Restored equipment makes its way from Weyauwega to Chile
By Angie Landsverk
Dennis Neubauer spent years restoring an old fire truck he spotted in a salvage yard.
He drove it for the last time last month before selling it. All Neubauer knew was that it was on its way to New Jersey before it was to be shipped to Chile. The buyer had purchased it for his father-in-law as a 70th birthday present.
“I had a little seller’s remorse,” he said of how he felt the next day and wondered where the truck was that morning.
“I knew every nut and bolt on it,” Neubauer said of the 1927 IHC fire truck that he bought back in the summer of 1991. He was at Myron Karcz Salvage in Pulaski looking for an engine for his son’s car at the time.
“This was sitting in the tall grass,” Neubauer said.
He thought about it for a year before deciding to return to the salvage yard to look it over.
“I was intrigued by the engine,” he said.
Neubauer paid $250 for the truck that looked pink instead of red due to rust and fading.
“I looked at this one and thought in 1927, that was quite a battle wagon,” he said. “I didn’t know if it was restorable, but thought I was not going to let it sit in the grass.”
Neubauer said he has always “had a thing for old vehicles.”
For years, the fire truck sat in a pole shed in need of various parts. Neubauer found some of what he needed in 2000 at the Iola Car Show.
He pulled the engine apart, taking the fire truck down to its bare frame. Putting the engine back together was a gradual process, as was the rest of the restoration of the vehicle.
“I can honestly say I touched every bolt on that truck and some of them many, many times,” Neubauer said.
Oct. 22, 2006, was the first time Neubauer had it running. The following year, the truck made its first appearance at Weyauwega’s Horse and Buggy Days parade.
“If I had $1 for every picture taken of the fire truck, I could bought the Packers outright,” Neubauer said.
Through the years, he drove the fire truck to such places as Fremont, Weyauwega and Poy Sippi when their fire departments celebrated anniversaries.
Neubauer eventually sold the truck because he bought a 1936 Packard, which he had wanted one for 50 years. The car arrived in early March.
Neubauer enjoyed taking the fire truck to parades and shows. It attracted a lot of attention and he won a few trophies at shows.
He hired someone to sell the truck and said the person who bought it paid “way more money than sense.”