Well, it's about time to get back to what I started some time ago. I have always preached to my two sons that if you start something, you must finish it. In the beginning, I scanned through want ads, truck automotive traders, eBay, and swap meets for a year searching for the perfect project vehicle. Wanting to build a unique custom ride, we finally discovered a chubby-fendered early model strawberry farm work truck that only transported berry pickers during the week, then delivered a payload of berries to the market on the weekend. It was retired from the strawberry fields some 30 years ago, where it then sat idle inside a shed until we discovered it at the Long Beach swap meet. After peeling off a fist full of Franklins in exchange for the pink slip, it was driven home and it became my youngest son's means of transportation during his senior year of high school.
Ol' Sublime rumbled to the sound of an inline stove-bolt six-cylinder under the hood, a manual transmission with three-on-the-tree, split-exhaust manifold that flowed into a pair of rappin' 12-inch glass packs, and rolled on a set of wide-white rubber. Fortunately, the body was straight and complete. We worked with Jason Rushforth, a young, talented artist from Seattle, who sketched up some renderings, reflecting a simple, shaved, smooth, frenched, slammed truck, tucking 20-inch wheels and tires with a mildly chopped roof and pie-cut hood. It featured multiple basecoats of two-tone 50/50-bar pearl white and Tangelino Pearl Orange color sanded between coats as the paint scheme.
I must confess that it was three years ago when we began project Sublime - a '50 Suburban - and we had great expectations for the old fat-fendered carry-all. This frame-off undertaking was to be a continuously documented project, with tech articles appearing periodically in issues of Truckin' magazine. Sublime began to create a following of dedicated readers until we found ourselves operating with a minimal staff and a growing magazine, we had to shelve Sublime. Now that we are back to full staff, it's time to uncover Ol' Sublime and finish what we started.
With the extreme popularity of early model trucks, it is time to get back to cutting, grinding, sanding, welding, wiring, wrenching, painting, and stitching. The completed Sublime frame-off project was initially to be finished in time to be displayed in our Primedia booth at the SEMA Show, but fortunately we never committed to what year.