Posted by RDavis on Friday, March 01, 2002 at 8:18PM :
Your replies are appreciated as this very afternoon I went by to try and catch someone there. But alas, I find the old Mr. Blackburn has deceased. I met Mr. Blacburn roughly 15 yrs ago after being told of a WM style PW out his way. I found the place ,the truck,and finally the owner, Mr. Blackburn.
He was a short,gruff, portly man who had made his fortune in the equipment end of the strip & underground coal mining business. He had acres of heavy trucks and equipment to rebuild and strip for parts. My first offer was rejected but countered by his offer to buy a spare door from me, which of course I rejected. I had figured that in time he would agree to sell but after years and periodic stops and chats about it ,he never would sell. He will be gone a year this month
sometime. He must have died shortly after our last conversation. Today I spoke with his daughter and son-n-law who was involved in the family business and no, they still do not want to sell it. It will be restored in his memory I am told. But not all was lost on that trip, I was told ,when I asked about the acres of trucks and equipment, that most would be scraped except for a select few they would restore. There are some old big trucks in there including some military ones. Wierd names I can't recall and several B-mod. MACKS in good condition. He say tomorrow, He will let me look through the woods and see if there is anything I'd like to buy,at the price of scrap.Theres most likely not much if any small military stuff but the T-cases, trannies, and axles from the big stuff might be worth getting to build some 4x4 trucks from big 2WD Dodges. Who Knows what I'll find or miss because I want know what it is or worth. When deals like this go down, you seldom have alot of time to let people know, get their cash, haul it away and store it till they can come get it, so be ready if I start screaming "the crushers coming The crushers coming" I'll take a pad and ask questions as to what stuff is - if it looks interesting and try to post what I found. After all the posts, I don't feel so bad now. Thanks,RDavis
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