Posted by Paul Cook on Thursday, December 04, 2003 at 9:24PM :
A POWER WAGON enthusiast e-mailed me and asked me to help him locate a PW chassis and good steering box for a PW he was rebuilding. I was going to advertise it on the Kempner POWER WAGON Museum "Buy, Sell, or Trade" Bulletin Board when I noticed his phone number was in the next town. I called and told him I had what he needed and asked him to stop by.
I recently bought a parts truck to get some body sheetmetal and some driveline parts. I did not need the chassis or the steering box, but there was no way I could strip it down by myself. He looked the truck over and said he could get the cab, front sheetmetal, and all driveline components off with no trouble. He serviced heavy equipment and his work truck had a welding rig, air compressor with air tools, and a crane.
Did I say he was young, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed?
He came over one Sunday afternoon and in a several hours, we had the cab and all the sheetmetal off the truck. With its wireless control, he used the crane on his truck to effortlessly lift the cab while I guided it up and back to clear the steering shaft. We'd have done much more but it started raining - really raining - and we had to quit.
Another Sunday afternoon and we had the rolling chassis ready for him to load on a trailer and haul 25 miles to his house. Again, the crane smoothly lifted the engine and transmission onto a pallet. The crane had such a light touch that he used it to support the transfer case while he unbolted it from the frame and set it in the front bucket of my tractor.
And if you think any of this was hard, consider that we reslung the cab and lifted it high to get the enclosed picture that we missed when we were rained out.
That's how I found my new "best friend," Mercer Beckworth. Did I mention he had a rolling workshop? And was young? And only lived 25 miles from the Museum? And is a really nice guy?
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