My first 40: Building up Barney the purple '77

[bottombracket]

Went for a dirt road ramble with some local cruiser guys yesterday, led by @geanes. We hit about a hundred miles of dirt, gravel, water crossings, mud, and a big river crossing. Awesome times.

 

[Mr Cimarron]

Barney is looking pretty tough in that photo.

 

[bottombracket]

Mostly the angles. Mostly the angles.

 

[davegonz]

Need to rename him Godzilla.

 

[reddog90]

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Looking good!

 

[yotadude520]

Nice build. Never been a fan of purple but it makes your cruiser unique...definitely looking good!

P.S. - your kids will definitely be fighting over that in a couple years. Be ready!

 

[bottombracket]

Holy crap, where did most of 2019 go?

We sold our place in Austin and moved 17 miles west. Oh wait, no we didn’t, we’re stuck in remodeling hell. It’s been 5 months, 3 short term rentals, and we still aren’t done.

Good news is I have a cruiser barn/workshop.

And there’s a little shanty on the other side of the property that looks like an old shop- definitely homemade, but functional.

Barney’s been living in here for the past six months. I fire the engine up every couple weeks and take him out on the road every once in a while just to keep things from getting stagnant.

Barn

Shanty/old shop, Barney’s temporary new home

 

[bottombracket]

Doing some maintenance on the only other running truck I currently have, so Barney is pressed into daily driver service. Popped the hood for the first time in months to find a bird’s nest.

The old man is back on the road.

 

[bottombracket]

To celebrate the Fourth of July, I fired up Barney for the first time in over three months.

Affixed the registration sticker juuuuust in time for the next inspection. Filled up the gas tank, got some sparklers for the kids, and I’m waiting for my family to get out here to our ranch. I’m not a native Texan, but this seems like a pretty appropriate beer for July 4.

 

[ERNRAM]

To celebrate the Fourth of July, I fired up Barney for the first time in over three months.

Affixed the registration sticker juuuuust in time for the next inspection. Filled up the gas tank, got some sparklers for the kids, and I’m waiting for my family to get out here to our ranch. I’m not a native Texan, but this seems like a pretty appropriate beer for July 4.

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Excellent-o

 

[BlueMarblePA]

Sweet!

 

[bottombracket]

It’s time to go get Barney inspected, so I drove him around the ranch a little bit. Here he is all his purpleness, looking kind of cool in the tall autumn grass.

 

[77mustard40]

Just got my 40 inspected as well, registration should be waiting on me when I get back from the cabin in the Hundy

 

[Michael Hanson]

Hi, Last purple one I’ve seen was in Minnesota,had Viking stickers on it. Mike

 

[davegonz]

A purple dinosaur on the central Texas savanna.

 

[bottombracket]

@davegonz and now a freshly inspected dinosaur too. I went to one of the service places in Bee Cave, close to the house. He gave it an extremely cursory overview and then we talked for five minutes about LED headlights and Narva LED tail lights.

Then we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch with the kids, and this was the identifier on the bag:

NOOOOOOOOO.

 

[reddog90]

How was the coffee deal? Saw Barney and my old truck on IG there. Did yall talk to Daniel?

 

[bottombracket]

It was a whole different set of trucks and drivers than I have ever seen before in the past 7 years!
Saw and met Daniel...definitely looking forward to the next time.

@atx40er is enjoying your 40 and has fallen far, far down the rabbit hole of cruiser ownership. What an awesome truck.

 

[atx40er]

How was the coffee deal? Saw Barney and my old truck on IG there. Did yall talk to Daniel?

Coffee deal was nice, bunch of stuff and fair number of trucks. Yeah, @reddog90 - you know it's yours to borrow when you come to town.

 

[KennyBob]

@davegonz and now a freshly inspected dinosaur too. I went to one of the service places in Bee Cave, close to the house. He gave it an extremely cursory overview and then we talked for five minutes about LED headlights and Narva LED tail lights.

Then we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch with the kids, and this was the identifier on the bag:

View attachment 2474675

NOOOOOOOOO.

That sucks. Also, what's with people not knowing how to spell relatively common names?! Not like we have some oddball, one-of-a-kind, goofy names.