I bought this Honcho towards the end of summer 2015, since then I've been working on getting it to this.
Ever since seeing Twister as a kid 20 years ago I've always said that if I was to get a Pickup, it would be one like that Yellow Jeep.
In summer of 2011 I visited the original Dorothy I. I was able to get some great measurements and reference.
I slowly started collecting parts over the years, and looking at FSJ's off and on. When I found that Yellow '79 J10 Honcho with the factory blue stripe package I knew I had to get it. After a 5 hour drive with my boys (and not as much cash as he was originally asking) I had it.
Here is how it looked when I bought it.
(those plasti-dip blue rims were the ugliest dang thing the PO could have done [besides spray painting all the interior and getting over spray
everywhere])
My goal was to have it complete in time to take it to the 20th anniversary parade in Wakita, OK but getting laid off from my company of 10 years put a wrench in that plan. I was able to find a new job fairly quickly and busted ass to get it presentable in time for Denver Comic Con 2016 that took place over Father's Day weekend. It was a HUGE hit, everyone loves "THE truck from Twister" I had to put a plush cow on it somewhere and people loved it when they spotted it. "We've got cows" is definitely the go-to line from Twister.
This is a neat photo of waiting to get loaded into the Denver Convention Center, you can see I had not yet put some of the details on Dorothy - I removed the vertical pipe for driving through the roll up door.
This Dorothy with Dorothy has got to be about the cutest photo ever.
I've taken photos along the way and will be uploading those as well as more adventures with Mellow Yellow.
-Charles