Just Another Afternoon Stroll, But With A Mission

So, a couple weeks ago this olelongrooffan lightly tapped the rear bumper of a newish Range Rover with the front bumper of my Commanche. (Green means go, dammit! But, yeah, ultimately, I'm the dumbass who smashed into a 50K vehicle with my $800 Jeep.) Anyway, the upshot of it was no damage to the pissed off dude's fancy SUV but the front bumper and bumper brackets on my beater pickup truck were mangled. And those Counting Along With Me know what that means?

Why a trip to my local U-Pull-It, of course.



As I usually try to do, this olelongrooffan searches out the coolest old shit in that junkyard which seems to turn inventory every few months or so. Last spring, there were a bunch of pretty cool older imports but they have gone to that great junkyard in the sky and there was a whole bunch of new stuff for my viewing pleasure. That motorhome in the first image is the first of its type I had seen at this place and can anyone tell me a better place for an Aztek than in a location such as this?



This truck cracked me up the moment I saw it. The owner basically took a one ton GM truck, cut the frame at the cab, welded in a couple sections of 4 inch box tubing to extend it, and then welded in some angle iron to rest the plywood deck on. Absolutely no idea why and the quality of the build was sketchy, at best. Might be from Gib-Town over Tampa way but who knows.



This orange Riv was at the end of the row farthest from this olelongrooffan but I had to go check it out based on the color alone. Now down here in the Sunshine State, red cars tend to fade but this one is in no way a faded paint job. A Gator fan maybe?



And just to pay kudos to the Hooniverse Asks Truck Thursday over on hooniverse.com question earlier this week about pickup trucks.



Based on this picked over new Bug, I'm guessing spare used parts for one of these are somewhat difficult to come by.



And while I have owned several Volvos in my lifetime, it sure appears to me this one is fairly new to be resting in a U-Pull-It yard. But then again, I am the olelongrooffan not the newishvolvofan.



It seems to me that one of my compatriots on hooniverse did a post recently about a 525 in his homeland. Just wondering how scarce parts for these things over there are. Can I send you a few bits and pieces? Hell, a couple years ago I parted out a junkyard attained World War II era Ford Jeep and sent more than a few parts to Europe.



I'm pretty sure this is the last year of this generation Nissan 300 ZX before this body style was retired and the newer, and more desirable to me, 300's came along. God, I would do almost anything for an early 90's 300ZX 2+2 in mint condition.



And since I have owned 3, count them 3, 325's in my life, I had to capture this one. It was identified as a 323 though. Can that be correct?



And there is nothing like a vintage Town Cow to make my day.

But hey longroof!! We are looking for a front bumper for a Commanche, get the hell out of the other sections and head over to the Chrysler area to see about a bumper, and don't forget, look at the Cherokees also.



I can tell you, finding a Commanche still around in a U-Pull-It these days is quite a task but today I found not just one



not just two



but three different Commanche pickups in various states of pickedoverness. And there was not a good front bumper on any of them. But this olelongrooffan has this to say about that, in the last one I looked I found a pair of, as I later found out, operable interior lights my old beater truck was missing. A couple snips of the yellow handled wire cutters I had in my tool pouch and those lights are now installed in the truck parked curbside here in the Birthplace of Speed.



A look see at all of the similarly bodied Cherokees turned up a couple possibles but the bumper I ended up grabbing was this morning attached to this Wagoneer. And know this, if this olelongrooffan could figure out how to wire that Wagoneer grill and headlight/turn signal assembly to my old Commanche, I would be out there grabbing it tomorrow.



But, as it stands, that flashy chrome bumper has now replaced that crumpled, rusty old painted bumper and all is cool in my world this evening.



But hey, I got a bunch of cool swag for the Taj Mahal and that, along with that shiny new bumper, really helps this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.