A grandpa fought back tears of joy when his grandson surprised him by restoring his beloved 1954 pickup truck, which had not been in working order for decades. Richard Kincheloe, from Lebanon, Missouri, initially purchased the 1954 International Harvester pickup with his mother for $50 and a hog when Richard was just 15. For more than 45 years, the truck, nicknamed Cannonball, remained on Richard's land – and one day, it even caught the eye of his grandson, Blake Kincheloe, 20. When Blake was about three or four years old, Richard, 68, took him to see Cannonball, which resulted in Blake pointing at the vehicle and saying, "That's my truck." Richard agreed with his grandson, saying, "Okay, that's your truck," but Cannonball sat on the farm for years, not in a drivable condition. When Blake was old enough to start working and save a little money, he took Cannonball from the farm hoping to add new brakes to the vehicle. Over time, however, Blake's plans changed, and he decided to restore the truck to working order. Richard had no idea the truck was gone, and for months, Blake worked on Cannonball with the help of a local company, C&J’s Classic and Muscle Cars. Then, on December 9, it was time for the big surprise, with Blake driving the truck down the road to his family's home, where Richard was standing outside. Richard proclaimed, "I never thought I'd live to see this," before fighting back tears as his grandson showed him around the working vehicle.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Careful, what is that over there?
00:02 Look.
00:03 What?
00:04 Where?
00:05 L-I-V-E-D-A-N-G.
00:07 I had a hog.
00:09 A big old hog.
00:11 And this old man, Lloyd Hall, he had this pickup.
00:17 And we needed something to drive.
00:20 And he said, I'll trade it for that hog at $50.
00:24 Richard was 15 at the time.
00:27 That's good old bartering right there.
00:29 The truck's been in the family ever since.
00:32 When I was really young, my grandpa was taking me out to show me the truck.
00:36 And he said, do you like my truck?
00:39 And apparently I told him, that's my truck.
00:41 And he said, OK, that's your truck.
00:43 And he always said he was going to give it to me.
00:46 And then he did eventually.
00:49 Grandpa Richard even nicknamed the truck Cannonball back in the day
00:53 because of how strong and powerful it was.
00:56 But Cannonball hadn't been strong for a long time,
01:00 sitting dead in his yard for 45 years.
01:04 There's a square of brown right here.
01:06 This is where the truck sat for a long, long, long, long time.
01:11 Well, I've always wanted to restore that old truck
01:14 and not just put it off and put it off.
01:16 And then I'll be like, man, I wish I fixed that up for him.
01:19 I wanted to do it now because my grandpa won't be around forever.
01:24 And his grandpa loves telling old stories about his adventures with Cannonball, too.
01:30 Here's the last one right.
01:32 Yeah, and that was a long time ago.
01:34 We took off across there when he was little and didn't have a break one.
01:39 We got to book it down to there.
01:43 But now he'll be able to tell some new stories.
01:47 All right, today's the day we're picking up the 1954 International pickup.
01:53 Starts right up like nothing.
01:56 It's my dad in the International right now.
01:59 There's the brake lights that didn't exist.
02:04 And yes, that bumper is a steel bumper welded on, literally a steel pipe.
02:09 My grandpa did that some odd years ago.
02:13 He had no clue what I was going to do with it.
02:16 He didn't know that I was going to get it running
02:18 and drive it down the road and pull up to his house in this truck.
02:23 What is that over there? Look.
02:27 What? Where?
02:29 A lot of these things.
02:31 [laughter]
02:33 Daddy's crazy.
02:40 [music]
02:42 Water pump, brand new water pump.
02:57 Oh, they rewired it completely.
03:02 Oh, they did.
03:04 Yeah, they got rid of the cruddy wire, they said,
03:06 and put new fuses in it and rewired it themselves.
03:11 Didn't think I'd ever let you see that.
03:21 He can't believe it still, you know, it just doesn't feel real.
03:24 I mean, it doesn't to me either, because I've seen that truck, you know,
03:27 dead for a long time, and it's like it's been brought back to life.
03:32 Like my dad's, like an old family member has been like brought back, you know.
03:37 It's like an old friend.
03:39 How long do you think it's been since you drove it?
03:44 I don't know.
03:46 It's been way, it's been 20 or better.
03:50 Cannonball is one of the only things his grandpa has left from his mom,
03:55 and Blake told us he hopes people recognize the importance of family
04:00 every time we get with them.
04:03 You need to be together with your family, really.
04:06 That's what it's all about.
04:08 People, they wish their grandpa was still alive,
04:10 or they wish they could have done this for their grandpa.
04:12 And like I said before, we're not all going to be here forever.
04:15 Some are here shorter than others,
04:16 so I hope that people can take that into consideration and live in the moment.