think they would be- it’s basically a farm implement when you are running it stock. I don’t care I like it. The 300 CID straight 6 is a special engine, amazing in a certain rev range and eternally durable if taken care of. The oil is always black which is normal in these engines from what I assume is some blow by from the pistons. Beyond its range you are going to run into problems much quicker then if you leave it jogging along at its purpose-built-pace that it seems like could keep up forever. The whole trip I counted that we passed a total of 4 cars. I’m fine with it.

You don’t have to look long at this Truck to realize that 1968 was a different world. The race to the bottom wasn’t in full swing yet. Quality products, while not overly sophisticated by todays standard, were still quality. It’s a farm truck, sure, but this thing takes minimalism to another level.  There are 4 controls for the driver: lights, ignition, choke, wipers. That’s it – the heat is in the middle and there is no radio. Metal dash, metal floor and interior door panels. Its bare and its beautiful.  We vacuumed it out about three times but leaves are still pouring out of the floor vents and every now and then when a transport truck goes past us the cab fills with leaves. Don loves it.

Saw some burning Fields and so we drove along the concession road to take a look. Once engulfed in smoke we tried not to back off the narrow road into the ditch to get out of there. Turns out farmers do controlled burns to help with the new crop. We thought the world was ending.

In the parking lot of the TwiLite Inn in Moosomin my truck is backed in next to a 2015 model – I’m sure it has the V8, don’t even know if they have a 6 anymore- but it looks good. It’s big and I bet it’s more efficient then my truck is and more comfortable. I have to wonder though; will it be around in 50 years?  Do they make cars to last that long, or is it planned obsolescence? 50 years is a wild amount of time for any vehicle to be around, even one that has had the charmed life my truck has had. Anyway, that’s it for tonight.

Lets say you buy an old truck 1970-1980, in decent shape. For now lets pretend its has no fatal problems. You buy said truck for $2500. It needs $2500 worth of work to replace parts that are old or hindering performance. You’re $5000 in, add $1000 for random fixes in the first 10,000km and you’re at $6000 for your first year of ownership. At the end of it you have a reliable daily driver that needs maybe $800 a year in maintenance. 10 years of ownership = $14,000

A brand new truck, even if you never had to fix anything on it, would be at more then double the cost of enjoying a cool old truck over ten years. Plus the money you trickle into your older truck over time stays in your hands until a repair needs to be done. Add the fact that when push comes to shove you’ll be surprised what you can do yourself if money ever gets tight.  We found a guy in Dryden Ontario who had a lot of old Trucks that he would sell you as is or fix up for you and it was great to see. He even had an old Bronco Custom and a Ranger that looked like it was ready to go. He wouldn’t let us scavenge for parts so we took a quick look around and then hit the road.

I sat crunching the numbers on the long straight drive in the Prairies and anyway I slice it, I am coming out ahead buying this truck vs. a new one. Now new Trucks and old trucks aren’t really comparable, they are like night and day, I mean this thing feels more tractor then truck which is great for me, but I don’t expect everyone to enjoy driving something like this as much as I do. So my advice would be if you’re thinking about buying a truck, take a look at the older models before you run off with your hard earned money for something shiny and new.

Moosomin is a pretty small town and not too busy on the streets, so I took Don to a side street for some driving lessons. He’s got a license but doesn’t know how to drive stick. I’d given him a talk about how a clutch works, which I think helps to understand slipping and the engagement point etc. Anyway, he did well and got it up into 3rd without too much jerking or grinding, which was great. Pretty happy I didn’t traumatize the guy being to over protective about the old transmission and clutch. It’s great that the granny transmission in this truck has a first gear that you can get rolling in without touching the gas. Attention Dads, here are some good steps to follow for teaching your kids how to drive manual. It was so long ago for most of us that we don’t even think about it. Trying to make someone understand how the whole thing works in a way that they can understand it in one sitting is no mean feat.

1. Tell them what the peddles do. Gas = RPMs and clutch = moving two plates together and apart. Use your hands to show them even, they might not get it but eventually they will internalize this part.

