On The Road Denver Edition: What I Saw Today

Dateline Denver Colorado; July 30, 2011

Kind of a lounge around day today for the crowd this olelongrooffan is running with these days so I figured I would update those of you Counting Along With Me on some of the cool cars I have spotted around the Mile High City.

When I first arrived, I almost freaked out about the number of original older vehicles that could be seen around town.  It still seems as if there is an interesting vehicle parked in a driveway or out front every other block. It's pretty cool.



Check out this International Harvester Scout I saw the other day. (Seems to be a trend beginning here.) Its got a spare tire, spotlight and it's a 1/2 cab!



On the day I misdirected myself all over downtown Denver, this olelongrooffan sniffed up a late 70's Mustang II. Sweet and a still nice interior.



And while this olelongrooffan is done with BMW's for the time being, I certainly lusted after this very period correct BMW 2002.



Just down the street from Big J and Ellie's condo there is a high rise assisted living facility and this is always parked out front.  When I finally quit slacking and stopped to gather some images of it, an older gentleman who had been sitting on a park bench under a nearby shade tree ambled on over to chat it up with me. If memory serves this olelongrooffan correctly, it is a 1972 Mercury Montego with 50,000 one owner miles on it.

These cars and trucks, among plenty of others I have seen, have a certain panache this olelongrooffan enjoys and it provides me great joy to share these sightings with all y'all.

However, a couple of vehicles I have seen recently require a bit more of an explanation as I was reminded of a great memory when I saw these two.



Like the vehicle I spotted that had this original AAA sticker affixed to its trunk lid.



And that trunk lid was attached to a mid 60's Mercury Montclair 4 door post sedan.



Judging by the condition of this rare beauty, those AAA privleges have probably been utilized to the max during the life of this car.



The Club is a nice touch.



Yeah, this thing has been used and no exception was taken when something got in the way of this beast.



"That's what I'm talking about Willis."



The passenger side rear window was broken out and that sunscreen was the only protection for the interior from the torrential rains we were having here in the Mile High City that week.



This model, however much it is beaten up it is pretty cool, well to this olelongrooffan anyway,  in that the rear window is retractable just like the rear window on a station wagon tailgate. It was supposed to provide an offset breeze while on Eisenhower's Highway System.



And like the hubcap hanging on the front door of the Taj Mahal, the grille on this old sweety pie possessed a profile of the god Mercury. Nice.

I spotted that Mercury while out one day with Big J and we were checking out a local Big Lots store in the suburbs.

So, a few days later I am downtown checking out some more of the sights and Lo and Behold, I spotted this almost pristine mid 60's Mercury Montclair rag top that I absolutely had to stop and get some images of.



It was parked in a pay by the day lot in downtown Denver. It was in nice condition but did have some rust in front of the rear wheels.



I thought that the location of the rust was in an interesting place as my experience with that in snowy climates was the rear of the rear tires rusted the worst. Oh well. Still a nice car and about 20 feet long.



No car, no matter how nice and desirable, parks for free though.



It was really surprising to me to have seen, what to me is a rare model vehicle, then to see two different versions over the span of just a few days was pretty interesting and enjoyable for this olelongrooffan.



Seeing these two vehicles reminded me of my dad, TheGentlemanFarmer, who owned a 66 Pontiac Bonneville convertible as well as a 66 Pontiac Catalina 4 door post sedan at the same time back in the day.



And any things that remind this olelongrooffan of my Pop will always allow me to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Birthday Edition

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 29, 2011

So, this olelongrooffan is still in the Mile High City and working on my buddy's "John Lee" house.  The past couple days I have been trying to source a unique sized window for placement in the kitchen so as to allow the upper cabinets desired by the new owners of this home.



And, of course, while out and about finding this window, this olelongrooffan spotted this uber cool old International Harvester step van and just had to gather an image of it for those of you Counting Along With Me.



Now, on to the Birthday Edition.  Today Big J turned thirty years old. To me it's pretty cool as I bought my first home at 30 and that is when Big J, then Little J, and I met.  I was mowing the lawn of that first home of mine and absolutely hating it. Mowing Sucks and that's all there is to it.  Anyway, as I turned the corner of yet another row of grass to be mowed, I spotted this nine year old kid standing on the sidewalk watching me. In typical Tom Sawyer fashion, I stopped that mower and extolled the virtues of mowing grass to Little J and offered him ten bucks to complete the job.

He took me up on that offer and we have been friends ever since. Twenty one years and on going. It is fun to be here with him and a dinner out hosted by his partner Ellie is forthcoming. I am sure we will Celebrate Life.



In an effort to clean up our jobsite for this inprompto party site, the tools got shuffled off to a location near some discarded stove pipe.  After this blog is posted, this olelongrooffan is going to move those tools to their proper resting place.



