My Favorite Ride: Two yellow weathered treasures

A light rain fell as Christy Sheppard and I walked down a hill toward the barn behind her house. I was there to inquire about the 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air parked out front.

Then she mentioned the two relics down at the barn. Both yellow. And both familiar.

“That looks like the old ff-1 I wrote about a few years ago that was parked at that guy Karl’s Subaru lot over in Ellettsville,” I said. “And I think I used to own that Chevy LUV truck.”

“That IS the Subaru ff-1 you wrote about,” Sheppard said. “But I don’t know if that was ever your truck.”

It wasn’t. Turns out the four-wheel-drive pickup is a 1976 model; mine was vintage 1979. I drove it in the late 1980s, and have no clue where it ended up.

This truck came from Illinois, where Sheppard spotted it parked on a used vehicle lot in Carbondale.

“I had always wanted one of them little Chevy LUVs. Christy’s niece’s husband owned the place, and he sold it to me for $600. I don’t know anything about the history of it, and I’m not sure if it’s ever been wrecked,” he said. “I just know you can’t hardly find them in good shape.”

He has plans to refurbish the sturdy pickup.

“It’s next in line,” he said, behind his wife’s Subaru WRX, currently taking up the space in the garage. The turbo system is blown, and expensive repairs are under way.

“The truck, it’s in real good shape. It just needs some body work, and there’s a leaky wheel cylinder, and it has some rust on it I need to fix,” he said. “It needs some tires though, since the ones on there are kind of dry and totally cracked.” He’s been shopping for parts online, and is ready to invest $150 in a new dashboard pad to replace the deteriorating one.

The Chevy truck starts and runs, as does the one-of-a kind 1971 Subaru parked next to it, although there is a fuel tank issue.

When I talked to Karl Boehm about the ff-1 three years ago, he said it was the first front-wheel drive Japanese car imported to the United States. Sheppard was one of many who wanted to buy the mustard-colored car, the only car at Karl’s Automotive that wasn’t for sale. He paid $200 for the car, which records indicate was owned by a man in the town of Argos as far back as 1980. He left a notebook inside detailing, in pencil, every oil filter replacement and tire change.

Everything pretty much worked when Boehm purchased the car. The leaky gas tank, though, still isn’t fixed: A rubber hose extends from a gas can in the passenger seat to the fuel pump under the hood. Sheppard, who about a year ago convinced Boehm to sell him the car, has a plan. “I just have to pull out the gas tank and send it off to get it welded. I know a place that can do it.”

The ff-1’s turn in the garage, it will come. Luckily, Sheppard is a mechanic.

When I drove by this past week, the vintage Subaru hatchback and the Chevy truck had been washed and moved up from the barn lot, parked in front of the Bel Air — which needs brakes.

Luckily, Sheppard is a mechanic.