Joe Dispensa’s Trucks

By Joe Dispensa

Joe Dispensa and his wife Marie have been members of the Early Ford V-8 Club and the Northern Illinois Region Group for several years, but his attraction to pickups and Early Ford V-8’s started much earlier.  Joe loved old pickup trucks most of his life, but being born into a family business, he never had the time to restore any vehicle.  Fifteen years ago when Joe retired from being a high school industrial arts teacher, one of his retirement goals was to restore a pickup to driver quality.  Fourteen years ago he bought a ‘52 Ford F1 pickup in a rusty, non-running condition from a neighbor.  He started out taking classes from DAVEA in Addison under the direction of Sam Iusi, who also introduced him to Northern Illinois Group #8.  Joe decided to start out on the two rear fenders.  Sam explained that they were not worth repairing.  But Joe wanted to learn the hard way and after working a whole year of night class he finally completed the fenders to Sam’s standards. 

After a slow start Joe converted his old horse barn (20’ x 30’) into an auto shop with everything you would need, including a car lift.  To make the lift workable he had to raise the second floor of his barn five feet.  Finally completed, he decided that he needed more space because he now had two ‘52 Ford F1 pickups to disassemble.  After fighting with the DuPage County Conservation Department for 9 months, he was able to start on a 24’ x 30’ addition to his barn.  This three car addition has finally given him the working space to work on his trucks.  If you were at the LaSalle Street Auto Row Car show in Aurora on October 4th, you might have seen a ‘51 Ford pickup cab, box and frame with a sign on the door stating you were looking at a Supply Service Maintaining Vehicle for the United States Air Force.  It also stated “Look for me in 2010”.  You can still see the blue body and white top colors.  This will be Joe’s first truck to work on.  The two other trucks will be donors for the ‘51.  In addition, Joe has been going to swap meets for years collecting parts.  Joe’s plans are to work on the truck two days a week (maybe half days) till the truck is completed.  Hopefully the remaining parts may be another truck.  The reason for this article is because Joe needs a goal to keep on track.  We will see how far he gets in the coming months.

Editor’s Follow Up

We thank Joe for sending in his story and pictures and wanted to follow up with some developments after he submitted the story. In late October, a number of NIRG members dropped in on Joe to check out his new shop and the progress on his trucks.  Joe gave a guided tour to Joe Kozmic, Joey Novak, Dan Pudelek, Ken Bounds, John Judge, Frank Madrigali, and John Slobodnik (hope I didn’t miss anyone).  We all agreed that Joe has put together a really neat shop and garage to work on his trucks.  He has a terrific lift, so crawling around under the vehicles is not a concern.  Joe has assembled a lot of tools and has a sound plan for restoring the very solid Air Force truck to its former glory.  Joe welcomes club members to come over and assist in the restoration.  What a great chance to not only help a fellow club member, but also to take advantage of a terrific learning opportunity.  Since our visit we know that John Slobodnik and Don Drews have been working with Joe.

Unfortunately, unexpected shoulder surgery in mid-November has thrown Joe a curve, but he assures us that the restoration project is continuing.  Don Drews has offered to submit periodic updates on the progress.  We anxiously await future reports and look forward to seeing the results as they occur.