So, the morning after my rainy drive across the southern part of the ShoMe State and a restful night’s sleep in a vintage Airstream, Bus_Plunge informs this olelongrooffan that we have a mission to help out a buddy of his up in the greater St. Louis area. It seems this dude has found a must have project on the List that is Craig’s and the price for it was to good to pass up. “But first,” he says, “we have to go out to daughter Sarah’s horse ranch and get a trailer. But not the one in the above image.


Well my fellow Hoons, riding shotgun in Bus_Plunge’s big blue burban is the first time this olelongrooffan has not driven behind the wheel of the vehicle in which I was riding in I don’t know how long. And it is sure easy to see some cool stuff while not having to keep an eye on the road. That trailer in the lede image is a Spartan and back in the day, those were the trailer to have, should you choose to live in one. My folks had one at one time on some property they owned out near Halltown and it was a Duesey. All blonde paneling inside and that ultra modern 50’s look was throughout that tin can. They let that go to pick up a lake cabin but there is more on that in a future installment about This Unexpected Adventure. And the truck based motorhome in the above image. Well, Bus_Plunge pointed it out on the way as he had seen it many times previously parked in that very same location.

Now Bus_Plunge and his Prvt RN are getting ready to head out for a Road Trip of their own in this big blue burban and that vintage Airstream heading out west to points that have yet to be determined. As such, he had detailed his burban to the nth degree. However, once he turned onto this farm road, the first words out of his mouth were, “Shit, I just cleaned the underside of this truck.” Oh well, some sacrifices must be made when dealing with Craigslist finds.

Yeah, we are in the Ozarks, up close and personal.

See that body of water in the above image? That is not a farm pond but rainwater back up. Yeah, instead of a hot and sultry July, it has been raining here in the Ozarks for something like eight days straight. Normally this area gets less than four inches of rain in the entire month of July but thus far, nearly nine inches of rain has fallen plumb out of the sky. Yeah, the creeks are flooded.

This rig above is my niece Sarah’s horse rig. The only thing she uses that truck for is to haul that trailer so it seldom gets disconnected. She used to Hoon around in an 80’s square bodied Bowtie pickemup truck until the motor went south. Bus_Plunge picked up this later model for less than the cost of replacing that motor and then sold old blue to make up the difference.

So that trailer we went to retrieve for this project? Well, my fellow Hoons, it’s a flatbed so I would suspect something vehicular is related. Bus_Plunge is keeping closed mouth about what we are rescuing for his St. Louis buddy.

Prior to leaving that horse farm for probably the last time ever, this olelongrooffan had to grab an image of the jumping paddock where niece Sarah practices jumping her horses. Of course, Bus_Plunge had to relate how he scored those devices for next to nothing on CList (he is the King of The Deal) and then commented that Sarah had not yet put all those caps on top of those posts. Kids. Even at 30 something they can be pain in the ass lazy.

So we climbed back into that big blue burban and headed back to the Queen City of the Ozarks, passing by “John’s Fire Apparatus” sales place. I was late in grabbing an image of it but just think of a bunch of firetrucks lined up in a row in the middle of a field and you got it. Our ultimate destination was a body shop over by the executive airport in an industrial park. When we pulled in this dude, Fred, came walking out and spoiled the surprise. “Looks like you are here to pick up a chassis.”

Yeah, it turns out that the St. Louis buddy had found a chassis for an Advanced Design Bow Tie pickup truck and the price was right. “Free, just come and get it.”

Yeah, it seems his buddy is into the same style trucks as Bus_Plunge (remember his short Bus?) and was in need of a frame for one and he got the motor and transmission as a bonus. All for the price of a trip to the Ozarks and back.

So Fred, being ever resourceful, and having a full blown repair shop out front, brought out a portable air tank to air up those ancient tires for the short ride to that flat bed trailer. Around this time, Bus_Plunge mentioned he didn’t remember these things having that intermediate leaf spring seen just above the axle and below the frame. He did, however, admit that “it has been a while since I have been under a 1/2 ton AD pickup.” Remember that leaf spring my fellow Hoons.

So Fred and Bus_Plunge pushed that chassis out from its longtime resting spot all the while this olelongrooffan was taking images and rueing the push up those ramps onto that flatbed.

However, Fred had a trick up his sleeve in the form of a forklift. Yeah, this olelongrooffan is involved in the acquisition of yet another vehicle to be loaded onto a trailer with a forklift. Junkyard finds are the best!



Yeah watching this series of events was erriely reminiscent of the day theKid and this olelongrooffan picked up the “Charles Barrett Special” out at John’s Famous Auto Parts just north of the World Center of Racing.

Now why would Fred unload a perfectly good frame for an late 40 or early 50’s Advanced Design pickup truck? Well, as it turns out, the short bed box and body of this era Advanced Design truck will nearly straight up bolt onto the frame of a late model extended cab long bed Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck. Fred and his son were performing this modification as a father/son project for the youngster to drive when he becomes of age. Now while this olelongrooffan prefers vehicles that are stock the fact this father is educating another Hoon in this world makes it worthwhile. Plus Free Truck Chassis.

So we headed out and as this olelongrooffan was still riding shotgun in that big blue burban, I was able to capture a few more images as we headed back to Bus_Plunge’s compound with that highly desired truck frame. I am not so sure about the structural integrity of this convertible topless ride.

We had picked up that truck frame from a subsidary of College Street Body Shop and Bus_Plunge asked me if I remembered it. When I answered in the negative, he insisted a detour for a drive by of this place was necessary. The sight of that vintage old sign made that detour worthwhile.

College Street in this here town is also old Route 66 from days gone by. Tubby’s Route 66 Diner is seemingly unsuccessfully capitalizing on that fact by parking a vintage Oldsmobile Buick (thanks Man) out front to attract potential customers.

Well, we safely made it back to Bus_Plunge’s compound and after he backed that flatbed up alongside his garage, the Prvt RN came out to check out the happenings. “You always have a mission going on,” she told her beloved husband. And it’s true.

Well my fellow Hoons, the next project on Bus_Plunge’s list caused this olelongrooffan bodily harm. Although admittedly my skin is getting thinner as the number of years in my age increase.

Yeah, the mission this time was to remove the drain plug in the fresh water holding tank in that vintage Airstream so it could be removed to patch a pesky leak in it. This olelongrooffan must have scraped my hand while reaching down in this narrow opening to perform some now forgotten task.

As Bus_Plunge did not have an allen wrench large enough to remove this plug, he used a screw driver and gummied up the recessed part of that plug. He announced a trip to the hardware store was necessary to obtain another plug to use. Now the thought of merely driving to the local hardware store and actually finding a suitable replacement drain plug for a 1978 Airstream trailer seemed pretty far fetched. I asked if he had a bolt with a head of that size that he could insert into that recess and use that to tighten it back up.

“Good idea, longroof. Let’s check in the barn.” High praise indeed from my older brother. Once we entered that miniature sized barn, I knew that a whole day could be used up just checking out all of the cool stuff he had inside that building.

Well, he was able to find a suitable bolt for the use as desired meanwhile

I was just checking out more of the vintage toys he had just laying about.

Once that plug was reinstalled, Bus_Plunge announced we were done for the day as his granddaughters were coming over from next door to play in the cool hot tub and spend some time just being the precious little girls they are.
Stay Hooned for a trip inside that miniature barn.
Image Copyright Hooniverse 2015/longrooffan