Daily Pose

The Co-op is proud to be a member of the elite new force of bloggers bearing their soul at the same time offering you an inside look at the things in their world through the WWW. Before a "blog" was called one, the "Daily Pose" had been here pumping out GMC owners and enthusiasts a dose of what its like hanging around our shop, seeing what we do and maybe picking up a tip or something that can maybe improve their GMC experience. Heck, I didn't know what a "blog" was, I was just having a good time showing you guys what we were doing. We certainly did not invent the blog but I will say it's good other people figured out doing it was an interesting thing to do like we did. So here is our "blog" and for what thats worth I hope there is something here that helps you. I am most interested in your comments and suggestions.

Most pics are "thumbnails" and will enlarge when you click on them, enjoy

Man, there's a pile of stuff under here! Where do we start? From soup to nuts, we do it all here.

Better than one of those "fashion" garage, reality wrench sit-coms, this is real and its uncut! (Yea, that's a white plastic apron) The "mud, the blood & the beer" of renovating the 26' hot rod and you can be a part. If you have a coach here, you can follow our progress on your baby, its better than a "Granny Cam" , you can watch it happen!

I also hyperlink you to site updates and additions, its easy to keep up with what we do right here. We are proud of our progress of reintroducing the GMC as a part of the mainstream mobile society, be a part as well and join us here on the Daily Pose.

Stories from the road

Here's an interesting page, click on Stories from the Road , I will post interesting pics and copy sent to me by GMC owners about how they are enjoying their coach. This will be proof positive for you that the GMC is as active and viable today as it was when they were built giving so many the chance to get out and enjoy our country. Not just a relic for the museum, the GMC is alive and well even after 30+ years.

The dream truly is alive!

Cal (and all of you) are members of the team, have the passion, have the state of mind and you will be there!
Well, if this is said to be food for the GMC soul, this is enough salad , lets get to the "meat" of the matter . Enjoy the visit and thanks again for support

You are number Hit Counter

since the latest update, thanks for dropping by. Lower numbers mean most recent posts are available.

Archive: To help clean up and organize our site better, go here for past Daily Pose posts. Pose Archive

Will be away until Sunday from this page Sorry but I will be with Larry, doing with him what he does best

Larry was dreamed up as a "go to rally" display booth firest for The Co-op and then we we got involved in Fire Fight products a sponsor demo coach for that business. Just like everyone else building up their coach to give them what they need, Larry is set up with a full size patio awning on each side-- the pass. side awning is where the display goes with the driver storage, a place to get away and keep the display area uncluttered. The first 30 or so years of Larry's life was with the Denver Postal service as a mobile post office

where it went to couty fairs and shopping malls at Christmas being where people wanted to mail things. Decommissioned, Larry C. living in the Denver area saw him, called me and the rest is history . This is a pic of Larry C. and the postal service maintenance supervisor who kept the coach on the road for that many years

. Here they are inside Larry and that's where the name came from-- it's the 3 Larry's! Here is his interior as I picked it up in Denver.

Today, Larry's interior is a great room design again giving space for tools, parts and product traveling to a show and bunking space for those working him as a booth

Not maybe the Taj Mahal to some it's perfect for it's intended use and I'll be hunkered down at the FMCA rally in Brookesville with Larry taking good care of me. Yea, I'll be away from the shop but I won;t be away from the business and the excitement.

Janie and the guys will keep the shop going while I "play around". No play, just work but fun work I guess. I've done other shows with Larry as the centerpiece so I know he works well

Yea, I brought the CJ bike to that one. Wish us luck exposing the new Fire Fight.

This is a "hump week" at the shop, we have so many projects happening and yesterday, we had a new project come in on a Landoll, take a look at the next monster project for the Co-op

Wow, a rough cob for sure, this coach will be brought back to it's glory and more. It's slated for a big restoration so follow us on bringing this 74 GMC back to the road. Yea, we've got so many other projects many might say why bring in another-- it's a revolving door the way we do restorations, one goes out and one comes in. We have several project coming to an end with the Duramax, Chimera and Mr' Clean prepping to finish up. We need fresh meat for our production and here it is. So the beat goes on...

Try to stay out of trouble while I'm gone. I'll be on the cell phone if you need something, call if you need to. Janie will be at the shop so call there if she can help. The guys will keep their heads down so have no fear-- all is good at the Co-op. This will be an exciting show for me, taking over Ralph's dream is a big one for me and I sure want to do it justice. Larry looks awesome for his debut, among all of those monster dinosaur 3rd world country motorhomes there we'll be, Larry & I holding the GMC flag high-- it will be awesome. Capt. Dave, Andy & Angie, Jim G. & Ada and Doyle with Soon will be helping on and off so it won't be like I'm surrounded-- I'll have friendly troops. These FMCA rallys are huge but I bet they've never seen anything like us and not seen a GMC in commercial use in a very long time-- should be a great show

OK, I gotta go, Kevin just pulled in & I need to start getting Larry loaded. See you maybe Fri. night, we'll see how it goes...

Goodness Gracious it's taken me a long time to get back here! Can't figure out what has happened to the time, all I can say is it's hot and heavy around here. Janie and Ada got back from the Sunshine Statesmen rally-- well it actually was a cruise, yea on a ship! What a progressive club hey, this month's rally being a cruise and all. I couldn't go of course, Jay Gee would not float! Naaa, there was simply too much going on and heck, Janie needed some time away from me. Heck, I need some time away from me! There will be time later, right now it's our time to work around here.

We have the Sunshine Statesmen Feb. rally coming up in Brookesville next weekend, I'll be doing fire safety seminars at the Brookesville FMCA rally for Fire Fight Products. If you are in the area please come. This week we have had some serious mechanical maintenance going on. Robert & Beth S. have had their coach in here from Ohio getting a "round the world" done on their suspension, brakes, fuel system and other stuff.

We hade the pass side bogy pins replaced

We picked up a core motor to build up for him

, Rusty is going with me tomorrow morning to pick up another 455 core for a huge restoration job we plan to start up next week.

Tony left his coach with us while he flew to the west coast to visit family

. Take a last look at his really nice looking original sneakers, I worked this week truing his new Eagle rims with 16" tires

, I'm putting them on today so stay tuned for the new look for his awesome restoration.

My buddy Greg from Alumatech, BTW-- look these guys up for some awesome aluminum fab. work-- brought in the first 2 aluminum 3003 overhead cabinet shells for the Cruz'n Duramax overheads

. I'm dropping the overheads we put in to redesign the mechanism using these aluminum shells

. I working this project today so stay tuned hopefully tomorrow for some news on it.

That unbelievable, time capsule 23' side bath Birchaven tried to go home to it's new master yesterday

Man, what a serious survivor! 89,000 miles , been in an aircraft hanger for 15 years just pulled back out to the light of day. It was tied up to my car dolly so he could drag his car home with it

and while he did a few tweeks to give the coach a fighting chance to make it out of here, Capt. Dave helped out hoisting a frothy beverage to good fortune and a fair wind

. Got a call @ 15 minutes after the coach took off towing the car, no problem with the coach but a tire blew out on the car dolly! Douuuuuu!!!!! Here we have 15+ year old tires on the coach, we were seriously concerned about the sanity of driving the rig and what happens, a tire on my tow dolly took a dump! Go figure! We'll try the recovery next week again!

Picking up Monday the core which will be a next restoration in process, stay tiuned for that and it looks like pretty soon, Mark H. coach may finally be away from Walters wizard paint work for his interior. Like I said there has been some serious "flying of fur" around here and this is not all we've been up too! Fire Fight Products sales are through the roof, we've backed the right horse there, really guys, please think about fire measures for your vintage machine. The rest of the RV community is reacting in a big way to protecting themselves and their RV investment. Heck, you can replace one of those behemiths most any way, you cannot replace a classic machine like ours that easy. I know the economy is tough, all the more reason to try and protect what you have! Keep an eye on our new web site www.firefightproducts.com as we build up the site. Look at the old site www.firefight1.com to see more stuff right now. We are on the move so watch how we roll out this needed product line.

Ok, so the sun is up, yea it's Saturday but there is work to do. I'm changing out Tony's sneakers forst, then on to tuning up Jeff S. coach---

Oh yea, check this one out-- we brought Jeff S. coach up for a delivery coming up.

It was really hard to fire up and would not idle for anything. I told they guys to yank the carb. for a looksee at the intake. I hated the thought but as the line went in Dirty Harry "I gotsta know"!

One look told us the problem

You can see the crack in the thin wall between the larger secondary ports. Whats more reveling about the situation is someone in the past of the machine had braized shut a crack before like we did in the story of "Intake on the Barby". Look at the scar tissue from the fix

Yep, you can see that the braze held but the crack came back, no good! Guess trying to fix the intake that way simply does not work. So out came the intake, we cleaned, inspected then painted the intake back up

and stick it back in with a pair of Blockoff plates and a fiber intake gasket set. The carb really looked like poop so we tossed on one of the super dooper reman carbs we have-- sorry Jeff but it had to happen!

That's all fixed now and this morning I'll be tuning on the rig and it will hopefully now be ready to go. Give me a call and lets talk about that timing.

OK, that's it, I gotta get to work. Thanks guys for the visit and your support. We're here having a blast. Andy is coming down this weekend for a winter stay so hold on for that fun. Hope to post tomorrow, we'll see how it goes. For those of you on the net, sorry I had to insert myself into that thread about the serpantine belt thing but please don;t put that seething pile of doody in your coach, it just does not hold the smoke! I try to leave the net alone until it proposes bad things for the lurkers there-- then someone has to say something-- don;t make as many friends doing that but well, that's the way it goes.

Wow, it's been a rollercoaster ride lately! With the Sunshine Statesmen club rally this month on a cruise ship, yea how bout that for thinking outside the box on rally venues, Janie is on board this week which makes it double tough for me trying to hold the fort, couple that with the increase in work from the snow birds flying in and the already heavy work load-- you see what I mean. We've brought on 2 more guys in the last several weeks ramping back up for more volume. I was starting to get happy about doing more work myself-- I mean that is why I'm doing this work in the first place but hey, you've gotta keep up with the need so it's back in the hot box for us.

Kevin has been especially slammed, He's all guns at Frank's exterior refinish then I keep pulling him away for small stuff. Here's a peek at Frank's "motorhome makeover

The roof is based and cleared. Next he'll work on the sides. Stay tuned for more. One of the things I'm pulling Kevin to help out with are the new graphic stripe kit we had produced for George's exterior. The original design of the GMC exterior was a solid color paint with decal striping. Because of the production style used, painting on stripes really is not still possible for mass production techniques. Yes, stripes under the clear is a mark of a quality finish and that's our standard but also, decal striping has it's place and makes a certain style statement. I mean if GM made the GMC today, it would have decal striping most probably so exploring the possibilities in this medium can still be at home on a quality finish. These are final touches we offer in house and as yet I don;t think I want to make these available until we have some bugs worked out but here is Kevin and Tony double teaming the discovery on the new quality metallic graphic kit Larry E. produced for us.

I tell ya guys, Tony is a real trooper here for us, he pitches in on all sorts of stuff. This really is the true nature of what the Co-op is here and about. We say he's having fun with a smile but really, this is g=fun, doing things for the first time, new stuff, new ideas-- hey, you can't make this up, we're having a blast & I'm appreciative for all he and others do to help us around here. So here is where we are today on this new restoration concept. I say "new" concept, it's obvious stick on decals are nothing new but the idea of using new metallic colors on the original theme design to achieve "original" styling updating I feel the outcome will be a "new" factory look and style. If the goal is to make the coach look like it was produced this year, certainly the process to arrive at that look should be as accurately executed as would be done. The side striping will probably go on this week.

I can't wait to step back and see the overall apprearance of George's coach with the striping on. Stay tuned for that.

OK, there's so much more going on around here, Kevin stuck his head in needing me outside so I gotta go. We had a new owner in Kevin W. fly back to Indianapolis leaving his new toy down here for some more work on the fuel system + more.

Kevin had a shake down, brought the machine back in for some more work to get it ready for the trip home. Kevin's family runs a day spa and massage therapy place, very high class, in the Indianapolis area so he has to get back to get ready for the Super Bowl crowd getting ready to deluge his business. Hey Kevin, give me the address of your web site so folks can see what you guys do. Kevin's kids are in scouts, Kevin and family are looking to not just mess around with their new toy but use it. Guys, I tell you now, this is the new generation of GMC enthusiasts. These folks are attracted to the GMC the same way the first generation of owners were-- to use! These machines are NOT relegated to the corner of a museum, they are not "remember back then" vehicles, they are just as usable and viable a transportation vehicle as their original intent was and we should be excited that this is the fact that keeps them on the road. So many classics end up objects of frustration for the few that are attracted to them, the GMC though has become very different. Truly, I see the way the exposure is going that the GMC will continue to be the travel vehicle of choice. "Retro" is here to stay, at least for now, downsized motorhomes are infiltrating the RV industry and here we are in the crosshairs of where the market is headed. We have been here, we are the original and still the style masters of our domain so feel good about owning one of these machines and if you don;t have one, right now is the best time to get one. Seriously, it's a buyers market right now on something that will easily be increasing in value to the travelling community. Increasing in value means it's increasing in attention and use so while I'm not telling you to get them to flip, no get one to use, to enjoy and to have for yourself and your family. They work well, are easy to drive, easy to have maintained and when you get on top of the wear curve as Kevin is working on now, you will end up with a quality machine for a quality of life few have.

OK, enough of that, I need to get to work. Have a great day, thanks for the visit and hey, go out and give your coach a hug for me. See ya later...

Hope the post yesterday was readable, you know me and spell check! Anyway, the hope is to give you guys the confidence to go out and give your coach a go at your local race track. Hey, why not-- it's a for of fun, an expensive one if you get deep but I firmly believe you can get the thrill of doing it without spending the big bucks. It's the pump of adrenalin when that green light comes on and it's up to you any your buddy and that thrill does not have to break the bank or your coach. I mean for a little gas and $5, I could have fun for several hours and impress a pile of people-- where and how else could you do that!

Had my next door neighbor Greg stop by yesterday, he is head welder at Alumatech where they build professional, commercial duty airboats.

Greg is a "welder mechanic" if you know what that means. You want something welded, he is the man and we have some fancy welding work called for on a mod to the Cruz'n machine. Stay tuned for that fun.

Albert Branscomb has come up with a new toy, a rear disc brake with a really good E brake takeoff. And man, is it a seriously heavy duty affair

One of the major things I have disliked about the disc brake conversions in the past is the weak mounting plates, this one is mondo stong! And with the feature of having an emergency brake that really works, this is the first set out on the street, if you are interested go to my "Just for GMC" parts page then click on exterior parts to find a link to his site and contact info. Tell him I said hello so he knows who's talkn bout him. I have stayed away from disc brake kits but if I was going to install one this would be the one.

Had a full house at the "Co-op RV resort" or as Andy and Angella calls the place "The Bounds Beachclub". I don;t know where that came from other than coming from up north knocking on Konuukland, I guess just being in Florida is like being at the beach, whatever I appreciate the title but anyway, we had 3 campers on the lot last night. Bud G. is getting the Branscomb brake set up, Berke S. is here with a guy flying in to take a look at his coach for a possible purchase and low and behold Capt. Dave blew in the afternoon

, that's Dave and Bud, Bud is a bit camera shy-- hey, you have to get used to that around here! We also have Tom S. and his wife arrive in from Oregon with their baby we painted last year so it looks like the snow birds are arriving. Here's a 2 pic panorama of the lot as the sun set yesterday

You can "cut-n-paste" them together to see how the lot looks. Mel's coach is on the far left, Cruz'n is on the lift, Burke is next in the bay with Bud has is rear jacked up. Then there is Chimera, our Argosy 20' "Short Bus", JayGee is taking the next hole with Tom S. new tail end colors and then George H. clean next out restoration getting some final touches. Yea, it's happening around here, thanks to all how have made this possible, I an honored with their presence.

Tony was practicing his high wire act pulling apart the door for Cruz'n to get where I could cut the access hole for the lock mechanism

The coach has to be on the lift to access the bolts for the seat pedestals, we have a tight timetable so he didn;t even wait to bring the coach down, he's balancing himself on the runner up in the air pulling apart the door--- man, now that's dedication! Thanks for caring man!

Today is on the chilly side starting off with a beautiful blue sky, as Mr. Sun does his thing it should warm up to be a perfect Florida winters day-- it's why we live here. Like I asked a group at the naples GMCMI convention once:

So when you winterize your coach, what's the first tank you fill?------- Give up----- The fuel tank, dive on down here and forget that winterizing mess! Yea, don;t throw snowballs at me, I can't help it! Hey, got a call from Daren Paget the weekend! You old timers will remember Daren from Calgary, wonder if he wants to come down, bet the snow is deep up there! Come on down Daren, we'll leave the light on for ya!

Anyway, thanks for todays visit, hope it will get your day going well. Got a package from a "poser" from aussieland, man you gotta be a seriously dedicated GMCer to have a coach down under. Sent me a car magazine with some cool stuff in it, I'll post some of it to you tomorrow. Thanks man for the rag, for thinking about us and for following our mess here. Proof as that McGuires wax guy says, there are "Car Crazy" people all over the world-- well let's change that to "Coach Crazy"! So till tomorrow, may your tires stay op, your bills stay low and you coach continues to be your friend...

Let me pick up where I left off talking about how to drag race your motorhomeI actually did finish the dialog but my program spazed out and lost it all --- Douuuuuu! So here is the rest, you guys that didn;t read yesterday's post may want to read that first.

Like I said, usually you roll your wheels through the water then turn'm to heat them up which causes smoke and condensation. We'll use the water differently, we'll do it to impress! Now, stop with your front wheels in the water, set your E brake, put the shifter in low (1st) and with your foot on the brake, bring your RPM's up to say 2000. Let your left foot off the brake and watch the fun begin. Run the R's up to say 3500 while the tires start to turn, you are now in no traction land and your tires are acting like a cat on glass! Watch the face of people watching, you will see amazement in their eyes and a smile come across their lips. Folks not in the know will start shouting and while you cover them up with a cloud of water condensation, white smoke to most they will swear you must have kicked in a blower or NOS because it will look like you are pealing up the pavement! You're blowing smoke now out of both wheel liners and the object of attraction on the track. The old timers will be laughing along with having their eyebrows stuck to their ballcaps. Let off the Ebrake , count to 3 then let off the gas. You will start moving forward slowly as your tires find the pavement again and as the smoke susides more people will start leaning over the fence screaming. Remember, they have never seen a motorhome do that, heck they've never seen a motorhome on the track so yo've given them a "2fer" trip!

OK, so not that you've got their attention, lets mosy on up to the line. The tree has 2 large top lights, as you get closer the top light will come on-- means you are creaping up on the line. The second light will come on meaning your are closer and as the top light goes out stop, you are where you wanna be. When your buddy does the same hold on because things are about to happen. The computer in the tree will start a countdown and before you know it the lower amber lights will start down and whem the green is on--- go because you have already counted "1 elephant" . Most people will hit the brick judging when the last amber light goes out, forget that hole shot, if you try and mash the cat doing that all that will happen is you will start to blow smoke again. Your log has too much mass and you have too little tire area on the track to "hook up". You would need slicks to hook up and jerk the coach off the line with gusto. No, you need to get the mass moving so pull away like you are late for dinner but not starving-- get the lump moving say a coach length, your buddy will think he's got ya. Now hammer that puppy-- if you feel the tires turning back out a bit and accelerate without spinning the tires. Run out 1st. until you feel bad for the motor, maybe spank it a little more then hit 2nd and put the coals on with your pedal to the metal and just hold it there-- talk to it sweetly, come on baby because that's all thats left to do. Forget 3rd, you don;t have any pull there. All you can do now is ride the rig, stay in it and pray for the 1/4 finish line because you're giving it all you got! Hey, if it blow, you needed a new motor anyway, a sold 455 or 403 can take that abuse not trouble and if it can't well then you need to know that. It's really not hurting the beast that much if you don;t rev over say 4000. Take your foot out of it after you cross the line, once my secondaries stuck open because I had not triggered them in so long. If this happens, pump on the gas pedal and they will let go. Don;t try and turn off on the short exit, go on down to the end of the track -- no reason to swerve to get off because they won;t run another race until you are clear besides, you need to give the folks who just witnessed something they had never seen time to talk and take it all in. Usually the announcer who is paid to whip up the crowd will spew out a few expletives on what just happened. Be prepared for a big smile from the girl handing out the tickets as you motor back up the track and some funny looks as you pull through the pits. If it's a "run all night for a price", go on up and get back in the staging lane because there will be fans running over to see that seething galactic cruiser! That's it, more fun than a barrol of monkeys and much more impressive than probably what else is on the track. Yea, your time looks like your belt size buy hey, who cares you had a blast and everyone watching had to go away with a smile on their face! No, it's not serious but would they be serious if they entered your world trying to camp in their race car? You entered their world and raced your camper--- so who has the more interesting ride? Try to have someone there with a camer, a video would be better and be sure to get the burnout

because no one will believe you did this! What-- are your nuts--- and your point?

Much happening today, Kevin just pulled in so I'm out of here, see ya tomorrow...

Sorry for the time away after the drag race on Friday night I all but collapsed, maybe not literally but after a week of so many good things happening at one time, I tell ya guys doing on camera interviews is tough work! I have to hand it to actors and such, it's really not easy to be relaxed looking on camera! It really takes it out of you and along with that, keeping work flowing with the Co-op, filling Fire Fight orders and then lets throw in a drag race-- I got a cold, Janie gave me some pills and boy did I feel goofy for a couple of days! The "Musinex" I think it's called you see on TV, yea it clears your head--- turned me into an airhead! Yea,yea, I know I'm already one but trust me when I tell you don;t take that stuff if you need to actually think! I didn't take one this morning, lets see how I do...

So the shop is in hammer mode on several projects but one we are really wanting to put focus on now is pushing the Duramax "Cruzn'" coach outa here. We've put a 6 week schedule on the board and we'll try our best to stay on track. To that end, we have Cruzn' back up on the lift working out mounting the seat pedestal mounting

. Of course the seat mounts need to be connected to a frame structure so Tony and Rusty investigated how to do that. Here Tony is drilling the under mounting plates that will be connected to the body structure.

. BTW, to tease you guys, here is a pic of the put together interior of Cruz'n

Had so many of you ask what could possibly run the cost of building a GMC up into the $400,000 range, OK so does a pic of this interior help you with that? What about the exterior

What can I say, no offence but YOU can't build something like this in your garage at home, heck, I can't build something like this! It took the talents of so many, of which so many said they could do it but failed, got into parts and gave up, ran off and wasted soo much time. We simply stayed on task and here it is. The GMC CAN be built to something outragious and here is the proof! I was even getting downtrodden a bit until it came together last week. Hell, don;t ever tell me you want me to build something "sick", over the top, spare no expense, make it happen or something like that. This is what you will get, here is the amplifiers in the sound system

. For those of you into auto sound you recognize what we have and for those of you who are not just know--- you can do anything possible in sound with this stuff. That's the way each decision was made. Sort of like the miguided builder of "Jurasic Park"--- "spare no expense". So about now some of you are thinking "boy, he's blowing out his chest"-- guys, it's not that, it's the fact that this machine really is at that level-- no foolin! This is the future, well, not this nuts but bringing the GMC into todays technology is the only way to keep our beloved coaches on the road and viable. There has to be a benchmark on that and not meaning to step out there-- well maybe so but I feel this is that goal. If we want to keep the GMC out of the museums as a subject for some book report about an era gone by, we have to stay with the times, with the trend and with the technology and what can I say, that's just it. We say "we won;t care about it in 10 years" and that is probably true-- let our grandkids figure out what to do with the beast. OK, I get that and yea, I'm certainly not saying we all need to mortgage our hoses to build up our GMC. Most of us will do this and that to keep our babies on the road but there has to be that "puppy in the window" and this coach is that. Ridiculous in the design, crazy to put together and outrageous in the execution and here it is. So THAT was the goal of this project, yea it has taken us over 3 years, yea, I've lost sleep over this machine but by God we've got it!

So about now I can hear you thinking -- dang, I don;t want that! But I say to you if we can do this, we can do most anything you want at a price that will fit any budget! You have to know how to do outrageous to appreciate quality, we can do that.

OK,ok, I'll stop with the gratuitous advertising but yea, we are here doing restoration work and we need your support. We can do this and anything up to it so give me a call if you're looking to have something done with your coach.

I've had many people ask how it was to drag race a motorhome. Yea, it does sound a bit nutty but still, for those that have lined up in front of that light tree, you still get the thrill, the adrenalin still pumps and isn;t that what it's about? OK, so how do you do it? The first time I ran I just watched for the green light and mashed the gas to the floor-- and immediately the coach stopped and I went no where. There's good reason there are not motorhome drag races on ESPN, motorhomes were not made to race, they were made for the other things in your life but that does not mean it can't run the blacktop. So, how do you do it? Certainly different that running a drag car, a race car is-- well-- made to race. It's stripped out, has usually 1 seat and they certainly don;t have air conditioning or electric windows. You don;t see a toilet, bed and kitchen in a race car but we have all that and more in our motorhomes! So just exactly how DO you coax a 12,000 lb. hot rod down the 1/4 mile? Let's talk about that so you'll take your coach down to the local speedway next weekend and have a blast.

First of all, you need to seriously stow away the stuff in your coach, put away the pots and pans and clear off the table, they do not require a helmet or stuff like that at Orlando Speedway but some other tracks might, just sign the release and you're ready to go. The number drawn on your window are the last 4 digits of your SS number, I guess so they could get positive ID down at the end of the track after they get the fire out, I don;t know but thats what they are. Mark H. from Canada made up some numbers since he wasn;t in our SS system. OK, so now you are in the staging lanes and people are staring at you. Yea, those guys at "run what ha brung" night are serious about speed. Yea, they drive their car to work but testosterone makes them want to be the fastest on the street. It's hard to be the best at anything so they figure if they can be the fastest that night it will stand for something so these guys next to you in the staging lanes are seriously wanting to win. And they can't figure out why this *&^%$&( motorhome is blocking their daylight! You need to give them space because each one is on a mission while you're just taking in the fun. Find out which staging lane is for the less serious competitors., the big boys always go to the fast lanes so you really wanna stay clear of those guys. That testosterone does crazy things at these levels so be mindful of that and stay clear.

After sitting in line for it feels eons, you finally get to the line, it's best to have a buddy with you to race because some guy in a car will not want to go up agianst you, they want something to beat. Hey, it's all about the time and speed but they want the feel of whipping someones butt that might beat them and racing a motorhome simply is too bougwah! There is a valley of water before the line, normally a car would get their tires wet, then do a "burnout" boiling off the water which heats the tires up for traction

Sorry for being away but I think you will understand after you see what's been going on around here We have been short handed having Rusty my mechanic out for a couple of days but that's not the whole issue. Remember the last post was devoted to showing you guys the Duramax coach first pics actually in a reasonably together state-- well, there was a reason for us running around here like "madmen" bring that machine together. We've been engineering this impossible machine for the actor Raymond Cruz who plays among some other really cool parts, Detective Sanchez on the TNT Network hit show the "Closer" but as most of you have known that over the past 3+ years of whittling on this monster log. Well, Raymond flew in Tuesday to do some looksee, touchyfeely stuff with his new toy

. The last time Raymond saw the coach in person it was a raw frame

, I thought the broken Weld rim as a seat was a nice touch! Stuff like seeing his new dash actually all of us seeing it come together for the first time

, he helped Tony wheel out his awesome oxblood leather seats

The look on his face pretty much says it all .

We've also had some fun, Raymond took a ride on my ole CJ

that he called a pretty scary ride-- not like some of the Motoguzzi stuff he plays with but still interesting. Took him over to meet my Mom

, Janie's sister Teresa

and of course Janie got in on the picture thing

. Last night we had dinner and even the waiter freaked when we walked in to the Grand Bohemian

.. In short, this week has been epic! And we're ending up this week with another Drag Race rally with Raymond blowing down the track in Larry, maybe giving "Barefoot Bob" a run for his money!-- now that's what I'm talkn-bout!

