Dooley Bend Bridge

Larry was out taking videos of a few classic truck start ups which you can see on the website at www.vintageozarks.com. One video is of a 1971 Chevy K-10 4x4 owned by a guy who takes exceptional care of his vehicles and the other video is of a Gator with the owner driving it around. After he finished, he took a back road home and took this photo. If you enlarge the photo, you'll see an old iron bridge with wooden slates to drive on. Very few of these old bridges are left around here. I'm always sorry to see them be replaced by ugly cement bridges. One this iron bridge you can look down as you cross and see the stream or river, depending on the rain, below. Almost all the roads around here are gravel.

Long Day Over

Larry and I walking back from a long walk through a pasture with lots of cow patties, tiptoeing through sucking mud (lost a shoe), climbing a hill and then walking through bushes with thorns that actually reached out and grabbed at our clothing to see a 1953 Ford F100 that probably ran out of gas there and was never moved again. Will post a picture of it here soon. But in the same little area we all saw artillery wheels, tailgate of a 1940s Ford truck, and heard about 300 bullfrogs shouting their disapproval of human beings being near their big pond. We think it is possible no other human has been near their pond for 20 years at least. By the way, Larry and I have started a Project Car Forum so we can interact with our visitors and members. We hope you visit the forum.

Barn Finds in Mennenite Land

Saturday Trip to 100 year old farm where nothing has ever been removed

A nice little old lady phoned us last week and said she had three old trucks she wanted us to sell (1953 Ford F100, 1963 Chevy Apache C10 and a 1969 Chevy C10) so we headed out her way today. As you can see by the sign we were entering Mennonite territory so had to watch for horse-drawn buggies. Her place was a good ten miles further.

When we pulled into the narrow dirt drive onto her old farm we saw cars dating back to the 30s, parked in the 50s and never moved again. I'm posting some pictures of those coupe beauties on our website's RustBucket pages later tonight. Larry and I (and his brother Gary who just came along for the ride) walked in cow pastures and mud pits and climbed fences and opened gates and moved broken limbs (fallen during the big ice storm) to see these vintage rust buckets and a few restorable classics.

We'll be researching these cars and trucks over the next few days and post them accordingly on our website by Monday, March 24. I'm going to post this entry but we have a few stories to tell about this venture for sure. As Gary puts it, "They've lived there 60 years and got rid of nothing." And Larry added, "The biggest problem I see if that the owner thinks these vehicles are in great condition and wants to price like they are. Basically, I could only see three cars worth even trying to pull out of there: the 68 Chevy C10, the 57 Ford Fairland, and 66? Pontiac Tempest." And me, the only one I think is any good is the old 1968 IHC Scout 80.

Rocket 88 Finds a New Home

We sold our 1954 Olds Super 88 project car to a good home. The new owner, Fred, fell in love with the Rocket 88 and plans to restore it and do so quickly. When he is done with the classic Olds, he and his wife are going to invite Larry and I out on the town (Springfield MO) in the 1954 Oldsmobile. If you'd like to see Fred and his friend drive the Olds onto the trailer to take it away, click on the link above. Larry and I actually miss the old blue beauty, much more than we thought we would. We are considering making it our business icon. Good bye old friend. We started Vintage Tins of the Ozarks because of that one car.

Laguna Finds Good Home

Here comes the new owner of the 1974 Chevelle Laguna we had for sale at Vintage Tins.
He and his brother flew in on a small plane from Kansas. We met at a small local airport.

However, for a time it looked like the deal might not go down because we got a phone call about half an hour after their arrival time, "We're very low on fuel," he said. "We landed in Nevada, MO but they don't have any fuel. Can we met at a closer airport?"
Truly concerned that our new buyer might crash somewhere in the Ozark hills and never be seen again, we quickly agreed to rendezvous at an airport about 40 miles closer to where they were.
We, Larry in our car and me in the classic Laguna (which was smooth as silk on the road), got back in our cars and headed west. The buyer was there long before we pulled in.
I parked the Laguna in a parking slot and looked toward the airport restaurant and saw a big, handsome Viking-looking young man come striding towards the Laguna with a big smile on his face.
He had long naturally curly red hair that blew back from his face as he walked over. He wore an attractive light brown mountain man type jacket that complimented his look. He took one look at the car and was slightly put off by some minor rusting around the vinyl but when he looked the almost like new original interior and started it up, he was sold.
He drove it back to northwestern Kansas and his brother flew the plane back. That night we got an email "Not one problem going home. The car is everything you said it was." Another happy buyer and more.
He has asked us to sell two vintage project cars he owns -- 1946 New Yorker and 1950 Chrysler Windsor. You can see these car on our website.