LIMA — Boredom got the best of Randy Schaefer approximately 18 years ago, so he decided to build a truck out of scrap parts that he had around his garage.
“I was sitting around the house bored one night and started drawing on the concrete floor,” Schaefer said.
It helped that Schaefer had spent 21 years as a mechanic in the military, as he knew what he was doing with the engine part of the Autocar. Schaefer also said that the first truck he drove was a 1967 Autocar truck for Shell Oil.
The creation was completed about two years ago.
Autocars are more commercial trucks. According to Schaefer, the brand is made over in Indiana, and now it makes mostly garbage trucks.
Schaefer says the truck follows the road due to a narrow wheelbase. He used springs off of a trailer.
“It has parts from everything on it,” Schaefer said.
The bed of the truck is made from red oak.
The truck runs 35 mph.
The roof is off of a 1949 Chevy 1/2 ton; Schaefer cut it down. When he started building it, he had no idea how to have a roof on with windows, but it all fit.
“Just dumb luck,” Schaefer said.
Now he has a “one-of-a-kind” vehicle that he enjoys showing off.
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