On The Road: What A Week It Has Been

So it was last Friday this olelongrooffan climbed into the passenger compartment of this big ass truck to accompany my boss on his delivery of a couple trailers and then pick one up in Elkhart, Indiana and drag it back here to the Birthplace of Speed for delivery to its ultimate owner. Well, when we got up to southern Georgia just a bit later that day, it was realized that trailer had not been constructed per specification and the new owner told my boss to "build another one." So the boss set that up and we continued on to the Hoosier State unencumbered by a trailer behind that big ass truck. As a result of not needing to meet a schedule for th delivery of that wrongly built trailer, we ended up having a leisurely ride up I-75 and this olelongrooffan was even ble to talk the boss into stopping off to tour the National Corvette Museum. And he agreed!! Now usually when the boss gets on the road, it is all destination driven and forget about the journey. Now this olelongrooffan cannot deny that Corvette museum was pretty damn cool. There were a bunch of historic Vettes there and it was a nice visit. But the coolest damn car I spotted that day was this 52 Desoto longroof. It was beautiful and I absolutely loved it. Reminded me of grandmother Moo's 53 from way back in the day. So after a quasi-leisurely drive up to the cold ass confines of northern Indiana, the boss and this olelongrooffan checked some of our sold product to be shipped out to parts unknown. The above trailer is a carbon copy of one this olelongrooffan sold durig BikeWeek. One of my cohorts sold this one and we will never see this one again. In addition to there being about 400,000 trailer manufacturing plants the greater Elkhart area, there were a whole damn bunch of these buggies around. Proud to state most of the plants we buy from have Amish folk as the bulk of their employee roster and they do a jam up job. But suffice it to say that if you drive one of these buggies around, this probably is as close as you are going to get to owning a collector car. This is off a 48-49 Cadillac Sedanette, by the way. So the big ass trailer we were due to pick up wasn't quite ready on schedule so the boss and this olelongrooffan had a day to just kill time in. I was successful in getting him to shuttle me out to a local vintage junkyard to d some snooping around. That is where I spotted this cool ass Studebaker Champ pickup, well what remains of it anyway. And just around the corner I spotted a vintage Mercedes 450 SLC. My boss at my first job out of college had one of these and I still love them to death. Apparently I am not the only one who feels this way as this one is dead but nearly complete. A tad bit later, I spotted a Belvedere that had REMOVE NO PARTS written on the fender of it. So of course, I didn't. I did spot a beautiful one of these at Fortunato Park last Turkey Run Weekend. And this COE is what started this whole adventure. As this olelongrooffan has been a passenger on this, thus far, 2,200 mile trip, Ihave spent my entire time looking out the window to see what could be seen. Just south of our final destination, I spotted this ole COE from my perch in that bg ass truck an filed that memory away for future reference. This olelongrooffan is sure glad that I did so. I just had to capture this image of this ole CJ for thejeepjunkie, Bus-Plunge and the Kid. I know it is not a CJ2A but it is the even rarer sister, a CJ3B. Yeah, I know silly crap like this that will never earn me one red cent. But I do Celebrate Life. And in memory of my Mom's passing and her birth around the endof April, I ha to include an image of what was one of her, self proclaimed, favorite cars. Yeah it is either a Pontiac T1000 or Chevrolet Chevette. Mom had one of each back in the day and Iam fairly confident this one missed the crusher by the hair on its chiny-chin-chin. And of course what is a trip to a junkyard without gathering up some art for the walls of the Taj Mahal? See, I told you that Mercedes was almost complete. In addition to the aforementioned vehicles, I spotted this Cadillac Flower car that I need to further determine its provenance. And this one, a twin to my first longroof, down to its 17" wheels So, we finally picked up that big ass trailer and headed back to te Home of The World's Most Famous Beach. But not without first encountering some truck traffic in the mountains of Tennessee. And this olelongrooffan is still not sure what the hell that riverboat is doing in that highway side retention pond. But all is well. That big ass truck towing that big ass stacker car hauler, the boss and this olelongrooffan are now less than 4 hours from my Taj Mahal and I can't wait to finally, sleep listening to the surf pound the Alantic shore as I fall asleep this evening. Then tomorrow? Sell some trailers dammit! But as I have been doing, this olelongrooffan will still

Celebrate Life.

