Found a SECOND playmate for the Ambulance Bronco (see post 170, pg. 12)

[Broncitis]

about the ambulance Bronco .... you lucky to have it !!!

when the balloon was blown across the border into Mexico 3 vehicles of the chase team followed. The bronco, F250 and F150 !!
Doing so violated a bunch of international laws , include to that, that no one had a passport with them and yeah , everyone ended up in jail !!!
finaly on day two the where able to get hold of someone at Ford US . He called the head of Ford Mexico ( at 4am ) and explained the situation.

The Mexican Ford Guy ( sorry dont have all there names in my notes ) called the Mayor of Chihuahua Mexico in the early Am hours and ask for the release of the Americans.
After a few phone calls back and fort ,the Mayor agreed under the condition that the ambulance Bronco would be turn over to him at the border !!
Of Course everyone agreed to that deal !!!
Everyone got into there trucks and startet driving with Mexican police escort north !
The bronco being the last in line of all the chase vehicles only followed by 2 mex. station wagons .
Once with the border in sight ( about 3-4 miles ) and to everyones surprise the driver of the Bronco but it in 4 wheel and floored it ,bee-ling the desert torts the us fence line !
Off-roading it w. the 2 station wagons in hot pursuit !!!
The first station wagon rolled it about a mile in to it and the 2nd after flying at high speed over a bunch of sand dunes cought one wrong and crashed nose first !!
At the fence line the driver got out cut the wire fence and drove across the border line .
The other vehicles had papers issued to safely cross it via the border patrol station !!!
This all became quite a international debacle and didnt amuse H. Ford II at all .

Great story Franko! Keep 'em coming!

 

[Broncitis]

Franko,

Any new pics or stories?

I have a lead on a a turbo wing just like used on the Econoline Van that I am going to buy just in case I end up having to make a replica if we can not turn up one of the two real ones. I'm also looking for the "gem" and rectangular bubble windows.

 

[tasker]

uncle fester? ;D

 

[Broncitis]

uncle fester? ;D

Thanks for forwarding that to me!

He sent me some pics and it looks spot on. I did not realize there were four round lights on the back of the wing that can be tapped into the brake and or turn signals. I looked closer at the Balloon Chaser van pics I have collected, and sure enough, I saw a pic in a magazine where they were illuminated and could be seen!

I figure I might as well collect all these unique parts that are no longer made as I get the opportunity. If I find one of the real vans that can be purchased, I will have spares or can always sell them later to a vanner if I end up not building the van.

I will also need to find the front spoiler and mirrors as well as flares and rear window louvers. I figure the flares and louvers are not likely to hard to come buy though?

I have never seen pics of the inside of one of the vans, so I have no idea what the seating configuration was or how they had it customized. Hopefully not the same "gold vomit" headliner they put in the Ambulance! ;D

 

[FRANKO289]

Franko,

Any new pics or stories?

I have a lead on a a turbo wing just like used on the Econoline Van that I am going to buy just in case I end up having to make a replica if we can not turn up one of the two real ones. I'm also looking for the "gem" and rectangular bubble windows.

SORRY Drew

between work , Bahamas , my B-day and OCBR there wasnt any time in the last 3 weeks !
But equipment and weather permitting i should be going on a balloon ride sooooon !!! cant wait !!!

I assume you got the shirt/cd package ??

 

[Broncitis]

SORRY Drew

between work , Bahamas , my B-day and OCBR there wasnt any time in the last 3 weeks !
But equipment and weather permitting i should be going on a balloon ride sooooon !!! cant wait !!!

I assume you got the shirt/cd package ??

I did get it right after we talked when you were headed to OCBR. Thanks!

The pics are very cool! I have been playing with some in Photoshop to try to restore / balance some of the colors from the old slides.

If you get more scanned, see if they can save them as a .TIF file. That should be a more stable format to use when restoring them and saving the files. It is my understanding that .BMP files loose image quality when modified and resaved repeatedly.

 

[tasker]

I think my brother has a set of the flares......

 

[FRANKO289]

some new pics ...

 

[NGABronco]

Great pics Franko!!! Looks like Drew's got to get an airplane too!!!!!!;D;D;D

 

[Pearlcoat]

Ben - you took the words right out of my mouth. My first thought was...OMG! Drew is gonna want that plane. There's an airstrip just down the road from his house too.

These pics are positively awesome. What great history there is on this adventure from 30+ years ago. Franko, you're the man with the info, thanks so much for sharing it and supplying Drew with all this stuff.

 

[Brawnko]

And Drew needs a couple of those gold jump suits too ;D

 

[Brawnko]

Is that a cheby Blazer in the background of that second to last pic?

 

[tasker]

AWESOME stuff!!! (except for the blazer) ;D

 

[JDJ]

And an original t shirt that matches the paint chase vehicles.....

 

[BucknEB]

...and the Blonde in the airplane pic.;D

 

[Broncitis]

ONce again, great pics Franko!

We have one of the gold jump suits that came with the Ambulance and I have one of the orange chase crew t-shirts that came from Karl Thomas thanks to Franko!.

I have seen the plane, and I think Franko said that was actually Karl's private plane that was painted to match. Yes, that would be cool as well, but that is way beyond my grasp at this point!

I'm just trying to figure out how to get the right combination of time and money to restore the F-100 and maybe recreate the van at this point!

 

[tasker]

I'll find ya a van! gimmie some time that's all %)

 

[tasker]

have you seen or know about these articles?
http://offroadaction.ca/infamous-stroppe-built-balloon-chase-f100-found
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...-gallery-midget-made-more-so-barney-oldfield/

 

[mattyq17]

Cool articles getting the word out!

 

[4lofun]

Will a 72 econoline e-200 work..not the genuine original ..but is a great candidate ...Randy knows its location.!!!!!!!!