The Back Pages
BACK PAGES BACK PAGES BACK PAGES Back Pages Back Pages I t didn't take a raft of dollars to get owner-operator Bill Gudzik's vintage 1977 Kenworth K100 and 2001 Great Dane reefer in condition to earn First in its class at the April Pride & Polish contest at the 75 Chrome Shop in Wildwood, Florida. It just took a new paint job and more than 30 years of tender loving care. Gudzik lives in tiny Gibsonton, Florida, but he didn't start out in the South. My dad had a gas station in Smithtown on Long Island in New York, Gudzik says. He cut his teeth trucking in a Mack B61 and other trucks hauling around town, including a longish stint moving sheet rock from Staten Island before he could go over-the-road. When he finally bought his first and last, as it would turn out new truck, he might not have expected it to still be his money-making machine 30 years later, but he was at least well-prepared to help it make the long journey. One key: I slow down around potholes and train tracks, he says. Though the engine has seen several upgrades, most of the tractor's equip-ment is original, including the interior. The only thing that was changed was the doghouse cover, he says, which was re-vinyled once. The overhead, the doors, the rugs on the doors, the seats all original. Only three of the gauges have been changed. The truck even still has original kingpins, equipment that has taken sit down for this one, he says three million miles of abuse. My pop passed away a year before I bought the truck. He'd driven with me when I was a company driver, so between my father's spirit being in that truck, the good Lord, and my experience it's kept going all these years. LUXURY LINER For the majority of his career, owner-operator Bill Gudzik has hauled produce as an independent for Produce Exchange of Tampa, Florida. The Pride & Polish contest at 75 Chrome Shop in Wildwood was his fi rst rodeo, as he puts it. By 72 CUSTOM RIGS Fall 2009 B.T.K. Express owner-operator Bill Gudzik's years of TLC take his 1977 KW into its third decade in style North Street Auto Body in Tampa, Fla., did the paint work on Gudzik's K100 (in addition to the Great Dane reefer pictured) in June 2008. It was the only paint job aside from the original in the K100's 30-plus years. Other work put into the truck to get it up to show condition included changing out original incandescent lighting with LEDs. Bill Gudzik