He's really a pretty private guy, mostly doing what we would call really big stuff but this Duaramx coach actually is some pretty big stuff and he's all over it. He knew what it would take to build a machine like this, probably more than we did

and along with all this, we're doing some interview stuff one it so you just may see all of this and more on your "boob tube"-- never know! This is turning out to be a machine so exclusive and unique even Leno doesn't have one of these! You guys have suffered along with us over this project & I appreciate the input you have given, so as this machine tears up the red carpet on it's unveiling in Hollywood, all of us should feel that much better about our own 26' hot rod. We're almost there so stay tuned for more...

First a little business we've had much work going on & I need to show the folks with stuff in here what's going on but before that, let me save you guys a little research on sourcing some replacement parts for your Olds motor.

You've heard folks talk about "offshore" parts sources and the questionable both quality control and fit. I wonder if "they" over there call parts made here "offshore" and they have the same feeling about our stuff! Well, I'm not worrying much about that because you really do have to pick and choose parts from "over there". We picked up what I thought would be a part that would not fit into that category of stuff you need to check-- a new harmonic balencer. The part came in not through Drew, my engine builder who checks the sharpness of his pencil and measures everything-- I mean I don;t by spark plugs through Drew so why should I worry about a "bolt on" like a harmonic balancer--- big mistake! The balancer slid onto the crank shaft with no friction! Yea, I would call that a loose fit, betcha those duds copied an old worn out harmonic balancer right down to the wear! You can't use that part, it's ecact, it's worn out like the old part so guys really, don;t just go down to your local parts house and order up a part and feel like you did the best for yourself. I agree some people charge a premium for their parts and to those people I say "shame on you", shame on you because you have made folks think they need to go anywhere but buy there needed parts and spares from the specialty parts houses. Guys, I don;t do that, I think our parts prices are in line if not actually better than most places you can get parts. Yea, I know "it's all about money" but alog with that now, you don't have a good deal on a part if it's just the cheapest because some or maybe I should now say all of the parts needs to be checked carefully. If we had not payed attention when we fitted that new Harmonic balancer I don;t know what would have happened. I'm sorry to say theis but you MUST verify everything you get for your coach now. I hate to make this sound like gratuitous but if you don;t know what to look for to determine if a part is right for the job, not just the right part number you really need to call us-- our parts will fit so take that any way you want. You can say I'm hocking for business all you want, good luck because it's now more evident than ever you need someone in this parts business not just a guy with a cross reference book-- that would be us. OK, I'll stop but if you don;t wanna believe me, check it out! It IS about price, do you wanna buy the part twice?

Frank's vent opening repair for his bathroom has begun, the first step in the exterior renovation process if the roof so yesterday, Kevin unscrewed that plexiglass plate covering the old dome cover hole

and as we figured UV had done it's work and the panel broke to pieces as we pulled it up. So following this project, here is the hole we're starting with

. You can see some of the repaired holes from the ladder rail so follow us as we do a proper fix resizing this hole to fit a standard 14x14" vent and fan unit.

I'm wiring up Paul's air ride system in "Chimera" today, here are the basic components mounted and ready for wiring

BTW, you might wonder what that cable is in the pic. This is a tensioner cable running from one headlight basket to the other to help bring together the spread out front clip. Go look at your coach from the front, Look at the lower grill valence, that's the crosspiece below the grill. Is there a gap on either side where it meets the main body? Don't freak out, there are many coaches that have this. The body has little to no support from spreading out in this way, connecting a cable with an adjuster turnbuckle will pull the body back together and this needs to be. This body spread if being found more and more. If you have questions about this process, give me a call.

OK, here's something I have to say until I did the following shots I didn;t realize I had not stepped back and made pics like this before. There's good reason why I made these pics yesterday because this is really the first time we had the Duramax coach all put together, washed, cleaned out and set up in the middle of the lot for a photo shoot so guys that have been asking --- when will it be done--- well guys, here it is and I've gotta tell you if you want to see a GMC "over the top", excess in the extreme in a direction and on a level not seen-- that now cannot be said because now--- you have.

I'm sorry if you look at this as "tooty ny own horn"-- OK, maybe I am but after 3+ years sleeping under this coach, making every more over the top, finding just how far you can go every time there was a question say--- do it--- I feel I have this right! Capt. Dave & Jim B. caught me taking the pic of them checking this beast out

, sorry guys but inquiring minds wanna know. Hey and how bout that awning--

this is the awesome New Generation Zip Dee, auto deploy awning, black powder coated it deploys with a wireless remote up to 10'! No arms, it has a wind sensor at 19 MPH, the awning senses the condition and retracts automatically-- no more running back to the coach to put away the awning! Like the creator of Jurassic Park said "spare no expense" and that's what the Duramax coach named "Cruz'n" is. So now there are 2 of these on the road, Ken has the "23d"

and Raymond has his monster and we built them both! OK, now that my head won't fit through the door I'll stop but guys I'm sorry I am proud that we did this, proud that people have trusted us to make something like this happen and proud that the GMC had the interest and style to pull this off. You can inscribe that we built these machines on my urn!

There are "finals" to do on the Duramax Cruz'n, the massive 19.5" front wheels need to be aluminum and many more things. Tony & Josh are fitting the carpet now that we have space to fit in the front seats.

A good weekend, hope yours went well Spent much of yesterday with John D. (our resident computer guru) at the shop sorting out the new Fire Fight web site. There have been piles of improvement since the "Front Page" program was developed that I am running this site on. My ears were smoking for sure climbing on that big ole learning curve but John was very patient with me. Things should start happening on that site today or tomorrow-- watch and see how we do www.firefightproducts.com

This week is looking to be very busy, Carpet and seats go into the Duramax coach at long last after figuring finally the overhead clearance situation. With "Chimera" not marking his spot with oil driplets, maybe we can get back to the job at hand of finishing the rear hatch hold up portion of the project. We're going to be challenged a bit with manpower, Rusty might be out some this week so we'll do what we can.

Sorry Gerry P. for not calling you back when you were talking about the last post I did here. I got a flurry comments on it. Hope the rest of you lived through that pile of verbage, it just struck me at that time to expound on some of the exciting things we see here in the RV world. I mean really, there has to be a reason we and amny others are interested in these older "road house" machines. Those of you sitting right now at your dinette with a cup of coffee reading this are saying "damn right", it's getting moroe and more evident that a mobile lifestyle is attractive to more and more. I also got comments that many in this generation have grown accustomed to our "brick and mortar" living arrangements including me but speaking from this side I also see and appreciate where those that do see living in your transportation is a good way to go.

Oops, the day is on, I gotta go. I hope to be contributing to the length of this page all week so come on back. Oh, BTW, this Friday is the Drag Race Rally, if you are in central Florida I dare ya to run me! Come on guys, life is short and you NEED to run your coach. It's not much more stressful on the drive train than taking off quickly from a traffic light, I know there is apprehension from just doing it but trust me when I tell ya there is no rush like it! The gates open at 5PM, $10 per head per night and $5 on Friday night gives you rights to run all night long! "You'll pay for the whole seat but you'll only need the front edge!" Hope to see ya there...

Whats this all about? I have energy for a rant but first, like NPR, lets get the news:

Josh has become our "sanding fool" up on Frank's roof prepping the old original surface for it's new colors

. The roof is first getting DA (dual action) sanded to a good "bite" surface for the first layers of sealing primer. This is the part of painting something the size of 2 elephants tests your resolve. Most production painters figure maybe 3-4 hours of sanding-- man, I wish it happened that way! Sand, sand and more sand-- you feel like you have the surface of a parking lot to sand! Keep your head down Josh and don;t worry about lunch!

While Rusty finishes up fixing the oil leak on Chimera and Josh sands his brains out, I have been over at trim doing some scary stuff. The Duramax coach is getting my attention, the awesome shell shaped overhead cabinet over the pass. seat had to come down for headroom, now it's refinishing that spot and the hope is to use the shell of the take down, reshape it to give the needed headroom and make space to hide the electric awning control panel, the overhead LED lights and the 2 speakers in the 8500 watt sound system. The scary part of this is resizing the cabinet shell. No mistakes--- I have one shot at this and here is the shell cut down clamped and a mounting surface for the piano hinge getting bonded on

Guess you could call it a "half shell" now, there has to be more headroom where this will end up but it also needs to retain the speaker positions, those LED light fixtures and the big ole awning control panel needs to hide but have access. Here you can see the "pop latch" that will hold this panel up

, the clamped on strip is where the piano hinge will attach. On this project, we have the upper panel pocket resized and installed, the underside of the front roof covered so you will not see it when the 32" flat screen is rotated down, the lower 8" sub woofer cabinet is now resized so as soon as this half shell panel is in place we will now be able to place the seats. See one thing depends on another to fit and each step needs to happen in order-- I'm on this so stay tuned for more.

This Sunday, John D., our computer guru, is coming in for some one on one with me on the new Fire Fight web site. You can follow our progress on the site on Sunday. The fun will happen at www.firefightproducts.com . The old web site www.firefight1.com is being updated and replaced, let me know what you think. Hey, and along those lines, I wanted you to read a letter I got from a recent Fire Fight customer:

Good morning Jim. Mary and I want to thank you for picking up the slack in providing once again the fantastic FireFight extinguisher products. The SS100 we received and installed gives us the peace of mind that can NOT be achieved with a handheld stored in the coach and activated after a problem is noted. Your suggested mounting worked out perfectly. Experience DOES count. Again, Jim, THANK YOU for stepping up and providing this system for the GMC community. After our three year ordeal of blood, sweat, and tears, we would hate to lose our coach to a fire because we failed to realize the importance of this "MUST HAVE" insurance package. We cannot say it enough, Thank you!

No, this is not the "rant" I'm working up to this morning but guys please understand fire is real and hey, I hate-- really hate-- to use the doom and gloom card and maybe I still won't but with now not only rare but as important a part of your life I hope your GMC is, doing that extra bit to keep it safe and you in it is really a must, this is why we are spending so much energy in this direction. I want to thank those that are supporting Fire Fight, it is what I would call the struggle of my life to bring these products back available. Ralph was right on when he came up with these units. Enough said, I think these folks now feel better and isn't that what it's about!

And now this IS what I wanted to talk about this morning-- what it's all about--. I can hear it now, oh here we go-- what earth shaking delima are we falling into? Well, with Hawking saying the biggest enigma in his life is understanding Women-- really, check it out in the news-- I think the basic things of life are some of the most misunderstood and issues we can actually do something about if we simply think through the issue. The one I'm talking about this morning is how we live-- oh, now there's a wide subject so lets pare it down a bit.

Specifically, with the world economy the way it is, energy costs rising and on the verge of collapse, world powers sucking the life out of their peoples-- where are we going as far as our carbon footprint and how can we truly make an impact on how we will keep it together in the future-- hey and if that isn;t enough to ponder, lets throw into the pot where our classic GMC motorhome fits into this seething pot of goop! Yea, I mean do we mess with these motorhomes until they tell us we can't? And when will that happen? When I tell people what we do here at the Co-op, one of the first 5 questions is -- "How much mileage do those things get?" Wether they understand their question or not, that subject actually breaks down to what is the "carbon footprint" of a GMC or any vintage motorhome for that matter. So if you have something really important to do, you may want to bookmark this pose and come back later, if you have the time now then keep reading...

Your "carbon footprint" is linked to how much energy you suck from the planet to do all the things you do to exist. The 2 largest issues in your life, the 2 most energy sucking things that touch you are where you live and how you move along the face of the earth. There are dozens if not hundreds of factors wrapped up into these 2 things so lets not sidetrack ourselves unless you really wanna see a long diatribe here.

First, lets talk about transportation, most folks think of motorhomes as energy pigs-- they burn gas like it's going out of style and all that. Well, compared to a compact car taking 1 person to anf from work-- yea, they use more gas but if you bought a new Suburban because you had that much "stuff" you had to carry, a GMC actually gets close to the same mileage-- it produces about the same carbon footprint, that is if you find yourself needing to carry more stuff. This is the same energy argument used in calling trains economical. Yea, they use a pile of diesel but look at what they can move. So if you compare apples to apples, the GMC to another heavy lift vehicle, you get economy. Now, take that argument and add to the mix your second energy sucker-- your living quarters-- the picture really changes.

Today, the next generation is looking at their prospects of housing and realize they have been screwed. Even with the houseing bubble bursting, the total cost, exposure and risk taken when you buy a house is just not in the cards for most folks. Renting something is literally pouring money down the black hole of existence-- I mean when the 5th of the month comes around you open your wallet and just pour out a % of what you make for simply having a key that fits a lock where your bed is. You build no equity wiith renting, your money does nothing for you save having a roof which BTW in the end is not yours. So I really think the next generation has a clearer view of their options that maybe we had when we were growing up. It was understood that our mission was to get a job that you could retire with, buy a house maybe close to work but at least close to the things you want to and lake to do and settle down and raise a family. This was what we were taught, was what our parents did and what they were told. If you did a good job, protected your assets and supported the government that your job and your country would support you. Today, regrettably that scenario has not products fruit for many and it will get worse as our economy goes further into the change our new world economy is pushing us to.

Priorities have changed, many today are not believing the "old line' and are removing their blinders and finding creative ways to reduce that "carbon footprint" at the same time modifying their lifestyle to fit this brave new world.

OK, here it is and I bet most of you have already figured out my plot-- if you were to combine your housing and transportation energy into one, that carbon footprint thing would shrink. Yea, this is odd thought for many and something most of us look at and say "not for me" but put yourself in the shoes of a young guy who looks at the job market and sees there is no longevity to any position. Companies are no longer offering retirement if you stay, support the comapny and the company will take care of you. Ain;t happenin--- you future is today, the paycheck you make this day and forget about tomorrow because there are no guarantees like in the past. You get a job and in 6 months you are either relocated, crosstrained and moved or downsized and laid off. Technology is good but also bad because it progresses by replacing jobs so where will you and your job be tomorrow-- maybe in the unemployment rolls! So what can you do, you need to stay versatile, mobile-- you need to be efficient and effective and not dependant as folks were in the past. In short you need to be light on your feet. OK, so what do you do, do you move into your small (and getting smaller) car? is the back seat your bed and the front seat your den? That's a scary thought! Do you dump the car, keep the house and ride a bike, the bus or some other form of mass transportation? Do you put your life further in the hands of big brother?

One viable option for today is to modify your life and combine your transportation and day to day living into one setting up house in a "downsized" but full sized motorhome-- that would be a less than 30' older motorhome. OK, here is where many people may start laughing but this is a movement and it's growing in acceptance. More and more young people are setting up their daily living and working making their bed in their daily driver transportation taking their free time and spending it on places outside thier now smaller daily world. You can't exercise this concept in a big, lumbering RV, it needs to be small enough to make it on most any small road. It can't be one of these "abbreviated" newer downsized motorhomes, there simply is not enough space in those cracker boxes to set up house-- ah, but there is in one of the older "full sized" shorted motorhomes! Yes, and this is where vintage RV's with the GMC at the top of the food chain enters in. Hey, I cam accept the LOLing from many of you because I know of so many people out there living this dream.

Maybe not diving in with all feet but even having a GMC to act as your travel and vacation source reducing your carbon footprint. OK, you go on vacation-- you pack your suff like George Carlin used to say-- you bum a ride to the airport in a car that cost how much? The plane is the cheapest (is it really) way to go somewhere-- OK, now think about that energy sucker-- but where are you going to stay when you get there? Still more energy expense in building the house or whatever you will be in-- more carbon down the toilet!! See what I mean? I think one guy I know really has the right idea, he has 2 GMC's, one on the west coach and one he keeps with us. He lives here or over there "full time" in one of his coaches. Uses then as living quarters and for transportation! Sounds crazy but he is living cheap!

But seriously, there is a movement happening, young people are looking at older motorhomes and also trailers as their living and transportation centers. Yea, I know this lifestyle is not for everyone and I hope it does not become the only option for the future but I will tell you it is a good option for many folks and we are in the middle of this. Think about George S., traveling with his dog Jack, living in this 20' Argosy

, he saw and acted on this option. I have several customers doing the very same thing in their GMC. How bout Andy in his awesome Palm Beach

, he's a full timer living next to his woodwork shop outside of Portsmouth. Andy got his GMC looking at what he was spending on an apartment, forget that! How bout Warren & Al K.

(al is on the left, that's Don Tracy on the right) The Keene brothers live behind their awesome antique shop on I-75 here in Florida

in their GMC-- been doing it for years! You get the idea. All this came up last night, Capt. Dave, Janie & I went for dinner last night at McWells, a locals watering hole near the shop where Bing Futch was playing

. That's Bing's home (motorhome) behind us and here is Bing

. A traveling musician he plays the dulcimer, lives and travels in his motorhome.

He is living what I'm saying and so are an increasing number. This is getting too long so let me end this by saying-- So where does the GMC fit in and what's this all about? -- I feel we are in the crosshairs of what the next generation sees as a viable option and the GMC is the perfect machine to do this. Other vintage RV's fir as well, older motorhomes that have already been produced, the money has been spent, carbon burned and now it's time to use those raw materials in front of us-- the ocean of raw materials in the form of older motorhomes! This is where it's at and I see this every day. As the great philosopher "The Who" says-- "Let the police and the tax man miss me, I'm mobile!"

FROST on my windshield this morning! There's just something not right about frost in Central Florida! Got a rise out of Scott C. up in Toronto yesterday, said it was something below 0? Like Ron White said when his wife asked how what the temp was outside when the thermometer said "0", "there isn;t one"! Kevin came in a bit ago and said it's supposted to warm up tomorrow-- is that like the sgin at the bar that says "Free beer tomorrow"? Hey, maybe if we throw a few more CFC's up into the atmosphere---- who says holding in heat from green house gasses is a bad thing? They say it's really cold in the vacuum of space, lets not be like that place! Bet Mark H. who just relocated from the crazy cold of Ft. McMurry Canada to Calgary is probably thinking he's too hot-- guess it's all relative but if you wanna talk to me you'll have to come to my latitude.

Oh look, the sky is clear as the sun came up and let me see the sky-- guess it was the cold that made the night sky look drab! Hey, the sun is where I will stay today!

Kevin pulled Frank's coach out yesterday from it's cocoon to yank the awning

. Now you can see how the coach looks without the original Royale striping. The battery was dead, this is a problem I find trying to keep so many coaches able to move. Don;t know, there must be a dc power sucking vortex here at the shop! had Rusty install 2 battery kill switches on Frank's coach

, one for the engine and the other for the living area battery. I feel this is not only a good ide to assure your battery stays in usable condition when you store your coach but is also a great safety device. if there are electrical fire issues, if you can run out and turn off the power source your electrical fire will loose it's heat source which is a good thing. Anyway, Rusty came over from the mechanical bays to install these switches for Kevin

Also we found checking the coaches an oil leak on "Chimera" as we fired it up. Looks like the front timing chain cover so back up on the lift the coach went

. For those of you who don;t remember this project, it's a 1973 23' coach with a 2' stretch and opening rear hatch.

Yea, a 2' stretch-- you ask why? Well, this makes a short wheelbase, forward door which leaves the large area in the back for transport storage. This is probably the only 23' 2' stretch coach out there. We're closing in on this project so stay tuned. Gotta fix the oil leak!

So my bet is not much is going to happen until Mr. Sun warms up the shop. See up north you guys prepare well for this stuff, your buildings are insulated well-- ours is not. You have powerful full room heaters, we do not! You have well sealed doors and windows, heck lizards can crawl past some of the windows and all of our doors down here! Yea, it would make sense to make buildings tighter and more efficient down here but hey, it's usually just nice weather and the doc says sweating is good for ya! Shivering is not so maybe that's it.

Fire Fight is doing well, inching back into business. We are now switching over to the new "green" clean agent gas (FE36) This gas is specified by NASCAR, used as a suitable replacement for the now banned from manufacture Halon gas. Our new FE36 units will be hitting the streets as our inventory of the Halon 1211 depletes. Fire Fight will be doing the fire safety seminar at the Brookesville FMCA rally here in Florida so come by and see us there in Feb. This year we will also be doing other seminars across the country so stay tuned for times and places. Though Fire Fight products was engineered and born from the needs for fire suppression in the GMC, we have found much success in fitting these systems in the other RV's. Even though the cost investment in an RV does not equate into it's level of fire danger, as it turns out the more someone has invested the more they consider protecting their investment from fire dangers. Too bad it works out that way because it's really not the RV investment that should be first in the decision to add fire suppression to your RV, it's more an investment in your safety and wellbeing. Hang the motorhome when a fire breaks out, just getting away with your life may be a problem and thats where a good fire safety program can save you. Fire safety is more than simply installing a fire suppression system, it's a plan-- what to do if there is a problem, what to think about and what to do when something happens. All this sounds silly simple but when the adrenalin is pumping and a fire starts you really need to have a planned strategy and that's what I'm talking about.

The day is on & no matter what the temp. I need to be out there. Have a good--- warm day, think good--- warm thoughts and we'll see ya tomorrow-- yea, it's supposed to be warmer then!

First pose of the new year sorry for being away, had a great visit by one guy who comes here as part of his morning ritual, don't wanna know if it is before or after the main event-- but anyway, it is COLD this morning, temps. in the 40's down here conjure up thoughts of well digger extremities-- can you tell I'm trying to be politically correct? That's one of my resolutions-- probably one of the first ones to go but I will give it a go!

Talked to Frank U. from up in Seneca NY who said it was 9 there, I told him that was his shoe size! I remember 26 when I picked up the short bus in Bryson City NC

where I was wearing all of my clothes-- I do not like cold "Sam I am" and I'm not that wild about green eggs and ham either! BTW yes, I do have on those wool socks one of you guys sent me, me feet do feel good but I find I sweat in then and then I get wet and then I get cold again-- is there any way off this merry-go-round! Heck, even Larry reacted badly last night, the air in his air bags went in search of a warmer place!

"Air wants out" and in the cold it really wants out. If you guys up there in the Tundra actually haqve your coach suspension hold air you really are doing good! OK, enough on the whining, don;t send any cheese to go with it-- I'll stop--- for now!

Talking with Frank U. yesterday about progress on his coach, I told him I'd do a few pics so the rest of you follow along as I catch him up. Frank, your coach is in the cocoon now, the ole moth is ready to go into it's transformation mode. From this

, it's now got it's stripes off, exterior pieces/parts gone and is surrounded by catwalks to give access for Kevin to do his thing.

Had a little paint lift when we "erased" the decal striping

, seems there was some corrosion under the original paint-- no big deal. When Frank got this coach, the PO (previous owner) had installed one of those huge domed skylights in the bathroom. Guys listen, those things may look like the thing but they are really made cheaply. That domed plastic cover deteriorated quickly as Frank found out, the first time he touched it the thing cracked away. There was a huge opening cut in the roof to where no normal vent cover would fit. All he could do was put a big ole wide plexiglass panel over the hole which actually had worked out pretty good. hey, we're in here to cure evils done so now that UV has attacked Franks solution,

we need to come up with a better one. We will remove that fix, make an aluminum plate to resize the opening and install one of those really cool Max Vent units we use. This way, Frank will not only have light in the bathroom but also ventilation AND when there is a problem with the new vent cover, don;t think something will NEVER happen, he'll be able to go to most any camper supply place and replace the cover-- you gotta think about future maintenance. So Frank, all is good down here in the frigid south, stay tuned for more...

So I got a call yesterday from Jim G., and though he deserted us heading to the keys for the cold spell, I still took the call. Seems his air ride system stopped pumping. Now you remember Jim G., he's the acrobat of the bunch down here

with a keen eye for the obvious

, no-- that's another keen eye over on the left of that pic in "Barefoot Bob" our Drag Race champion helping Jim determine which fine merchandise (that would be that pile of stuff we have squirreled away in our "nearly new" department) would fit their coach. Jim G. has been with me on some recoveries like retrieving the "Short Bus" from Bryson City

, here he's guarding the door--. Anyway, his air ride system stopped air riding so just now he called up and we did a long distance trouble shoot. He has a 73 which makes tracing issues really easy. Come to find out the grabbers on the spade terminal on his regulator let go and one terminal fell off. No problem so now Jim will be our Power level suspension expert! Well, he did pass the 101 class project at least! All is good for him and Ada down in the keys-- you dirty rotten ragifragin ragerfrager, come on back and face the cold like a man! I guess there was a reason he moved from Virginia to Florida which is to follow the warmth!

Hey, that's OK, we'll be fine, Kevin is here now but it's too cold for his paint to kick, I think sandpaper stops working in temps like this and with such slow air, heck I bet tape won;t stick either! Hey, maybe we need to have a daily pose marathon today, that would give me an excuse to stay here in the central heated office! I might have a revolution out back so I guess I'll need to get cold again soon. Yea, I have my long Johns on, my torn plastic jacket, wooly socks and I'm thinking about the boots at the house for tomorrow! Capt Dave flew in from Ohio yesterday evening

to a broken furnace in his stored coach here. Go figure, the connector fell out of the side of the furnace, I think the "Murphy" in his coach got upset he left the coach here with us! Got him plugged back together and my bet is he was a bug in a rug last night.

OK, I've gotta face the music, it's flippn cold out there & I have to cut the overhead cabinet on the Duramax coach, a pretty scary proposition! I'll do pics so come back tomorrow and see how it went. Have a warmer day today, yea I bet Scott C. up in Canookland is LOLing all over the place--- yea, pay backs are hell I know! It is a clear blue sky this morning and it's supposed to warm up for the weekend so it's not like we'll have to live like this, just hold out break and our cheeks together for a bit! See you guys tomorrow, thanks for the visit and I hope you had a few laughs on my account-- it's OK, I have broad shoulders...

The last day of 2011 and here we are , couldn't stay away. It's also a Saturday which to me is as important. Saturdays are those days I get to do things I can;t during the week and similar to Christmas eve, today feels like that day did. It's again my chance to do things I can't normally, stuff I've been thinking on which is also an important part of doing those things. Boy, I just read back what I just wrote-- where is my head! I'm going to leave it there if for nothing more than to show myself how silly it is to try hard, this stuff needs to flow out not be politically or socially correct-- that doesn't work for me. OK, lets try again:

Hey guys, last day of the year-- sure hope we all don't blow up next year! hey, what do the Myans know, they didn't even have cable and thought Chocolate was only for Kings! I mean how clairvoyant could they be without a smart phone! And if it does, at least we have another year to enjoy our motorhomes so that's as good a reason as anything to get out on the road! We'll see, I sure would hate to be an insurance agent this year!

Today should be filled with good stuff for me, janie has some New Years festivities planned which I think include going to Nelsons to watch the fireworks over his lake, crashing Kevin's party and just spending time with friends and family. Right now is my time and I choose to be right here, right now. After finishing this plunkfest on this keyboard, I think I'm ready to cut into that perfect overhead cabinet that had to come out of the Duramax coach to make way for the passenger seat. It's just too perfect to not use and I think I have a way I can use it. I have the 2 speakers and awning control module to shoehorn back to a finished state and I think I can do it still using the cabinet skin-- stay tuned and wish me luck!!

Fire Fight Products is shaping up with Ada and Jim G., Tony and others helping out. We have made arrangements to do our first fire safety seminar at the FMCA Brookesville rally in Feb., if you will be there please come to the talk, it would be good to see familiar faces. from there we're off and running, I have a seminar schedule coming together for the year. You have to produce a million dollar liability policy to speak-- silly-- but thats the way it is. Oh, and now they have terrorism insurance! Oh come on man! I don't even know where to start to talk about that. Hey, I remember laughing at the prospect of selling air-- guess anything is possible! Jan. 1, 2012 marks the launch of the new Fire Fight Products, llc. The new web site is www.firefightproducts.com , the www.firefightmarine.com has been updated so please spread the word. You can post me at firefightproducts@yahoo.com . It's exciting starting up a business like this made even moreso bringing back to the market such important products. Guys really, please protect yourself and your vintage GMC with fire measures, it's just the right thing to do!

So I guess that's it for today, my mind is racing toward finishing the paperwork I started yesterday then I get the high pleasure of creating in the Duramax coach-- what a perfect day! I hope your dreams come true this next year, forget that end of the world thing, I was listening to NPR this morning and the Myan descendents don;t even believe the rumor, the press always goes toward "dirty laundry", the exciting and obsurd so lets just focus on doing our best and let the rest of this take care of itself. As in the book "Be Here Now" , what really matters is within-- so as I listen to "Love" acoustic from John Lennon lets say we'll meet here again next year...

Oh, then Donovan comes on playing "To Try for the Sun", it's going to be a great day! See ya

The last 'work" day of the year I was excited to talk about some things and still will if I have time but first I have the solemn duty to report the passing of a great friend, mentor and enthusiastic GMC owner Don Tracy.

