Timeline
“She always wanted an old truck”
Story by John Aschenberg &Linda Kitchens
Photos by – Julia Aschenberg & owner
Have you ever had a project you needed to get done on time? Well a good word to use would be Timeline, which the definition of “Timeline” is – A time frame during which something is scheduled to happen. This word would definitely fit Linda Kitchens along with her husband Ron, who are a husband and wife team who totally restored and hot rodded Linda’s ’49 Chevrolet 5 window pickup truck. The Kitchens hale from Harper, TX and are no strangers to the automotive world. Linda got involved in cars due to Ron’s love of cars, in fact one of their first dates was at the local drag strip. Linda was quoted as saying, “this ‘49 pickup was built entirely in our home shop, and when we say entirely that means everything including body, paint, electrical, fabrication, assembly and all upholstery ".
Linda had seen the truck in a field many times near her mother- in- laws house in central Texas. It sat in a field for years, so one day back in December of ‘2001 after passing by this truck Ron stopped to inquire about the old hauler. He came back to the car only to say that the asking price was too much, Linda was disappointed but understood. When they got home to celebrate Christmas she was surprised only to see a picture of the ’49 in her stocking with a note saying it was finally hers. The following week the Kitchens went back with truck and trailer and hauled the ole relic back home to start its new transformation.
Work on the truck was very slow going the first five years due to moving to the Texas hill country and other projects taking precedence. Then a decision was made in mid – 2007 to get the truck completed for the upcoming Austin, TX indoor car show in January 2008. That six month period found Linda and Ron in the shop almost nonstop trying to complete this project for the Austin show, hence the word TIMELINE!
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