Twenty years ago, when my daughter, Anne, was 14, she found the car she wanted. It was a 1950 Ford F1 pick up truck that had been mostly restored. My thought process was that it was reasonably safe, couldn’t go very fast and could only carry two people so I agreed. When we got it home we knew the engine needed work. Turned out it had a busted rod. We took a closer look at the restoration and it was pretty shoddy. We had over a year before she could drive it so we decided to do a full off frame restoration. It only takes them a week on TV so we should be able to do it in a year right? I made Anne and her 11 year old brother clean and paint the garage walls and floor before I let them start. They did all the tear down work. The engine went to a rebuild shop that knew how to work on flat heads. The body went to a shop with an alkali dip that specialized on restorations and the frame was sand blasted and powder coated. All parts are readily available so i bought all new stuff for it and the kids started reassembling the F1. The box was beyond repair so I purchased a new one with an oak wood floor and stainless runners. We converted it to 12 volt with an alternator, added a vacuum booster to the brakes and converted the windshield wiper from vacuum to electric. Then, Anne graduated from high school and we ran out of time and money. It sat in our shop for 15 years 80% complete. We planned several times to start working on it again and while we had the money, we still did not have the time. I found a local restoration shop with a lot of F1 experience. I snuck the truck out of the shop and over to them and let them pretty much finish it. It was ready about a month ago so Karl and I drove it to Anne’s to surprise her. We did. First she laughed, then she cried. We are having fun with it although there are still a few loose ends we need to finish.