A 1939 International Harvester truck, restored to its original condition, is being sent from Summerland to a new owner in Britain.
Sean Collins said the red truck has been in his family for more than 50 years.
The truck was built in Hamilton, Ontario and was sold to a farmer in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. Collins’s uncle, Chester Davidson bought the truck from its second owner in 1965.
In 1970, Collins’s father, Clifford Collins bought the truck.
Collins bought the truck in 1978 and drove it back to his home in Three Hills, Alta., where he dismantled it and completely restored it. At the time, it had 53,000 miles (85,000 kilometres) on the odometer.
The restoration work took a year and a half and cost more than $10,000.
Finding original parts for the truck was challenging.
Shortly after the restoration was finished, Collins sold the truck to his uncle, Shorts Collins of Duncan, B.C.
After Shorts Collins died in a car accident, Sean Collins acquired the truck once again and drove it back to Alberta.
For many years, it was on display in the Three Hills Museum while Collins and his wife Lynn worked in Africa and Europe.
The restored truck has been driven little, with only 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometres) since the restoration work was completed.
“It was mainly a museum piece,” Collins said.
In 1997, when they returned to Canada and settled in Summerland, they brought the truck with them.
Earlier this year, when he found a buyer for the truck, Collins had to search for parts once again.
The new owner, who lives in Hampshire, United Kingdom, had requested certain parts which will be difficult to find there.
“I’ve been working since May to collect the parts he wanted,” Collins said. “I’ve had to look all over the U.S. and Canada.”
The new owner asked that the single rear wheels be replaced with dual wheels.
Finding the rims involved a trip to Maple Creek, Sask.
“It was a headache,” he said, recalling how he travelled all over British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan to find the pieces he needed.
