Peter Behrens's Blog, page 546

76 GMC Sierra Grande; 85 Custom Deluxe; Road Songs

I'm in Maine for a couple of weeks between The Netherlands and Colorado, and feeling a bit dislocated and unsettled. Most of the interesting machines in this part of the world are stored for the winter. We've had snowstorms, rainstorms, windstorms, and a-bit-of-everything storms during the last week, so I've not been doing a lot of scouting. I expect the trip to Colorado to turn up a bunch of trucks, some of which I will want to buy. But 2 trucks has to be enough, for now. If I do see any great machines for sale out there, I'll post them here, with as much contact information as I can find. After that, it's all up to you, and to Safe-Way Auto Transport, who have always been great about delivering old trucks & cars safely and honestly from here to there and everywhere; they are an Autoliterate-Approved® service provider. The first.
           Meanwhile, I'm counting the days until the roads are dry and clear in Maine, and missing my iron. Bought this here truck from Bee Pierce in Marfa TX three years ago and have had a lot of fun with it ever since. It's hibernating in a Maine barn for the winter. I'll turn it loose in April.


The other truck stays in Texas. Both trucks were nothing special: cheap, dusty old W Texas trucks. But they cleaned up pretty well. Hector Sanchez repainted the '85, and did a great job. Ricky Rojo did some excellent mechanical work, in his backyard: backyards are the best place to work on old trucks. These are not exactly fuel-efficient machines. On the other hand, we are recycling a heck of a lot of metal here. 
My favorite road songs? Well, no one asked, but I like the genre, so here are a few that come to mind. For me, a road song is about the distance between here and there; and how distance hurts; and also--and sometimes at the same time--how liberating and uplifting it can be. Road songs have special resonance when the player or listener is feeling far away from something, or someone, important. Road songs are about going away, or coming back, and how mixed-up, clearheaded, horny, lost, sad, happy or hopeful the experience of accumulating distance makes us humans feel.   Guitar Town by Steve Earle. Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight by Rodney CrowellFisherman's Blues by Mike ScottNorthwest Passage by Stan RogersJackson by Lucinda WilliamsCatskill Mountain Air  by Abby NewtonShenandoah (traditional)Boomer's Story (traditional)Loving Spoonful Mississippi John HurtShe Ain't Goin' Nowhere (She's Just Leaving) by Guy ClarkFarewell to Nova Scotia (trad.)

Wesley McNair, Big Cars,& the Hudson Hornet Hollywood

                                       needless to say, not Maine & not February.
It's dead of winter in Maine. The light is coming back, but it has a long way to go. One of the great things about Maine is the state is surrounded by Canada. Another great thing is our poet laureate, Wesley McNair, who has written a wonderful, brokenhearted poem called Big Cars. Ten years later,they arrive on the thruway,pulling winged fenders and smilinga lane wide--big cars,old floats that took a wrongcorner somewhere and lostthe American dream parade... Hudson Hollywood Colo Springs 10/12

Liz Cohen & The Trabantino

"For Liz Cohen, a Detroit photographer and performance artist, immersion in a project is essential to her art. For one early photo series, she spent four years documenting the world of transgendered sex workers in Panama. More recently, she has found herself absorbed into the world of automobiles.In 2002, she began building a lowrider out of a 1987 Trabant and a 1973 Chevrolet El Camino...."                      read the rest of the story in NYT                                                                                           ©2103 Craig Manning

Mid-winter Morning, Northern Nevada

                                                                  all images © 2013 Michael S Moore

1939 Chevrolet (Gerlach, Nevada)

" 'Rolled, make offer', an ad I once saw in the Thrifty Nickel, might be a good caption for this 1939 Chevy pickup, or sedan converted to pickup as in '39 they went to a specific truck model, unlike '38...anyway, somebody dragged it out of somewhere and is using it for their year-round Christmas on Main Street.  A little work, and, hmmm...I'm trying to find out more about it..."--MSM

1960 Studebaker Lark, Snow, Saskatchewan

                                                                                       ©2013 Alex Emond

Is this an Austin-Healey?

On the autobahn, heading west from Berlin.

Land Rover Berlin

Landydoc.de is a Berlin specialist in L-R restoration, service & repair. Everything but a carwash. If your L-R's not well take 2 of these. Automotive homeopathy.

Mercedes Benz Actros 1832

M-B's work harder in Europe than in the US. I like the shape of this truck. And it makes sense to have a backhoe mounted right on the truck, rather than have to haul a separate machine around on a trailer. I want one.

Citroën DS, handmade

Made in East Africa, using what the art world calls 'found materials', i.e. scrap: juice tins, shoe polish tins, etc.