This is Don with our motor builder Drew Koba as Drew brought Don's motor for us to install. Don was a hard core motorhomer making it to most of the states stepping "down" (I don;t see it that way) from years of piloting serious bus style motorhomes into his 26' hot rod rear bath Royale whi I built. Living in the Escapees main port in Livingston Texas, Don and his wife Becky continued their RV travels until his death battling heart disease for 19 years he gave it all to be here with us. Don, you were the man and I will surley miss you. As a note, Don was always the guy who posted me when I would get out of hand on the Net or my daily pose, so NOW who's gonna put fingers on my forehead to keep me from spinning off in space! You guys could be in for a rough ride from here on out! Becky has contacted me asking if I could help move Don's beloved 26' rear Bath Coachman Royale to a new home. Guys, if someone is out there loking for an awesome rear bath GMC, you just found it! Don't know what Becky would like to get out of the coach, as you guys know I stay out of that, but I can tell you Don's coach was his Baby and it got anything it needed. I personally put several buckets of money into the coach-- full drive train first with the direct port FI system then finding that was not the way to go back to our carb, 4 air bagger, fill white paint, full interior-- I mean the works!

and check out this custom all in one stainless steel galley in Don's machine

. So guys, lets beat the bushes, we need to all pitch in to held Don not make this coach an issue for Becky. I meant too much to him and I am sure she would rather the coach goes on to someone who will love it as much as Don did and not see it deteriorate there under their awning in Texas. I'm making some call and you guys too see if there are people you can think of who could appreciate a machine such as this. My bet is the coach is sitting there, road ready for someone to take home. Hey, pay the expenses and I'll drive it to you myself! A fitting testimony to Don's spirit would be for this coach to stay in the fold continuing to be a serious road rocket. We only borrow these awesome machines, we will all someday pass away but our GMC's will live on and that's the way it should be. "Don de La Mancha" would be a good name for this coach so lets help the wayward traveler. I know all who Don touched on his journey will join me in saying a kind farewell to this man, I learned a lote from him and hopefully will never forget even one of his lessons to me.

First things first but always there will be a second so time marches on and so do we. I gotta tell ya my heart is filled with praise for Ray and Rusty here at the shop. I wish I had taken some pics of those PPOS knuckles we got in to fix my Suzuki, they looked to me to be nothing at all. I wish I had taken a couple of pics of that pile, I think you would agree. Faced with few options is usually the way it is working with the GMC, my guys have grown used to taking whatever we have and make things happen-- you know the old addage "We, that have done so much-- with so little-- for so long-- now attempt the impossible with nothing at all" well, Ray is the manly man of this place

because he drilled and tapped out broken bolts, scooped out grunge, broke down those pieces of crap and put the front end of that Suzuki back together all in 1 day! Unbelievable, looks like we can also list Suzuki restoration on our shingle because I drove the beast home last night! Awesome man-- we did it! Thanks to Ray, Rusty and a determination that we have honed over the years of beating on these old GMC war horses.

We're at the point now of fitting the awesome seats into the Duramax coach after making space for the passenger seat. Tony & Josh have patterned the carpet

, here is the new passenger side footprint area

. OK, now we get into investigation of the awesome custom made seats

that have been locked away from danger in those big ole crates-- direct from first our seat manufactuer in Californisa then were sent to a custom upholster guy for the stars in Hollywood then to us. They are covered with real distressed read leather from the same dye lot, electric lumbar, electric foot rest, heated, recliner-- I mean "full tilt buggy, the most awesome stumps we've ever seen!

, the arm rests are not as yet installed. I had to first sort out the wiring nightmare on the underside of them

that amazed me how much cluster the seat guys left

Hey, I know there are piles of electrical crap under there but you just can't have "spaghetti" like that hanging down

so after some chop-chop (now that I don;t do electronics for a living it's something I really enjoy) we paired all that wire wad down to this

, here you can see the pile I pulled out!

. Next we'll mate up the swivel pedestals and start in on placement-- stay tuned for that.

OK, there is more happening but it's now daylight, Kevin has been here a while and now that Josh (AKA "T Bird)

just rolled his beast in we're ready to rock around here. That means I gotta go. Give a byline to the man up there for Don Tracy, I've already gotten a call on his coach so really, if you are looking for a monster rocket you had better hurry. Thanks for todays visit and the time you took from this last working day of 2011-- good luck on 2012, we're excited on what's happening around here and we'll see ya later. Of course I'll be around here tomorrow, I'll see if I can plunk a little for ya then...

Not many more days to use the "11" on the date, this is the last Thursday of the year let me be maybe the first to say "Happy New Year" before you hear it so much it looses it's meaning.

So there I was--- in the lot wandering back and forth when I looked up at the gate and saw this

staring through the fence. It first looked like maybe one of those new Sprinter chassis coaches but the big "GMC" in the grill gave it away. By golly it was Dennis down from the cold Canada north with his object of frustration.

-- no,no not his wife but his coach

. A retired body man, Dennis has over 200 hours just in his front

and rear end modifications

. So before you say you "want" something like this please understand what it takes to do that. He has invested himself in @ $17,000 to do this. This is the caliber of the custom coach body work we do as in the Duramax coach

so I am very pleased to see folks bringing custom work to this level. Guys, don;t think you have to do this stuff to have a nice GMC, this is on the custom side of crazy so don't this is where the world is, it's just one aspect of restoration. Hey but it's really cool and thanks Dennis C. for stopping by

So our new painter helper guy started in on Frank's "mere mortal" exterior refinish by pulling off the bent in rear bumper

. We need to fit a striaght bumper half getting all the brackets and stuff lined up before doing any body or paint work. I walked past the work and every time he would look up wondering why I was snapping pics of him

. I told him about the daily pose here and said Inquiring minds wanted to know. He looked at me a little funny and went back to work

WHAT--- is this odd or something? I mean doesn;t everyone take pics of stuff they do? Guess it's sort of different --

You know I will tell you this about that-- sometimes I feel a bit squemish when doing some of the work we do. I mean labor is expensive and man, I sure wish we could just do what we do, have the owner flip me a 5er and see them down the road but in this capitalistic society it can;t work that way. Then I found that the front hubs on my Suzuki were growling and on checking them out I found the same play in the hub I see with the GMC front suspension. I called my parts supplier and found from Suzuki it would cost close to $1000 to replace both sides! Holy crap--- we're not working on a Rolls here! So then I started checking around for good used hubs and found a set in Pittsburgh. This is nuts, I mean we're not working on what I would call an "old" vehicle here so why can't I just go to Pep Boys and pick up a set of hubs!! So here I now am, in the search for some specialty parts just like one of you guys looking for some parts for your GMC. Man, they need someone like me in the Suzuki world! Got those hubs in from Pittsburgh and man what a pile of crap! Rusted to death, they had broken bolts, rust through on the backing plates--- I feel a breeze!!! If this is what it's like out there in the bull pen looking for parts, you guys really need to support the GMC specialty dealer network! We supply totally remachined hubs and knuckles for less that what it looks I will pay to have the front end of my 96 Sidekick fixed! Suddenly I'm not feeling so bad on the pricing we charge for our parts and services. Oh, I can't wait to see what some "specialist" wants to do the job! We will probably do it ourselves but if I did have someone else do it I bet it would cost me big bucks. There is just something wrong about this sort of thing. Hey, maybe we should go into the Suzuki parts supply business! Really, we are blessed with places to get parts, people interested to help and clubs and a support network next to the best we could hope for keeping our vintage RV's on the road. I don;t see a bright future for the Suzuki Sidekick if this is what it's like to replace major parts-- the auto community looks like it's in trouble! looks like the auto industry is pushing hard to have us trash our old stuff when the ash trays are full and have us pay "how much" for a new car! Hey, maybe I need to consider a future in motorized bicycles! OK, so there's my political commentary for the day, start hoarding parts for Suzuki's, those suspension parts a gold!

It's on the overcase side today and it's cold. Man, did I tell you I hate cold? My warmest coat has a rip in it, gonna wear it anyway. Janie says I can't be seen with her with it on, at least I'll be warm! No, I'll relegate it to shop work and dress up with a coat with no rips in it going out in public. It's just cold, oh did I say I hate cold? Yea, yea, I know, I'm a wimp-- worthless and weak, I'm just not built for the cold stuff! OK, now I'm repeating myself, I gotta go. We're starting in on the carpet in the Duramax while I figure out the overhead mods. Stay tuned for that. Thanks for the visit, we'll see ya later...

Boy did the past 3 day blow by! I guess it really is true, "time flies when you're having fun". It was a great weekend at the Bounds house, with our sons Ray & John home along with Mom and Janies family (7 brothers & sisters, her Mom & Dad, cousins, nephews, dogs, cats -- did I leave anyone out-- well, you get the picture. I hope your weekend was all it could be for you too.

Weather was -- well pretty good

Today it looks like rain, guess e need it, that also gives me a bit more time to move ahead on fitting the seats in the Duramax coach. You remember we figured out hw to get at least the front 2 seats in, now we have to make it look good. First step is getting the footprint in which we did, next is to make it look good. Remeber we pulled out the lower 8" sub woofer and cabinet to cut it back to fit the passenger seat. Removing it worked and there was again a way to install a seat in the correct position but now comes making the mod look good. It's far easier to finish off a job like this looking like something off Dr. Seuss, the work comes in making it look good. OK, lets step through up to where we are today. Along with all the weekends activities, I of course could not pull away from the shop "cold turkey" so yea, I worked on this project a bit. If you will remember, this is the lower cabinet before our work

Too long, here is the position with this cabinet out and the seat in it's correct spot

and now we went after redesigning the sub woofer cabinet to this

and now it needs to be put back in and the wall panel refinished. OK, so here is our spot to work on behind and under the pass. seat

We have a wall panel to build then remount the 8" sub woofer cabinet, install the 12 vdc and 110 vac outlets and make it all look good. lets start with refinishing the wall panel. Before, the entire cabinet was placed in the opening,

now it's smaller so we need to fab a filler panel

then fit the sub cabinet in place.

Now, we recut sections of the plush carpet to mate up the the already carpeted wall panel then install the new smaller cabinet in place

. Yea, I could not line up the pattern on the carpet but remember, the seat will be in front of that. There we go, now I need to recover the right side saddle tank inlet pipe, yea, it's under the seat but guys, we've come this far-- we need to finish it off somehow and that will be todays project. That along with refinishing the area where the overhead cabinet came out

will be my challenge. Stay tuned for more on this. I hope you can get more of a grasp of how a custom machine like this comes together. It's all fit, finish oh yea and making things fit. Discovery and progress goes at this pace on most every project we do, these are the things most shops will not get involved in, grinding labor! This is the stuff we don't run from rather, this is the stuff we do and this is the stuff folks know to bring to us.

Supposed to rain today so it's indoor fun for us Jim B. is coming in for a tire truing and some other stuff, that should keep Rusty and Josh busy, thanks for todays visit, come back tomorrow and see how the day went. In the meantime, enjoy your day...

And so this is Christmas as the classic song goes so what are you doing right now reading this mess! This is that one day of your so you had better go out and do something with it. Not like me, stuck in my forever cycle-- oh don't feel bad for me, I like this and you could probably say I bring it down on myself but, well, I guess, maybe right now-- the way everything is and looking at the rock we're pushing, this might just be what I need-- at least for a couple of hours...

Now that it's pretty well assured I'l have little to no interruptions, by golly I am going to do a few things I want and need to do. Stuff that there's just no way for me to focus on the issues. Also. it takes a sort of mindset you need to get into and I have that opportunity today. Thought while I let that 1 beer subside-- hey, 1 morning beer on Christmas eve is sort of a ritual with me-- yea, I'm that sort of crazy! Hey, Jim Morroson did it and he made it to the ripe old age of.... wait a minute--- he didn't make it--- hey, 1 beer on one morning does not fall into that category of abuse so please excuse my indulgence.

Anyway, it does go to loosening my tongue so I thought I would cover a big question people ask me often. Jim, "When is the Duramax coach going to be done?" Guys, thats a really good one and as you know I never run from those hard questions, I think I owe you all an explanation so here goes:

When someone came into the shop one day and said in a calm low voice, amazingly low in emotion, (later I would learn why) say , "Jim, I want something sick"-- well, at that point in my life and in the life of the Co-op I just had to say "Sure, I can do something sick" and thus started the odyssey of the Duramax project.

Since before my time in the GMC community, folks had been doing outrageous things with GMC's-- stretches, double deckers, chops, slides and doing all sorts of drive train swaps all trying to make the GMC faster, bigger and all that. How could I celebrate the uniqueness of the styling of the GMC at the same time bring the beast up to date on drive train and automotive technology in general. Not just a couple of bolt ons, some bondo and fancy stripes. Not just rehashing everything everyone has been calling constants-- I mean really step out there on that lunatic limb and jump around!

Here I had a man who appreciated truly putting across the effort to have something unique so who would I be to not accommodate! I had been daydreaming in a particular direction on building a truly out of the box GMC that really brought the GMC shape and concept to the auto enthusiast forefront. Hey, I bet all of you guys have daydreams like that once in a while. Ok then, this was an idea really that was one of those "Buck Rogers" things, an idea that sun energy could power the earths-- yea, right! But anyway, we can dream, thats free but here I was facing someone who actually challenged me to go for it-- OK, here we go

Workhorse I bet "skink works" had come up with a front engine, front wheel drive heavy lift chassis, the LF-72. High tech all the way, OBDII computer, ABS, turbo diesel, Allison, all air ride suspension-- I mean you GMC motorheads know what I mean, the "Battleship Galactica" of all running gears, complete with steering column, fly by wire throttle, I mean the works! What if---- nooo, that would be obscene--- but what if you put a GMC up on top of that SRB, hey, they did it with the shuttle! Yea, but that took a government agency! Hey, he wants sick and this is about as sick an idea as I could come up with so while I was sitting on the step talking to Raymond in "Low Rider", a coach we built a couple of years ago, I layed out my insane idea. Raymond listened, taking in the smell of the "what if" and said, "Can you do it?" to which I said "I think so" and there is was. We were in line to try something truly outragious!

Going in, I knew we were headed for a series of "impossibilities and unexpected results but hey, someone has to do it, I might as well not step back! This project has bloomed or should I say expanded in ways we may never know how impossible they were! It has been a true labor of love for me and a product of so many talented people. No foolin, I'm not fluffing this up the way they are trying to make us believe all of this political jumbo on the news-- thats my end of the year political commentary. When we needed some precision welding work, Jesse came into our fold and when we needed conceptual reasoning, Craig walked back into my life for a time I think the Gods sent some of these people who have helped me put this machine together.

Every time though that we ran into one of those brick walls mating a state of the art of today chassis to a 30+ old GMC body shape-- we had issues and each one took time to discover, understand, conceptualize, design, engineer, prototype then build-- it's just been a nightmare if the end result was to be to build a cost effective, off the shelf, easy to build standard design coach. We surpassed that point when the frame came apart from the body !

So let me wrap the thousands of hours of work into this, it took a while to figure it all out!

So here we are today and the reason this question I'm answering came to mind is I'm working on one of those impossibilities today-- Christmas eve with no one bothering me, I am working through yet one more of those challenges. The name of this one is "The seats won't fit"! Yea, bummer! Here's the deal when working out there in space-- you have fixed issues, things you can do nothing about-- like how big the motor is and how much space it takes up inside the coach. Remember, we're turbo charging a windmill here! So the "fixed" are what they are and the only think you have any control over are the "variables". These variables are the tools you have to work with. These are things that need to happen but can be changed, altered or modified. Ok, so we know what we have to do which was accurately portrayed in the movie "Apollo 13" when they dumped the box of stuff the astronauts had to put the round air scrubber of the command module into the square hold of the scrubber on the LEM-- they had to put the provergial round peg in the square hole and thats the way things went on about every impossibility we ran into on the Duramax project. Oh yea, back to the seats. OK, so all of the girations it took to shoehone a GMC body onto a Workhorse frame all came down to this, it was time to locate the seats in the coach. Raymond had gotten with my southern Ca. located custom seat manufacturer, went to see them and 4 seats came out of that corroboration you simply can't imagine

distressed double stitched diamond shape, all electric, foot rest, high back I mean a set of full tilt buggy stumps to sit on. We have had them packed away in their boxes waiting for the day to bolt them into the coach and that day had come. Again lets cut to the chase and say, they did not fit! It was not that they were that much bigger but they were a bit. It wasn't that no thought was made to seat placement but we had "fixed" issues that simply could not be changed. Bringing all the factors to the pencil head we found it simply did not match! It happens that way which throws us back into that "fixed and variables" thing. One issue turned into another yet another challenge so in that case there was nothing to do but go for it. You can go to the can now, this could be called an intermission because I'm going to dig deep into this hole for ya now.

So as the lights flicker, lets see the issues. The driver seat fits fine

. In the full back position, the seat belt bar goes back to the 8" sub woofer and fuel inlet cover cabinet. We actually did pretty good there. Now, lets go over to the passenger side. Admittedly, we had pushed all of the varia bles around this issue. The motor box had to be this big, the dash had to come out to here, the overhead cabinets had to line up here and so on. Now, putting the passenger seat in the spot that was left

-- where do your legs go?

Douuuuuhhhh! Gues that number didn;t get picked up in the calculator! Yea, and you would need to be a legless really short guy to clear the overhead cabinet!

So as in the movie, I said to myself "Gentlemen, lets work the problem". OK, we need a passenger seat, our plan was to have all 4 seats on the upper level, wrong calculations again, there is no way 2 seats would fit on the upper level

, we would need to legless really short guys to make this work so our first filter to the solution is, 2 seats won't fly and even one seat is not fitting right. These are pretty cool seats

I mean your could see this thing in a Lambo! Hey but we need to get one of these things in the passenger position-- at a minimum-- OK, so lets do it! Step 1-- the footprint of the seat must be----- here. We will need to remove the cabinet over the right side saddle tank fill which also has the 8" bass driver enclosure. I have to take that all out. Now, lets get the seat base in position

hey and we have gained legroom!

Now, lets look at the upper cabinet and head height in the seat

Rats, not enough. We did not have one of our hot shot motorized aircraft styles shell drop down cabinets over the driver seat

so though we really don;t have any more storage to loose from bringing that huge motor into the living area of the coach, I had to remove the front overhead cabinet---- and I did.!

Relocating the seat--- vwala (yea, I spelled it wrong again) the seat fitted!

and you could even get into it and sit! Glory be, "The Eagle has landed"! We can now place the 2 front seats-- but at what cost? Now the pass. side saddle tank fuel inlet is visible and we have lost storage space and a place for the remote controlled armless electric awning! OK, here we go again, we have now 2 more impossibilities, we have to accommodate for the 2 6.5" speakers there were in the front of the overhead cabinet we just took out as well as find a place to hibe but access to the awning control system. Also, we need to find a way to reinstall the 8" sub woofer cabinet as well as give access to the 110 VAC and 12 VDC outlets that came out with the lower cabinet. Ready--- set ---- go!!!!

I think you can see how the building process of this Duramac GMC has been and how it is still honing down. I did all of this discovery this week, today-- yea, remember it's Christmas Eve-- today I want to resize and finish out the new lower cabinet. I'll need to do the overhead and all of that next. OK, so I have the lower cabinet out and back onto the trim shop table

. I need to cut this fixture down but I need to preserve the style and finish. That "Majilite" material and mondo deep plush carpet that covers this thing has to be saved too. This stuff is really expensive and we don;t have any more! No mistakes is what's in my mind! So looking at our construction, the cabinet was built around a proper size and construction sealed sub woofer box exactly the size needed to drive that 8" sub woofer speaker wild -- that had to be reused

The materials that cover the cabinets are all we have so every square inch of that stuff is gold! There is room for the sub box behind the seat so that's the max size of our new cabinet. Cutting away the rest of the cabinet taking care to leave the surface that would be reused I went in.

Cutting the unused structure away I had the size cabinet I could use

. Now, all that's lft is to rewrap the new shape with the materials I have. Man, that carpet is so think I think I could loose a VW in the pile

so the air stapler did invisible work of reattaching the carpet. And there it is

There were 4 different materials used in putting this cabinet together

The wood backing, high derometer foam, "Majilite" microfiber material, super plush sculpted carpet and it's gold colored binding.

. Next time I will put it back in and start thinking about the overhead issue-- stay tuned for that...

So, when someone askes you what you did on Christmas eve, you can say you saw me do this! Hey, go on over and do something important, like thanking God for our families. Hey, that's what Christmas is all about for me! Ok, so I'm outa here. You go have a good Christmas...

Last day of work before santa Well, it's the last day we're here, the work thing may fizzle out after lunch but of course that's just a hunch.

It was amazing but after scouring the country for an ABS made black tank for Frank's sewer fix I found nothing, no one had a new tank that would fit-- amazing but it's sort of like rims-- you see all of those different rims on cars and trucks and you would think there are all sorts that would work but only a few will and I guess these Coachmen built Royale GMC's are that way too! So I asked Josh to go out back to bring up an ABS tank we could cut pieces out of to fix Franks knocked up old one

Josh came back from the "back 40" with an exact same tank as the one we were looking to fix! No really, I could not believe it!

. There was a little damage but nothing like Franks other one so Kevin went about fixing it up

and matching the openings. Being constructed of ABS instead of the slick poly stuff the GM floorplan tanks are, he was able to cover the old holes and recut new ones to match. The refitted tank is in, fitted perfect and now you can hit that chili contest with confidence!

Bolted right back in, we saved big bucks in not having to reinvent the doody dump!

At long last, check this out

the polish process is done on Erwin's mile long Airstream! Yes, Kevin did get the water heater cover painted, didn;t get it on before I shot these pics. You need to wear sunglasses to look at this thing! Check out what the Airstream nuts say it takes to do this to one of their machines and you will appreciate more what you are looking at. 9 hours per foot is the standard according to them, Kevin did it in 57 hours-- thats 1.68 hours per foot! Man, that's smokin! Hey and that's also polishing the front and rear bumpers too! No, he doesn't want to do another one, at least lets get his hands to stop vibrating! So now it's getting the batteries back up, checking out the systems before the drive to Jacksonville and on the ship to Spain. For those of you who had not followed this project, the roof had to be painted platinum silver, it was just too oxidized. We stripped and painted the beltline brown and the rocker panels a gun metal grey. We're doing the mechanicals to get it road ready for Erwin to finish off the interior when it gets to him. Say Bye, Bye to this beast it was a blast but not something we want to tackle every day.

So there we are, the last day before Santa comes down the chimney-- I hope he has some plan because we covered over the brick chimney when the roofers put that tin roof on our place! He'll probably leave the lumps of coal at the door like the UPS guy. It should be a good holiday weekend for us with my sons Ray & John, my Mom in our "back house" and the cat "Danzig". Yea, I'm pretty mainstream when it comes to family life, some have asked so here is a pic of our place inside

Yea, thats my Peneley of Jerry Garcia-- no, that's not my Hulahoop! You can see my feet there which I hope to spend a bit of the weekend with that view right there. I hope all of you have a happy and safe holiday weekend-- of course we'll be at the shop on Monday, you didn;t think my boss would let us off next week! Baaaa Humbug!!!!

Boy, a pile of 1's & 2's in todays date Christmas has snuck up on me, not that it really matters-- I mean here I am, here it is and well there's less we can do about that than to just take it in.

No pics but Ron, the unercarrage of your Travco is descaled, rust killed and coated and the complete underside is sealed. The floor section has been replaced, your entry door handle is reinstalled and sealed. Kevin is lightly filling the 3 holes under the handle where water could come in and today we hope to find the issue with the start circuit for the starter. I'll send you a recap and invoices and brother, it's time to talk about the rest of the bringing back of this beast, you'll hear from me today. For you guys who just came in and wonder what a "Travco" looks like-- here ya go

Went by Walters yesterday to have a looksee at Mark's awsome exterior makeover and that's what it is. Looks like the high dollar Duramax coach from the outside with still it's original drive train and chassis

From the shape we all know and love to this was a huge journey but man, what a look! Totally in primer now and ready for color and color it will get. We're not talking a 1 or 2 color finish, if you remember some of our past multicolor finishes, this will be another, I think stripes through the windows too so hold on to the dog, get your slippers on because we're going out on this one!

Ok, so all that's great but back down to earth at the same time we have all of those stars in our eyes, we also are dealing with things like warped header plates, you will remember Mel's header and the bow he has in the miffle of his header set

and the fact that when we sent this bad boy out to get flattened down the only sanding table we had access to burned up, he time marches on so when Tony S. came in yesterday to help us out around here, I spun off to him the mission of getting us our own sanding table to resurface this header. Actually this is something we do need, I bet every manifold and header we have that blows a gasket could benifit from a light decking. OK, ok, tose of you who know what "decking" is will say thats not decking--- yea, I know but you would have to also agree that getting the mate surface a little flatter before believing a gasket will work is a good thing so we need this tool. Janie let go of a little funding so off we went in search for the tool we need. Pretty soon Tony rolls in with the "pocess". Not a gabillional dollar machine but a modest one that will do the job and thats what the charge was. Josh jumped in so the 2 of them went about setting our tool into use

How bout this for an action shot

naaa, I jiggled the camera! In a bit it was together, the directions were "almost" perfect but Tony, being smarter than the average bear, got it going and before long he was sanding away at Mel's header plate

Oh, let me get you a better view

. Sounds, looks and actually is a pretty simple concept hey, and it works

. The center wall on the middle ports is still not flat but at least the header should seal with the now flat surface. Rusty should be in today and after tapping out the 3 bad bolt holes we should get "purchase" on this job. Stay with us, I know Mel is pressed against his monitor!

Something here I want to cover with you guys. You hear me day after day spitting out all this verbage about the Co-op and the stuff we're doing, I want you all to understand just exactly how this all comes about. It's not just me here doing all of this, we have guys here that like me, try to make a life out of this but there are also several of you guys who come here maybe partly to have something to do that makes a difference but really I have to say they are here feeling a part of all of this and truly are here making that difference. We could not exist if folks like Tony S., Jim G. and Ada, Nelson W., Doyle H. and many more were not pitching in. From helping load up Fire Fight

and setting it all back up here at the Co-op to what you could call simple but important stuff like setting up our new sanding table-- it all makes a difference and helps us stay alive. This is the true essence of what the "Cooperative Motor Works" is all about and I appreciate and want to thank them for their help. We all get by with a little help from our friends and that holds true for this place. OK, so you say reading this ,"that's all great but what can I do to help, I'm 2000 miles away?" There is something you can do and at the risk of sounding like those drives on NPR that interrupt listening to the world news in traffic on the radio, the "CMW project" is a way you can support the work we do here. Next year I am going to put a renewed emphasis on the "member" pages on our site to give members more interesting stuff for their support of the work we do. You might say "what work is that". What's come up to be a biggie, something I had not seen as a larger feature-- I get calls from members out on the road with problems needing input. Broke down needing a part number, a diagnosis, a name and number of someone in the area to help up to just someone to download the issues , a sounding board to figure out what just happened. We are available 24/7 to members of the CMW project to help with problems with their coach. A always available support group, so what is that worth-- how bout $40 annual and you have someone to call who has your best in mind. This membership helps us keep the phone and internet communication lines open as well as does stuff around here to keep things going. Yea, I know I AM now sounding like a fund drive but hey, it's the holidays and we don't have red kettles! So I'll stop this but if you are a current members, thanks for the support. If you are a past member and feel we are still a good value being here available for your needs give me a call and get back in the fold and if you have never been a CMW member-- well come on down! Give me a call, I'll get you set up with your user name and password and from there let the questions begin!

OK, it's light now, the day is on and I need to get a leg up on it. Yea, the holiday id fighting us trying to get stuff done but we're all pushing harder for the days work. Thanks for the visit, for the support and for caring about some really crazy stuff that I personally feel is important. See ya tomorrow...