*prepared on a bumpy ass I75 in the middle of the Peach State so likely full of typos and formating errorxs.

The Post With The Trucks

So a whiles back, this olelongrooffan was able to spot some pretty dang cool old trucks while I was out at the Daytona International Speedway. I'm fairly certain the above style COE has been seen by many of my fellow Hoons as they seem to be almost ubiquitous these days. I especially like car hauler variety.




A couple of these images have made their appearance over in the Hooniverse previously. I just had to include the one above as it contains, as commenter Salguod mentioned, "the trifecta of car-truck goodness."



And this super clean 3100 was to die for. It was one of many clean old trucks that made the show.



Unlike the earlier COE, this old truck is a car hauler. Most of the time these are based on late model one ton chassis and are usually pretty desirable to this olelongrooffan. This one? Meh.



Now, ironically, this old truck is one I remember from my youth. We had the previous generation Dodge pickup as our farm truck. This body style debuted in 1972 and I was jonesing for my dad to get a new truck for the farm. He just laughed and mentioned I'd probably drive a new one totally off the bridge.



But the one truck I spotted that day that really struck my fancy and, of course, it is a longroof.



Most old panel trucks I see around these here parts have been either street rodded or rat rodded to hell. To find one that has had a frame off restoration is a real, and rare, treat for this olelongrooffan.



Every nut and bolt on this old truck has been replaced along with the wood bed in the back.



Every panel was shiny and straight and the fit and finish on this old truck was spot on fantastic.



Even the tool box behind the driver's seat was in excellent condition.



The fuzzy dice hanging from the dash were the only modern concession on this longroof.



Well, aside from the Winter Park Concours D'Elegance ribbon hanging from the driver's window.



That old V8 was immaculate and if I remember correctly, it had a glass bowl gas filter system.




Yeah, it is a clean old longroof and one that I would love to have in my livery.



Having said that, it is so nice I would be afraid to drive this buggy as I am certain I would just tear it up. Where is that olebeater panel truck I've been looking for anyway?

What I Saw Today: The Gipsy Edition

This olelongrooffan did this post over at Hooniverse back during BikeWeek and I thought all y'all might enjoy it as well.



Welcome to Hooniverse Truck Thursday. I know this is Hooniverse Truck Thursday and I am confident my fellow Hoons are wondering what the hell this trailer has to do with that.

This post needs a bit of a setup so bear with this olelongrooffan. In May, 2008, I was laid off from my long held position in the construction industry and relocated to the Birthplace of Speed to be a bit nearer to my closest brother thejeepjunkie. Since then, I have been applying and applying for positions over the past four years but to no avail. I guess there is not much market in the Sunshine State for middle aged, middle managers with no experience other than 28 years of management in the construction industry. I have been surviving by doing mostly small remodels, diminishing my savings and using my blogging as a way to maintain some sense of sanity. I'm not quite sure if the latter has worked though.

Well, anyway, late last summer thejeepjunkie left his position with the company that supplies NASCAR their tires and went to work with a smallish Mom and Pop shop and has met with great success there, although the hot pit pass connection kind of went to the wayside for this season. Anyway, last fall he hooked me up with his bosses, the owners of The Car Shop, who were interested in having some sprucing up done around their place. After I had been working around there for a few weeks, Robin takes this olelongrooffan over to his place next door, bestpricetrailers.com, and relays to me some of the remodeling plans he has in mind. I related I could easily perform the tasks he set forth and even provided some upscale options for his office with which he fell in love.

So this olelongrooffan commenced to kicking construction butt at the trailer place and about two weeks into the project Robin offered me a real job being the lot boy selling trailers and responding to the ever growing number of email inquiries he has been receiving. It seems the two existing sales guys are overwhelmed by the ever increasing number of net inquiries and needed some additional assistance. Well needless to say, this olelongrooffan was extremely flattered and on Monday of this week I began training to sell trailers. As I had been around the place for a few months, I pretty much had some idea of what was going on and Quickbooks is well known to this olelongrooffan. So, on Tuesday morning upon arrival at work, my cool ass sales manager said, and I quote, "This training crap is bullshit. Starting now are selling, now go sell something."