And what birthday is complete without the carbonated beverages of choice. Unlike at the Taj Mahal ( I miss that place), here the canned beverage of choice is either Pabst Blue Ribbon or locally produced Coors Light.



This is a window I raised in the kitchen to clear the cabinets and backsplash upon their installation. Vinyl and double insulated, definitely worth reusing.



This past week after installing that slightly dropped ceiling in the kitchen, this olelongrooffan installed some insulated flexible duct work. Ready for wiring and drywall to be installed.



And the window sitting on the floor is the one I have been searching for this past couple days it was located just after seeing that International Harvester step van. I am pretty sure karma was involved there.



More ductwork, this time in the living room ceiling heading to the guest bedroom and the master bedroom upstairs.



And with those former kitchen cabinets now located out of the way in the living room, we have a place for all of the odds and ends to settle. And yes, jeepjunkie, that is a gen-u-ine Goodyear air hose this olelongrooffan scored at Harbor Freight for a mere twenty bucks. Murican Made.



I also framed out this wall in the laundry room on the rear porch area. Big J balked at the twenty bucks for the recessed washer box but this olelongrooffan insisted and here it is.



Well Counters, that does it for a project update. Ellie is summoning me to join them as we all head out to Big J's birthday dinner and to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: Rocky Mountain Street Rods

So, last week while this olelongrooffan was still on vacation here in the Mile High City, I was out and about and on a viaduct over some roadway and I spotted this sign painted on the side of a building.



Well, I am certain those of you Counting Along With Me know exactly what this olelongrooffan did.



Yep, I whipped around the corner, well as fast as I could while driving Filmore, a 31 year old Volkwagen Vanagon Westfalia, and parked in the lot of the Rocky Mountain Street Rod shop and after checking out the busy shop area, I strolled right on into the showroom.



While there were a ton of nice old, and newer, street rods present, the first vehicle that caught my attention was this sweet Corvair Monza.



And even though it had those donky *ss wheels on it, the overall stock appearance was extremely appealing to this olelongrooffan.



Of course, being a street rod shop, they had a bunch of vintage looking, but modern, street rods available.



When I entered the showroom area of the Rocky Mountain Street Rod enterprise, I was approached by a salesman who was interested in putting this olelongrooffan in the driver's seat of one of these pretty almost show car looking street rods.



After it was revealed that i was from the greater Daytona Beach area, the conversation quickly turned to the subject of street rod gatherings in my part of the country and I extolled the virtues of the Turkey Rod Run, which I have blogged about many times previously, as well as the Daytona Dream Cruise.



Finally, that sales dude realized this Vanagon driving olelongrooffan was not a viable customer of his and just let me wander around that showroom and gather some images.



But I do have this to say about that. They sure present some extraordinary vehicles with lots of chrome and meticulous attention to detail.



And there are some pretty spectacular street rods readily available via their showroom or



you can start from scratch with this super nice original 53 Chevy.



As I mentioned earlier, their restoration shop was full up and at least some of their nearly completed projects over flowed on to the showroom floor. Although this olelongrooffan doesn't remember the defined make of this ragtop, I am going to go with a 41 Mercury based only on the placement of the turn signal indicators on the one the Kid and I had seen a while back.



Oh yeah, some reassembly required.



However, you could drive its near twin out the door almost immediately, should you so desire.



And just to demonstrate the Rocky Mountain Street Rod's ability to produce near anything, here is an Offy powered street rod frame just waiting for your bodywork to be attached.



But know that around these here parts, even relatively late model Corvettes are much appreciated.



Of course, the one ride that really caught this olelongrooffan's attention had the shortest roof of all of them.



This bright blue FOMOCO product of the late 30's, with an undoubtedly modern drive train, is one I would totally Hoon on my trip back to the Birthplace Of Speed.

As this olelongrooffan realized that was way out of the question, I decided to take my leave of the showroom area of the Rocky Mountain Street Rod showroom and see what was up out in the shop area...always the best spot and today was no exception.



While I didn't venture far into that restoration shop, I did get far enough inside to see some of the stuff they were working on.



Yeah, I do recognize a 55 Nomad on the ground in the distance, an early Ford up in the air and another in the foreground and I believe that is a first gen Charger right up front.



And just down the row is a bullet nose Studebaker. Yeah, this was quite a sight to see for this olelongrooffan who just stumbled upon this shop of beauty.



On the way out, I spotted a dude working on the braking system of yet another old fun ride.



And, on my drive away from the Rocky Mountain Street Rod shop, I spotted their daily driver parts carrier framed by a Chevy SportVan in the background and that really provided an opportunity for this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.