After firing up Mel's coach only to find the exh. header gasket we had installed leaking again we had to look deeper. We had 3 of the 5 bolts felt funky getting tightened up when we did the job actually 2 of tiggy with the torque. We now needed to search deeper into the problem, I know we had installed the gasket correctly last time so whats up! Rusty brought the header pipe in for me to take to have the flatness of the header plate checked

. Generally speaking, the reason to install a header set is to get away from the nasty old warped and cracked original cast iron manifolds from continually blowing gaskets and leaking, in this case it was the other way around! Still the stripped out bolts concerned me to so while I was out trying to get the header checked, Rusty was trying to tap out the original threads in the head-- good luck man! So taking the header over to Agner, they knew someone with a long belt sander where we could give the thing a "down and dirty" resurfacing. About 30 min. later they brought the header back, seems that the motor on the guys belt sander burned up working the header but it was enough for us to see the problem. They were able to scuff the high surface of the plate which left the low areas unsanded

the middle lower area of the plate in these pics shows the slight warp in the header plate

. Now with that sanding table out of commission, looks like I will have to pick up one ourselves to finish the job. Stay tuned. Oh, BTW, I'm thinking that over the years, this header has blown several gaskets and the tighter mechanics tried to tighten them the worse they screwed up the threads in the head. Now, with 2 holes stripped I think we see our problem. I'll get back to you on our success on this too. We had seen there were nuts & bolts in the 2 positions but just used them again when we installed our new gasket, further proof that you just can't put on "blinders" when working on these old critters, there's no telling the trauma these war horses have seen!

Well, yesterday was a milestone in the crank up of Fire Fight, after I took a Hazmat class, got my sheepskin, the UPS account was modified to accept our Hazmat packages, our pickups were modified to accept them our first quantity shipped Hazmat box made it to the truck. Here you see "Wild Bill" as he has been nicknamed taking out green label "non flammable gas" box.

Bill has been with UPS so long he knows everyone, he had to step in and help send the news up the ladder we needed help-- it worked so you guys needing fire suppression systems larger than 1 liter, we can ship! Oh yea, that's ground only to the lower 48-- Rob M., you are still left out "Down Under" sorry!

So with my 23 foot coach "The Tin Soldier" looking on jealous from the condition, what I would say is the "last of the Mohicans" came in on a Landoll

This is a 23' side bath Birchaven that I know has been in storage in an aircraft hanger for the past 15 years! Yes boys and girls, this is truly a machine lost in a time tunnel! On the way over from the Tampa area on the flat bed , there was no way I would have let them drive this thing, not after that "Rumplestilkskin" sleep, the RR tire blew just from the bouncing around on the trailer. Man, did we dodge a damage bullet there!

. Changing the tire, of course the steel 16.5" rims and 15 year old tires will have to be changed out, we slowly backed the coach back down on the ground and the waiting hands of Rusty and Josh

and back to the world of the living. Had the guys squirt some Marvel Mystery oil in the cylinders then turned the crank twice to be sure the cylinder walls were lubed, put in a fresh battery and I tell ya guys she popped off! 15 year old gas and all, a testiment that todays gas is not the same as the old stuff. Do that with a bellyfull of ethanol lasted go juice and you would not do that! You're in friendly hands no old paint and we're really happy to be a part of bring you back into service

The original striping is trying to show signs of pealing

but a good buff any the original colors and striping will be again sharp

I've always maintained that there is less value in keeping a GMC in "original" style and condition-- this coach may very well be different! Opening the door on this time capsule shows you just how the style of the day was

, the cloth on the seats is still plush with colors vivid!

and other than 2 toggle switches on the lower dash closeout and a floating compass there is nothing messed around with on the dash

. I checked, the ash tray has never been used! For some reason the PO must have really liked those 2 fans on the dash, he had put tin foil covered boxes over them, probably trying to keep the Martians from knowing they were there, maybe blocking the radio waves or something!

Looking down the hall as you find in most machines tucked away there is a pile of stuff, all belonging to the motorhome

There had been a dedicated bed put in the back but the original sofa pads were packed away in plastic

, the headliner which we all know takes a beating is perfect and I mean perfect! The dinette seats and even the round funky pillows are perfect

Oh dang, I wish I could have this thing! I've already got so many coaches, you have to know your limit, you just can't keep them all. The guy who lovingly rescued this machine may be offering it up for resale-- you have seen folk talk about a "barn find" on classic cars, well bunky here is one you just will not see again. So how do you put a price on something like this? We may need to take it to the Antiques Roadshow to find out! I'm just glad I'm not in on that negotiation! I don;t want to sour this sale for either party, they are both great friends of mine, all I will say is you guys be fair, straight up and honest about this-- don't get greedy and don't be cheap because this truly is a one of a kind! Yes, it will need much before I would let it out on the road but Daddy, look at what you are starting with! Really, this is an historic machine and whoever ends up with it should undstand it's importance in the community. The deal on this coach is what it represents and you will not see this again. Price is less important as what the beast is so guys, play nice in the sandbox...

I think that's enough plunking on this keybpoard for one day, the sun is up--- no wait, I need to show Ron some stuff on his Travco!

After getting the wall frame welded back together, we went in for the underbelly of this dragon

I just love the "RAV O" where the T and C fell off-- After a roushing descaling of the frame, we coated the metal parts with "POR 15" rust killer and metal preserver. It dries to a beautiful original look gloss black

After drying, we undercoated the visible wood you see here

with a kick butt German rubberized waterproofing undercoat, I'll try and get some pics of that tomorrow. Next replacing the rotted wood in the floor then resealing the leaking entry handle that caused the rust in the first place

we will be ready to take this baby to the next level

, stay tuned for more.

OK, that's it, my 2 typing fingers are tired and I need to get to work. Thanks for the visit and support. Please spread the word that Fire Fight is back in business -- give your coach a hug for me and we'll talk again I'm sure...

Here it is Sunday and yea, you guessed it there's not much happening specifically with GMC's or any other motorhome for that matter today. It's Sunday and no one is here, no one is calling on the phone and for maybe just today I can take the chance to charge up my batteries. Yea, Lenny's coach is on the charger and with Larries new batteries, he doesn't need charging, no I'm talking about my batteries-- the ones that keep me focused. I think from time to time everyone needs a little of this.

So after getting up an hour late, 6 AM and the obligatory buck 99 breakfast that BTW isn't that cheap on the weekends but hey, 2 fifty it's still a good start to the day, I'm here in the saddle it my desk, plunking on this keyboard with Pandora playing,

that's some orange drink I figured was better than the near beer that was in the shop frig-- I was wrong! That's Fleetwood Mac on the phone then next after processing that pic Steve Winwood "Higher Love" fires up-- man, I can feel those nickel hydrates coming up! After a rousing romp on the slot machine in the office

I think I had an epiphany as I figured how to get the maximum enjoyment out of that thing. It's not putting 3 coins in the slot every time. Yea, you might get the thing to reach slot machine nirvana which pretty soon seems a shallow victory. No, it's putting in only 1 coinat a time, count the number of coins you put in until something hits then you spend every credit you win doing 3 at a time until those are gone and you go back to 1 coin at a time until the thing rains again. Use the electricity, spend the time watching the blinking lights and stereo, sub woofer sound then revel when something good happens-- dang if that doesn't sound like a good life! There ya go, now you can see this certainly isn't a GMC day-- more of that battery recharging day-- we all need one of these on some cycle, more sometimes than other This holiday season to me, with the family getting together, work slowing up a bit, people concerning themselves just a bit less on their "things" and hopefully that much more on what's going on around and inside them, I think this is a good thing. It seems to be working for me, I'm feeling better with every selection on Pandora. Oh look at that, Fleetwood Mac live "Go your own way", now that's what I'm talkn bout! Here it is pretty early and I'm thinking about a frothy beverage, as Jim Morrison once said, "the future's uncertain and the end is always near", here I am and there is a beer!

Oh, I've gotta tell you about a small act of kindness that has touched me over and over for many years and at the risk of making him blush, I wanted to show you something I got in the mail the other day along with a letter and $40 buck Co-op member dues. For some odd reason, it seems that everything "GMC" comes here being magnetically drawn to the shop. Overhead in my office on top of the catalog shelf is where the Barbie Motorhomes congregate as a whole

, the GMC Hot Wheels cars are parked everywhere. BTW did you know there are over 63 different Hot Wheels GMC cars on the market? I'm told by my Hot Wheels Guru Dean W. that it's the largest numbered reproduced Hot Wheels model ever made and there are new ones coming out seemingly every month. That's gotta feel like some "occupy movement" symbol in Malaysia where this factory worker is sitting at his production table spitting out this 6 wheeled machine when most of the other Hot Wheels models only have 4. The box I got was from my Hot Wheels Guru Dean W. and man, what perfect timing--- Hot Wheels is right on for me! On my desk, on top of my hard drive, next to my multi USB port, just behind my "Easy Button" and my old school mouse is what I bet is the brand new, may not even be out on the market yet, the "Heat Fleet 12, GMC Motorhome!

Yea Dean, I opened that one! Just couldn't help it, I have never been one to never have any fun with my toys. Man, thanks so much, small stuff like this just makes that battery recharge jump a volt or 2. I'll store this touchable GMC ultimate restoration

on the "our parts" wall in the office

so whenever anyone comes to the shop there will be a slot machine and a Hot wheels car to play with!

Hey and it's not just any awesome brand new Hot wheels GMC model, it's one with a flame job! So at this time when the Co-op has a new baby brother moving into the facility named Fire Fight Products, LLC, Larry is not the only flame job on the lot!

Dean expressed congrats of actually making this milestone and wanted to participate in the roots of this movement and said for me to give away one of these 6 rare Hot wheels models to the first 5 Fire Fight purchases and keep one for myself. Sorry Dean, I just can't do that-- call me a hoarder but I gotta have one to play with and one to keep-- please don't call me greedy but I'll give out 3 of them with a 3rd one going to the man who made this all possible. Some of you guys know this person, I won't get his Email box clogged, he would prefer to stay in the shadows & I certainly respect that. I have always said the "Co-op" was owned by all of the people who use it's capabilities and it's folks like my Hot Wheels Guru, our founder of the Fire Fight feast, my resident local engineer, my barefoot racer, computer, motor and smiling face guru, to my LA connection, the Huntington Flash, George, Jack and the "Short bus"

and just so many more you know who you are --- I feel the charge building in my batteries-- it's just such a rich and exquisite feeling-- all I can say is thanks. So as yet another Steve Winwood song comes up on my Pandora station, dang if they don't have me pegged, the old guy across the street who I see on and off through my office window walking those 3 little dogs he has I know things are getting better everyday and for me this day is making a difference.

So as Don Henley now sings "New York Minute" I was compelled to take a pic of me sitting here plunking out this post to be a pic to send out to you guys as a Christmas snapshot for the wall in your shop behind the door where pics from the last 30 years of doing stuff hang out. Hey, but how can I do that-- the ole noggin kicked in and I remembered the "timer" function on my camera. I never used it but since I've seen so many people use it I figure this was my time to figure it out. Giving it some thought how could I get a descent shot up high of the desk with me in it? Hmmmm, I need some way of propping up the digital camera on something to sit up on a shelf and steady it while the timer thing does it's thing. Hmmm, yea I could go out and buy a tripod and stack boxes up high but that would take money & right now that's a smaller option to making due with what I've got. Wait, wait, I know -- going out in the trim shop I got into the mode of making something work with what's in front of me. I'm sure you play that game, I know Rob M. has done it-- OK, so 123, ABC and don't whack your fingers with the hammer I came up with this

, then through the miracle of having a camera in my phone here is the rig-- rigged up

. Locking and arming the alarm at the trim shop I made my way up front with my new toy in hand feeling pretty good as those creative juices subside--- to me that's the good part of creativity, "the culmination and spool down"-- Janie had just come up to the shop and with her to help, I found out this little rig could be used in another way. With someone to hold the getup you could really get a nice overhead shot using the timer function in the camera

Thanks much Janie for being my camera-- person and to you guys out there let me be the first if not at least one early in the season to wish you all a Merry Christmas and all that. Thanks to all who have come together to make the Co-op what it is, from here it's a warm place. So I'm taking the rest of my day and devoting it to Janie--- the family, John in town for the holiday from Sierra Vista and Ray, Erica and my Mom residing in the house at the dead end behind our place -- it's going to be a great get together for this household.

See ya again I have no doubt in the next day or 2 but for now lets just "Be Here Now"... See ya

Yea, there are gaps in my reporting just be glad there's no gaps in the work! Kevin has been "diver down" acting like that cobbler sitting in front of that mound of shoes to fix buffing away at Erwin's huge Airstream motorhome body

. It's thankless work-- well not really, I truly appreciate the hard work he's putting into this project. If you search around on the internet for people who do this sort of polish work they are fetching 10 hours or so per foot to come up with a mirror polish on these critters! It's a 5 step process ending with 2 grits of "jewelers rouge" and a final buff & glaze with Mothers. Here is the cast aluminum bumper before the process

and then after

Wow, what a difference. Erwin's bumpers are now back on the coach, here is a pic taken just after sunrise this morning

You can see how he has finished the rear area of the coach, see how it shines even under the awning compared to the front of the coach which should pick up more light being outside from under the cover. Yea, it's one of those night to day differences but there is a price to pay for this work. He has about 60 hours in the polish job compared to the 10 yours a foot average I think he's doing a stellar job!

Hey Frank, we got your machine back up on the lift for a looksee at that leaking poopy tank. The lump at the bottom of the outlet looked ominous

Obviously we have some sort of damage under that lump pf asphalt like substance and the dark colored fluid drip at the lowest point is not a good sigh! Rusty suited up to go in and pulling off the packing we found the wound

man, was there a chili cookoff involved in the toxic waste involved in producing this damage!

. And everyone thought plastics can hold up to anything!!! Just kidding, don;t go in for a checkup Frank, it was not made from what it looks like. Through the marvels of modern chemistry, we found an adhesive made for ppo so today Kevin is going to perform the impossible. We looked all over and cannot find a tank other than a high dollar custom made tank to replace this. If this new product actually works we may open up a whole new level of holding tank repair-- stay with us on the results.

Hey, you think you have an awesome bumper--- check this one out!

and the answer to your question is no, it does not make the motor run hotter and yes, he's looking for some of those Ben Hur styled pointy bolt covers! Yea, the previous owner was an over the road truck driver, I pitty the Love Bugs when this plow comes through!

OK, the sun is up now and I have other stuff to get going. A bit cloudy, guess we'll just deal with it. Have a great day and weekend, I'll try and post some stuff the weekend...

The Travco lives! We have trans cooler lines to replace, they blew out shortly after we started the coach and the starter is making enough racket to see wazzup but we do have the body again stable.

I'll be getting with Ron today to find out how far he wants to go this session. It's obvious the coach has a long way to go but you have to build up on a firm foundation and that's what we have. Call it ugly, call it cute but you can call it working and that's the first step.

Been spending some time with getting Fire Fight reorganized, it's odd after having so many say after these products were not available that they were thinking of protecting their coach, we have had only a couple of calls interested in buying products from the GMC community. Guys, just because the bodies are made of aluminum not wood as in the case of other older motorhomes does not mean you do not have an issue. The largest market for the products are these big, new motorhomes. These folks have such a large investment in their coach having a fire suppression system to do all they can to protect their investment as well as them in the event of fire is a no brainer. This is where the larger share of our business comes. Still, I'm not sure why more GMC owners don;t see the good sense of having these systems in their coaches, if anything as rare as our vintage machines are becoming-- chances of replacing your beloved motorhome will be slim if something happens. We have systems produced right now that are geared toward the GMC, I felt it was important to have those systems on line first so give me a call if you do not have fire measures in your coach, we can have a system for you.

OK, so now I have another passion, I'll do my best to not get overboard with it, just know this stuff is really important, I bet you know someone that fire has touched, maybe it's hard to get a fire hot enough to burn aluminum but it will melt and so will the SMC plastic our bodies have on them, certainly the particle board and glue, carpet and other wood products seem to be itching to burn so do yourself a favor and protect yourself from that stuff. You will also be supporting a GMC specific parts and restoration business.

We'll be finishing up our punch list on that Travco today, we have a couple of things left on Jeff's coach

preparing for a cross country trip. We're still trying to figure out how to stuff 10 lb.s of stuff in a 5 lb. bag fitting the awesome red leather seats in the 26' Duramax-- just not enough space inside, we are finishing up on mechanicals for Frank's coach getting ready to move it over to paint

so watch how that machine comes apart. Needless to say we have work, if anyone out there though has a hankering for some of our restoration or maintenance work, we are having schedules open up, give me a call if you have interest. Being a labor intensive process, the things we do take time and scheduling is the only way we can do things so now is the time to get on the program. Have a great day, it's on the overcast side for today, hopefully no rain, wind and that cold that's hard to work in. Looks good, lets see how it goes. Thanks for the visit and your support, we're here to help so give me a call if I can...

Wow, 700 something on the hit counter this morning! Sorry for being away , I recognize the fact that this page is a first or at least integrated stop in many folks daily ritual of stuff to do, sorry I have not given you anything to wet that whistle. I've found lately my time doesn't seem to be my own lately. Between the massive work going on at the Co-op AND now the opportunities blooming as Fire Fight comes on line I think I see some down time off on the horizon maybe in 2014! I got up at bit earlier this morning just to catch up with you guys, maybe show a few shots of this weekends big Christmas club rally and all but forgot my data link for my phone-- Doughhhhhh!!! Man, life is getting complicated, seems I have to start carrying a bag of selected cables, wall warts to charge the phone, a better camera than the phone for important stuff, cable and power for the hard drive and the list goes on. Seems like gone are the days of being sure you have your keys and wallet-- now all that other stuff has to come along! Oh well, I'll pull up the pics when Janie gets here. I get in at a stupid time to try and string all the stuff I have going on together.

Friday we got the on the road breakdown job out, I could not leave the shop to make the Christmas rally until they coach was out the gate. As it happened, we did a quad bag system, front wheel bearings, fuel delivery system, timing chain, water pump and that stuff, new air compressor and regulator, bleed out the brakes, there had to be more. Needless to say it was a pile of work. Let me warn you of something though, the plaement of the engine cover sometimes causes "unexpected results". The owner had gotten all of his "stuff" out of the way up front for us to bring in our gantry to lift the motor oh yea, we did a new front motor mount too while the rest of the front of the motor was apart but anyway, he had parted the waters of hid new GPS, phone charger, multi outlet unit, map light and all that so we could get to his engine cover and motor. Getting the motor all back together we took great care to be sure all the belts were tight, bolts all in and tight, coolant, oil and all other systems done before starting the motor. Jim (the owner) was in the driver seat as we prepared to fire his motor for the first time with all his new goodies. We were all eager to hear the motor pop off, after all we had the whole front of the motor open and apart and it's always speculation that you got it all right until she fires up! "Turbines to speed Batman, fire the mother up", he did and immediately the motor woke up like there was some burr up it's tailpipe, the sudden shake of the motor shook the coach slightly and all of that GPS, cell phone, wired power stuff slid off his dash, all bounced once on the angled front plate going up to the dash and churned up in his fan throwing pieces of PC board, stripped wire, connectors and all throughout the coach. I was standing at the door and got a portion of the power supply PC board tossed over to me. It happened in an instant, Jim switched off the motor after 1/2 second of maylay but it was too late-- wonder if the lifetime additional warranty he got on the GPS covers getting churned up by a fan blade! It was not funny but after a couple of minutes of shock that his entire life support system had been devoured by his now awesome running motor wore off there were a few funny things that could be said about the ordeal. I guess the biggest lesson here is to unplug all that crap and simply put it away if you are going to work in the motor. If we don;t learn from that mistake it really would be sad so lets all take that as a big ole lesson. Don;t care who is in charge, if you have "stuff" up front, really take it out of the equation when you work on the motor!!!! Please! I will try and remember to take stuff out of harms way myself next time.

So anyway, we all got over that, the coach seemed to run awesome and I know he will be pleased on how the quad bagger system will work so my guess is and I hope it happens is he will be pleased with the work we did. We saddled up JayGee and headed the short run over to Kissimmee where the Christmas rally was at Old Town. Was a short run of @ 20 miles but still I did get a chance to pilot JayGee a little on the open road, maybe because I had not be out in him for a month (last rally) but it sure did feel good getting a little seat time. I gotta say to you retired guys with your coach at your beconed call-- what are you doing sitting around-- get out on the road man! You have an ultimate opportunity to do something that should make you happy-- so get out there and do it! I can't, folks bring in their coach, we fix them, they leave and another coach comes in for something. We are here, and here and then we're still here working on these things, you guys can get out so why don;t ya? Yea, I know there are the things that make of the rest of your world but really, you need to pencil in more seat time. We're just so blessed with an interstate highway system, good and even not so good paved rural roads-- Yea, Eisenhower fired Patton but he still did some great good by setting up the interstate highway system for us to move around and I think that was just a great idea! So guys, you own the perfect highway traveler machine so I feel we all need to remember life is fleeting, we always think there is plenty of time but really, time is the one thing we only have a finite amount of-- how many more weekends are there where you can get out on the road? Anyone who can answer that question is fooling himself! Being in this business I see folks pass away, and so far very few have known it was comingso really-- as the song goes-- "Live like it's your last day. I'm not going to ride a bull named "FoManChu" or anything but I would like to go in the driver seat of my coach or at least it be still warm from sitting in it.

Recently the death of George in his Argosy brought home how I hate the fact of leaving this earth but if I could pick the time and method of exit would certainly have going to sleep in my coach to wake up in the next brave new world. Man, am I sounding morbid-- sorry but really, we all do know that time is ahead of us and wouldn't it be a good thing if folks said of us :he drove the wheels off that motorhome"? You old timers remember "Me and my Shadow". The guy, his coach and his 2 GPS computers criscrossed the country having a ball, George had 6 months in his coach with Jack is dog stopping at every fishing hole he found-- what an awesome time!

OK, enough of this, cold be the rain this morning that has me so pensive-- too bad cause we have piles of work to do. Have a guy camping out in the lot with his entry door bout to fall off. We'll get him out on the road first thing before we get on to work at hand. We have indoor sports to work on today, plenty to do and with Kevin just pulling up, I need to get in the frey and do something. No pics this morning, sorry-- no data cable to hook in the phone. Will try and put some up this evening.

Gotta go, call if I can help and come on back tomorrow, I'll try and pick up the pieces of our "daily" mutterings here-- exciting things are ahead of us, good things for sure. Life truly is as Forest says "Like a box of chocolates, you just never know what you get so get a big ole glass of milk, pick a piece and take a big bite-- oh and be sure to brush your teeth afterwards!

Here it is 3 day, what happened to the time! Of course I have to apologize for that but as you will see, we've been on the busy side and before I show you some of the stuff we're doing let me do this:

Fire Fight has left the tower and the launch has begun! Yes, after 5 months of arguing with the estate attorney's and all of that, Fire Fight has a new home and we are testing our production process for a total crank up Jan. 1, 2012.

The corporation is set up-- Fire Fight Products, LLC and our web site domain names are:

Firefightproducts.com / .net / .us / .mobi / .org / .info so brother you should be able to find us!

The site is just the target front page at this time for you to bookmark, you can still read information on products we will be producing on the old web site www.firefight1.com though. It's simply amazing all that goes into cranking back up these products, thanks goes out to Jim D. for his financial help, John D. our computer Guru for getting the web site up so fast, Jim G. and Ada for shuffling all those important papers, Tony S. for his production flow analysis ans set up help, Doyle and very importantly Ron Kennerknecht for believing in me and our ability to carry on his Dad Ralph's legacy. This has turned into a true Co-op family affair! There is still so much to go setting everything up but yesterday we produced our first fire suppression units, tested the first one sort of like popping a bottle of campaign on the bow if the ship but in our case it was blowing the contents of a 2 liter AFFF foam manual unit

into the retention pond lovingly named "Lake Co-op". How could we do that? Simple the foam we use is totally biodegradable, non toxic and water based. It can go right back into the ground with no pollution issues or toxic cleanup! This is truly the future of efficient fire suppression systems and The Co-op is proud to be a part of this business.

Yep, we're in business so you guys wanting to purchase stuff call me now, I will give you free shipping on orders placed before Jan. 1, 2012 so pick up that phone! The AFFF foam units are on line now with the new FE-36 clean agent gas models on deck for documentation. We hope to also have a wireless systems monitor station to watch ambient compartment temperature and status of all protected compartments where Fire Fight products are placed, if this interests you let me put you on the beta program for that product. We are also considering an automatic/manual system for those that feel they need it. We have big things planned for Fire Fight Products in 2012 so get on board.

OK, now that the commercial message is over, Ron's Travco has been under the knife trying to stabilize the rotted away steel wall panels from water damage

and after much welding here we are

First cutting out the rotted metal

then devising a way using an insulation blanket

that Daren Paget discovered several years ago as a heat barrier material for engine compartments in the GMC, we were able to heat up and weld the new frame structure right next to the fiberglass body of the coach without damaging the heat sensative fiberglass body-- man, this saved us many hours of work and many dollars to the Travco owner. Thanks Daren for finding way back such kick butt material and Rusty for making it happen!

If you will remember the all but wasted radiator we pulled out of the Travco

it was not a pretty sight! Heck, getting the beast out was a thrill itself but it had to be done

. Our pro radiator builders went to work and actually saved the critter! It came back looking like heck, it just might work

so as the coach pulled it's way off the operating table ( our lift)

there were no drips. These were 2 big roadblocks in getting this vintage critter back reliable and on the road. The ignition start circuit jammed so we have starter work to do and oh baby, don;t even look at the rest of the work this proud survivor needs but hey, it's got a leg up so stay tuned for more.

OK, so on Frank's machine, we got it back from a repair Amcco had to do on their "lifetime" warranty on his transmission. My Grandaddy told me to never talk about someone without them standing in front of you so they could poke you in the eye, let me just say we'll make sure the fix is right. Frank, give me a call and lets talk. We have a coach in here now, a repair job from on the road which, what can I say, has to take president. I mean would you want to be told there is a 2 week wait to fix something that broke heading to your vacation spot? We have to help out so guys, please bear with us while we get this machine on the road. We have some cleanup on mechanicals on Frank's coach and then he goes over for Kevin to work his magic on the exterior refinish. Stay tuned for that.

So there we are, of course we have more happening but I think I'm running outa time and I bet your coffee is cold so lets go on and do something else for a while.

<<<< Warning>>>>> Thanks to Nelson W., I think he has found a scam on the internet on a coach for sale. I feel the old adage is true here "if it looks too good to be true it probably is" may be what we have. If you find a really sharp looking tan colored 26' coach with a maroon beltline stripe-- a really good looking coach for only $2800--- hold the phone, I think I built that rig and there is no way someone would be so stupid as to offer it for $2800. Just can't be true, I have sent a post to the person selling it asking his intentions. If it is a qualified offer I will let you know. So far I made the owner an offer he could not refuse and as of this morning have gotten no response so please be careful, these internet scam people are tricky as Nelson puts it. If you're one of those people who bought in on the Chinchilla fur opportunity in the past and just can't resist to bit, be careful-- it's all I can tell ya...

OK, I'm done, the group is here and I need to get out there to help the repairs on that coach that came in, have a great day and thanks for the visit...

ELVIS has entered the building! Well, of course not the King but hey, to me my excitement of yesterday made me feel that impressed

As Larry looked on, we offloaded a 26' Penske truck of all of what will become the new Fire Fight. It took all day to separate, inventory and load up everything that was Fire Fight at the Melbourne plant Ralp Kennerknecht had worked the business out of. The place was packed tight, Jim G. was one of our climbers pulling palates of goods from the squirrel holes

while Ralph's so steadied the ladder

. It really was bitter/sweet moving what was Ralph's pride and joy but with the intent of cranking the business back up I really felt we were doing the right thing. Ok, so you guys out there with Fire Fight products protecting your coach investment listen-- we need your help. Please let your friends know that Jan. 1, 2012 we will be able to offer them the same safety measures you have. This is enough time to save up a little scratch and please those considering a fire suppression purchase, Fire Fight products compared to anyone offering similar products are down right cheap! I mean is you motorhome investment worth the insurance you have one it? Is the safety of you and your family with one years insurance payment? Having a fire suppression system to work 24/7 watching your generator, engine and frig (the 3 most likely places fire could endanger your coach) will cost you about the same as 1 years insurance premium oh and BTW, many insurance underwriters have a dis cont for an automatic fire suppression system-- if your company does not call me and I'll give you a name of one that will! In the next 30 days, we will be setting up our manufacturing process, our marketing paln and scheduling seminars and demos to get the Fire Fight name and the idea of protecting your RV investment for fire dangers so give me a call, write and Email and let me know you are interestd. My Fire Fight Email addy is: firefightproducts@yahoo.com .