Well my fellow Hoons, the image of the above trailer is the one I sold two hours later, to a rodeo clown, no less. Yes, the clown salesman joke has made the rounds.

Now, is this the gipsy referred to in the title of this post? Not even close.



Now one of the cool things about having a brother who is fairly well known and respected in the automotive repair business in what is really a small megopolis, plus the fact he drives a Michigan yellow 1946 CJ2A, is that he tends to attract some kind of cool stuff to his shop.

By that, I am not talking about that almost run of the mill Land Rover I spotted with fellow Hoon Jim Yu down in FantasyLand a couple years ago. No more of something like this



and my fellow Hoons can read the whole story here.

Or even something like this,



But my fellow Hoons will have to wait a bit until this olelongrooffan does a post about that Kissimmee Mecum purchased Corvette destined for upper PA.



Hell my fellow Hoons, I'm not even referring to this continuation Cobra a buddy of thejeepjunkies and mine brought around the week before the Rolex24.

No, one of the coolest Hoon sightings, among many, this olelongrooffan has seen around thejeepjunkie's place is this one.



Yeah, it's a Daimler Dart SP250 that I Hooned about here.

Well, on Wednesday as this olelongrooffan was headed out back to have a coke and a smoke in the service area of both The Car Shop and bestpricetrailers, I spotted the, almost, absolutely coolest vehicle I have seen in some time.



And, it is owned by the same dude who owns that Daimler SP 250. See that Austin A70 based 2199cc BMC motor?



Well my fellow Hoons, there is no way it powers a mere Austin A70.



No, it is under the hood of one of only 21,208 of these



Land Rover fighting military dueling machines ever produced.



And this olelongrooffan would love to the have the half cab version, such as this one is, of "The Charles Barrett Special."



Yes, Hoons, it is the Austin Gipsy. The first one was, appropriately, built on February 28, 1958 and the last one, a Gen IV model, was built ten years later. And that is thejeepjunkie's Michigan yellow 2A in the background of this image as well as his DD Ranger and one of several Panther's that seem to congregate around his shop.



Now this thing is as utilitarian as they come but it works. Clever compartments surrounding the rear fenders and minimalist decorations only serve to make this rare buggy more desireable.



Drew, the seasoned wrench around this shop approached me as I was gathering some images of it. "Austin Healey?" he queried. "No," this olelongrooffan responded with and set forth a bit of a disertation about the Austin Healey, Jenson Healey, Nash Healey, and Healey in general. DDrew, whose wrenching abilities have had the respect of this olelongrooffan since day one, looked at me and said, "You really know your shit, don't you?" And the only response this olelongrooffan could come up with was, "Yeah, BS is my middle name." We both had a chuckle over that but I am pretty sure the information I relayed to him about Healey's in general was correct. Having said that, I am confident I will see the need to correct something in the future about them.



So back to this buggy. The above image is of the inside of the driver's door. That chain operates the release for the door latch as well as serving as the pull to close the door.



But the thing that both Drew and fellow wrench George noticed was the independent rear suspension with components known as "Flexitor" containing rubber springs on the rear



and trailing arm suspension on the front. Just a note, in the trailer industry, I am told this is known as a torsion arm suspension. But what the hell does this olelongrooffan know? I am a total newbie in the industry. But certainly happy to be here.



Now, subsequent to gathering these images of a never previously seen by this olelongrooffan vehicle, I touched base with thejeepjunkie and he connected me with several sites pertaining to the Austin Gipsy. Of course, wikipedia and google, but also YouTube this, and the spelling is correct, and check out the ability of the Rover contesting light weight. I gathered the above image of the assembly line from a blog devoted entirely to this vehicle and this link should suffice as its credit. Be prepared to lose a hour or so there. The rest of the images in this post are originals from this olelongrooffan.



However, my fellow Hoons, as cool as this buggy is, remember it is British afterall and the only reaffirmation you will need of that is to check out the liquid seeping from the connection between the head and the block in the above grainy image.

But ya know what? I WANT IT!! BAD! And this olelongrooffan would venture that I am not the only Hoon with this case of want.