So my fellow Hoons, this is once again another rather long and rambling post about some of the things going on in this olelongrooffan’s life at this point. If you don’t really care for my ramblings, please move along. I won’t be offended. However if my fellow Hoons have a bit of time to waste this Truck Thursday, click on through…or wait until you are able to enjoy a cold libation while reading these ramblings.

Astute followers of this olelongrooffan’s ramblings will remember some of these images and also the comment I made in the post about The Mad_Hungarian and I attending the Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance (trust me, more is coming) about my means of transport to that prestigious event. No my fellow Hoons, this olelongrooffan did not scoot up Florida Highway number 9 to that event in my oldbeaterpickemuptruck but instead took my newish longerroof. 

Now this olelongrooffan picked up this rusty old truck from a friend of thejeepjunkies back in September, 2010. I did so as I was living in my Taj Mahal a mere two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean and every vehicle named after the numbers was rusting out from the salt air. As a result, I found a pre-rusted vehicle to Hoon about in while living over there on the street named after the Baltimore major league baseball team. Some of my fellow Hoons may remember the junkyard trip to pick up that shiny new front bumper for it after ramming the ass end of a new Range Rover and how I thought about picking up a Wagoneer grille for it.

Well, as I was putting together this post about my newish longerroof, I thought it might be appropriate to include a few images of the  vehicles this olelongrooffan has owned since my move to the Birthplace of Speed and the World Center of Racing from Sl-Ocala, Florida in April, 2008.

When I moved here, I had recently become unemployed after 24 years as a purchasing manager and building company president in the new home construction industry and wasn’t really sure just what the this olelongrooffan was going to do for monetary income for the rest of my life.  But one of the things I did do was to start a blog, By The Numbers. It was a fun way to vent what was going on in my personal life and I gained a bunch of virtual friends because of it. As a matter of fact, fellow Hoon contributor, Jim Yu and I met because he had stumbled upon my ramblings. We even hooked up for lunch and siteseeing down in FastasyLand one year when he was down visiting in-laws for Christmas. Not to brag but he and Marcal are contributors here in the Hooniverse due to an extremely small effort on my part. And this olelongrooffan thinks they are a great contribution. Hey a Phaeton owner and a dude living in the Pacific northwest and from the same part of the midwest as this olelongrooffan, how can that not be cool?

Now this olelongrooffan hasn’t posted anything over on my blog, By The Numbers, since mid October of 2012 when I did a post for 4thgenfirebirdfan about some Firebirds I had seen out at my local racetrack. It is just that I have been busy seeking some cool, at least I think so, stuff for the Hooniverse and working my butt off schlepping trailers for a living at bestpricetrailers.com. 

Now I can imagine some of my fellow Hoons (anyone still reading along?) are wondering about the name of my blog, By The Numbers. Well, it’s like this. The Bus-Plunge has been blogging for quite a few years and provided early encouragement in my efforts over there. And like my older brother, this olelongrooffan wanted to have a meaningful name, well at least to me, for my blog. So I decided that since at the time I owned three vehicles with manufacturer’s names, Volvo, Ford and BMW, but no model names I would go with By The Numbers. You see, I owned an 850, a 150 and a 325, hence By The Numbers.

Some of my fellow Hoons may remember the day we built thehorsefarmer and thebarngoddess a chicken Coupe up there in the Ozark Mountains during my previously related nineteen day Road Trip for Mom. Yeah that beach umbrella and beach chair in the barnyard are still topics of conversation with my kinfolk to this day.

And this olelongrooffan will remember until the day I leave these here parts about the gen-u-ine horseshit on the drive wheels of my old 850 in that barnyard of Haven Lee Farm.

I once counted up over at By The Numbers the total number of vehicles this olelongrooffan has owned over the years. When I did that it was around 65. Since I moved here in 2008, I have picked up a few more, including Bert’s car. My 87 year old neighbor owned this 88 Corolla since new. He needed to have a walk in shower installed in his Taj Mahal and this olelongrooffan had the tools and the talent to do so. I performed that installation for him for not one red cent. Afterall, he sold fertilizer and animal feed all over southwest Missouri and I am confident Matherly’s General Store in Halltown, Missouri bought some of his stuff. And TheGentleManFarmer bought feed and fertilizer from Matherly’s back in the day. Bert and I were 6 seconds apart. After he decided he needed to quit driving, his daughter was going to sell this car to my local U-Pull-It. When Bert mentioned this to me, I told him I would buy it. He wouldn’t have any part of that and gave that car to me. I put it on the List that is Craigs and a young lady college student bought it the next morning. When she called, I told her this was a rusty old car and her comment was “Hey, it’s got great karma.” Years later, I saw it cruising down International Speedway Boulevard just in front of Daytona State College.

