[davem815]

I first saw Banana sitting outside a few mile from my house. After me and the wife both driving by several times, I finally caught the owner outside and stopped to look at the truck. It wasn’t for sale, but he was open to discuss. Eventually his girlfriend set a price and we agreed to purchase, but had to wait for the title to come back that she had just sent in. I wasn’t positive the deal would go through until it was sitting in my driveway.

I have most of the documentation on the truck. It lived it’s whole life in the next county over. It was bought from a Kalamazoo GMC dealer new on Jan. 12, 1966 by a gentleman from Roan, IN. On June 10, 1968 a farmer from Wabash, IN bought it, and kept it until sometime around 2012. It was apparently owned for a few years by a gentleman from Wabash who did a lot of mechanical repairs. He owned a used car lot. After we bought it I recalled seeing it a couple of times sitting on a used car lot in Wabash, but it had plates on it and was not parked like it was for sale. I’m sure we took some cell phone picture of it, but I cannot find them to date when it was there. I was able to see the truck on Google street view. I think the farmer is 93 and still alive. The second owner (farmer) paid $1,895 for it used in 1968, and his insurance cost him $42 to insure it for farm use.

I have several state inspection forms and repair receipts that documents the 64,000 original miles.