OK, enough of that, we have a busy week for the Co-op, Erwin's Airstream gets the rest of the coach polished, Frank's coach gets it's mechanical issues finished looking to go into paint as soon as Erwins Airstream is done, Rusty is still on the Travco deep into the operation-- the family is camped out in the waiting room for the good news and we're passing the tools in the operation.

We're having trouble shoehorning in the awesome red leather seats into the Duramax 26, they are too big, Tony is looking foe the seat shrinker tool! We will prevail!

Gotta go, the day is on and man am I going to be busy. Our shipping parts orders has backed up a bit, if you have something on order with a sensitive timetable, please give me a call and let me walk the order through. Christmas is coming, we don;t want any stocking stuffers to be late! Thanks for the visit and bearing with us in advance, this is going to be a very busy holiday for us here at the Co-op and at Fire Fight. Thank you all for your support, we're onward and upward here...

There are many days in our lives we mark down as "red letter days" times that are turning point in our lives-- the day Kennedy was shot, The Shuttle disaster, John Lennon's death. Lynard Skynard's plan crash, the birth of your children-- for me today is one of those days. We have rented a big ole Penske truck, set up Larry for heavy load and we're going to load up Fire Fight bringing the company to it's new home here in Orlando-- wish us good luck. After the death of my friend and partner Ralph Kennerknecht, it has been a 5 month false start for Fire Fight. I appreciate all of those who have hung with us over this time. We expect to be back in full production by Jan. 1, 2012. With the considerable support from a fellow GMC owner, Jim D., we will have the chance to again offer fire measures for the RV and marine communities. We have high hopes and great plans. I will tell you more of them as we go but right now it's moving day so we leave at 7:30 AM to do the deed. Wish us luck and stay tuned-- what a wonderful Sunday...

It was "baby needs new peepers" day for Franks beast along with some mechanical updates and new paint, Frank had specified new windshields for his coach makeover so the pros (I'll give you their contact info later) showed up to survey their project before the nashing of teeth began

. These guys install only motorhome windshields, it's great to find a specialist to do this work. They come completely prepared with their own rig, tools-- the works

. Having the windshields is one thing but having them properly installed, sealed and then guaranteed to not leak, crack or fall out is another. This is why I bring in the best to do the best jo b and you can too. This is a national company that will come to you, install the American made proper glass for your coach and even take care of the paperwork to your insurance company-- read on. So Don and his corn fed helper

(who I would seriously want to have on my side in a fight) go about the business of preparing the coach for it's new eyeballs taking off the mirrors, wipers and other stuff to make their job more agreeable

then the fun begins. Before I could get back over there from one of those phone calls I field, they had the driver side in

. You can see why the windshields were being replaced. Frank will not believe how nice the world will look driving with these new windshields! Then, wham bam 1.2.3 the other window went in-- out with the old

and in with the new

no wait, the pass. side isn't in yet. here we go and before I can get away from the phone again Don is done

and Frank coach coach can see clearly again

. Ok, so if you wanna get a couple of new windshields, you don;t have to pack up the dog and head to Orlando though we would leave the light on for ya. All you need to do is call RV Glass Solutions at 888-777-6778, tell them that Jim Bounds told you to call and you will get the best price, the best installation AND the best warranty in the business. No, I do not sell windshields-- I would not be helping you if I were to do that, I give you something much better-- a link to the best way to have windshields in your coach and thats the long and short of it. Try and get it done cheaper and thats what you will have, a cheap job. Do it once, do it right and you will be happy!

OK, on to some more-- I wish I could report that things were going so easy for Ron and his Travco -- digging deep to start in on the steel frame repair-- I tell ya guys, you really need to be thankfull the GMC was endowed with an all aluminum framework because what water does to a steel frame aint pretty

Starting to peal back the rust layers of the body frame, you can see the issues

pieces are missing and the parts that are still there will need to be removed

. I went around to the front where Rusty (how bout that for the guys name doing the work here) and at first glance I knew we were in for more issues

Yep, that would be more rust! Before, we saw we had issues with the radiator the way it was swedged into it's hole but after a little prep work on the front crossmember

for a fishplate Rusty found that this was the only strap holding the radiator in place

from it's weight because the strap on the other side was gone

with the weight of the radiator flapping in the breeze! OK, marking that one down we needed to stay focused on the rust on the passenger side wall so Rusty went back there to cut out the bad stuff to get ready to weld in new wall supports

Out with the bad, we had to remove the bad, pitted metal to give the welds holding the new metal a good bite. This won;t be pretty but something is better than this. It was necessary to cut away more floor to get over to good metal on the perimeter framework

but we found good stuff. The door frame on the outside had to come off

because the inner door frame support at the bottom had rusted away and the door was basically sailing in space!

Like I said guys, just thank someone at GM that decided to make the GMC out of aluminum! Ordered in the steel for this job yesterday and will pick it up today. Rusty-- man, he may never live this job down-- will be goin after the front crossmember first then get into the wall welding today, stay tuned for more on this project.

You probably noticed I have increased the size and resolution of the pics I'm using here, I've found that the small low res pics may be OK for what we do here but in the future we will need to use these pics for other things that need better quality. It may take a bit longer to load up a pic in the future-- sorry guys and please let me know if it becomes an issue. I'll try and dump the page more often to keep the file size manageable.

News from the Fire Fight front, if the stars line up for us, we'll be bringing the production equipment, materials and all over to the shop in Orlando this weekend, pray for us on this-- after 5 months of a false start, Fire Fight needs to get back into production. The RV community needs the products Fire Fight had produced, you need to have countermeasures on fire safety so stay tuned, when you hear Fire Fight can again ship new product tell your friends and give me a call. You will have a friend in that business as well!

Thanks for the visit and support, hope there was some entertainment for you today, come back again and I'll try and keep dishing out some more juicy main course food for your head...

Let me get a little work done On the Travco coach

, we do have an issue. When the coach came in, it's owner Ron told us to take a look at some rusted frame sections, heck Rusty picked at the white underbelly of the beast with a hammer and chisel only to find some light pitting and surface rust, I reported to Ron all was good. In that all we see are old iron, sometimes what folks look at as bad actually is not that when taking into account the age of these things. Ron said when I called him to look to the left of the entry door at the inner wall. The outer wall didn;t look too bad

. There were some leaker issues around the lower part of the window

and the lighted handle

hey but what old coach doesn;t have some of this. Ahhh, but this is not a GMC with a body structure of aluminum, it has steel frame sections and those small leaker areas had done a number on the wall structure

us GMCers should thank our lucky stars someone at GM thought of this! Our bodies have all aluminum frame structures and though we all have and hate equally pesky water leaks, all that happens to our coach us getting water drip on our forhead when laying in bed. This coach has been hurt from the intrusion of water.

The lower outer floor support is all but mission in action with the wall braces rusted away from connecting to the vertical structure

. It also was odd that while they did use the expanding foam as insulation, it was sprayed on before the wall was mated to the structure so there is foam between the wall and frame. Sure, the coach is worth saving and everyone who casts their eyes on it say "cool machine" but it will need some fancy welding work to make is again a stable structure, glass wall panel from the steel and welding we'll be doing but we may even have to cut out the wall from where we're reconstructing the frame to not only protect it but also to allow good penetration on the welds. Hey, it's gotta happen, follow our progress and the getting this critter back on the road.

On another front, Frank's coach is getting it's recored radiator installed

. Some of you already know this "trick" but here goes; If you read in your manual on how to drop your radiator, you must understand that anything you touch could potentially damage that part so you want to find ways to not disturb adjacent component parts as you do services on your coach. We cut the core support surrounding the radiator at the bottom, then weld in "L" brackets to bolt the lower section of the core support back together.

We're replacing the Oil & transmission cooler lines to the radiator as well.

Actually this morning we have Franks baby back on terra firma and ready for the next phase of the project.

More going on than time to post, sorry. I'll try to start earlier tomorrow-- till then --- Happy Trails...

Yea, I played hooky this weekend with my knee we think now having water on it( a new one for me) and gout attacking the toe on the same leg i was pretty much useless so rather than limp around I tried what everyone has been telling me -- go rest, put your foot up and let it heal. Ok, ok, I can't fight it any longer and I think it Of course I couldn;t just lay around like a beached whale even though we did head to the beach for a couple of days. I did see a beautiful sunrise on Ormaond Beach one morning

. I left the motorhomes in Orlando trading them for a bit of manual transportation looking to get some exercise on my knee

. I always wondered about those old guys you see at the beach pedaling their bikes so slow you wonder why they ride at all--- now I know! The beach really was beautiful and calming, here is the life guard tower at ormond by the sea looking north at high tide.

I rode around early like I used to on my 3 speed English racer back in the day just looking around for whatever I could find-- bet you too did that. It was Thanksgiving which meant the "Turkey Rod Run" was in town and yea, there were some pretty interesting rides all over the place

. Looks like this guy started collecting parts for a 4WD machine, got a bit more to go though

. Kevin got the Opal GT together only to find at the last minute electrical issues. See, it's always something you never thought of-- I mean our job was to do the interior & exterior not the electrical system but it made the car unshowable so there ya are

. it really did finish off nice

. Further proof there is no need trying to hit a "delivery date" something always seems to get in the way-- such is life.

BTW, someone asked to pit up a pic of the Duramax outside, here it is last week when we got the dash in

On another new front, check out this pug nose dog

Had this beast towed in late Wednesday. Further proof, we seem to attract all " breeds". Dr. Hook was gentle with this 71 Travco survivor

dropping it next to Larry whi I felt could get the thing acquainted with it's surroundings. Coming out from the dark of night, I wasn;t sure if the thing should have gone to the rail switching station down in Taft or it would be better off with us!

Morning showed actually a pretty cool machine.

Hmmm, wonder what motor it has-- oh, it's a DODGE I think!

So now with the Argosy, Airstream and the plethera if GMC's scattered about man, we really seem to be attracting a certain cliental! Stuff nobody else will mess with I think! Hey, that's OK, that's what we're here for!

So the rest of the long weekend went pretty well, hope your did as well. Had some drama on the net about the motors we had ATK build for us, seems they used a bronze dist. gear mated up with out billet roller cam design. While that is an accepted racing practice, we specify a nitrite hardened dist. gear so folks out there with one of our roller cam motors produced for us by ATK please give me a call. It's no big deal to fix this "misunderstanding" with them so just give me a call and lets handle it. One reason we wnt back to a lower production process to build our engines is stuff like this. We need to know we have the right parts in our builds along with the proper machine work, part testing and assembly. This is why we again have Drew Koba overseeing every aspect of our motor builds. There is a difference having one man control all aspects of a motor job from beginning to end, Drew was a contributing editor to Mondello's performance reference book and is our perfect choice to oversee our motor project. We tried the production builders, tried going for the volume trying to get those boys to build things the way we wanted. Just was to far of a push, the motors did work out well but just as in the case of this bronze dist. gear, small things can be big issues with motors so now we control it all. So have no fear, our past motors are solid and have built on our future motors which will be even better.

Spent a little time cleaning on the Argosy 20

He's reacting well to the attention, may drive it to the Sunshine Statesmen Christmas rally this coming weekend, we'll see.

We'll be working on that big ole shiny Airstream getting it ready for it's trip to Spain, Kevin threw out his back trying to get that *&^%$ Opel to the Turkey Rod Run so he needs to heal up before the buffer can get going again. The rest of the crew is here now so I really need to get out there. My leg is feeling better but I need to be cool about things, not jump off any roofs and things like that. I tell ya, this getting old is certainly not for sissies! Have a great day after Thanksgiving, we're head down pushing to Christmas now so get ready for the annual double whammy in excuses to not work! Thanks for dropping by, don;t worry, yea we're still working on GMC's around here it's just we're branching out a bit. See ya tomorrow,

So we're hanging out working on some interior body panels I'll show you later and there's a big "boooooom" sounded like one of the red neck guys over at the tow business behind us blew up their mailbox with an M-80. Looked outside the bay and the only thing I saw was Frank's coach up on the lift listing to the right

so I told Rusty to go and soap up the air ride system and find the leak-- the coach had been on the lift a day or so getting it's radiator recored. In a minute he came back and said he found the leak. Bringing me over I didn;t see anything out of the ordinary

until Rusty showed me the problem.

yea, the air bag had burst right there, sitting on our lift! Pulling it out I could see why it gave up

Not only was there a gaping tear but man, the cords were showing which was on the back side of the bag where at a glance you could not even see it. Frank, that bag is gone, owed you nothing-- and no damage was done when it went bye-bye!

We stuck a used bag we had hanging around to get the coach level. Haven't really investigated the driver bag yet. It may be time to consider the quad bag set up or at the least renewing the bags on the coach. We'll look at the other side this morning-- gimme a call and lets talk about this. BTW, Rusty just checked out the other bag, there are chunks of rubber falling off as he ran his hand around it-- looks like the cord is about to go on it too.

So, on to another project closing to and end, Jeff's dash renew is looking good. Mike is working on the carpet

, after the pad you see, we patterned the new carpet and got it in

. The center section and seat pedestal covers will go next. Jeff's coach is coming together nicely

, back on the ground now when the dash area gets done hopefully today we'll do a check out on systems then maybe a test run at least to put some fuel in the reworked fuel deliver system. Stay tuned for that.

On to another project you guys didn't know about. It's said we can't live on "bread" alone and of course putting together the talent to mess with these vintage RV's had to come from somewhere-- I mean there's no book to follow to do theis stuff, no president or anyone that has done this so actually where did all the people and expertice come from that we use you ask? Hey, we all cut our teeth messing with unique cars, vintage stuff and "basket cases". Behind the scenes, after work or in between everything else, Kevin has been working up a really cool restoration-- something we all have taken under our wing as a worthy diversion

we've been putting together this 73 Opal GT as sort of a "resto-mod" styles restoration. It's been a family affair

with me in there messing with building new interior panels

while the owner Doyle and Kevin heading the project doing what it takes

. Kevin took on the task of doing something with the cracked, nasty looking dash

(you can see it there in the foreground after some reworking). Here it is reformed and textured curing getting ready for it's black finish

and here it is finished

then back in place

Man, it came out great-- you would never know it about fell off the car before! It's been a great diversion project to keep ourselves sane. In the evening, we had our groupies hanging out

, sorry but there was good reason why the camera moved on that shot! Margie & Janie are good sports being our moral support because they understand it's just something we have to do

, something that gives us pleasure and pride

. Our hope is to have this puppy done and in the "car coral" at the Turkey Rod Run this weekend. Kevin is over there right now with Doyle "thrown fur" they to get-r-done. Hey, there is hope!

I've go to do some final work on Jeff's dash and Rusty is going to try and fire up the flat bed after it being put in "moth balls"

. It kinda reminds me of an odd hot wheels car from the past

See what I mean? Hey, maybe we're on to something here! Anyway, we need to get the beast out of the back 40 and back with the living so stay tuned for that.

OK, enough for now, we'll be closed Thurs. & Fri.-- what can I say, if it weren't for stuff like weekends and holidays I really think I could get something done-- hey, but you just can't fight it! My bet is we'll be lurking around here though so have a great holiday weekend-- we'll suffer through it! Thanks for the visit & your support-- keep your stick on the ice (not me) and remember, duct tape is your friend...

After getting a call from Capt. Dave asking if I was alright, I guess I had better check in. Sorry, it's been such a rollercoaster ride as late, blew in yesterday evening with Jim G. bringing home George S. Argosy 20". I felt the least we could do to help the family was to go collect the coach from the National Park at Bryson City N.C.. I've spent most of today sort of licking wounds and trying to catch up on sleep. I have found myself in a specific set of activities that hopping into a coach and do a non stop run is still a thrill that I love-- I would call it one of those "hurt so good" things we do. It's a pretty mellow afternoon so I thought I would put together a few words on this past trip. If you're in a technical thing right now, you may want to scan over this. I feel that way many times too so I'm not offended if you scan it fast. This particular recovery really meant a great deal to me so excuse me while I indulge a bit. I'll do the story in blue, there may be some other stuff at the end, depending on how long this thing gets--- you know me...

George S. was one of those guys that would call me just to say hello. I get many calls and this may sound sick but I enjoy them all, once in a while when one of you call up just to say Hi, well it's alote of why I do this. Anyway, after getting George's Argosy on the road, he would call in telling me about things he's doing and how much he enjoyed his coach. Look, every coach that speaks is not a GMC so when George would pull in it was a tremendous trio coming through the gate. George, his dog and the Argosy 20. They were good for each other and had the same goal. George would tell me we were going to see and fish as many fishing hole as we can find.

This story is not about that, it's about the trip to retrieve his Argosy 20' and let me tell you he was digging deep to find unique fishing places when we found where his coach was. I certainly would not call this place mainstream, looks to be more of a locals retreat than something like one of those attractions around us here in Orlando. No and maybe that was the lure of the place. If you have been there you know what I mean, it was maybe rural luxury there.

Anyway, we need to get on with the recovery trip so Friday afternoon @ 3, Jim G. and I loaded up in the sidekick, making sure we had the usual recovery stuff-- a can for fuel, tools, liquids (no beer, this was going to be a white knuckle, hard fought battle), my set of crempers (never leave home without them) and of course duct tape. With Jim's GPS, we put in the address of the Deep Creek National Park in the Great Smokey Mountain expanse.

We punched through traffic making our way onto the Florida Turnpike, Jim had a Sun Pass transponder so he contributed the tolls for this run so as the sun set on the superslab

, the anticipation grew. It's healthy to go into an extended trip in a vintage vehicle with a healthy ;portion of skepticism. George was a good one to keep his coach in good repair but there could always be something and since this was to be a straight run back, we needed to be prepared to pilot an unfamiliar aircraft, bet Capt. Dave understands what I'm talking about. But for now it was just holding on to the Suzuki and making sure the first leg of getting to the coach happens.

Jim & I had a plenty of time to talk "GMC". We sucked into the "tunnel" and the miles started dropping off. Those of you that done it you know what I mean, those of you who do not need to work on that. I didn't know how big the fuel tank in this Sidekick was so while Jim G. drove I gave a go at trying to use my phone to get on the internet and answer that question. Many of you already have done this I know, so again if you do it you understand that flying down the highway searching on the internet -- what a world we live in today! Hey and it eventually worked! More due to operator error, it took some plunking but I got it. So we had a 11 gallon one which told us how far we could go before refueling.

The further north we went, the colder it got and the more I remember why I live in Florida! Jim was relishing the fact of recently getting transplanted from Va., he was much more at home in the cold weather than me. I find as the temp. drops, my enthusiasm to get anything meaningful done becomes that much harder.

It was late, or early depending on how you looked at it, let me start agaib, it was 4AM when we neared Bryson City and it was dark and cold-- wait, did I mention it was COLD! I tried to take a picture of a bank sign showing the time and temperature, I think the light froze because the picture came out like crap

sign, it looked to be reaching out to me in the dark cold night when I snapped this pic

there ya have it, 31 deg. at 2:31 AM on the 19th hey, and it got in the 20's when we reached Bryson City a couple of hours later. Yea, I know you northerners are LOLing all over the place, lets see how you like sweat balls running off the end of your nose! Yea, I'm a wimp and Jim G. didn't loose this opportunity to let me know!

We were on a sleep deprivation high also aided by Red Bull so taking a nap in the front seat od a Sidekick really didn;t interest either one of us so we took off in the dark to find the coach in the park. The Ranger said the parks are always open, 24/7 so we figured since we were playing the Blues Brothers on a mission we had a right to try and keep pushing ahead so in we went looking in the pitch dark of the wooded park. We drove every accessible in the park and nothing. Went back in town to see if maybe we could find a cop to see if there was a restaurant, a gas station or anything open this time of the morning. We dud find the police department under the Women's club, and there were 4 patrol cars in the bck lot, one had a bashed corner hey, and one was back there with the motor running, the lights on with no one inside! Hmm, must be on a constitutional so we circled the town looking for a building with lights on. Finally, we found a BP station I think, at that point I would have pulled into a Citgo! The gal behind the desk said they were always the first store to open, I asked here what it was she did to have her be the one opening this store so early. She smiled and said "somebody had to do it". About that time a pickup pulled in with animal cages in the back, the writing on the back said he was some sort of hunter-- a tough looking guy, he sized us up right away as outa towners and sort of went about his business without confronting us. We asked if there was a breakfast place open, she and the hunter guy first recommended Bojangles. Here we are in what I would think would be a great place to find a little locals diner and all they could recommend was that? What have we progressed into! We got gas in the Suzuki, 5 gallons in the can and figured we would go back, the dang thing had to be there in the park somewhere!

Going over the same dark roads again in the dark as before, it seemed we were going to be forced to wait, take a nap until dawn and we could see better or maybe find someone to ask where the coach was. On the what seemed to be the 4th pass Jim pointed throught trees and said "what's that"? You could just pick out the rounded top of the coach-- the first leg of this trip was completed, we found it. The ranger had pulled the coach over to a maintenance building near his residence. The frost was creeping up the windshield as we pulled the Suzuki headlights to shine on the 20 foot Argosy sitting there along, without it's friends. His sister had taken the dog when they came up for the arrangements and George, my friend George was gone. All that was left of his memory was the coach and what he called all of his worldly possessions.

George was a proud yet humble man and even after the economy had devastated his successful commercial realtor firm, he was still a very positive, smiling individual pushing on working with what he had and the coach in front of us was it-- the culmination of his lifes work-- hey, but that's not true, he told me of his son and daughter, how they both were fulfilling their dreams-- making it in the world and in his own way he too had made it. Loosing it all he gained much more than he lost. He was happy and the final times he had traveling in his 78 Argosy was simply the icing on his cake. He was rich beyond his wildest imagination because he was free and now happy beyond them too. His shirt and pants were there on the bed, he had gone to bed and left us from there. It was all there, there in his coach-- pictures of the family he had talked about all over the place. There were 4 fishing rods, 2 of there very long clipped the the roof of the coach. There were tobacco pipes and a portable hem adore with a dozen or so cigars. A big plastic bin with dog food in the bottom was left outside the door of the coach by the park ranger so as I turned on some lights checking to see our assets, Jim G. helped move some of George's geer into the back from the front to make the coach ready to go. He carried the 5 gallon full gas can over to the fuel door, the ranger had told us the fuel gauge was bouncing on empty and we should bring fuel to get the coach back into town. Man, it was cold out there and while Jim tried to pour the fuel, I could not hold the flashlight still-- I was shivering!

With all the fuel he could get to pour into the obtuse fuel opening arrangement, I got into the drivers seat-- pumped the gas 3 times and turned the key. Jim G. had made his way to the Suzuki. The plan was if it fired, to take off in the Suzuki to the one open gas station and I would try and follow. The gauge needle was still tied to the empty tree so there was no way to actually know if we would make it to town. With 3 turns Georges coach motor fired up like a horse standing up after a deep sleep in the grass. It startled me a bit with how quickly the coach fired up, like it was waiting for us! I flipped on the lights and we had light, pressing the brake I could tell we had stopping power so all that's left is to find drive with the shifter and giddy up. The power steering allowed me to spin the steering wheel with ease, I was totally unprepared on how nimble this motorhome was. It should be only being 20 feet long. Heck, I bet a Suburban isn't much longer than that if any! I spun that puppy around and in no time flat we were headed out of that dark tree surrounded storage lot and back into the real world. It really felt the coach was with there with me, probably the way it was there for George.

The dash heater worked! Oh happy day! I was prepared for whatever I had to work with but having heat somehow I felt much better about our future prospects. Reaching the still only opened building in town, I was ready to pump some "black gold" into that coaches fuel tank-- heck it only took $19 of fuel! It could not have been empty! Firing up the motor the fuel gauge pegged full, now wait-- what th...! OK, so how big IS the fuel tank in this thing? This time there was no going the my phone and the internet, we were so far back up into "Tobacco Row" I had no cell service and even if I did, where would I go to find the size of fuel tank in this critter. I know how much tank there is in a GMC but not in this thing. We'll have to find the amount of usable fuel we had.

By now it was 7AM and the "Castiron Skillet" had opened. Jim is certainly hooked on his morning coffee and whatever it takes I don't care we now are staring full face into our big part of this mission-- to drive George's 20' Argosy to Orlando. Jim took this shot of me shivering as we connected the car to the coach

That's my best nasty, warm work coat with 2 more shirt layers-- this was the frozen tundra for me!

I pulled out the receiver hitch style tow bar from the back of the Suzuki, found a set of magnetic towd lights in the coach and pretty soon we were rigged up, ready to see what would happen. Hitting drive with the shifter, we lurched forward, letting off the brake a bit and we were rolling which meant no dragging wheels-- a good sign. And with that, we were off. Jim turned on his GPS that got us up here and programmed it for the shop some 12 or so hours away. How does that little box know how to get to my place? Technology is amazing but Jim G. was pretty good with his direction-- not me-- so he had already been appointed navigator on the trip so he suctioned the GPS to his side of that huge Argosy windshield. I already felt at home behind the steeting wheel, call me crazy be I think I could feel the love George must have felt from the coach. For whatever reason the coach was doing it's job taking us up and down those hills dragging the Suzuki.

The coach did not like the hills and I know it didn't like that towd holding it back. Still it did well. Right away I could see the difference in the Argosy and the GMC motorhome I had so much more understanding and experience with. The GMC certainly has more pulling power, the Argosy wasn't a wimp but there was a winner in the power game. You really had to downshift which you also would with the GMC only not as often. The454 Chevy motor liked 3000 RPM, go much above that it only made noise, below that and you were out of the torque curve and slow you went with no performance. It worked well, we were not going to be speed demons anyway, we were enjoying our ride.

Driving along I looked at the dash and the fuel gauge seemed to work now, it was slowly dropping as we drove. We were in the "tunnel" again now and with our fuel data confirming our fuel use and gauge readings, we surmised we had a 20 gallon fuel tank! Yikes, we would turn into "yoyos". Yet another smart marketing ploy to get you to slow your life down a bit! No need to hurry, we were going to leapfrog our way home! So what, the coach was running great, we had great company, conversation and I feel the coach was enjoying getting back on the road. It was the passenger seat was for sleeping while the driver figured how long it would be to the next fuel stop and switching out drivers. Jim looked forward to the stops, hey is that popsicle on your diet man!

The fuel stops became the next goal-- jumping from one to the next

It was a wonderful day to travel and as we went south the blessed warmth allowed us to turn off the dash heat and open a window. The coach was running like that Swiss watch of fables anf fun-- man we were having a blast. Passing the surrender location for Andrew Jackson in Georgia, I knew we were getting home though it felt like we were in a twilight zone out there on the road. The "tunnel" is a funny place, you are steering but you mind is also multitasking not bussing the memory of the road to your brain, you seem to be doing the job while not committing every move to any lasting memory. Isn;t it great how God allows our mind to block out trauma and I firmly believe thats what the "tunnel effect" is for drivers on the open road.

Crossing into Florida, the sun had already given us an awesome evening sky

so in the dark again we followed Mr. GPS to our goal, the safety of the parking lot at the shop. Jim did a great job with the driving

thanks man. The dash in the Argosy is much different than that of the GMC still, it did us well

, you had the usual GM supplied cluster plus a tach. and vacuum gauge. These gauges made it possible to keep the motor in it's power band while attempting to be frugal.

It was to dark for any more pics and after the last fillup in Reddick, the last and final jump on our board would be to the finish line-- we were ready and like the walking pony nearing the barn, it seemed like the coach wanted to pick up the pace. Taking no chances, I was not about to top 65 MPH-- sorry man, we'll get there just hold them horses! Pulling into the parking lot, Jim G. got the gate while I slipped the coach inside the gate and finally friendly surroundings. Offloading out travel geer, unhooking the coach and preparing to go on home, I couldn;t do it, I jumped back into the Argosy for the 4 mile ride home, I was comfortable in the driver seat-- I like it and I feel it leeks me back.

Our eyes felt like needles were poking the back of our eyelids as we blinked so it was time for bed, I thanked again Jim G. for helping me drive-- he really made a difference. On the short ride home without the towd on the back of the coach, that 454 motor showed me it's worth. The coach now felt nimble and responsive now that the boat anchor was taken off and I had a smile on my face as I took the ride to the house like a knight riding home after the crusades. Tomorrow I'll clean up the inside of the coach. Monday, George's son will come by to talk about the future of the coach-- sure hope our adoption papers are in order, not as yet with a name, back into the fold I feel whatever future is in store for this coach, it will be well cared for. Apart but still together, I feel good in the coach, guess it's another one of those "call me crazy" feelings again but there it is! If you own a vintage RV of any brand, I feel you have something special. Be good to it and it will be good to you. George loved this little coach so I know this is true.

