Restoring Cornelia
"Cornelia" is a 1953 International Harvester R-112 Series pickup truck purchased by John and Susan on 
August 16, 2009. Following up on a Craigslist ad, John made the 360-mile (each way), 6-hour drive up to Avon, Minnesota from Madison, Wisconsin to inspect the truck and was amazed to find an Arizona Blue pickup with only 24,000 original miles sitting in a barn on a small farm owned by the Bechtold family. Driving slowly, John transported the truck back to Madison that same day. It took over 8 hours battling cross-winds and rain, towing Cornelia with his 1998 Oldsmobile Bravada and a rented U-Haul car transport.
Follow along with us as we return this classic old gal to her former glory. On this site you will be able to track 
our progress and hopefully learn a few things along the way; perhaps by our mistakes, perhaps by some of the technical information that we post in the blog and "Truck Facts" sections. You'll also find no shortage of photos to view the details of the various steps of the restoration.
This is a labor of love and we plan to restore Cornelia as close to original as possible. If you have input that might help us achieve that goal, please help us out. If you are a fellow truck enthusiast and simply have a question, please feel free to ask - we will certainly help you out if we can!
