Miracle in a bottle

I went to my cousins house Saturday for his son's graduation party, and shared this story (he knew it almost verbatim) So I had to ask what ever happened to his dads pick up? My cousin still has it, and uses it to tow his dragster on weekends. 1989 Chevy 1/2 ton, 323K miles, original 350 engine, and 2 transmissions later. Super clean inside and out, I honestly had to look at the wear on the brake/accelerator pedals to believe the odometer.

I also asked him what his take on the question of a miracle in a bottle. He never uses any additives, just synthetic Mobil1 in all his vehicles, and named something else for his dragster (I forget what?). He only half agrees that 323k is miraculous, the other half hard work and anal retentive PM's. He said if the engine made it to 500k he might reconsider.

Then he shared another story I had not heard before. He said in 1988 his dad spent a week inside the garage with his older 1978 Ford, and would come inside with full respirator and paint gear, and obviously frustrated. He then declared the garage off limits to everyone. So they figured it was a paint job gone bad, till he parked it in the lawn mid week with original paint. And then went straight to a Chevy dealer and purchased this truck. It made no sense to his family, and his mom just said don't ask, leave him alone. For the rest of the week he was inside the garage with his new '89 Chevy and still wearing paint gear when he came inside for breaks. Until he parked it next to his old Ford, and no new paint job or anything. He thought his dad had gone mad, when he would see him outside in the lawn watering the two trucks, no soap, sponges... just a garden hose and something attached to the nozzle. But he says, he was very methodical, underneath, then wheel wells, then body. My cousin is convinced it was some rust treatment he had been playing with. When you look at the frame, and normal rot locations it still has factory paint. If that can be called a miracle through 28 mid-west salt filled winters, that would be his miracle in a bottle.