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When most people walk past an old pickup truck with most of its body and insides completely missing, they dont give it a second thought. But when Bill La Fontaine saw the 1956 Ford pickup, it was love at first sight.
La Fontaine, 61, a lifelong Norwalk resident, doesnt think of himself as a professional mechanic. I just grew up around cars and figured out how to fix them, he said. But his know how has enabled him to meticulously restore the truck, which he bought in 1997 and which was the same model his grandfather had owned. His restoration is so precise that hes taken home many trophies from local vintage car shows.
But its what you dont see that is most impressive. La Fontaine, who along with his wife of 30 years, Lyn, co-owns Reo Appliances in East Norwalk, has rebuilt, reconfigured and retooled every inch of the vehicle. He explains: I put in all new gauges because the truck originally had idiot lights, which dont tell you anything until its too late. He also replaced the heating system, which was built with a gas-fired heater and featured such eye-raising attributes as an open flame under the dashboard. La Fontaine also updated the windshield wiper system, which was factory installed as a vacuum mechanism. A driver would step on the accelerator in order to turn on the wipers, but if the car accelerated too suddenly the wipers would stop dead. So I completely replaced it and installed a two-speed motor because that wouldnt be too fun in a rainstorm, he said with a smile.
Not completely rustproof because it still has some old metal in it, his truck lives on a rug in his immaculate barn, which makes most operating rooms look untidy.
I take good care of my truck, he said. I worked pretty hard on it.
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