The 325 I owned when I moved over to the Birthplace of Speed was this mangled up ole beauty. This is the most disappointing car ending experience this olelongrooffan has ever had. I had just met a gorgeous blonde in a local tapas spot and we hit it off famously. I was driving home, and of course, less them a mile from my home, I turned left on a yellow light and some MuffinTop with two kids in car seats and a slave wearing boytoy boyfriend accelerated to run that yellow light and clipped the ass end of my old Bimmer. It wasn’t just the fact this happened but this olelongrooffan was ticketed for violating her right of way.

Luckily all were well after that contact but the real bummer was that I had entrusted this oleragtop to thejeepjunkie for a summer a year or so previously to cosmetically renovate this sweetie. He had that ragtop for four months. Finally this olelongrooffan called him and asked “Is it done yet?”

thejeepjunkie’s answer was that it was done but the lower rocker trim had yet to be installed.

So I said, “So, it’s not done yet.”

“No, longroof, it’s not done yet.”

And thejeepjunkie uses that remark to his wrenches at his Goodyear shop nearly every day.

But all was good. Although I had a wrecked oleragtop with a new interior, top and shoes in free storage over in Sl-Ocala, I kept my eye on the list that is Craigs for a donor car and found it in this black beauty. I picked it up in Jacksonville, Florida and traded my 850 for it and walked away with 5 Benjamin Franklins in exchange. I swapped out a bunch of the new goodies thejeepjunkie installed and eventually sold it with a bit more rust than when I bought it to some dude up in Columbia, South Carolina who had a bigger 325 fetish than this olelongrooffan did. After all, I have owned three E30 ragtops and an E30 sedan over my more than 1/2 a century lifetime.

But without a doubt one of the coolest vehicles this olelongrooffan has acquired over the past few years has been “The Charles Barrett Special.” This one is still around but I have a strong feeling thejeepjunkie’s daughter, TheSoftballQueen, will be getting this one when she turns 16 next year. thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan are partners on the Special but he has many more hours on this renovation and I think TheSoftballQueen is deserving of ownership of it. At least until she heads off to college and we’ll rethink it’s ownership. thejeepjunkie is not as huge at blogging as this olelongrooffan so I’m not sure how much we will hear about it’s rejuvenation. Must stay tuned to Mad_Science’s work on his Cherokee I would suspect.

After this olelongrooffan sold that 150, I was cruising around the Bay that is E and found this ole unconventional longroof. I was keeping an eye on it and as the end of that auction neared, I got ahold of thejeepjunkie and asked if I could get it for a certain price, “Can I buy it?” He responded in the affirmative and I placed my snipe bid and won this longroof.

And with my typical olelongrooffan recklessness, I caught a flight out to San Antonio, Texas and drove the beast home. What a trip that was. Top speed in that thing is 50 miles per hour and with that 3 on the tree wound out, it was an ear blasting experience. thejeepjunkie got it repainted for me after I rolled out multiple colors of paint on the interior walls of a home he had contracted to do. Corinthian White.

And back after the Florida legislature thought it was more important to outlaw truck nuts than solve our economic issues, I, with tongue in cheek, created these truck nuts with some lug nuts this olelongrooffan had snagged from Dale Jrs.’s pit stall during some race I attended. That longroof ended up in the hands of a hipster dude down on the Space Coast.

But back to my olebeaterpickemup truck. A few weekends ago, this olelongrooffan was cruising up I-95 after spending another wonderful weekend with my friend Kris down Palm Beach way. About a third of the way home, traveling at about 65 miles per hour in 5th gear, that old truck decided that 195,000 miles was enough for its transmission and it decided to partially just shut down. The only forward gear that operated was 4th gear and reverse was out of it as well. I was able to limp over to US 1 and head north to the World Center of Racing at a top speed of about 45. How did this olelongrooffan start out if 4th was the only gear? Simple, put it in 4WD low, speed up to about 15 mph, shift into 4wd high up to about 30 mph and then shift into 2wd mode. Pretty damn creative if I do say so myself.