The next morning I pulled into the gate, parked the coach and went in to start on this story. Stopping for a rest, I figured I would take a few pics for you guys-- it was funny when I looked at the screen of the camera at the first shot

It looked like the "Tin Soldier" was giving the Argosy a lay of the land or something. Kinda like the junk yard dog taking the little newbee under it's wing in that they had something in common, they were small but had big hearts. No rivalry just honest caring. Yea, I know-- what's he taking--- I assure you it's only love in the air, it's that way on an early quiet Sunday morning-- the lot seems alive with personalities. Yep, it's like watching a Toy Story episode! OK, I'll stop now and this looks like a good place to stop this story-- seems to be loosing direction. So like Charles Osgood on Sunday Morning-- I'll leave you with pictures of the Argosy 23, grazing quietly in the pot , shhhh listen, you can here them all greeting the coach-- happy Sunday and tomorrow starts a new week full of possibilities...

And I think with that we need to be done, my fingers are tired and I bet your eyes. No GMC specific training, news or commentary-- we'll just have to leave that for tomorrow or so. This day is done and I'll see you guys again soon and until then----- Happy Trails until we meet again...

See that, at least I put in enough to let you know we were OK I have a few minutes before I leave so I thought I'd spend it with you guys.

Frank, I didn;t call back those Tranny boys, Replacing your rear shocks

we found 2 leaky wheel cylinders

(leaking from the end)

(new cylinder and shoes) and with 2 sets of shoes down to @ 50% I figured what the heck, we're here now so he went for it. Then he was bored so we decided to go after that green radiator, water pump and stuff up there .

(before)

(after)

(replaced bearings, races and seal-- races were razor sharp on the edge)

Jeff, Mikes over there replacing that old 1 lung air horn compressor, putting in a resetable circuit breaker for the living area wiring re replaced and a few other things.

Jim G.

( you remember him) and I are taking the Suzuki to recover that 20' Argosy up in NC tonight, we should get there tomorrow morning sometime-- Red Bull should help us get ther then we hope to turn around snag the towd on the back and white knuckle the critter back to warm country. I'll have the cell phone with me so if you're as bored as we'll probably be give me a call. I feel to honor George's memory to help the family like this is a no brainer and with Jim G. throwing in with me should make this much less painfull. We should be back before dark tomorrow so think good thoughts for us please.

Janie will be holding the fort till 5PM today so if you need something you can call her, call me on the cell line if you have a question. I think this run should be good for a story so I'll be sure to take pics.

Have a great weekend, I know I will-- I love getting out on the open road so the only problem tonight is it's supposed to dip into the 20's-- hey, that's COLD for this flatlander! See ya on the other side...

No need to send the coroner, we're OK here If you'll remember I said before if I don;t post it probably means we're just slammed -- or ------ i"ll be right back...

Yesterday was a good one here Went after Jeff's dash, coming in the first issues was to get the dash "donut' recovered. You may remember I took the plasma cutter to it to cut out for the new Mac dash to fit.

This day I sanded and prepped the original cover painted with grey dye ready for my glue to take hold.

The pad was actually in pretty good shape to recover so there wasn't any crack filling needed. So we're going black with this so cutting a piece of our felt backed "pleather"

I set about getting things going. It's hard to take any pics in the heat of battle stretching the pleather onto the pad so here it is covered

and here it is with the Mac dash that will soon mate together in the coach

and here are the 2 finished pieces together on the workhorses ready to go in.

. First thing is to mount the newly refinished "donut" in place on the refinished dash in the coach-- here ya go on that

We use the original AC/heat control panel back in it's original location. The retrofitted harnesses will connect to the new gauge cluster as the bezel goes in. Again, being there by myself, I could not get any "action" shots so here's the dash together to this point

Hey Jeff, that's the radio that was in it, seems to work well-- didn;t chk the CD section but the radio works good. They were not using the original antenna, has one on the pass. pillar post so it was good to find it was still working. next I'll plumb in the vacuum gauge to the motor, fire up the coach to see everything is working then add in the lower dash closeout. I'll be cleaning the points in the Electro Level switches before putting that panel back in (they all have a film build up ) so with the carpet scheduled to be in Wed. we should have you back together the week end. Stay tuned...

Also had Marylin drop by late last week for a few maintenance issues. Marylin is our gambling specialist living near the Seminole Casino over near Tampa so when she took a whack at our slot machine she killed it!

She's got nuthin on that You Tube video someone posted hitting the big payoff on this machine (Fever Queen) , look it up. We did a few things getting it ready for a winter in California. I'm proud of the paint work Kevin did on this coach

, especially of how the tail came out

and everyone has to smile when they read her bumper sticker

So off we go into another week, over the event horizon and on into what comes next. It's starting out with a beautiful blue sky, great temps and excitement on things here to do. Thanks for the visit, hug your coach hey and your wife, girlfriend or dog because we all need a little love...

In closing today, I want us all to take a moment and remember George Sapp

, George lost his life this weekend at least doing something he loved. He was getting ready to check into a national park up in NC with his dog in his awesome little 20' Argosy

when a ranger found him sitting at a picnic table apparently passing away from some unexpected thing. I feel bad but at the same time elated for George. After having the economy collapse his commercial property management business in the Panhandle of Florida, his wife leave him and literally everything he had worked for his life get taken away, we was able to buy his Argosy and with his dog he was headed out to find that perfect fishing hole. He was happy the time he had with his coach, he told me that and you could feel his thankfulness that he was at long last happy again. The stress was off him and he was again happy with himself. Wish he could have had more time in his situation but hey, you just don't know your day. His Son, George jr., call me last night, I expect we will be bringing his coach in from NC soon to help selling it for them. If you have interest, give me a call. I have never seen such a cute little fully outfitted machine-- it was like it was made and had been waiting just for him. Life is short, get out in your coach, enjoy life because like I said, we never know...

It's Sunday and I'm here trying to catch up a bit Sat this morning and blew our time together here on a story I felt compelled to put together. Hope it's worth reading to ya. I'll talk to you tomorrow more, I need to get Jeff's dash donut covered and in the coach. See ya then In Love again

How bout that for a date, don't have to be able to count far to recognize that! Wonder if the conspiracy theory guys will read something into it? Around here it's just another day so now that I have recognized it's a unique day as far as the numbers go, lets get past that and keep going.

Got Frank's coach up on the lift for a looksee at the white underbelly of the beast. BTW, I was asked when we showed replacing the control arm bushings if we were going to install "offset" bushings. Why yea we are my good man.

The top bushing in this pic is a standard upper control arm bushing, you can see how the bolt hole in the bottom bushing is offset from the middle. We install a set of these on the rear leg of the upper A arm to allow for greater caster numbers on the alignment. No, these are not plastic bushings, there is no "offset" performance bushing so if you say you want increased caster, plastic bushings are out of the question.

With Franks machine on the lift

Rusty had a chance to get under there and check things out. I took my phone (camera) over and found a "few' issues to address. Hey Frank, we found that exhaust leak

The rest of the pipes aren't the best so when we take the coach over to ben's to get this fixed we'll see what he thinks. That was an easy one, next Rusty pulled down the fuel tanks

but as we found, the problem was not on the tanks-- it was where the tanks were bolted. The body had dropped because of the body pads-- or lack thereof. Here are a few of the body pads and their condition

yep, that's the brake line crushed there

That one was trying hard to get out

and here is an aftermarket wire crushed-- wonder if that wire is connected?

This one was laying loose in the "C" rail

and this was a plate with the interior seats bolted to-- as you can see the plate is pulling the frame and body together. OK, so what does the dropped body have to do with the fuel tanks? Look at where the sender was positioned, it was nice of GM to cut out the floor for the sender but look at what the clamps and hoses did the the aluminum sheet on the bottom of the body

Those are rube marks from the clamps and hoses. There was 1 hose totally crushed Dang, I erased the pic but take it from me, we had damage there. The A/B selector solenoid had been replaced but checking it found it was stuck between the 2 positions.

Also in this pic you can see that the electric fuel pump (which BTW would not come on) is in the main stream to the motor. When we replace it we'll put it on the front (aux.) tank and power it from the new A/B solenoid. We have some fluid leaking from looking at the mufflers and the funk covered rear crossmember

but it's hard to say if it is from the transmission pan gasket leaking

of the deep gouge in the diff pan

. Hope we don;t find a problem in the diff when we pull that pan to replace it. Frank, I would say your holding tank has been gobbed past recognition and it still leaks

so I would say we need to address this. All in all, we do have some work under here so it looks like you will spend at least the weekend on the lift. Gimme a call and lets talk about our moves.

While Rusty was gettn jiggy with Franks white underbelly, I was over plodding along on Jeff's dash. It was time to work on the "donut" pad so this is what we started with

Can't see from this pic but we have a couple of cracks and those tabs of velcro for the carpet cover that covered all of this are a *&^%$ to get the glue off! Step 1 is to cut away some metal for the new gauge cluster and bezel to fit. Take it from me, and those that have tried to resize the radio hole knows but that metal is harder than woodpecker lips! It's funny how that heavy duty metal donut is screwed to those flemsey plastic upright supports! Anyway, I've found the best way to cut that metal is with fire-- yep, I had some big fun with my plasma cutter-- sorry I could not wheel that critter and take pics but trust me when I say I was spraying sparks all over the floor. Here is the "slight" modification that was needed

to allow the new mac dash to fit

. Tony, hey-- isn;t this a great pic of Tony

, sorry to embarrass ya man but Brian took a few pics and I just had to say something about this one-- heck, I closed my eyes in mine

! Anyway, Tony was pulling wires trying to sort out that rat nest of wires in Jeff's living area electrical system

This is looking down at the water heater and furnace area. Here is the switch/fuse panel I was talking about yesterday that lit up but was not connected to anything

Oh yea and I love that really nice hole that was cut for the generator control! Hey don;t worry, we'll get her fixed!

Marylin drove in yesterday afternoon with a paint issue on a finish we did @ 3 years ago.

Take this as a warning, if you have a full fuel tank and leave the gas cap at the service station, don't stuff a rag in the hole on a hot day. The raw fuel and the fumes more importantly will dissolve the paint if it stays there like that

Didn;t get a pic of the damage before but trust me it was not pretty!

So today, I hope to pick back up where I had to stop on Jeff's dash and get it recovered and in today. Tony has his son coming into town so he'll be back next week to finish up the electrical rewiring-- I may get some of it done the weekend and with luck, Rusty will get some of the issues under Frank's coach handled. Thanks for the visit and support, We'll see how the day goes. Watch out for things you can like the 11.11.11 date on causing, bet there will be a run on rabbit's feet today! See ya next time hey and go out and give your coach a hug-- yea, and your wife too-- they both deserve your love!

Oh heck, bout forgot to show you a new tool I picked up that will hopefully make our job that much easier--

At least it will be more fun waiting around for your coach to get fixed!. Have no fear, it works on tokens! It played great yesterday but when I plugged it in this morning it would not take a token-- guess we'll work on that thing too! See ya next time-- hey, anyone out there know how to work on these things!

Like I said before, if you don;t see a post it means there's too much happening What can I say, of elective things on my plate, when something backs up it's here that has to give!

Made some good progress on Jeff's dash. Talking about the Hadley horn set I feel is a must for a train buff, it was a classic example of how things go working on one of these 30 somthings. Got the motor freed up, pumped up the system and by golly the horns fired! Then the fun began, that was a forced run of the system using jumpers and all. Then I went about ripping the wad of rat nest wiring to put it all in right-- got it wired up, fired it up and the system would not pressure up-- looking around I found a good sized pin hole (maybe it should have been called a gaping rust opening

. It was mounted vertical with no drain tap-- so the water trapped in the tank made it's own drain! Took a hammer and tapped around on the bottom and found a family of self induced drain holes! OK, so it was strip the regulator off and lets go for a new tank-- & I did

The old one didn;t have a safety valve, had a non weather resistant pressure gauge and no check valve to the tank, we have all that now. Fired it up this time and the little compressor rattled it's way right up to 140 psi and "Vwala" we have horn!

Oh yea, it's all relay controlled too, there's the relay next to the compressor. I expect the compressor to beat itself into submission shortly so until then though we will keep it pumping. Couldn;t stop till I had the horns going-- just had to keep going. Now that's done with the wiring to the inside for a control panel, I went back at the dash wiring. I was talking about the alternator light circuit, there are 3 connections, the first is in the dash on the back of the instrument cluster with the oil, water and fuel gauges. Looking at the back of the cluster, you will see the in line wire connector

, the second wire from the left is a smaller gauge brown wire-- cut that wire, insulate the side going to the harness and connect another wire (I use a brown to keep things the same) and route it outside the front over to the pass. side front. Since I am installing a complete new cluster and dash bezel, I pulled this original gauge out. While in the dash, look directly under and behind the in dash radio, here is the black wrapped harness cut open to check for heat damage

Jeff's coach has no damage so in rewiring the circuit he will never have the nichrome wire problen in this coach. Next, I go about connecting the new dash Molex harness to the original wiring

. I "trust but verify" each connection following each circuit from the original wire all the way to the new circuit through the new Mac dash. Mac really does a great job wiring his dashes but it just makes sense to me to KNOW each circuit is right-- I mean we do live in this imperfect world. One thing you never want when doing this many wiring changes is something not right, "ghosts in the machine" are hard to trace after the fact so I spike that gun and just check it all as I put it together. At the end of that day, I had the dash wired and the side panels and other hard surfaces recolored black as Jeff wanted.

He's going for that sports car look, we still have the pass. pad to stretch vinyl on, new vents and the glove box to refinish. All that will happen the next day, for this day getting that *&^%$#@#$%^^^ horn working, the dash wired and hard surfaces refinished I called that a good days work.

Now comes yesterday and after getting the office work at bay, I stepped out to regain momentum on Jeff's dash project. stretching new vinyl on the pass. pad takes a process-- first I need to think about it for a day or 2, muster up my energy because there are several things going on at the same time as you apply the new cover and after I start I simply have to go and not be disturbed. So how can that happen around here? I just hide and go for it, get everything lined up, cut, repaired and prepped then just go! The end of yesterday got the pad covered, glove box refinished and in, the new dash AC vents in so the dash is starting to take shape

The side panels were in descent shape but check it out, the PO (previous owner) pulled a fast one. I bet it looked great in the Ebay pics but the original chromed ash trays had been wrapped with aluminum tape to make them shiney

Oh stop it! They were crap and without needing an ash tray any longer the plan will be to pad the ledge in black, stay tuned for that transformation. Tony & Mike were helping me on the outside running wiring.

I'm sorry to say this but the living area wiring in this "Transmode" was *&^^ poor! Running a 4 pair wire to the generator control for a start/stop switch, the solid core wires it looks like Attila the Hun put in just has to be fixed. We've got funky wiring everywhere! There is a really nice fused switch panel on the wall (I'll get pics later) looks great and the illumination on the switches all work but I never could figure out what was connected to the panel-- well now I understand there is no circuit attached to it! The switches were lighting backwards! Man, what a mess, Jeff -- we have to do something to fix all this-- I'll do pics for ya. So today, I'll be cutting the donut to fit the new cluster with the plasma cutter then recover it with the black vinyl, install it and maybe by the end of the day we will have the new cluster and bezel in-- stay tuned.

Frank U. coach has the front suspension back together

this is the pass side in the pic, the driver side has a lower arm that won;t turn at the hex. Getting that all back together, last night it spent the evening in the top floor penthouse

well yea, that would be up on the lift getting it's fuel tanks dropped. We'll be "ethanolizing" the fuel system with new ethanol resistant hoses, we found the electruic fuel pump that had been put in was bad so the fun begins on that project.

The attorney I'm trying to work with on the Fire Fight thing-- guys I tell ya what, the process of it all is just going so slow it's no wonder our economy is so screwed up! The guy actually talked down at me when I said something needs to happen soon, said it doesn't happen that way-- I said why not! Yea, I'm such a loose cannon! Much longer & I don;t know if I want to push that hard to bring the company back from the brink-- I hate to say it that way because having a fire suppression option in a motorhome is just so dang important and that Fire Fight product was so right on for the RV community -- it's all down now to will they just get off their hands! Thanks for letting me get that all off my head, sometimes you just need to offload some of the yuky food off the plate.

So Scott, did I spell "yuky" right? See Scott C. up in Kunukland is my spelling checker, this morning he called early to respond to my butcher of the word "Vwala"-- it's Voila-- OK but down here in the south we don;t get caught up in formalities! How bout "hokuspokus", what can ya do for me with that one man? Lets work on it, hey maybe we're going to upstage Red Green which BTW for the rest of ya, Scott being from the area that spawned the Red Green show you would think he would be on the tolerant side of my down to earth spelling program here. Just kidding and as Henry Ford said "A bump is as good as a knock-- at least they're watching". Thanks Scott for trying to be my spelln checkr-- now if I could get someone to check my siferin!

It's starting out to be a beautiful day here in the neighborhood, Kevin & John are here, Brian stuck his head in and is going for a donut so even though it's not fair being Thursday here-- I haven't gotten enough stuff done to be Thursday this week we'll still do the best we can with it. Hey, it's all any of us can do-- just keep on pushing that rock! Have a great day, thanks as always for the visit and so now it's onward and upward---- "To Infinity and beyond" \\\\\\-------->

So the box came in Been waiting for this one, so has Jeff D. It;s his Mac dash

Hand made to spec by Mac & Shirley

to Jeff's (and my) spec. I've had some folks say "Oh, those dashes are too expensive". Well, they are not change (@ $950) but try and go buy all the parts mac puts into these clusters, the back lighting, Tell-tale light assembly, a custom cut bezel and all of those matching gauges-- it really is a thing of beauty and for the price it really is a good value. Anyway, Mac & I go back a long way & I certainly support his products. If you are interested in one of these, give me a call. So here is Jeff's dash before the transformation

Not actually bad looking from a distance but up close you can see it has all of the problems 30+ years has brought upon our coaches.

It's a sprayed wonderworld, the pads on the dash are sprayed, not covered and though the original dash bezel looked descent, it's painted silver. The newer steering wheel helps a bunch but still, that green carpet dates the job so we're doing a "dash makeover" so step one actually we have done-- removing the seats. We did that some time back anticipating this day. So you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet and in this case the dash has to come apart--- not out and BTW guys, try to resist the urge to completely remove the dash-- you have to remember the prime directive-- or is that the Hippocratic oath of "do not harm"! After this many years being exposed to UV, the ABS plastic the dash is made of is woefully brittle, chances are if you remove the dash completely it will fill up a bucket with pieces! In my opinion, unless you are looking to replace the dash with something else, you should repair the dash in place-- without taking it out. hey, it's just my opinion of course and there are several things you can do to the firewall and dash with it out but hey, the prime directive being "make the dash look good" can be done well without removing it so follow along as we do this project.

"Take her down" is the first thing, remove the dash "donut" which is the padded ring around the original cluster, remove the cluster and bezel itself, all the gauges, glove box, etc. and this is that you will have.

You need to take great care in not breaking any further the upright supports behind the cluster and donut, these flemsy plastic pieces are the only think to screw the dash itself to! There will be some mods later so follow along

As you can see, the pass. side pad is lifting at the middle-- and here you thought your coach was the only one doing that! No, they all do so we'll need to address that in this project.

Jeff is a train nut, his plan is to paint up the coach with the Am Track paint scheme so those big ole Hadleys on the roof need to work

There is a small 1 cylinder belt drive compressor up front dedicated to the horn system

that was frozen solid but with a little coaxing came back to life. The system has a big air tank up front too

which after messing with the system for a while found there was a pinhole in the bottom. Bummer but there was never any accommodation for a drain so thats what happens when something is not thought through, I'll see what to do with that but somehow-- that horn needs to work!

Bringing the new dash cluster into the coach, modifying the original wiring to accept the new Mac dash is next.

As you can see I watched the sun set as the wiring phase of the project was finished. Next we'll route the added wiring for the tach, trans temp, air compressor light and my retrofit alternator light circuit. BTW, please go read this Alt. light circuit refit. There has been so much said about trying to protect your coach electrical system from this problem and I have to tell ya guys, this is the only real way to know you are protected. The "plu-n-play" solution for this issue will not totally protect for the problem. Sorry but it's true and you must look to see if there is previous damage-- this damage

Did I get your attention? There is a hidden killer of your coach waiting for it's turn, please follow me in this project as I put the alternator light circuit mod in-- guys, you can do this or should I say you need to do this! OK, enough on that...

So today, even with my gimp leg, I'll be going after jeff's dash, the camera batteries are up so stay tuned for the fun. BTW, here is a pic of Jeff's coach as I came in the gate this morning

We're also checking systems, water is connected as well as power to do this. Stay tuned for more on this project, it will happen non stop.

Doing project like this or any project for that matter with our coach is less a matter of what to do and more of a "where to stop" decision. It's a simple thing to just take it all out and in some cases that is needed. These coaches are getting up there in age and depending on how it was treated, if it was garage kept and all that will determine how much you will need to do to bring the coach back to a good state. Jeff's coach had been cared for pretty well. I have known the coach well over a decade, the dash had been done by Clasco "back in the day" and really it didn;t look terrible and it was in descent shape to refinish. He is lucky, I know some of you out there will need to go a bit deeper-- good luck, if you have questions that I don't answer doing this dash, give me a call.

So, thats it for toady, yea there are several other things happening, Frank's coach is getting a new lower A arm-- that's a good one and I need to show you about that. The hex socket for the torsion bar had opened up and was about to spin-- brother that would have been bad Juju if that had happened-- good call on pulling the A arms down man! There's more, we were supposed to see a welder/engineer yesterday who was supposed to get into the Chimera tailgate-- didn;t show so we may have to drop back and punt again on that one! Have no fear, we'll get it. There's other stuff happening so stay tuned. Thanks for dropping by, I know there is been a fair amount of drama on the net lately about vendors-- sorry about that and hey what can I say-- we all need eachother so don;t let some of that bum you out, we're here and we're OK-- AOK as cal would say! The Fire Fight thing is moving about as fast as that herd of stampeding turtles! I'm trying to hang with on this so maybe soon we'll see some movement. We're here doing our thing, Kevin just pulled in so I need to get out there on the dash-- have a great day, call if I can help and we'll see ya tomorrow maybe...

PS: Lets all remember "Smokn Joe" Frazier

passing away from Cancer yesterday. The time he hammered that cocky Mohamed Ali to me was the quiet, rock steady man takn' care of business on that loud mouth

hey, we all know now it was just "business" but at the time it was awesome. Who can forget the "Thrilla in Manila" ! We'll miss ya Joe and I hope to see ya again. Joe Frazier-- what a man...

It's another beautiful day in the neighborhood, won;t you be my neighbor Understand please that when I don;t post here it's not that I don't love ya, it's just there is no time so also know when I can plunk down something there is so much to catch you guys up on I try my best to do just that. We're prepping up JayGee for a rally this weekend in Okeechobee, Kevin and the guys will be here all day but janie & I will be leaving a little early today. Got JayGee prepped for the run-- see I have the same problem many of yu have, he sits and sits then I drag him out from the back 40 and wanna go-- see that's bad Juju! I'm doing what I tell you to not do so I may soon also show you what happens when you do this-- the coach will fail! I'm just sayn'! Still I can't wait to hit the pavement so stay tuned for the carnage, I'll take pics. I'm not towing this time, The Samuri is gone now and I'm just not ready for the added work of figuring out if this new Suzuki tows OK. I have enough stuff to worry about right now. I'm going to slide the hitch pod deal we set up for Chris Revcon and use it this weekend. If you agree with me that I really do not look forward to climbing my way up the back of my coach risking nose bleeds and a fall, having a hitch pod still gives you a descent storage option, I'll do pics for ya on this.

I think I'll try and come up with a "Goin' Mobile" bumper sticker, give me a quick post if you would like one, I'll put you on the B/O list.

So here it is going on 10AM, I gotta get out there and get JayGee ready to fly, have a great weekend-- we have 30+ coaches already slated to attend the Okeechobee rally for the Sunshine Statesmen, if you're in those ranks we'll see ya there. Have a great weekend, I'll bring my camera...

Got into the shop a bit early this morning to see if I could spend a little extra time here Have had to pass over plunking down stuff here lately, what can I say -- something has to give when the plate gets too full! Between trying to get Fire Fight back producing, keeping coaches stepping up to head home and keeping the other fun things on track we have going on it's just been a zoo. Hey, no complaints, the thing that worries me with all these plates spinning on sticks is gravity being what it is, something has to come down first and I wanna be sure I catch that plate! I have several cool projects packed away-- The Airstream trailer, The Flat bed and the great projects we're doing for others-- it's hard to pick what to throw hands at. Of course projects in here take president over my personal stuff, they have to but still if you don;t move a little on other things they just melt down and will never come back. I yanked the 63 Airstream Tradewind from the back 40 the other day with the first step getting the thing watertight. We're toying with a new restoration concept I'll tell you more about as things progress.

You may not be able to see it from your spot but there is a great movement toward the mobile, leasure lifestyle that RV industry offers. Sure, there are people believing what the industry says and are plunking down big dollars to play in this sandbox but there are others that are thinking a little harder about what is available in the RV world not following the lemmings over the cliff looking outside of the box for ways to get out of the brick house theory of living into vintage RV's, what they can do as well as simply older RV's and what's possible with them. The GMC is of course being regarded as the "55 T-bird" of the RV world has many people looking at them. That is what drives our business, I've said this so much but it's really true-- "The GMC is the cheapest toy in the box" meaning you can get out on the road with a reliable, good looking and comfortable GMC to your spec. for less money than anything else you could spend your hard earned money for. I may be "preaching to the choir" with this but hey, maybe sometimes we all need to remember why we are here and what it means to have the options a GMC and for that matter, a vintage RV offers. Including Chris Revcon that just left, a well maintained machine is just that-- with the running gear in most RV's having roots in the commercial truck world, they are pretty robust machines and even if they are a little messed up, these things can be fixed and there is usually a great deal of value in san older motorhome just waiting to be used. The fact that the energy to produce the beast has already gone through our economy-- salaries to those that built it, money for the parts that went into the building of these machines and all that--- it seems to me to be far cheaper in the final accounting to recycle or reuse that value in these economic times that more important than "new" is having something that is reliable, serviceable and paid for! You can buy a core GMC for as little as $5000 and sometimes less then do to it what you can afford and on a time table that is affordable. Try asking your bank to structure a payment plan based on the bucks in your pocket that week! I think the real goal is to have something that fits not only your life style and needs but also your pocketbook and a vintage RV can do that. Our next generation has lived through some huge changes we have seen, have had a different take on things like Vietnam, the iron curtain, communism and the idea that hard work will equate into security for your family and life. Most all of that is all gone so you must understand that without the feeling that if you work hard you will get what you want-- today, it seems that *&^% is happening at a faster rate and is a global virus that they need to guard themselves from. What you could afford today now does not automatically equate into a bigger and better one tomorrow and you must make right decisions today for good things to happen. I think if we all grew up with that carpet pulled out from under our feet we too might look at things differently today!

I can't even count how many young people go through our shop and system seeking a better way to exist, looking at the GMC to be their living and entertaining object of choice. Heck, take a look at this machine

, today this guy is loving life, travelling with his dog looking for fishing holes. I say he's not "young" but he is young at heart starting what he calls a second life not wrapped up in worrying about those things that let him down

. A commercial realtor, when the walls came falling down they fell on him so, as he says, he caught his fall at the last minute and now he sees life differently. This 78 Argosy is only 20' long! Yea, but it's great to drive and still has everything he needs and with places to store his fishing rods it now him and the dog agianst the odds -- hey and guess what, like Charlie says-- he's winning! Hey, and we all can too! We have the basic ingredient, a vintage RV so now it's up to you what you do with it and the priority you put on outfitting and using your machine. We really do have an ultimate option being able to put fuel in a machine, pack up the dog and everything you want to take and just go somewhere. Someone says, "Doesn;t that motorhome burn alote of fuel"? Actually, compared to how much weight you are carrying and the energy footprint you put out using the coach to live, eat and travel all using the same unit, you really are dong better for the earth! Wish one of those bean counters would use their statistical pencil to put a number to that concept, I think we would seriously come out on top. No proerty taxes, no constant utility bill and no mortgage if you bring your coach up from the ashes without getting a loan-- heck you're living the Who song "Goin' Mobile"

Don't care about pollution,
I'm an air conditioned Gipsy,
That's my solution,
Let the police and the tax man miss me
I'm Mobile
Mobile, mobile, mobile yeah....

