The string of words that left my lips when I laid eyes on this truck were so disjointed, profane, and otherwise wrong, I am never going to repeat them again….unless I stumble upon another vehicle that I find to be the most-prerfectest thing ever. This truck is just all time. Yes, it is rusty and crusty, but the wrecker unit works, the rust can be fixed, and it’ll drive (slowly) down the road for decades to come with the inliner engine making the power. The best part? Vaughn Chevrolet in New York Mills, Minnesota is still open for business. They’re really dumb if they don’t bring this wrecker back home and stick it in the corner of the show room as a display piece, even if they don’t fully restore it.

I suppose we say it too often, but the aging and patina on the truck are just perfect and in some cases we understand that it goes from patina to all out tin-worm. People try to recreate this look on their own cars and trucks but there’s no possible way to do it better than decades and decades of slow progress by mother nature. Different surfaces wear at their own different individual paces and mother nature’s slow process delivers results that even the most talented painter and artist simply can’t. Damn this thing is GOOD.

I am sure that this single rear wheel wrecker hauled hundreds and maybe even thousands of cars during its decades of service and if it could talk it would probably sounds like Wilfred Brimley but that’s the charm in it. The “Oh my aching back” look, the lettering on the doors, and fenders so rotten that they’re kind of flopping around like wings and the working wrecker unit on the back with sling and all. There is no report on the condition of the cab floors, but we’d have to guess that they may be as spotty as the body.

Powered by an inline six, packing a 4-speed transmission, an axle ratio like you would find in a farm tractor, and 0.0 frills, this truck is as yeoman as it gets and here is sits all these years later while the majority of its more optioned, chromed, and pretty brethren have long since departed the Earth. How you would handle this truck? In my mind, I’d need to do something about the really gnarly rust and keep everything the same, but I can also see the value in painting it like it looked the day it was new. In whatever form I want it badly!

Here’s some copy from the eBay ad-

• Green Exterior
• Black interior
• Original Lettering
• 6 Cyl.
• 4 Speed w/ PTO
• Push Bar
• Runs and Drives
• Winch and Boom Work

If I had a wrecker company, this truck would have my logo on it….its just too cool! 

SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS OF THIS WRECKER AND THE FULL EBAY AD WITH MORE PHOTOS AND INFO

eBay Find: 1956 Chevy Wrecker of rusty perfection