Now this month is my 12th month schleping trailers here at bestpricetrailers.com and while it has been fun, this olelongrooffan is way under compensated. $11.50 per hour and NO commission. It is enough to keep my daughter funded in college and eat but that is about it. There is no doubt that I have had some great experiences but I know there is not much of future for this olelongrooffan here. Kris and I were talking about this and when I told her how much I made last year she said, “Hell, I’ll pay you more than that to come down here and be my wife.”

This olelongrooffan has some experience with that. In the summer of 2011, I went down and helped Kris get settled into her almost vacant condo. While Kris was working the usual 55-60 hour weeks that she does, this olelongrooffan bought furniture, bought clothes, cleaned house, cooked meals, looked at cars and all of the things a good wife does sans sex. She is just not that into me that way. Ten years of friendship is sometimes better than sex. I asked her what I was going to do to earn some money. “We are going to open that wine bar we have been talking about for years. You know? Aps and Tales.” Hot Damn. I might even be able to talk her into an olelongrooffan story telling night.

So as I was driving home from Kris’s place with that busted up transmission, my massive communications device alerts me that someone is trying to get ahold of me. It was Kris calling to confirm that she was serious about that wife offer and definitely the Aps and Tales offer and when could I be down there. I told her there was no way I could leave my job selling trailers in Daytona Beach just before BikeWeek and the Spring Rod Run so it would be the last week in March before I could get away. She told me that is why she wanted to be involved in business with this olelongrooffan once again.

I mean TheBigBoss has been really great to me in every way he can. When my daughter, TheSmartOne, headed off to college she needed a new smart phone. TheBigBoss got one for her and even sent it off without my knowledge. In return, I gave him the Tonka Hook and Ladder firetruck seen in the above image. Yeah, he is a big teddy bear.

It was during that conversation with Kris that I relayed my transmission woes and she asked what was I going to do? I mentioned that I would probably U-Pull-It a transmission and have thejeepjunkie help me install it. I told her a new transmission was a couple grand but a used one from U-Pull-It would be about $150.00. The following Saturday I headed over to my favorite place for an afternoon stroll looking for an Aisin AX5 5 speed transmission in which AMC put in their Cherokees and Comanches from 1984-1986. Yeah, Good Luck with that. 

Later that weekend my friend Kris called to check on the progress of that elusive search. When I apprised her of my lack of finding one locally nor down in MickeyMouseLand she said that is okay, “I don’t want you bringing your olebeaterpickemup truck down here anyway.”

“You have a $6,000.00 budget, go find a nice SUV in which to move down here.” Yeah, she is a great friend. And naturally beautiful to boot.

So the following Monday this olelongrooffan told TheBigBoss what I needed and a few days later this 2001 Blazer Xtreme Edition showed up in the parking lot of my workplace. He was able to procure it for me for $4,800.00 including tax, tag and title. I think that was a pretty good deal for a clean vehicle with 116,000 on the clock.

And unlike my old Comanche, this one has all the bells and whistles except leather, something I don’t really want. I ended up putting the Comanche on the list that is Craigs and sold it to the first guy who called for $500.00. Not bad for a rusty truck with a busted transmission that I paid $800 for 2 1/2 years ago. This olelongrooffan thinks I got my money’s worth out of it.

This olelongrooffan seriously doubts I’ll be acquiring as many vehicles as I have in the past but the one that was by far the most unique is going to have to be my olestationbus. It was great for picking up chickadees at the beach.

So, my fellow Hoons, that pretty much sums up what is going on in the life of this olelongrooffan these days. I don’t really know how many car related experiences I’ll be having down in Palm Beach to share with all y’all but you can bet the farm that I’ll be looking.

And even though this new longerroof is less than two weeks old for this olelongrooffan, I still look at every car  on every car lot I drive by. Who knows when it will be time for the next one.

Oh and hang for an Amelia Island Hooniverse Weekend.

Images Copyright Hooniverse 2013/longrooffan