Well, maybe we do need to think about "pollution" but what Pete Townsand didn;t know back then (nobody really cared about that stuff back then) a motorhome done right really can be an economical thing of beauty -- just depends on how you look at it and use it. We live in America and thus we can think about such things, we are so fortunate to be able to even think about such things.

Last Saturday, Janie & I went over to Old Town down in Kissimmee to the car show held every weekend, Doyle was there with that VW van we outfitted with full motorhome hookups. Let me just say it was a huge hit! There were so many people looking and thrilled at the concept the cars next to Doyle moved to give more room for people to gawk! Yea, and they were more than upset with the fact that here they were-- big bucks in their cars and all everyone could talk about was that 71 Westfalia bus with the generator, roof AC, plumbing and flat screen TV! Had more than 1 person say, "Man, I could just take off and be free in this thing", and there it is-- they were right and the dream the bus brought up made them think about their life and how a "Mobile Home" could change things. Take a look at these pics and notice how every eye in the pics are on the bus

Yea, we had a great time watching the reaction that project had and how interested folks were. I want to bring the "Tin Soldier" there when it's done! Really, this is the reality of where the life styles of America is headed. Just think, and here you are up front-- on the cutting edge of the next big thing and it's not something beyond your reach! Man, now that's exciting to me and I hope you too. That's why we're here and what we do and wether it's a GMC, most of what we mess with are, a VW van, A Revcon, Airstream or whatever-- we're all "Goin' Mobile" and that's just the way it is! Go look up the lyrics of that Who song "Goin' Mobile" and tell me it's not where our collect heads are at in this world economy today.

So take your coach to a car show, many of you already have, go see for yourself what folks think of just getting out and going somewhere. Let them know it can happen and they do not need to spend over $100,000 to do it. Givm' my number, heck we'll show them what's going on!

OK, they caught up with me, I messed around offloading some of the stuff in my head and the guys are coming in for yet another day of fun. Hope your days has the promise you are hoping for-- we'll go for it here so pick up the flag and holler "Follow me boys" as you take it to'm! Thanks for the visit and we'll do more soon. I'll see about some pics tomorrow...

This weekend wizzed past Saturday, I was able to leisurely mess with Dave's "troll" generator

with a new electric fuel pump, she fired right over. Some new oil, filter and some tuning and that bugger fired great!

He had been to my muffler guy Ben where the whole set of pipes had to be replaced

but the end result was awesome.

I worked the rest of saturday on kashi's coach getting it ready for Sunday. Sunday was a red letter day, one that I really though would never come. Na, it's nothing like buying a new house or bringing your kid home from the hospital, no it was the last delivery using the Suzuki Samuri. Yea, Chris with the Revcon bought it from me. I sold it, I had to, just would not go fast enough for me on the highway, I was tearing the heart out of that little thing and just had to make a change but Sunday, I had the extreme pleasure of towing it delivering a coach one more time to drive it home and I was going to do this with the "Hanuman Van". We have been maintaining this unique coach for Ma, the spiritual leader of the kashi Ranch in Sabastian since I started the Co-op. Take a look at this machine on our gallery page. The kashi Ranch have been good friends of the Co-op for many years so with a beautiful blue sky it was time to take their coach back to them towing the Suzuki

so with that and with Brian as copilot, I headed south. I really do love driving these machines, it's a thrill to get out there on the road

and man what a great straight road we had

Across the low lands of the Mormon ranch then south on I-95 to Sabastian, the coach was running great with one of our Co-op Koba motors, manny tranny, Honda generators, and that paint job told everyone we were coming

Pulling in, they gave Brian the tour of the place, heck I had my eye on the coach and my Suzuki

. The run home was slow, well 55 is fast for the little thing. Pulling back into the shop , I just had to give it just one more wash job, Hey-- it's a goodbye bath!

Was a good ole towd and now someone else will enjoy it, oh and I know where it's going! It's gonna follow that Revcon that's been hanging around here laterl.

Man, now isn't that a sight! I would say good lookn!

and I'm talking bout both of them! I'm really happy on how the Revcon finished out, the roof is clean, pulled the ladder, pod and put in 2 low profile Pinguin roof AC units. Blacked out the rockers and lost that goofy rear wheel cover! It was raining when Chris pulled away taking with him my beloved Suzuki

a bit of the bitter sweet I guess but I know Chris will give it a good home so Fair Winds man, hey and don;t drive over 60, you won;t survive!

So here it is, I finally stopped myself long enough to do a walkthrough on the Duramax 26 (Cruzn) for you guys, sorry for the time it took. You remember this little piece of heaven right?

. Anyone that says they want to see a Duramax iesel in a GMC, tell them yea, it's been done! Here it is this afternoon in it's "caccoon" bay

Man, what a beast!

Let's go inside

First thing always you see is the door and to me, the door is a key item giving that first impression, so here is Raymond's entry door

and with the shade closed

Really, there's not much else to say about that and really about the rest of these interior shots. It's hard to take in all that's inside of this coach so let me just post these for you, take a few minutes and take a looksee.

The sofa

and under the sofa

Yep, it's loud! The galley

Hammered copper. The overhead cabinets

yea, I got your wood

The bedroom colors?

Oh, you want music--- how bout 8500 watts of pro sound power

and piles of speakers

Yea, we're still on the dash but it's coming together

That big wood thing in the middle will be a flip up table, oh yea, we're hiding the Duramax Turbodiesel under there too! This is the bathroom door

Was getting dizzy in there so that's it for now. Oh Daddy, can a stay longer and play? Not now son, we need to get home!! I'm so excited on getting this coach out on the road-- I know Raymond can't wait to get it so it looks like something needs to happen soon. Stay tuned for more...

I heard this afternoon the last words Steve Jobs muttered as he stared off past the family members gathered at his bedside and I stopped for a moment thinking of how excited he has left us, how much he has given us to think about--- whats coming and how excited we should be about being here, now, in this moment. How the future is for us and how we need to think about things we do and push to accomplish. Just makes me excited just thinking about what would make Steve say "Oh Wow, Oh Wow, Oh Wow". To hear the founder of Apple make an exclamation like that, just think of what's coming next!!!! OK, so lets not let him down...

I'm so sorry I have been off the grid for a past couple of days I completed a 2 day Hazmat shipping class. I've ben doing that all day, passed so we're moving on now. Have Dave getting ready to head out after a pile of work getting his Ebay find in a reliable condition. It's over at Ben's mufflers betting a new exhaust system. It should be heading out when that's done. By the end of this day, we have a pile of maintenance issues to finish up on the "Hanuman van"

You can see more pics on this machine on our Gallery page. It's a bit on the wet side around here today, not enough to stop progress now having the awnings to work under but still, rain sorta slows things down a bit around here.

I promise to do some pics of the interior on the Duramax machine for tomorrow, just been so dang busy-- you need to see the awesome job Tony is doing to bring the dash area to completion.

Fire Fight is still up in the air, I hope we can get something going soon. Boy, I have sure learned a bunch on shipping Haz Mat materials this week, did that specifically to crank up our production-- sure hope that happens-- stay tuned.

OK, I need to go for now, should have some time in the morning for some more interesting stuff-- till then --- Stay thirsty my friend...

Many of you understand that plunking down stuff here for me is a sort of therapy to bring out some of my more up front thoughts some days are right to the point while others both of us are forced to wade through sometimes things that I simply have to get out before I can talk about substance. This morning I just have to say for those of you who have never experienced gout-- you a most fortunate. I thought I was being proactive by cutting back on my scripts, figuring I could wean myself off all of this-- you know, be more natural, off the drug radar and not as dependant as before on the pills. Oops, what's this, oh, I am dependant on my gout pills and when whatever level of whatever it is that causes gout reaches a point-- wham, I've got it again big time! I had almost forgotten how debilitating it can be-- guess I needed a refresher course in pain! Guess is we have nuclear holocaust I need to rummage through a drug store to pick up as much medication as I can so I won;t turn into an invalid! Yep, a pill a day is now part of my life, and 2 if it looks like a bad one. "Comn Mr. Dillon" is bout all I can say as I hobble around the lot trying to keep everyone busy. Yea, I have an appointment with the doc to get a new prescription, guess that's how it goes-- better living through chemistry-- how bout taking that "better" off that saying? Could be worse so this isn't a complaint, just making a statement. Well, it didn;t work like it does whan I blow out stuff in my head, my foot still hurts-- guess that's it, we'll just have to suck it up as the coach used to say! Alrighty then, here we go...

Went over to Walters yesterday to check in on Mark's Duramax lookalike.

and among all the monster busses that Walter works on like like it's no big deal, Mark's GMC looked tiny!

but it's looking good. I brought over the new Atwood furnace he'll have to modify the flare kit to accommodate the furnace outside panel. Yea, check out how high the front end is, that's the adjustable front suspension lifted, very cool!

Speaking of the "Duramax", we pulled the 26' Cruz'n out of the bay for a little work in the daylight

, I have 2 spotters whenever we run the coach in the lot-- no chance there will be any "unexpected" issues

. With the fresh water and sewer systems on line , thanks Tony, we're no going for the dash trim out. It's pretty exciting seeing the final touches go in on this machine. Not long now Cal, be ready! I'll do more pics of where we are on the interior later.

So we have a coach in the lot with an interesting story, well not really but it is exactly the way you need to think when picking up a coach on Ebay. So many get a GMC on Ebay, hey and there are good deals to be had but many fel they can just hop up in the driver seat, pump the beast full of fuel and take off! Sorry, but that's simply not a good way to go. You must always "trust but verify" as Ronald Regan once said. So the PO (previous owner) said the coach has good brakes-- go have them checked out. It may have a good pedal, but are they really good brakes? This coach was purchased by a guy from BC, that's on the left coast over in Canada, it was bought through Ebay with the coach located in Ft. Pierce Florida. WOW! Is this guy nuts! Not really, his plan was to pilot the beast to us here in Orlando. Bout made it, the alternator was not working so his battery power got him @ 25 miles outside of town, his dist. module backfired because of low voltage, blew up one muffler while blowing off the output of the other muffler-- of course the coach stopped so the beast came in on Capt. Hook. Good thing cause there were many other issues to include a bad driver side hub & knuckle, CV and steering boots split, brake lines & hoses bad, caliper stuck, metal on the brake pads, and today we'll be dropping the fuel tanks replacing the old hoses with Barracade ethanol resistant stuff, adding a "countermeasures" pusher electric fuel pump, a quad bag system cause the air bags were furry, Eagle rims and new tires cause the tires were questionable, etc. The point I'm trying to make is picking up a coach that "runs" is that big E ticket ride to bring the machine to a reliable condition. Maybe once in a while but again you really should not jump into an unknown motorhome and roll the dice it will work for ya-- you just need to check things out and be prepared to maybe double your investment if the coach is one of those "great deals". it's not a great deal if it won;t get ya home! And a great deal is one that you have room to do some things to assure the integrity of the coach. Now I know bout the time you read this someone will say they picked up a coach for $1500 and drove it cross country-- I would relate that to Lynard Skinard hopping up into their twin engine plane without checking to see how much fuel was in the tanks! Don't so that! Would you pick up an older antique car and try to drive it home without a chase car equipped with a trailer? No Dave is doing it right, we're going through this machine mechanically, it will still look old, still sport the old colors and all but under that exterior will beat the heart of a ready to go road rocket and thats the way to do it. I'll try and do some pics of our progress on this job. let's just say from this I want you guys who are looking for that "big deal" that if you find it expect to put into the investment a complete mechanical update before you do anything else with it. Sorry but age makes this a must do.

So, I've got an appointment with the Doc today at 2:15 to get my fix, guess I'm addicted, wonder if the Betty Ford has a wing dedicated to Gout medication? I tell ya what, if getting off the stuff brings on the hurt locker I'm in right now, just call me a junkie, I'll wear the sign! The weather is really getting nice here in Florida, the snow birds should be showing up soon so if you come down make plans to drop by. We've got 3 power cord with 30 amps, buying dinner will get ya a night on our cords, come on by we'll leave the light on for ya.

Saturday proved to be the day it needed to be, Joe & Sharon came in to collect their new baby

, it's always the first look that you remember, kinda like that first roller coaster ride you never forget it. "Big Red" as they had previously named their machine certainly didn;t let them down.

I feel the world is better of now with this machine out representing the community.

We bundled up all their left over parts, went over things and before long they were in the coach, spooled up and ready for the road

and as the coach left the shop it was weird

-- I mean after working with the coach so long, so many things done and worrying about each it felt funny watching it leavedock and head out into open water

. So, another GMC is out there showing it's stuff and I'm proud as I can be of the work we did. Thanks Joe & Sharon for entrusting your coach with us, I hope Big Red will be a trusted and proud member of your family.

Now that I had a feeling of "empty nester" of course not for long with all of the other coaches wanting to go home soon, still that feeling did creep into my head for a bit-- I went over and played with my own coach maybe to give me the feeling I certainly was not left alone. Larry does make me smile,

he's mine-- yea, most other people would not want a big pile of flames or no windows but hey, he's mine and thats what makes the difference. Brian helped me move the lot around so figuring it was time for a little more change, we pulled out the 63 Airstream Tradewind from the "back 40".

A bit of a "bomber" right now, there is great expectations on this one. Like most stuff I get, it's pretty clapped out-- the "low profile" means the torsion bar suspension is gone-- oh well, gives us yet another unique thing to fix and I know kevin will feel like running away when he sees the volume of dull aluminum! We're going to do something different on the body, stay tuned for that.

Jim G. brought in Anne with a punch list from his last trip. Threw his fan belts out there, we need to investigate that a bit, also his PS pump is noisey-- hey, it's nothin but a thing! We'll get crackin on his issues today. Saturday came to an end and I did too, "delivery" of a coach after such a pile of work is always stressful-- I mean you just want that best foot out forward for the folks and hope everything got back in place. They did swing back by, seems the connector on their dash AC blower control switch came out-- an easy fix, also it looks like their blower relay died sitting here-- hey, an easy one to fix so if those are all the issues heading out we did pretty well. With a little letting down messing with Larry and the understanding that Monday we have Ed J. coach up on jacks to jump on hard on Monday-- I took Sunday off. Yea, I didn;t come in at all--- well I did have to drop by to pick up a tool but the day away was good. Got some stuff at the house done-- the gout in my right heel is giving me )(*& so maybe the day down was also good for that.

There seems to be good, substance questions lately on the GMC net so you may want to give that forum a looksee. I'm trying to decide how to broach the "bettery thread" there. Battery selection for your GMC is not a simple decision. It matters more on the use your coach will see than the brand of the battery itself. If you intend on being "off the grid" your needs will be different than someone using their coach primarily for travel and staying in parks. There are other factors as well, also there are factors of wiring and safety, maintenance and use to consider. The problem with the net is there is a word limit-- hey, you know me, it's hard to slow down when I get going so figuring out how to cut down my response to the question is my biggest problem. Thought of answering the battery question here but hey, my pose would probably be too long too! If you are considering new batteries and are not satisfied with what you read, give me a call. it's really a logical consideration.

Ok, the dark is gone, daylight has krept into the day, Kevin is here, John and there is hope for the rest of the crew. I hope you have a good day, we're sure going to give it a go...

Kevin has had to protect himself from the buffing process on Erwin's Airstream Man, I love what a doo rag does for ya and hey, you might wanna give those goggles back to your daughter! The reflection off the polished aluminum is so bright he's having a hard time seeing the surface and the throwing of compound is getting him so nasty I guess at least his forehead will be clean, Margie says he's messing up the shower curtain cleaning up in the shower! Hey but he's lovin the outcome !

Reading on the internet some of those Airstream junkies-- heck, they're talking 200 hours of buffing to do a 22' trailer! Man, that's over 9 hours a foot! I knew there was a good reason we don;t do this work that much-- that's crazy! Don;t worry Erwin, we're not going to put that kind of work into this job-- hey but some people do!

Getting ready for Joe picking up his coach tomorrow, Rusty & I did an alignment check on this coach.

We use an older Hunter C111 machine that was the first computer 6 wheel alignment model. Still works great and after this many years messing with it I feel pretty confident that when it's tweeked up it does a good job for us. Looking at Joe's front end I was on the worried side, numbers were saying there were some problems

Both camber numbers were off a little (still within tolerances) but it looked like something we needed to work with. Toe was way the heck off

That left tire was tring to put Joe over in the passing lane! After some work, we got toe right on

, camber and caster gave us a struggle but we did get everything into tolerance

, it does look however that caster has been effected by some twisting of his frame

. Runs out well though and in that this is all the adjustment we could get without offset bushings I do think the drive will be good. With this done, we'll vacuum out the coach, wash him up, dip fluids once more and get a little test drive under it's belt and we'll be ready. From this

to this

I think our work here is done.

Reporting on the continuing saga for trying to get our coach (the Tin Soldier) up and on the road, it was holding tank day

Being a "GM floorplan" interior you would think a standard sewer tank would work-- oh no, with the galley on the pass. side, the inlets to the tank are totally different

so we'll have to relocate them-- oh fun! Started in on the interior last weekend, figured I would brake out all the rotted wood and get down to the "root mean" of the interior-- ended up shovelling the bedroom out and pressure washed the interior! Oh well, it's is what it is!

The LP and generator compartment on this early 73 model were wood! You gotta be kidding!!! And being water rotted as they were, well it had to come out

. It's gonna be a long struggle bringing the Tin Soldier back into service!

There's been a great deal of press lately about fuel systems and the effects of ethanol. let me make the problem clear, here are destroyed fuel tanks that I threw to the dumpster this week

7 more rare tanks bite the dust! This is a real problem gentlemen and we need to do something to protect ourselves! We have several things we're doing but treating the fuel when the coach will be sitting for any length of times seems to becoming something we'll all have to do in the future. You just don;t know how much it hurt me to toss those 7 tanks but the damage was so bad they were simply junk!

This past weekend Frank & Lois brought their coach down from Buffalo for an exterior makeover and some mechanical stuff

. Got Rusty "diver down" going for a looksee on the front suspension of their machine

. Look at the uneven tire wear on their LF tire

and the weatherd control arm bushings. Actually his front suspension is very tight, looks like he's maintained things well. Looks like though with the control arm bushings the way they look I bet there is movement there so it looks like upper & lower bushings will be in their future. Stay tuned for more on this project. Hey Frank, give me a call-- I need your Email address to send you some stuff.

So this doesn;t catch me up by any means of stuff I want to show ya, but at least he's some. Next week it's push time for the Revcon coach heading out of here on the 30th. Also w2ith the water system in the Duramax solved, the dash is coming together really nice with Tony's help-- thanks man for that. Have a great day, if you are a net lurker, I hope I made my point on some of the stuff you read about there. Don;t just jump out there and start collecting all of those performance goodies folks are touting about. I always use the filter of "will it make my coach more reliable, make it easier to maintain and will it give me any vale added feature or performance pickup?" If that answer is no, be sure you want that thing just because-- because if it doesn't do anything to help out I mean why do you want it? I certainly like to change things, I have no problem on swapping out new for old technologies and ideas but again, what's it do for me and does that mod make it harder or easier to get repairs on the road? All these things are on the subjective side but please don;t let your eyes get blinded by the light! Hey, we live in America though as we can screw things up any way we like, just don;t get yourself in trouble exercising your rights as an American!

PS and looks like breaking news--- Gaddafi, that freak that gave us so much *&^% over the years has either been ca;ptured or killed. Had to happen, now maybe that part of the world can chill out a bit!

man, is time flying past! I thought I had just sat down to get you guys up to speed on where we are-- heck, that was 4 days ago! Man, I need to do better. Let me start by doing a little "homework", that being showing some folks with coaches here what's happening..

First, Erwin is probably logging in every couple days looking for progress on the polishing of his Airstream coach. Here is where Kevin was yesterday

I obviously screwed up the color balance on my phone-- isn;t that a funny thing to say about your phone! But anyway, you can easily see that shine in front of the entry door. To get a finish like this takes several steps of sanding, buffing and polishing. I knew there was a good reason we don't let it out to the Airstream community that we did this sort of thing! Hey, Erwin has a GMC in Belguim so what can I say, he's one of us and it's not his fault Airstream made his machine a (*&%$%$## to polish up.

The final finish truly is a mirror to the point that you can do this

Even though I am sure buffing like this is shortening his life, Kevin is pleased in that you can see the improvement as he goes. Proof positive we're doing all this stuff here for much more than the money! You gotta love this work to buff like he's doing here.

This weekend, Skip picked up his new acquisition, a 78 23' rear Bath Birchaven-- a really nice machine.

Though they have never owned a motorhome, none the less they were happy campers pulling away from the shop with their new coach. I did make sure they had seen the movie "RV" so I hope they at least won;t make any of those mistakes! Living here in central Florida we're still close enough to help-- just don;t rip off that good looking Zip Dee awning please!

We're closing in on getting Jeff's coach ready to go home to the left coast

The last thing is a new Mac dash, we're waiting on it's arrival to put it in before delivery. This coach was picked up off Ebay so as you can see, there are some pretty good deals there. Jeff, did Mac give you any delivery date on the dash kit?

We're working on several other projects of course, just wanted to get these folks handled

Today is today and we're here A beautiful day here, a chance to finish up some loose ends and clean up for the onslaught coming. My son Ray is with us here helping out, good to have him.

Today Skip is picking up his new acquisition, a good looking 23' rear bath Birchaven

Never owning a motorhome, I'm sure his ears will be smoking after the once over I'll be doing trying to get him up to speed with the machine. Actually, this part of my job is actually fun. It's helpful and I can do something to make his GMC experience just that much better.

Kevin is one step further on Erwin's Airstream

There is another step on the buff out of the still visible aluminum-- man maintaining that aluminum is a pain! But it's coming out pretty good. The next one we do I hope to cover all of that old aluminum finish with paint.

With Joe's paint finished and now being prepped to fly, the plan is to have it delivered next Friday, until then we'll keep checking to be sure it's ready

BTW, isn't that a nice, clean shot of the coaches there? Thanks guys for working hard cleaning and getting things looking good.

Ray is gong after the retrofit of the body side molding on "Tin Soldier'. I'll do a few pics on this for ya to show how we modify an early styled coach with the stainless steel body lolding to the later styled stick on body mold system. This is very important when restoring a 1973-4-5 or early 76 model coach.

, BTW that's Chimera up on the lift getting it's fuel delivery system double checked. As much trouble as we have seen on vapor lock and all of that, the fuel system on Chimera was done before all of this started being an issue. There are things we prpare the fuel systems thinking on effects of ethanol fuels that are now SOP where they were not before. I'll do some pics on that as we go.

Have another coach coming in for some work, I'll let you know what fun we'll have there. Have a great weekend, I may have some stuff to put up tomorrow-- we'll see but if not we'll pick up things on Monday-- see ya then...

Been out of pocket for a time sorry for not updating you guys especially after stopping so abruptly last time-- just too many things happening all at once around here!

The one great news I want to share with you, we have a new lease on life having to do with Fire Fight, the reason I have pushed so hard trying to get things back together with this "paperclip" needed safety product is that I believe in it so much and with the fact that there is close to nothing out there on the market similar for the RV community, it seemed to me to be a natural product to promote. Seems that another GMC owner has stepped up to help, be involved and from his efforts we will hopefully soon be able to offer you automatic fire suppression options for your coach. If you still don;t believe it's something you should consider, I guess I'll just have to mimic all the past sales approaches on this product and put the proof in front of your face!

I hated to do that but it was for your own good. Yea, I'm probably getting obnoxious about this-- oh here I go again! Please excuse me.

There's much more than that going on here & I really want to share more with you but looking at Mickey's hands I see I gotta get out and work. The guys are here, my son is watching the phone while Janie is over at Mom's place. It's a good day to work so why aren;t I out there doing that? Good question and my answer is--- See ya later, we'll talk again soon...

So here we are, a rainy Saturday and it quiet-- and wet-- here at the Co-op.

A good time to do some catch up, reflection at some of the past and about the future maybe.

First, I really appreciate all of the comments generated going into the fuel deliver thing. I think out of this there a few agreements:

1. Ethanol seems to lend to the screwing up of running our older big block drive trains-- whatever the beast is.
2. Ethanol does not seem to have any positive performance reasons that would make it good to have in our fuel supply
3. There seems to be little to nothing the vintage auto enthusiast can do about it.
4. until someone comes up with a sure fire way to totally deal with the effects of ethanol in our fuel supply, we will need to "grass roots" possible ways to fight this seemingly Darwinistic natural selection plan to delete older vehicles from the vehicle fleet on American roads.
5. So smile and say ,"Thank you sir, may I have another!"

Look, if you feel any of these is not representative of your feelings, please give me some input. In the meantime, I think we have some basic countermeasures that should at least get us through 5% Ethanol-- that is until something else is thrown into our "fuel soup". How bout Kool-Aide! Naaaa, I'm not upset! I've always felt that if you found some sort of problem that before you bring it up you need to have at least some sort of solution to it. Either we need to get deeper into this loop or it seems we have been blown off. I feel it's more a matter that they don;t want to pay attention to us, that new car sales will always overshadow the considerations of aftermarket and older vehicle maintenance and operation. So there it is, the auto world would rather us crush our older machines into so many drink cans and that we should toss all of the money the tax man doesn't get at them. They want to sell us new ting, not keep our old ones out there slowing their sales. I think if it were manditory that all cars 10 years old must be recycled. Recycle means more energy will be added to the recycled materials. This energy is now needs to be paid for thus they make more money. Personally, I think "recycling" means not only reuse the raw materials but also thnk about the energy put into the vehicle. Rather than taking more energy to crush and grind our machines in to metal and plastic pellets, why not clean the machine up, get it working and recycle the whole thing materials, labor and all! I betcha the pollution and energy loss in making new materials from these not pellets is much more wastefull than simply getting a machine back on the road. Hey, maybe not but at the amount of these things we can resurrect, I don;t see it will hurt anything so lets keep having fun. Hey, and isnt that what this is all about anyway?

I have had a few people ask about what Janie & my office look like. I had taken a couple of pics yesterday on another side project my son Ray said he would help me with. One of the features in my off was the 2 Barbie coaches perched way up on the top of some shelves.

, as you see though there's only 1 up there.

. That coach is my "survivor", actually the same colors of "JayGee"

, I'm keeping just as it is. That's the new side project, Ray has disected our "core" Barbie coach

where we will bring the pieces/parts back together with new colors, textures and technologies. So we have a full restoration Barbie project on our books. I think we'll build it to spec of Tin Soldier which BTW, Brian has started the DA sanding part of the exterior refinish

so be watching for this pair of restorations. Yea, that's "Bob" on the rear suspension-- have had several interested in that project. We're going for the second "prototype" so stay tuned. The first success has yet more to be added-- a correct way of saying "it ain't ready yet" hang with me.

I was sitting in the office, heard a motor fire up and head toward the gate. It was great to see it was the Revcon gong out on a test run. After dropping the fuel tank and messing with it's fuel delivery system

This was the project that convinced it was needed to have a conversation on the Ethanol and how to fight this foe. Didn;t have a camera near me when he pulled back in, said it ran great. Yea, we didn;t take it out on the open road and I do intend on taking it out there but with the second electric pump now working, it turning from an obstruction to now a pressure source I really feel we've got it. This is a perfect example of the reason folks bring this old stuff to us. Most shops don't have the time to ferret out crap like this. Hey, I'm not blaming them, they are not wrong. Many times what it takes to get all things happy-- it takes persistence. It took 4 trips back for us to solve the problems with that "Stinkn Lincoln"! Hey, welcome to my world! Anyway, the Revcon is operational, now it was my turn to get in there and extract the wire wad that was the old vacuum operated cruise control. I mean if all I did is shove in the wiring for the new servo cruise control over top the pile of wires of the old cruise system-- I would be part of the problem! Actually, the unit in there was an older Rostra which I bet in it's day was a good one. Removing it felt to me like putting down a good ole workhorse. "Thanks for the good work, now it's time for a new "young buck" to take over. I took some pics of "ole Paint" on the ground with the new main unit going in-- sorry, couldn;t find them. Really is a pleasure outfitting this beast with a new speed keeper. Stay tuned for that.

