Good Morning from the East Coast!
To the good ole days:
Having a long family history with the love of Squrebody's, I think it's fair to show my story and my love affair with these trucks and one specifically. We have a decent fleet of squares still and it's always been a family affair. My dad, Dave Kraus Jr. started it with his Red/White Short bed Scottsdale 86 Known as "Wingnuts" amongst his friends and family. The Red/White found this name through his friends as a result of playing around on the weekends in his one car garage and showing up to work on Monday with a different engine. In the time he had the truck it had everything from the original 305 which was replaced within weeks of him buying it 2 years used in '89. After the 305 was removed it had 2 different 427's, a 454, back to a built 350 then a 396, a 400 and sometime in between a 383. Probably using the 400 crank from the 350 if I had to guess. And then regrettably sold it to a lady Named Mrs. June with a very mild 350 who later surfaces in this small story. I think he did this to help offset cost to build the new house in 1993 while putting me through private school and my brother getting ready to start kindergarten.
Most of the time the multiple powerplants pushed through a 400turbo and 12 bolt truck rear after the factory 10 blew on the first 427. Back then you could swap out engines in a single bay garage with a 30 pack and some friends in one night. No cell phones, no TV's no electric impacts. Just a old Radio and no distractions. Go out and rip all night with the new power plant. Then the next day, with moms station wagon not having a battery because dad borrowed it for the truck. We would have no option but to take the truck only to loose the driveshaft 200 ft down the road. Still smelling of cigars from my grandfather, Dave Kraus Sr. who would go on these grand nightly adventures with my dad always let me know it was a good night. This was the norm and mom "usually" laughed it off. Oh The good ole days. Me being born in 84 I was old enough to fall in love with this truck at 5 years old. The only thing I didn't like and dad laughed at was the "pocket books" as I called them behind the seat.
After the truck was sold, it was talked about around the family and friends in the neighborhood that remembering hearing it rip up the streets. Fast forward a Decade and a half later on our way home from towing my Wife's newly acquired 86 Short Bed Scottsdale from Kinston NC back to MD, a old neighbor hood friend called and said he seen my dad's old truck next to a house sitting in tall grass. Tired and exhausted from bringing the wife's square home on a Saturday, the next day we still managed to scour the neighborhood in hopes to find it. And the feeling of finding a pot of gold we finally found it. After a few weeks of asking they finally decided to sell us back the old truck. Mrs. June who still owned it and was in her 70's at the time took the tags off after her son in law blew the transmission. But now we finally came back full circle and now it's mine. On the back of the tittle I wrote "Never" in the sellers spot. Dad knowing he wasn't ever getting his old truck back from me, he went and found another 2 tone 86 Short bed which is now today getting it's frame off restoration and another Big Block Powerplant. So My wife, dad and myself had 3 '86 Short bed Scottsdale's from the same plant and 3 months within their build dates. However we Sold the wife's offset some funds and now we are searching for a 73-79 K5 Blazer to replace her short bed.
A few months ago I added a new addition to the family, I brought home a 86 C30 Crew Dually 2wd with 93k and a piston knock. Now that we have a 2 year and a little boy on the way the crew will fit in quiet well with a new 454 being built, a 4l80e swap and a nice drop and some alcoa's. We hope to hit some of the big shows with them and my red and white resembling a similar build close to the BIG RED CAMARO. Loud, obnoxious and just overall a blast to drive with hopes to run on multi-purpose events. In the meantime we are currently setting up our 56 Belair 4d HT for baby seats as our cruiser and long time restoration of the wife's '68 dodge charger. For some that love story's and enjoy reading I thought I'd give a solid introduction which seems to be subpar in most introductory groups in forum groups. Trying to get away from the main stream media like Facebook and get back the the roots of the original forums.
Cheers!
Dave Kraus III
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
