On Wednesday, March 18th at around 2:00 PM, my 1972 Chevrolet C20 long bed pickup truck was SOLD, SOLD, SOLD at the Mecum auction at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ. I had purchased the truck back in November with the intention of keeping it as my “old truck.” It didn’t have A/C, and there was some minor rust in the cab corners, but that all seemed fine for a non-daily driver pickup.

The bench seat was in very poor condition, and I’ve never been a fan of them anyway. I just happened to have a pair of very nice bucket seats with built-in safety belts waiting to be installed in one of my project vehicles. Of course, it took several hours to get them properly bolted down, but they were incredibly comfortable in that truck.

The truck also had a bare metal painted floor, so I went to Home Depot and bought six rubber-backed floor mats. With the “measure twice, cut once” mindset spinning in my head, I measured three times and still had to re-cut several mats to get them properly fitted. In the end, though, the floor was dramatically better than before.

One day in early January, I decided to really test the truck for reliability and see how I liked it as my own. The test went perfectly, with great oil pressure and no overheating during my 100+ mile, here-and-there adventure. By the end of the day, I realized this truck just wasn’t going to be my long-term keeper. Right then, I decided to clean it up, repaint it, and send it to the Mecum Glendale auction.

The truck already had brand new tires, a fully rebuilt front suspension, and front disc brakes, but the paint was old, tired, and in need of a refresh. I started the body prep and sanding, and after several hours of work, I stepped back and realized just how big the truck really was—and how much longer the process would take than expected.

After many, many hours of sanding, I sprayed it with primer, followed by even more hours sanding the primer. Finally, it was time to spray the custom-mixed, single-stage light gray paint. With single-stage paint, you typically need to wet sand and buff to achieve a deep, glossy finish. I let the truck sit for a full week to cure before starting that process.

But, as timing would have it, and with the auction approaching, my right wrist tendon became so inflamed I couldn’t even pick up a feather without serious pain.
In the end, the truck made it to the auction on time. However, once again—timing is everything. We were now at war in Iran, gas prices had jumped over $1.00 a gallon, and the stock market had been trending downward for over three weeks. On top of that, temperatures hit 100 degrees all week during the auction.
Going into that Wednesday, I fully expected the truck to sell at NO RESERVE for far less than I had hoped. It did sell for less—but not nearly as low as I feared.
It was great having two good buddies, Jeff and Terry, there with me when it crossed the block. When the auctioneer declared “SOLD! SOLD! SOLD!” I felt a huge sense of relief. The drama was over, and it was time to move on to the next car-related adventure.