Some families hand down pendants or blankets, but this father gave his son an old beat-up truck. And what the teenager did with it next is unbelievable.

1-luke-merrill-chevy-renovation-composite-main — Image: YouTube/Tinman 2 Kustoms

The hot-rodding scene – that is, customizing vehicles to make them faster, more powerful and generally cooler – is alive and well. Indeed, as the story of this humble truck restoration goes to show, a new generation of hot rodders is ready to take the wheel.

As a reward for graduating from high school, Luke Merrill of Isanti, Minnesota, was given the old family car: a 1965 Chevrolet C10. However, this was no immaculate, lovingly cared-for classic. As Merrill said, it was a “gag gift” which looked “old, beat-up and unwanted.”

However, the fixer-upper was a family heirloom, nonetheless. “We have had this truck in the family for 20 years,” Merrill explained in a YouTube video uploaded in January 2012.

He said the moment that the treasured automotive was passed to him was pretty underwhelming. “I came home and the turd that we had sitting in the backyard for 20-plus years was sitting in the front yard with balloons on it,” Merrill added.

Nevertheless, in order to give his dad a surprise, he decided to fix it up. From the start, though, it must’ve been clear that if Merrill would ever drive the vehicle, it would need a whole lot more than just a new lick of paint.

Aged just 18, Merrill was by no means a restoration prodigy. “They didn’t [teach workshop] at the school I went to,” he recalled. “I didn’t even know how to change my own oil until I was 18.” Still, he persevered.

First of all, Merrill patched up the parts of the car that had rusted. And he wrapped newspaper around the windows and tires to protect them as he applied a new coat of paint to the now mostly bare metal.

In the video of Merrill’s restoration, the huge effort it took to restore the battered old vehicle is clear. Day and night, he spent hours adjusting, replacing, painting and restoring. And after only a few months, his “gag gift” was restored to its former glory.

The change from the beat-up old vehicle that Merrill had received as a joke gift to the one after he’d finished was astounding. Indeed, the truck was transformed from a rust bucket to a polished, bright-red wagon. But what’s most amazing is that the whole project cost just $600.

The process did not come without its trials, however. Merrill explained to hot-rodding website Rod Authority in 2014 that he needed a lot of heavy-lifting help from friends owing to a hand injury. Further, he revealed that, in his opinion, the older generation had unfairly judged him on his craftsmanship.

“There is a wide array of people in the car scene,” Merrill said. “No matter what the build style of the person is, I always appreciate creativity and hard work.” He added, “Personally [I] am not impressed with the way some of the older crowd judge me and my buddies at car shows.”

This, Merrill claimed, is an issue that affects the entire hot-rodding community. “[It’s] something that needs to change if people want their hot rods to continue to grow in value,” he explained.

“After all, the next generation is what determines the value of our rod investments,” Merrill added. “Just because we are young does not mean we are dumb or less knowledgeable about cars.”

Despite these problems, though, Merrill did have at least one elder statesman of the hot-rodding community rooting for him. His father, Dave, is a car enthusiast, too. Indeed, he got his first hot rod when he was 13.

Merrill Sr.’s attitude towards improving cars is that a reworked vehicle can never be truly complete. “They’re never really finished even though you paint them,” Merrill Jr. quoted his father as saying. “Sometimes you paint them just so you have a reason to stop working on them.”

The timing of the teenager’s renovation project also related to his father. At the time of Merrill’s graduation, his dad suffered from respiratory disorders, and so he hadn’t worked on his cars for a couple of years. Fixing up the old vehicle, then, was a gift of sorts to raise his spirits.

Furthermore, it has set Merrill up for a future in restoring old cars. Indeed, while working on his economics and psychology degree at the University of Minnesota, he set up an automotive restoration business. And he called it Tinman II Kustoms to honor his father’s old metal fabrication business, Tinman.

In addition, Merrill has been honored a number of times by the hot-rodding community – which, it seems, now recognizes his awesome renovating skills. Moreover, he was featured in specialist magazines, and he received scholarships from the Minnesota Street Rod Association to further his education.

Merrill is bursting with advice for people wanting to get into the hobby, too. “Before you get your feet too wet, try and help a friend that is building something,” he said. “Planning the entire build is also very important. I like to sit down with a notebook and make a comprehensive to-do list, parts list, junk-yard list, etc.”

At such a young age, Merrill still has his future ahead of him. And given the promise he has shown with his Chevy restoration, it’s fair to say there’s a good chance that this future will involve a lot more hot rodding.