Ice Cream Man

Last night Cory, Gooch and I headed down to Costa Mesa to check out this cool milk truck. With Newt being considered a total loss (i.e. they're not going to fix her but cut us a check for around $15k) we've been researching a few different options for a new truck. I really like the nostalgic look of the older trucks like this International Metro. We've also been looking into old Divco milk trucks which are very similar. The initial idea was to take the all the running gear from Newt, basically the frame, engine, transmission, steering, and electronics and put an old milk truck shell over the top. That's a lot of time and money, of which we have neither. John's Metro is in near perfect shape but it has it's original 1959 motor in it and that's a little too risky to drive around the country for five months. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to drop in another motor and transmission so that we could hit the road by Sasquatch. Realistically we're not going to be able to make it happen but that won't stop the dream. Does anyone know of someone in Southern California that is an expert is putting new engines into old vehicles? Please take a look at these pictures. They don't even do the van justice either. It's so much nicer in person. Any part that could be taken off was sent off to get powder coated and there's even fiber optic star lights in the ceiling that light up at night. Oh.. did I mention that there's a four seat bar inside? Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket so we can somehow afford this. All photos are courtesy of John.