2. Don’t yell through at least the first 3 stalls. Won’t help anyone.

3. Help them move the stick and tell them to focus on the pedals.

4. Have them go in and out of 1st a few times and make sure they know how to stop with two feet on the floor. No point in having an accident.

5. Talk them through the changes: “ok now clutch, stick to 3rd, clutch out slow and give it some gas” etc.

6. Try not to hit the windshield when things get a bit jerky.

Finish the whole thing with “good, now go learn better on your friends’ cars and then you can drive this when you aren’t trying to use the fan to pull you forward.”

Not much else to say about the ride into Kenora, we tried to pat a deer we saw but it didn’t’ like that. We got over the Ontario border in the dark, and we knew it pretty much instantly. If there was a sign we didn’t see it, but there were about 400% more signs denoting bumps, deer, speed limits, road conditions, light levels, road pressure, concrete temperature, and horoscope. Ontario, I want my tax dollars back. Literally drove through some of the most precarious roadways in all the Western provinces and the signs were great, only the nessesities. Get into Ontario, out come the signs. Its almost dangerous, the reflection from my high beams off all the signs is blinding. C’montario, take it easy on the signs. We get it you’re a paranoid province with maybe too much money for stuff like signs.  

Kenora is a rad town. I gotta say its good to be back in Ontario. About 15 mins after we go to town we found the Lake Of The Woods Brew Company and walked into a ripping Saturday night. We didn’t have our cowboy hats yet, but we were pretty sure we didn’t need them. We took Sunday off to explore around the town and take pictures of Truck. Funny we didn’t see a single cop on the highway until we got to Ontario. I’m not kidding- not a single one. Cars were going past us like we were standing still because we had it pegged at 60mph.

After a soothing day off we gassed up truck and spray painted a couple rust spots in the Canadian Tire parking lot. We planned to drive as far as we could south and get as close to North Bay where we were due at a car show for the North Bay Cruisers around 6 pm. We stopped for lunch and had burgers. If you’re into fishing and being way up north there are some great motels to stop at for sure, it’s a friendly place.

Elgli’s Sheep farm is the place where we found our cowboy hats. We had been looking for bonafied cowboy hats and Elgli’s provided them. It’s a sheep farm where you can buy all manner of glove, sweater, or hat made out of sheep and even go pet the sheep. It was pleasant and they didn’t try to sell us anything that wasn’t cowboy hats. Thank you Elgli’s. I gotta say, I think a cowboy hat really completed Don’s look and since we have been home a few girls in the neighborhood have been remarking to me about how dashing he looks in his new hat. I have to agree, ride on cowboy.

We watched Lake Superior come in and out of view for the rest of the day and listened to Hank Williams and the engine. Coming to the top of a hill we pulled off to a siding to get a look at a great view. As I got out, I saw we were leaking coolant. It was right around the top rad hose where it is clamped to the engine. I didn’t even notice that the engine was screaming hot and probably about to over heat. We just wanted to get the view so we stopped. Road magic like that is real. A bad over-heat like that is not something you ever want to have happen this far away in case something breaks. I let it cool down and tightened the clamp a bit before limping into the town of Schwieber, Ontario. Walked up to the cashier at the only gas station for a while and asked if they had coolant. They didn’t. Fortunately the guy ahead of me who had just paid for his gas heard me ask and, long story short, Ray is the best guy you could ever meet in a situation like that. He didn’t have to be so kind to two guys from Toronto who he didn’t know at all. Road magic. After Ray showed us a bunch of pictures of his ’53 Chevy dump truck, we got outside and cut the hose off where it was cracked around the lower clamp and stuffed it back on. Ray got us a few more clamps and also some rubber tape incase we needed it. “Watch out for the ditch donkeys, they are real bad this time of year” Ray told us as we got on the way. He’s right, if you look closely there are tons of smears left from animals big and small all over these roads. Deer stains. My eyes are working hard because the tree line is close and the ditches are dark and full of life.

