UPDATE (10/4/23): TRUCK IS RUNNING AND WE ARE TAKING HER...AND MY DAD...TO CRUISIN' THE COAST!! BUT, our funds are completely depleted. To those of you who donated before, thank you so so much! I'm now reaching out to see if anyone is interested in donating money for the artwork. The artwork will be amazing and patriotic. It will be something that represents the memory of my dad and all veterans. Hopefully, we will be able to get the artwork done by Cruisin' the Coast 2024...if not sooner!

(Original post 2022)I'm reaching out to everyone to help get my dad's hot rod restored. Here goes... My dad was Vietnam Veteran, Desert Storm Veteran, 2 time Purple Heart recipient. He had a plethora of health problems (diabetes, COPD, heart disease) that kept him down. He was also an above the knee amputee with PTSD. This man came into my life when I was 3. He married my mom and took me as his own. A year later...along came my little sister. We then moved to Nebraska. It was a hard life there, but us kids would have never known how hard it was on him. He always made sure we were clothed, fed, had a roof over our heads...he always always provided...and busted ass doing it. Sometimes he worked multiple jobs, sometimes he worked strange jobs, but he always worked. The sad thing is, he worked his tail off but never really seemed to have any extra money for...the Hot Rod. I remember he got this thing when I was probably 5 or so. He was soooo proud and had big plans for it. We moved several times before I was grown and wherever we moved, that truck moved...sometimes on a trailer. At one point he had it looking and running pretty ok...like in the shared pic. It didn't have the paint job he always wanted...it was white...but at least it had paint. And he never did have the money to do everything he wanted to it and get it all done so that he could enjoy it for any amount of time. Then...a several years ago he was working on it in the carport and we heard this loud explosion. He ran inside with a cloud of smoke behind him and said to call the Fire Dept. I don't know all the ins and outs of what went wrong that day...I just know that the '58 was officially dead. He looked so sad and defeated. He briefly contemplated just hauling it to the scrapyard, but we all talked him into just covering it up and putting it aside...just in case of a miracle. That's where you come in. My father has now journeyed to the end of his life. He passed away January 22nd of this year at the age of 72. I started and shared this GoFundMe a few months before he passed, but didn't even come close to achieving the goal. This truck is now my son's project and dream. Before my dad passed, he told my son "I'd give anything just to be able to drive it one more time". Well, my son has every intention of still seeing that through. If there is anything you can do to help...anything at all. Thank you for your time in reading this...and thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

 

PS-I have no earthly idea how much it would cost to completely restore it. I just went with the amount my dad gave me before he passed...and he said that was a low figure

 

I've attached some pics of the different stages of the life of the hot rod. I also was going through pics trying to find some of my dad that would sort of depict him as a person. To be honest, there just aren't enough words or pics to describe what an awesome man this was...really.