Just looking at this pickup, you can tell it’s something special. But the further you peel back the layers of its story, the more you learn about how cool it really is. Starting from about twenty feet away the metallic gray paint draws you in, then from up close, you can see the quality of the restoration in the finer details. Finally, a look under the hood shows that it has an unusual fuel delivery system and that the small-block 327 cubic-inch engine is actually propane powered. As if that wasn’t enough, the decades long story behind the build makes this truck even more impressive.

We talked to the owner, Jim Nardo of Poulsbo, Washington, who has been involved with the truck his entire life. His dad bought the truck new, and he remembers when they brought it home. “I grew up in this truck, I threw up in this truck, and I raced this truck,” Jim told us. “I even used it to camp in it back in the day!”

Jim’s dad drove this truck to work every day, they had a camper on it, they towed their boats with it, and Jim was out driving it on their farm before he even had his license. “I got my license in ’65, and I’ve been driving this thing for 52 years,” he told us. “I drove this to high school, then later, I drove it to my high school reunion.” Back in the day, his school newspaper did a feature on all of the cool cars that the students had, but they left Jim out because his was a truck! “Even though at the time it was already a classic,” he explained.

Although Jim’s dad passed away a year ago, he was able to see his old truck restored, and not only that, he kept watch over the years as it made many transformations. It started life powered by a 265 cubic-inch engine, but in 1968 when Jim started to make some high-powered modifications to it, he swapped that out for a 327 cubic-inch Corvette engine. That engine lasted almost a year before he put in a 283 cubic-incher that was bored out to 301 cubic-inches.

He raced it on the street and at S.I.R., where the truck ran in the mid 14’s with that pumped up 301 cubic-incher, a Muncie four-speed transmission, and no weight in the back for traction. All while running on a loaner a pair of slicks for the day.

He ran it in this configuration between 1969 and 1976, when he broke the crankshaft and went back to the corvette engine. “It was fast off the line, but only got 10 miles to the gallon,” Jim told us. “And that was back when gas was expensive.” At that point he dusted off the original engine, bored the cylinders, and set it back in. “It was so disgustingly gutless though,” he told us. “Especially for a horsepower guy.”

In 1987, he parked the truck for twelve years while focusing on other projects. In 1999, he brought it back out and restored it to what you see today. In its current form, it runs on a propane powered 327 cubic-inch engine that’s followed by a Tremec five-speed manual transmission.

The idea behind the propane fuel system came from Jim’s dad. “My dad was a propane guy,” Jim said. “He liked to use duel fuel systems and have the ability to run either propane or gas in the car.” The truck is full of a lifetime of memories for Jim, and he built it in a way that reminds him of his father. It’s a really cool cruising vehicle that looks good and drives great, but to Jim it is a lot more than that.