Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/856429
60 | Overdrive | August 2017 Custom Rigs T win brothers Pete and Carl Caporal have been truck enthusiasts since they were children. The brothers, now 55, fell in love with trucks in the 1960s when their father would take them to truck stops to see trucks up close, then grab lunch and head to the gift shop for truck models. These trips as children led the brothers to become truck drivers themselves, driving garbage trucks for the city of Irvington, New York, and driving tractor-trailers on the week- ends. After spending a few years look- ing for a classic truck of their own to restore, they found a 1979 White Western Star cabover that caught their attention. "Kenworth, International and Peterbilt cabovers – they're a dime a dozen, but a Western Star cabover is rare," Pete says. Pete says he found out only 620 of these COEs were built in 1979, then White went out of business in 1980. During the restoration, the brothers found etched in the frame the number 475, the number of the truck off the assembly line. The brothers bought the truck in 2013 from a man in Con- necticut who filled them in on its history. After the truck was built at the White Mo- tor Co. plant in Cleveland, it was sold in Arizona and went to work for United Van Lines. Then for 18 years, the truck was used by a grain farmer in Minnesota before the Connecticut man bought it. Carl says the thing that caught his attention most when he and his brother went to look at the truck was the interior. "It wasn't eaten by mice," Carl says. "The leather and the gauges were intact." The brothers decided to buy the truck for $5,000 and moved it to a friend's garage in Corinth, New York, 200 miles away from their home in Irvington. During the next three years, they spent their weekends working on the truck to restore it, tracking down any parts that were still made and making parts that haven't been made in 35-plus years. "We didn't know what to expect and at times thought 'What did we get ourselves into?' " Pete says. "But it was a lot of fun." They had to cut out and find a new back panel for the cab, find a new cab lift pump and more. Pete says a friend – Bill Crist, owner of Crist Trucking in Corinth – fabricated most of the parts that had to be made. After more than three years of work, Carl estimates the brothers put $51,000 into the truck between the parts and the paint job, and you can't put a price on the time, he adds. Now, the truck is garaged through the winters and taken to regional truck shows in the summers. "That truck is pretty tight, no rattles or anything," Pete says. "You go down the road, and it doesn't feel like any- thing is coming loose." Thunderbird spreads its wings Rare White Western Star cabover restored BY MATT COLE Pete and Carl Caporal decided to paint the 1979 White Western Star cabover one of the original 22 paint schemes that was offered when the truck rolled out of the factory. The brothers had to fabricate numerous parts that are no longer in production, including shock brackets, exhaust brackets, cab mounts and just about any other bracket or mount. The paint job was done in one 24-hour session. The brothers decided on a blue background with bronze-and-rust thunder- bird wings that spread from the grille to the door.