Keith, your dedication to the truck's history and all the lives it touched warms my heart.

We all wish you could have found Ray earlier, but at least his family was able to get some relief because of you and that beautiful truck.

Thanks for sharing with us, and with them.

 

Bobby, Jimmy & Joe... you guys, since day one, have always had the nicest thing to say about me and the truck and I really appreciate that!!

Jimmy I already contacted the paper. They sold all their photos to a company that I was able to get a hold of and they were unsuccessful in locating the pic.

 

Keith there is a company called "thought equity" that manages all or most film archives for movie companies and have a Hugh still pic archive. They have almost as much on line digital storage as the NSA. A lot of these are searchable on line. Another source is the Chicago library or the Library of Congress should have copies in digital format of most of these pics. My daughter used these sources for The Smithsonian TV channel stories she produced. You may have tried the libraries but Though Equity may be a good source. Good luck

 

Way to go Keith. You Da Man again buddy.
What a super great thing to do for them.

 

Dave I will check into that ...Thanks!

Thanks Rich!

Here is the email I received this morning:

Keith:


I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for inviting myself and my brother and having my 3 kids come by and see the rig. What an awesome experience!!! One we will never forget.

Thank you also for the book. You are a very generous man. It really meant all the world to us and my kids were so happy that we were able to experience the ride on the truck.

I still am in awe that you were able to ascertain the truck and restore it the way you did. I still can't believe it! How cool is it that your grandfather and my dad worked on the same truck and.......... that you have it here in Florida!



I know my dad is looking down with a big smile. He was probably with us and your grandfather last night for the ride!



Warm regards,



Kim

 

That's what it's all about Keith.

 

Woohoo!


Very cool

 

That email message choked me up.

Nice going Keith...

 

Thanks Joe! That email really touched me.

 

Hi Guys ... I hope all is well with everyone! I finally got to shoot a Thompson! For my birthday today my lovely wife took me to a range that rents machine guns! I even got to shoot a SAW M249 .... what a thrill. Here are some quick videos:




A little update on the truck. I finally got around to fix the siren. As you guys remember the outside bearing kept failing. It turned out that the end of the shaft was worn which created some play causing the failures. I am having a new shaft made and it will be done by the end of the week. I bought 3 new bearings locally for a great price ($11 each). The last set I bought cost me $35 a piece ... what a rip off! I repainted the siren and will hopefully have it back on the truck soon.

 

Wow,
that looks like a lot of fun!


Congrats on finding out the siren issues. I've been too busy working on others peoples projects to get anything done on my stuff; moving furniture at mom's every time I turn around, helping dad track down weird wiring issues on his 76 Dodge D200, helping my buddy with his old Packard, trying to get the finishing touches on father-in-laws Massey Ferguson, etc, etc, etc


Keep at it
Bobby

 

Thanks Bobby it was a blast .... it was over so fast!!

It sounds like you have been super busy!! Maybe soon you'll have time to work on your own projects!! I'm glad you're doing well.

 

That was neat! Nice shooting, all red with the first two magazines.
That had to be lots of fun.

But I am confused. I've watched enough movies to know you were doing something wrong. How come you didn't keep firing for a minute or two? That Thompson shoots over a 1000 rounds a minute, you should have just kept firing.

 

Keith - I was reading about your truck tonight when something clicked in my head, I remember seeing a old craigslist post for help moving a old truck for the Delray St Patty's parade. Sure enough I found your ad on craigslist again tonight. I hope you found the help you needed and were able to enter your rig into the parade.

 

Joe maybe if I had a couple of drum magazines!!