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EMAIL FROM DAVID:

We entered our 1957 Chevrolet 1/2 ton panel truck in the Snohomish Classic Car Show on Sunday, 9-27-2009. The truck took third place in our class which was Modified Custom Trucks 1959 and Older. I think that is pretty good for its first time in a car show. There were probably three dozen trucks entered in this class.

In its former life our 1957 Chevrolet 1/2 ton panel truck operated as the delivery and service truck for the original Snohomish Hardware. The hardware store was located on first street between Avenue B and Avenue C in Snohomish, WA. Colonel Neil Cochran (he was a Colonel in the Snohomish Fire Department) owned both the hardware store and the truck. He lived on the east side of the 400 block of Avenue B.

My family moved to Snohomish from the Philippines and into 306 Avenue B. in 1961. We ran the Bus Depot and had a restaurant, “Adel’s Cafeteria”, at 901 First Street from 1962 to at least 1971. Later, in 1978, when I came home from hobo-ing around the planet I bought the house at 322 Avenue B. I used to see this truck at least a dozen times a day going up and down our street to a delivery, a service call or a fire. There used to be a Snohomish Fire Department sticker on the front bumper. When we first bought it our two boys, Grifynn and Garrett, were little and they thought it was a Snohomish fire truck. As a kid I used to think of it as a big “real” toy Tonka Truck.

My wife, Carey Lee, was selling real estate at Gilpin Realty in the late 1990’s and one day she came home and told me about this truck she saw in a garage at a home she was showing on Avenue. B. I knew it was “the truck”. Carey Lee and I went down there and talked to the owners and we purchased the truck from Colonel Cochran’s daughter and son-in-law in 1999. We finally finiahed its restoration over the past 6 months. The truck has all new; interior, paint, wiring, suspension, with a Mustang II front end clip and the biggest front disc brakes we could install because the original straight 6 engine has been replaced with a big block Chevy 454. Needless to say the truck goes. With all that horsepower stopping is important. It has only 80,000 original miles on it. It is a moving piece of Snohomish history.

Every step of the way the restoration has all been done by “committee”. Carey Lee, Grifynn (15) and Garrett Clay (13) all had serious input in the design, paint, sound system and interior. Special recognition goes to Garrett Clay for the fine details and the interior design. The color scheme inside and out was no small feat of consensus. Our friends, Steve Allen and “Jim the Mechanic” of Snohomish did the lion’s share of the body and paint as well as the mechanical stuff. He was wonderful to work with. Sandblasters, INC. in Marysville brought it back to bare metal. Dreamers in Everett finished off the new suspension. Trimcraft in Snohomish did the Interior. Gary and Tim you are artists! The wheels and tires are from Les Schwab in Snohomish. Car Toys in Everett is responsible for the fine sound system. Gary at K&H exhaust specialties in Snohomish made the 454 Big Block Chevy engine purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Geoff Smith and Larry McNabb helped us move the truck around as it went

through the restoration process. Thank you all!

We own a “real” toy Tonka Truck.

We are looking for some old photos of the truck when it was the delivery truck for Snohomish Hardware on First Street.

Any ideas where to look? We are planning on making up a before and after montage for car show displays in the future.

Happy Trails,

David Clay

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