At the corner of Obsession Rd. & Passion St.

Every family has traits they pass down through the generations and on my side of the family it's more than just a longer nose, blond hair or blue eyes. There's motor oil running through our veins & a touch of lead in our feet. It's just been assumed if you're a Billings, you're born into a club of car lovers. A bunch of grease monkeys that love to tinker & rebuild cars, especially classics. For the men in my family, cars are more than a passionate hobby, they're an obsession. I'm sure that my Grandpa can buy & sell trucks faster than Wall Street trades stocks.
Growing up, my family were members in an Obsolete Fleet Chevy Club that featured only 55-56-57 classic Chevy's.  The members were not just obsessed with polishing, buffing, detailing and restoring these gorgeous classics but we also took part in many a swap meet, cruise in, auction, parade, sock hop & car show; all in an effort to see & be seen in our latest makeover project on four wheels. The chapter that we hailed from had a bunch of entertaining, fun & self deprecating people. I remember my family preparing for weeks before a big show, creatively brainstorming for ideas on how to top the last years' competitors, pulling all nighters making sure everything was just right, practicing their skills & talents... of course, none of this had anything to do with their cars. It was for the upcoming lip sync, song & dance routine or comedy skit they would perform for one another on stage at the local theater. I told you they were a fun crew. I remember bunny hops, California raisins, boots made for walking, trying to wake up little Susie and other leaders of the pack. Some performances rivaled SNL skits in comedic timing & playing up pop culture nuances.
As time went on and life became more hectic my parents slowly merged out of the club & slowed down on the buy- rebuild- sell routine of the never ending line up of Chevy's. We quit driving around to different parts of the Northwest vying for another trophy or nod in your direction with that envy in their eyes at your coveted car. I think that's one of the highs that everyone who collects cars strives for; that look.  You know, the one you get (or give) as a flashy car cruises by and people strain their necks to get a better look at that incredibly shiny, immaculately kept car rumbling under your seat. Especially if it's an old car completely restored, most people don't see those everyday.
My Grandpa, while he may no longer collect the classics, still has a strong desire to buy, sell or trade cars or trucks at breakneck speeds. He loves to tinker and has the know how to buy a fixer-upper & turn it into a smooth running rig that someone else would want to own.

His brother, Jim (or Monroe as we like to call him) hasn't slowed down either. In fact, I think he's only honed his skills more over the years. They both come by it honestly, their father (my Great Grandpa Paul) was the original car hoarder. They have the ability to see a junk yard full of parts and know just the right way to mix & mingle these in order to create a show worthy, hot rod commodity. Uncle Moe's most recent endeavor has caught many people's attention. It's beginnings are humble but the end result is auction worthy, and not those ones for government seized cars, more like an art auction for hoity toity art collectors. The saying, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" definitely rings true in this case, but more and more eyes are beholding the beauty that is Rusty Nut's Auto Wreckers, Rat Rod.  (A style of hot rod or custom car that, in most cases, imitates (or exaggerates) the early hot rods of the 40s, 50s, and 60s.) Monroe decided to trade out his usual buffed to a high shine reflection in classic cars and opted for a built from the ground up, one of a kind project. It started last August when he found a rusted out 1949 Dodge Cab over, none of it's previous luster paint remained, now all that was left was a rusty patina, but what it lacked in curb appeal it made up for with character. And, as anyone who remodels knows, as long as it has "good bones" it's got great potential, and Moe loved the shape to it, the rounded hood & quirky details appealed to him.

He took the gutted shell of that cab and decided it needed a new frame. The new frame he found shortly after, it was off of a 1973 Chevy Crew Cab dually. He took the engine out of the Dodge cab and placed behind, in the box.

He says he frequented a recycling place in Salem for a lot of the parts. He never knew "what" he was looking for exactly, just knew when he saw it he'd know it. That was true of the John Deere lawn mower engine cover he found, it was just right for the engine cover in the back, after altering an oblong air cleaner & some more tweaking he got it to work. The box (or bed as I think of it) was made with three 1966 Chevy truck beds, 13.5 feet long. He took them, removed the fenders off the 1st one, patching it with a second box and welding it together onto the third to create an extra long custom box, preserving the dually back end. He also made the standard sized box narrower for a streamlined fit behind the cab. He then found fenders from a 1949 Ford to put over the wheels but needed to extend them out by 8 inches. He hired a friend to help with the welding, merging all these recycled parts from other trucks.

To be able to change the tires, he had to improvise and using screws & pins created a way to be able pop the fenders off to gain access to the tires when needed.  The wheels are stock to the frame but he wanted to spice them up a bit. His old desires to have something polished & shiny was still strong, so he painted the rims bright red & added a 50's white wall look to the tires. He wanted something shiny to cover up the hollow center of the stock wheels so he added custom cut diamond plating & stainless steel lug nuts to finish it off.

The inside of the cab needed a lot of work, in fact it needed guts. He took on the challenge to literally build the truck from the inside out; including all the wiring, brakes, cooling system, gages, etc. There wasn't a "kit" for this custom truck. It was all up to him.

When it was all said and done, up and running (smoothly & with minimal road noise) he was very pleased with himself. A mission accomplished, in uncharted territory. In fact, when I asked him how this project differed from his usual handiwork he said he rather enjoyed the break from classics. "I still love the classics, there's so much stress in in making sure a classic car is restored properly. If you're buffing or painting and you get a scuff or ding, it's the end of the world. With this rat rod it was a no fit, no match, project. There were no rules to abide by." He was allowed to just imagine & create, there's definitely never been a truck like this on the road before. He says he laughs when people ask, "Where did you get this?!" He says, "Where to start?... One piece at a time." It embodies so many recycled souls from other trucks, he made a sign for the bed of the truck (which looks more like a display case housing his creative designs) that states "Dodge, built tough with Chevy stuff." It only took him 7 months to build this Rat Rod.  Mostly, he says, because when he got the Dodge Cabover his friends joked he'd never actually do anything with it, so he had a deadline, to prove them wrong.

Jim & Judy (his wife) brought the truck down this weekend to the Wheelin' Walla Walla Days where he won, yet another trophy. Out of 9 shows he's taken it to in the last few months he's brought home 8. Most of which are "best of____", he got one for "best work in progress" but those judges didn't understand that his work here is done. The best part about the truck, is Jim never removed any of the rusty patina, never added a coat of paint (expect in an artistic way dabbed over lace on the fenders) or tried to polish any of the steel or chrome. A few times he had a hard time finding stock parts that were original to that time period so he bought shiny new parts and "antiqued" them himself, creating a seamless blend of old & new. There are so many quirky things he has added to this truck I wanted to document them. So, I brought out my camera & snapped some pictures. (Be sure to click on "pictures" to check them out!)
I have to say I think it's obvious this project was (and is) a labor of love and that shows through, from the 1950 Pontiac sun visor, to the not-so-hidden "hide a key" and on down to the handmade spiderwebs along the wheel wells. This Rat Rod is perfect, just the way it is.

Great job, Moe!