The entire day was spent stripping the old pickup, and then cleaning (What others would call "detailing". Why?) the thing. Inside and out.

One of the first things off was the shields. Peeling their magnetic backing off to reveal patches of the truck that had not seen the light of day for what, four and a half years?

Yes, the door around that bright patch of paint is clean. Just goes to show you what our bright sun, sand-laden wind and mineral saturated water can do to a paint job.

It looked a lot better after I took it to town and got a new layer of wax on it. You have to look just right to see the outline of the shield...

On the inside, it finally became time to peel off the sticker patch.

All the marketing stickers off plums, nectarines, apples and pluots (a plum/apricot hybrid also sold as "dinosaur eggs") that I had consumed in the rig over the past four-some years. Not that many, when you start averaging it. But I only eat fresh fruit in the truck for two, maybe three months of the year, so...

And yes, I gave some thought to the placement of each sticker.

And no, I didn't save this example of rural "art".

This...

however, I did not peel off.

The protective slip cover for the display crystal on the radio. Like you get on every LED, whether camera, player or radio.

Saw no reason to hurry up and peel it off, so I left it. After a year or so, one of my wardens razzed me about it.

So naturally it stayed on.

Tomorrow, I will turn this aged vehicle in to the dealer.

With 87,900 miles on it.

And a pristine radio display.

Hardest part of the day was getting the tool box out of the bed. Which included cleaning out the detritus layer that surrounded it.

A four-year layer 4-5cm deep of silt, sand, and nicely composted leaves.

Frozen solid.

With a few miscellaneous items buried in, like wire, latex gloves, rocks that weren't jade...

And three (yes, count 'em, three) railroad spikes.

But the box itself took the most time. A little surprising, since there's only four bolts holding it in. But you only have a two-inch working space under the bed for working the nuts.

And being as how there's just me, and I have normal proportioned arms for a human, there's no way to work the wrench on the bolt head in the box and hold the nut still on the bottom of the truck at the same time.

Which brings us to the vise-grips.

For those uninitiated, vise-grip pliers are pliers which have an added lever inside the handle. By the principle of a fulcrum, these pliers are able to lock down on whatever you clamp them on and, supposedly, stay locked.

Doesn't always work.

For this task, I lock the vise-grips on the nut, and hop up into the tool box. As I turn the wrench, sooner or later the pliers jam up against something, and the bolt will finally turn up out of the rigidly held nut.

In theory.

In reality, the pliers often pop loose. Especially if their release level gets bumped. I've got a set of Chinese knock-off vise-grips that are always popping loose.

Not good, since each time they come off, you gotta climb out of the truck, shove your head into the muddy wheel well (literally), then reach into that narrow gap between the frame and bed to reset the pliers.

And climb in the box to try again.

And again.

So I spent considerable time tearing through my tool boxes looking for my true vise-grips. Which rarely pop off.

No luck. Haven't seen them for some time, come to think of it...

So I'm back to working with the Chinese knock-offs. And fail on the first bolt. So I try a second. And that comes out with just a few resets.

I move up to the third bolt. The one hidden up by the gas line. My head goes back into the wheel well, with clods of dry mud falling down my neck and shirt, and I try to feel for the bolt and nut.

And there's something there!?! Cold and hard.

So I pull back out to look. And there, on the third bolt, which was apparently the last bolt I put in when I installed this tool box four and a half years ago, is...

My missing vise-grip pliers.

Still locked onto the nut where I left them under the bed of the truck.

Four and a half years ago.

Geez!!!

I've hit bumps hard enough to knock off pieces of the truck in the past four and a half years, and here those vise-grips held on!

Miles and miles of wash-board roads, and their grip never loosened.

I'm impressed.

They were a little rusty when I got the bolt undone, but otherwise just fine.

And yes, I oiled them up and put them back in the tool box.