It wasn’t 20 min later that we came up a hill on a curve and saw a tractor-trailer in the ditch all folded up. Cops weren’t there yet but about 8 other tractor-trailers had stopped along the road and lit the whole scene up with their spotlights. They had hauled a couple of guys out of it I think I saw, I didn’t get a good look at it. Don did, but didn’t want to talk about it after. It was spooky and we were pretty quiet until we realized there wouldn’t be any gas open for longer then we had gas left. We stopped in Wawa and slept for a few hours. We learned in the news that one of the guys died in the wreck. Probably wasn’t even his fault- these roads are so dangerous. You notice the guardrails are all beaten in around the corners and there are tons of deer stains all over the concrete. You gotta take it easy, stop if you have to, don’t drive at night if you aren’t comfortable, and make caution your good friend. You can count on some road magic along the way but the danger is real, and it’s subtle sometimes, which makes it all the more dangerous.

We got to North Bay and rolled into the car show. Super great folks there and there were probably 70 or 80 cars. Best part was I got to meet Don’s Mom and Dad. Don and I have been on this ride together for a while, and it was good to see where he was from. Guys at the car show loved Truck and had all kinds of stories about owning one or having a friend who did. One guy talked about how he would race his buddy who had a ’70 straight 6 F100. The guy would get it all wound up in 4th gear and then pull out the choke and take off. Don’t know if this works or if I’ll try it, but the stories were incredible. It’s like this thing was the Volkswagen Beetle of American cars, everyone of a certain age has a story with one. I gave out a bunch of LMC Truck hats because they are one of our sponsors and people were really excited to get them and hear about why we were there, especially with BC plates still on. Nice people up there I’ll tell you, thanks to the North Bay Cruisers for having us.

David: “What’s that way off in the distance Don?”

Don: “It looks like something’s on fire”

David: ‘That’s right, that’s the first sign of Toronto”

Don: (smiles)

I can’t tell you how heart crushing it was to drive into Toronto down the 400 Hwy and then have to drive through and out of it on the 403 to Oakville which is one of those suburbs about 30km outside. Not saying I didn’t want to complete this trip and take Truck back to her birthplace. It’s just that, neither Don nor I had been home in about a month and a half so to drive right past your home in Toronto traffic was pretty hilariously sad. The only consolations were girls yelling at us from cars and guys trying to buy Truck off us at stoplights. No joke it was happening. Is this a picture of what my life will be like driving this thing? Rad.

When you're the guy with the truck you get to help your buds move

We got to Ford completely unannounced and vaguely near a shift change. Drove around the compound for a while until a nice woman getting off her shift talked to us and told us Ford Canada’s head office was just at the other end of his huge parking lot with factory buildings around it. Not a ton of cars in the lot. So we drove over. After a conversation with James from the front desk about how fun driving across Canada is, the head of product Peter Jansen came to talk to us. I think he was so shocked to hear what we had done that he had to come down and entertain this whole thing. It was nice of Peter to do that. Thank you Peter. We took some pictures and left. Parked Truck right where the old truck assembly plant had been that is now a parking lot. To be on the Gardner Expressway headed east felt the best it had in my entire life, I didn’t even mind the traffic. I wonder if Truck knows where she is, I don’t think she has really felt concrete under her wheels in a decade. Machines have a soul. Sounds insane but the more moving parts something has, I feel like the more of a soul it has. Things have to work in harmony and good care or abuse will show. Hard to know but it is what I know.

Right back where she was first made. The old plant has moved west from where it was in 1968 but this is about where it was originally.

In conclusion to this whole thing, I’m back in Toronto and Truck is parked on Roxton Ave outside my place. If you’re passing through go check it out. The trip was a blast, the truck is a beauty, and I think the main thing I learned is that adventures are the best. Really anyone can have them if they want to have an open mind and look around. Just make the arrangements, save the money or whatever it takes. I would be remiss if I didn’t thank LMC Truck and the Ford Truck Enthusiast Forum for their support. They care about these old trucks and they want to see them last. Thanks for reading. If you have an impulse and you get inspired, you should probably act on it and get out there to see some things you don’t even know are there. We did about 3500 miles all told and it was one the best drives of my life.

Home sweet home