Truck Hunting

 Upon returning to LA, I started researching the idea. It turned out there were a couple "fashion trucks" on the East Coast in New York ...and surprisingly three in LA. Upon looking at their twitters, I found out that in just a couple days time there was a "festival" of sorts just down the street from where I live, at which the trucks would be. I went, and they were pretty cool...I got some ideas. I spoke with the people who owned the trucks and they had refurbished old stepvans. I went on craigslist and browsed for stepvans...they were sparse but surprisingly cheap, generally under $5000. This was encouraging considering when I had looked up food trucks for sale they were $20,000 up to $50,000. I drove down to Industry, CA to look at a truck. It was parked at a small house. My father had advised that I should get it checked out by a mechanic before I bought it, as well as a bunch of other things that were more technical and I did not completely understand. I found a mechanic in the area, he drove it to the shop and said it would be $50 and to come back in about 3-4 hours. I went to a Starbucks and sat down with a newspaper because I had little else to do. After about 30 minutes I got a call from the mechanic to come back. I returned and the mechanic said I should not buy the vehicle...there were so many things wrong with it before they started even really testing it, but just by looking at the engine, etc. it was no good AT ALL.

So, truck hunting became more of a rarity then I would have liked. Just about when I had really started to give up, and began planning to open an online store at the primary store and then eventually, if luck would have it, get the fashion truck going...I found SAMMY. Sammy was found on craigslist and living in a lot in Pasadena. SAMMY the Stepvan had been sitting still for three years, unmoved and never started, seeming he had been waiting. He was old, a '77 GMC Stepvan, but when I turned him on, he started without hesitation...coming to life proudly, with a youthful roar of excitement. Even as he was checked out mechanics, everyone was surprised at his good condition given his age and the fact that he had been sitting so lonely for a long time. Within a week's time he passed SMOG, was insured, cleared registration and displayed 2012 tags, greatly attributed to our awesome mechanic, Frank.