Yesterday, Mike & John were dogging our issues with getting the new sewer system on the Duramax operational

Hey and the paint has not been wet sanded yet! The sewer system will be the wildest set up I've ever done. We have a maserator pump creating a "lift station" to pump it's contents over to the first holding tank-- yes, the first. We have very limited space under the Workhorse chassis so we have 2 tanks connected in series to give us a total holding tank volume. Of course there is a emptying maserator system off the 2nd tank to evacuate both tanks. Ok, so how many of you have a 2 tank system like this? Hey, it had ta happen! 2 custom made unique tanks totally filling the available voids

It works? Oh, I mean it works! No, just it works. There was a pile of theory that went into that system. Those of you in the marine world might say why didn;t I use a marine styled maserator toilet? Hey, they all looked funny! I really wanted to use the good looking thrown we're used to. So we did.

Looks like I got a bit of a rise from folks with the fuel delivery thing yesterday Hey, that's good-- as Henry Ford once said, "A bump is as good as a knock, at least they're talking about ya". Got things other folks are doing, some of them were pretty insightful. Goes to show the American way is alive and well, we can do things any way we choose and many are exercising their creative licence. As far as the GMC goes, I have to bounce things I do off the "KISS" system which helps me not get so convoluted and complicated with my fixes that they turn into issues themselves. Yes, an electric fuel pump should feed it's power through a engine running detection circuit-- yes, yes of course we all understand this and I do not say bring this up is wrong. This is why I suggest not using the 2nd electric pump all the time. It seems that under normal conditions, with good hoses, filters and what have you the GMC seems to do pretty good supplying a carb with adequite fuel with the original mechanical fuel pump. When something goes wrong-- an example I had a screw together glass style fuel filter on Larry, had to run the electric pump all the way to Duquin and back. When I checked it out, I found the filter housing had unscrewed allowing the sucker mechanical pump to pull air past the threads. My on demand electric pump yea leaked at the filter but it did give me fuel all the way to Ill and back. If the filter didn;t leak I would have had no troubles. This is a perfect example of having "countermeasures" when I found the original fuel delivery system failed. You always need countermeasures when something happens so with a selectible electric pump on the aux. tank you have it. When in use, you know the pump is on because you selected it, I only use the pump now when priming the system to start and when I get off the road, stop at a toll booth or cause the ambient heat in the engine compartment to rise. Switching it on and off keeps me aware of the fact it is on and if needbe I would switch it off in an emergency. Yea, yea I know that statement is silly-- I mean when you have an emergency will you have the presence of mind to switch off the pump. hey, turn off the *&&^%$ key and everything goes off-- right. OK,ok, I know there was a GMC owner that had his harness melt leaving the pump on. Hey, you just can't protect yourself agianst everything-- oh yea, that's why you should have a fire suppression system in your coach! OK, I'l not jump onto that soap box but really, deep down you know you should have fire measures in your coach. You can rationalze all day and being a friend I guess I need to nod my head and say yea I understand but the reality of it is I really can't understand why so many are playing with fire (no pun intended) not protecting themselves and their RV investment. I am on the ropes wrestling with betting my "farm" in rebuilding Fire Fight. It's not cheap to jump through all the hoops to bring what I see as a no brainer product back onto the market. I think I can do nothing else than commit myself to the goal-- I mean if I don;t what does that say about my commitment to the community? Yea, I just can't get excited about it and can only do what I can. if there is someone out there with the financial ability to invest in offering a truly needed protection system to the GMC community, give me a call. It would be far easier to put this opportunity back out on the market with someone who truly understand it's importance than an investor group thats only interested in the money and leverage. I weel I am committed and am going to make this happen, it's just what form will the business come back as.

See that, I got way more deep into that than I should have, you guys don;t need all of that-- shows to go ya how I feel about the support you folks show for the Co-op and the things we are trying to do around here. Oh, the second thing I wanted to talk about the other day actually was fire suppression and how so many people on the GMC net were talking about people they knew and actually them themselves had run ins with fire and total destruction of a coach due to fire. It just amazed me they were talking about all of this and never mentioned that after they witnessed the carnage they did not go out and do something to keep it from happening again! Man, that's amazing! If you understand that a motorhome has several fire safety issues you really need to do something about it. Sorry but black is black-- white is white and when you see a true danger you should consider what to do to keep you safe. I'll stop and please don;t hold it against me for point all this out-- I just care.

So on to more, Kevin and Brian are starting in on the bulk work of getting the --------------- will do more later

Yesterday was a blurrrr with all thats going on around here there was no time for much any fun-- that's what I see this as each morning, today I'm in a bit early because I have 2 things i want to cover this morning.

First is our fuel formulations here in the US and how it seems to relate to our GMC. If you surf around any of the GMC sites, blogs and mail lists no doubt you have read almost too much about ethanol, it'd to solve the problem with. Heck, I too have been trying to find a formula of things to effect these effects. The issue of what the chemical does to our fuel system is personally sinister . Mixing in something that while promoting rust also cleans it throwing the residue into filters clogging up carbs, injectors , drying out rubber products-- come on man, did someone tell whoever signed on the dotted line that it would damage the equipment it would be used in? That really stinks and then there are the performance effects-- poor mileage up to simply causing the motor to fail, shut down and just leave you on the side of the road-- isn;t that a safety issue? This really is nothing short of a bad move on the part of our government-- please, someone tell and show me I am wrong!

So now we spend a % of our time trying to at least find ways our older drive trains will keep moving through this swamp of bad Juju. I am still not sure but I think I have come up with an understanding on something. Lately, we have been struggling on a 1962 Lincoln trying to get it reliable enough to be used as a limousine. Yea, I would rent it if I needed a limo and the owner of the limo service liked the idea of using this classic beast so he has been on a quest to fix the car up to use in his fleet. There has been much work put into the car bringing it up to a reliable condition-- after all--- if you rented the thing and a driver you sure would not feel like being on the side of the road! The car was brought to us to rehab the fuel delivery system, it had failed several times and the service owner knew we were dealing with the fuel systems on the coaches. We found the usual rubber hoses turned to silly putty, clogged filters, etc. Fixing all of that the car fired and seemed to run well-- it left here to do it's think. At the same time we were outfitting Bill's coach with our "latest greatest" remedy addressing this issue for the GMC-- a second backup electric "pusher" pump to be used in conjunction with the original mechanical "sucker" pump on the motor. In suspect times, flipping on the aux. electric pump seemed to solve our vapor lock issues at least on the GMC. The interesting twist to this is we are also trying to solve similar vapor lock issues on a 33'King Revcon. The coach runs great but after a time it too would start to buck and sputter seemingly having the same problems as we have been seeing in the GMC. This is part of the reason for my decision that the entire world seems to be vapor locking on this new fuel formulation. Well, not everything in that it seems that the newer cars on the road don;t seem to have this issue-- why is this and why does it feel like there is a Darwinistic plot to rid the world of all older normally aspirated vehicles by the government through the EPA and their "green" effort? I mean are we on the wrong side of trying to keep humanity from flushing the earth down the eljer of pollution!

These are the things that trouble me mainly because I am in the loop of this problem with many people and it's formost on the mind of folks with vehicles we work with. OK, here is something I think might be a key. Just like adhesives, there are many factors that go into producing, storing and delivering a fuel to a mechanism devoted to turning the fuel into motion, if you were to study 'adhesives" and find what actually makes them sticky it would amaze you. It's a complicated chemical process to stich scotch tape to a piece of glass-- it's amazing. OK, so is storing and delivering all sorts of fuels to a motor. If it's diesel, there are certain conditions which must be met, likewise with fuel. It's volatility, consistency, viscosity and how it reacts to heat and pressure all goes into designing a fuel delivery system for a gas burning motor. What sort of pump is needed to transfer fuel from a containing vessel to the fuel/ air mixing device. What pressure does it take to do this and what pressure does the atomizing component of the motor (carb. or injectors) need to do the job. These are the perameters and I'm sure others that go into designing a fuel delivery system. OK, that's great and now we throw into the mix a new chemical make up of today's fuel. The ethanol in our fuel supply drops the boiling point of the fuel mix. This means fuel boils now at a lower temperature meaning the requirement of the fuel containment and delivery systems have changed. If you store chocolate in your kitchen, the chocolate has to be mixed to not melt at room temps. If you want the deep, rich dark dutch chocolate, you will need to keep it in the frig because the chemical makeup of that form of chocolate cannot stay solid at room temps--- right? OK, our fuel now changing state to steam at a lower temp. now needs to be treated differently. Like that special dark chocoltes, our fuels need a different treatment than the more stable fuel mixes of the past need.

Hey, I'm not an engineer and do not profess to know all of the parameters that may be effected when you go back to the drawing board to design a new fuel delivery system. I also don;t have the coin to pay a bean couter to do the job so the best we can do from this end of the stick is to work on the "cause and effect" of the project. When boiling water on a stove, you can reach higher temps by using a pressure pot to raise the boiling point of water--- right? OK, increasing the pressure of the fuel in the line running from the tank to the carb would do the same thing. The Revcon we are working with had something I knew about but had not thought about this until now. Like the bigger Airstreams we've worked with, we found the Revcon has an electric "pusher" pump back at the tank that is working to push fuel all the way forward for the original mechanical "sucker" pump picks it up and provides a regulated 6 psi or so to the carb. Yesterday we dug into the Revcon to find it's pusher pump back at the fuel tank was not working. Oh yea, it also had silly putty hoses on top and around the tank and that is one of the ethanol issues we have to address but way back when this beast was born, whoever engineered the fuel delivery system must have been reading from the same book because both coaches used 2 (mechanical and electric) pumps in their fuel delivery design. Why was the Revcon sputtering? Well, the ethanol had eaten the fuel line back at the tank and being such a *&^%$ to get to my guess is that hose back there is original. That's part of the problem but also, without the electric fuel pump working back there, the mechanical pump was at a disadvantage not having the benefit of the pressure created by the electric pump it was designed to have. I betcha when we drop the Revcon fuel tank, replace all that crappy rubber and get the electric fuel pump again running (BTW Chris, the pump does work, it was simply not getting power) that the Revcon problem of vapor lock will be gone!

What if the perameters that the GM engineers used to decide they only needed a mechanical "sucker" pump on the notor was close enough to the edge of the perameters of that single pump system that now that the fuel makeup has changed it now needs to have the fuel line pressurized with a second electric fuel pump for the system to reliably supply fuel to the motor. Obviously, the old formula said you need a second pump on a 33' Revcon fuel system but not on a 26' GMC system. Maybe now, these new fuels change the fuel delivery formula to now require the second pump but only in high heat conditions. Maybe we are only out of the box on hot days? Maybe the big thinkers of the past who said for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction-- what if the unexpected result of changing our fuel makeup has changed the needs of our fuel delivery system? I can tell you this, putting an electric "pusher" pump in the system when you run into higher heat conditions will almost always solve the vapor lock issues in the GMC, I also know because of the problems with the Revcon that without the second pump running, it will vapor lock at @ 1 hours run. Makes you wanna say Hmmmmmm!

This light bulb came on because, and now we're back to that stinkn Lincoln, that beast ran around all day-- the driver stopped to fill the tank and from there the car would not run. We hot footed over to the gas station, connected a 5 gallon plastic fuel tank to the mechanical pump and she fired up. We bungeed the gas can to the grill and drove the car back over to the shop. Hey, maybe that 50 year old design fuel delivery system passed it's ability to pump the new formulation "chocolate" from the tank to the motor? We're putting an electric "pusher" pump on the Lincoln this morning along with fixing up the issues on the Revcon. I betcha both vehicles will react well to our work. If these machines needed the help of that 2nd pump, what about our classic GMC? Does it now need a 2nd electric fuel pump to push the fuel, pressurize the line to let this new fuel get to where it's going in a condition to be used? We may be onto something here!

Some folks believe in a single electric fuel pump and it just may be that the spec. of a single "pusher" pump may be just that extra that our fuel delivery system needs to keep it keepn on. I still like the good ole mechanical pump and to me, if it does not hurt (over pressurize) the GMC fuel delivery system by using the 2 pump design (which as I said the other longer RV's did use) then I think I like that idea. The mechanical pump would act like a regulator only allowing a certain psi to pass. Sometimes a fuel regulator needs to be used in the case of higher pressure electric pumps, let the mechanical pump be that regulator. We will continue and further the aux. electric fuel pump routing for the GMC mainly because we can due to the 2 tank and 2 pickup situation the GMC has. The Lincoln does not have that feature so a full time 2nd pump will be in it's future and will the Revcon get back what God gave it in the original design.

Call this a "white paper" on fuel delivery systems if you like. I have found there truly are several factors that go into a fuel system (venting, delivery, containment, etc.) hey and just maybe we need to step out of our box a bit and think about what our new fuels are doing to the fuel delivery combination--- hey, maybe not! It's worth a thought, especially in that we do have this problem. I'll continue working this issue and let you know what we find. It will be interesting to see if using 2 pumps on the Lincoln solves it's problem, if getting the second pump on line in the Revcon solves it's issues and if thinking this way solves the GMC vapor lock mystery as well. Please let me know your thoughts on this.

See that, I've blown my time on only 1 of the 2 issues I wanted to talk about-- I hope you feel it was as important I I did to go over this. I really do want and need your thoughts on this. These are the things that keep me up at night, these are the things we all must consider trying to keep a vintage machine on the road. These are the very things that define what a good vehicle design is and maybe this is how we need to reinvent our wheel. You engineer types dust off your slide rule and give me a read!

Thanks for listening to all of this, let me know your thoughts. Have a great dey and lests do this again tomorrow...

I'm back in Orlando from what I will tell you was an awesome weekend run it made such an impression on me I have begun to put it into words. I hope I can have just a little time to finish the story, follow my account of this trip here Huntington Flash. Flying home, I decided this was a great example of some of the things we do here so please pardon me while I put this in print before all the wounds heal. Just a few pics but I hope the copy will be worth the read. I'll do my best to finish it today.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood here, the coolness of fall has hit, the sky is bright blue and Mr. Weatherman says we have clear weather most of the week. I'm coming off an inspiring weekend so hang with me while I put this all together. Have a great day, thanks for dropping by and we'll see what tomorrow brings...

lets try and start over One add I swore I would do to doors-- the lock, latch and catch mechanisms are wearing out-- sorry but it looks like the 1/2 life of these parts is about now so after an embarrising moment when the door of the 23d Duramax coach jammed I swore from then on I would cut an access on the inside of the door to give folks at least a fighting chance to open the door if something broke. As time erodes our coaches, things like this are needed. What better coach to do that on that Joe's. Here, we had a mangled door

which re replaced when we did the paint. The door was all open-- actually a different door from the one God gave it. These coaches all look the same-- guess what, they aren;t! Doors are different, measurements are off and years of all those extra parts in the roof pod squat the body so another door may or may not fit. We actually got the door on and adjusted pretty well on Joe's exterior refinish so there I was trimming out the interior of the door, putting all that mechanism in--- and I just put it all together-- hey, and it looked good!

Ah, but I forgot my prime directive, I checked everything, it all worked well so I locked the door to finish things off the next day. You know what happened, the guys went to unlock the door-- no go! It would not unlock--- &^%#@$^((*^^(&)8!!!! I was gone at a meeting so for the next hour or so they tried what they knew to get the door open. I got in, went over and yep-- you can't get in. Douuuuu, so I started working and found if I pulled back on the lock mechanism with the key in I could pop the lock. Oh yea, that's like standing on 1 foot, rubb your belly while whistling Dixie to open the door! This will not work so back in I went

After a little I found the issue,

the lock mechanism was shot, too much wiggle room

, that pin should not be able to bend that far out in the casing. It also went in and out which was what caused the trouble. OK, so a $36 new door lock mechanism would fix that

But hey, what about saving lives out on the road? See, this could have happened out on the road! You really need a second way to get into that mechanism to pop the door open if needbe. Hey, building backups into the coach is what we're all about and if that door jams shut, there is about no way short of tearing up your door to get in there. What to do? Pull off yor inside door latch panel-- mark off and cut an opening where the mechanism can be accessed

then put the panel back on and see how easy it will be to get in and unlock the door if you need to

We'll screw a plate over the opening and now Joe cannot get locked in or out of his coach! Guys, don;t give me any crap, just do this! I would have saved a good 3 hours of my time if I would have first just replaced the locj mechanism when I put the door together and would have saved the 2 hours the guys messed with trying to get the door open before I got back to the shop! It's all about making things easy to maintain and brother, this one just has to be on your list of help aids! Sharon & Joe have it now and of course now they will probably never have "Murphy" give them grief over a locked door again. If so then doing this to their door was simply the right thing to do. So be forewarned, if you come in here for work on your door, your coach will go out with a cover plate over an opening in the plate-- just accept this is a good thing and do it!

OK, I'm off today to W. by God Va. to deliver Bill's coach. He's sporting one of our new Koba roller cam motors, a Manny tranny, a quad bag system, Mac dash, new Zip Dee awning (won;t need that on the trip), reworked brakes and a host of other stuff. Bill was so kind to leave his good looking machine with us for the shoot so I said I'd drive it too him myself. Hey, it'ds not that much out of my way-- I love driving these things-- as the pro baseball player said, "Heck I'd play ball for nothing!" I feel the same way bout driving GMC's cross country-- it's just a blast. I'll be on the cell phone if you need me, so give a call if you like-- hey, I'll be lovn' every minute of it! Fly back in Saturday so this will be a white knuckle run-- all the better----- "A fill tank of gas, half pack of cigs (not really), it's dark and we're wearing sun glasses-- it a mission from God-- lets go!" Thanks to the guys for building up such a nice machine for me-- oh wait, that's right it belongs to Bill-- ah, but it's mine till I get there!

Have a good weekend, I'll be having fun, see ya on the other side and thanks for the visit...

So many things are happening around here now, there's no way to plunk it all down here-- let me just say we're knocking baseballs out of the park. How bou me just focus on one or 2 things here so I can actually get stuff done

Joe, Sharon, lets plan a pickup date your coach is close to ready to go

We still have to wind the A&E awning and install an new exterior light, the old original one fell apart. Yesterday I got the door aligned

For the rest of you, Joe's door had taken a hit, this is another one they brought in. Now all of these GMC's look the same--- but they are not and certainly in the 1973 models there are things that simply do not fit. I think Kevin did a great job at fitting this door in where there had been severe hinge damage. Here's the interior of the door trimmed out

. Like I said another day and we can start prepping the coach for delivery. Give me a call and lets plan a date.

This weekend I drove Bill's coach to the house getting bugs out for his delivery this weekend

Bill now has one of our roller cam motors, a Manny tranny, Mac dash, Zip dee awning, a Quad bag set up among other things. It's hot down here so we're still finding some vapor lock issues and there's still the dash AC to charge but we're coming along.

Oh and Erwin has color on his roof now.

Today, Kevin will put on his "buff master" helmet and get that old aluminum back in shape

I can hear his now-- "Ahh, Grasshoppa, compound on, compound off. Do this and you will find your truth" as Brian witnesses the transformation.

We still have the roof AC to paint then the sides to polish up. Again, thanks to Kevin's hard work, the roof looks great.

Last night was farwell to Capt. Dave, Andy and Angela with dinner at Fish on Fire. We started out with a few drinks at the Co-op RV resort

in front of the backdrop of the on demand hot shower and ice maker. Here's a special pic of Angela (the first gal Motohome Drag Race driver-- she drove JayGee) and Janie posing next to Larry's Flames, I'd say they all were pretty hot this weekend! Then on to Fish on Fire , that's Jay the owner in the middle, for an awesome dinner

This certainly has been a wild several days, can't thank too much all who made it happen-- you guys were great. Today Capt. Dave, Andy & Angela fly home and that marks the end of all this. Wow, it happened! So now what? Hey, lets get back to work!

Yesterday the guys are on focus on Bill's coach which I'll be delivering the weekend. There are so many small things that go into getting a coach off the lift and back on the road, we want everything to work as well as they can. Stay tuned for more there. Slowly, we will get back in our groove. Unfortunately, we have lost Tom, hey life goes on and there will be others. I would like to thank Tom for his efforts, he will be missed. Ray and Rusty are taking up that slack for the time being so all is good. John has left us so if there's anyone out there looking for some work, give me a call. Hey, it's hard work, long hours with not much pay-- but we have so much funnnn! Don't everyone crowd in!

Wanted to leave you today with a few pics around the lot of a few of the awesome machines we've had the privilage to work with. Thanks to their owners and the guys who do such a great job

There's Kerry com'n in

And Jerry Dropping by

Ah, more pics of the weekend are coming in, here is the convoy leaving the drag strip-- man, now isn't that a good looking morning!

more to come, stay tuned...

Hey Eugene, we had an issue with your coach. The roof AC stopped running while the generator was running. Turning everything off when we got back to the shop we found your 50 amp outlet and plug had gotten hot

We cut it out and put in a new plug

, I'll also change out the generator receptical before you pick it up. Looks like it had been hot before-- have you had any troubles with your roof AC untis? Have no fear, we got it. BTW, the engine temp ran perfect all the way to the track and back.

OK, gotta go, while everyone is cleaning up getting ready to hit Orlando International, the guys are showing up and the day is on. Thanks for the visit, hope to see you soon....

Well, it's another Monday Saying I feel like I was shot out of a cannon doesn't quite express the feeling when it was all over Friday night. After the interviews and all the hoopra at the shop

complete with spectators

there was a 9 coach convoy headed toward the Orlando Speedway and our destiny on the track

. To say Thursday and Friday was stressful is again like saying you were shot out of a cannon-- heck, how would most people know what that would feel like and how could you compare what happened to something you had never done but none the less... OK, so there we all were, I'm in the lead mainly because no one else knew how to get to the track, what happens if the convoy gets stopped by traffic lights which they did and then say we get through all that which we did-- thats 54 tires that must stay aired up or the entire ball of wax melts! It's terrible but after working on these ole things so long I know how many silly little parts could fail and everything comes to a stop! As it turned out, only one of my coaches (JayGee) gave us a scare when it shut down coming out of a toll booth but it was only vapor lock and the electric fuel pump on the aux. fuel tank took care of it. Talk about people looking, I mean how many times do you see a string of GMC's-- oh yea, with a red VW Westfalia microbus taking up the rear-- Yep, breaker, breaker good buddy-- we have a convoy!

We all made it, well one coach stayed back so all 9 made it in and sitting at the gate we now converted from a convoy to a rally scene. Pics are sketchy as yet but I do have a few. Here is some of the fun in the rally portion of the event

Yea, talking and eating, I'm over there on the side flipping out trying to get all the coaches up on the strip. I think we have pics of that, stay tuned. At long last we got Kerry and his 502 injected Chevy power plant, 3.70 gears, big tires and all out there, did real respectible, Anne inched out Larry though I was on the move there at the end. Heck the VW bus kicked butt on the 1/4 mile so did the "Family Funeral Coach" Airstream! Hey, we just had a blast and the rains hit right at dusk as the taping ended. Yea, we got it all and everyone there was excited.

That night went on basically on adrenaline till about 1AM, the track had rained out at dust so you know what happened after that! Several people headed home while Mel, Kevin, Andy, Kapt. Dave, Bob, Kerry and Janie & I stayed the night. Dry camping in hot weather down here means the generators had to keep us cool. I was proud of JayGee and it's troll, after a little prayer meeting with brother Bob leading me and some others and some laying on of hands, the ole Troll fired up and gave us cool all night long-- good boy! I was out like a light, my ear picked up the generator rpm change each time the roof AC cycled but beyond that I was out. The next morning came and I knew I was getting back some energy because I woke up at the usual 5AM and simply could not go back to sleep. Getting out at dawn is always good for me and the view from the drag strip of the sun rising was fantastic

Larry was still in tact after his burnout and to me just looked great

my hand was a little shaky -- sorry-- One by one, everyone woke up and had a tailgate breakfast

before lining up the 5 coaches that braved the night for another convoy back to the shop. No problems so arriving back at the shop it was time to fix any small issues brought about by the rally, tuck coaches back in where they sit and start the process of getting back to business as usual. I still have some energy to find, sleep to catch and composure to gain and this morning we all came together to start out another week. It's hard but we need to put behind us all of the weekends eventy and get back to business. I have Bill's coach to drive this weekend to WV.. We have interior, paint and mechanical issues to fix and our beat here at the co-op will and must go on. Fun is fun but it does not pay the bills.

Give me a day to get back in the grind here, I certainly thank everyone who made this weekend such a success. You guys came together and made this happen and without all we would have been sunk! So we're back here in the saddle, the fun is still here and we're going for it. I'll put out some more pics and we download them. Come by tomorrow to see a little what's happening and it's onward from here. Have a great day, give your coach a hug ...

Sorry but we're in the tunnel now time has surpassed the speed of sound approaching light speed! I am becoming more proud of the shop every hour, I'll do some pics later today. We're in the midst of washing, servicing and putting fuel into the coaches that will go to the drag race rally. Bill, don;t worry, we won't put yours on the track but it will be a great shakedown run. Eugene, same thing. There will be several we will run though.

Picked up a 23' coach that's for sale recently. If you are looking for a 23' machine, here it is. The price is $6000 and not one cent less. No need to scratch the ground like a chicken worrying if you got a good deal. This really is a good deal-- a rear bath 23' Birchaven. Go take a look on the lot We need to find a home for this puppy, been sitting and it needs to get out.

It's almost noon so I gotta go, snuck out to do this. Tomorrow will be a full zoo so I may not be able to post. Please wish us well on this...

Somebody stop that second hand from spinning around so fast! It's getting crazy around here getting ready to the shoot! It's too late to stop it now, even the 50/50 rain chance can't make us pull back! Rick M. and the fellas from the production company have their tickets and the time is set. Thanks in advance to all who are helping to put this together. Can't wait to see GMC's up on the line, monster burnouts and having a blast at the track. We'll also expose the classic GMC and other vintage machines to the car buying public, should be a real eye opener for them.

The guys are still head down getting things done, Erwin's Airstream is back in for more cosmetic surgery now on the roof. we'll blend the platinum silver into the original aluminum-- can't wait to see how that comes out. Found a hidden fresh water leak in the Cruz Duramax coach

which BTW will be a centerpiece in the shoot on Thursday. man, just wait til folks see that monster!

The shower ran out of LP last night, Gerry & Brian had to rough it! Got the tank filled, with all the folks flying in for the shoot, we'd better have cold ice and hot water at the Co-op RV resort!

Gery is in here getting his fuel system rebuilt and new body pads. With the tanks back from cleaning and pressure testing,

and the body pads in, getting it all back together is the job for the day.

Don just got a GMC sent to him in Australia---- yes down under! Hey, he's really gotta want one of these babies to pull parts seriously "long distance'. For their DOT, he has to have a left side door fitted to his coach. BTW, here is the coach he now has over in Aussiland.

We did the work on it and I'm really proud someone from so far away saw the merits of having the coach. We're sending all the bits-n-pieces he'll need to build in a new driver side entry door.

So guys understand, the GMC is not just to park behind the barn! Folks all over the world "get it"! I mean come on, what a good looking animal!

Another Monday starts a new week but this one is starting a red letter week! You know how it usually goes, you push and push, make plans, try and work with what you have to produce more, push the limits because if you never try-- you never get. But usually and I don;t know if it's a sick joke or what but as the song says "you don;t get what you want, you get what you need--- we all usually settle with that and call it a day. We've, as you know, have been pushing for some time the envelope in the effort to expose what you and I understand as an exciting and unique form of transportation and an emerging lifestyle. To us it may seem obvious what to others looks to be an out of the box idea-- our goal has always been to lift up the GMC community as well as the concept of vintage RV's as a viable option to spending big dollars in a depreciating new RV market. Well, all that said, this week is shaping up to be that red letter week where many opportunities come together and we all should be the benefactors. Hey, it's all about having fun and the exposure of showing folks what it's all about-- the more the merrier so I'm pulling out a few stops not even thought of before. Wish us all luck-- even talking about this now could be bad Juju but I feel with all the good Karma I can muster can only help so have good thoughts for our movement this morning.

The shop is getting ready, I can feel a buzzzzz in the air, which BTW seems louder than the crickets always in my ear so I think we have something here. Of all of the weeks you've hung in there following our exploits here, this week you really need to stand by! More to come and thanks to all who are putting this a priority to help.

Erwin's monster Airstream is out of cosmetic surgery not for good but to get a breather

The brown beltway color is on as is the gun metal grey rocker panels. Kevin had the coach slotted for the platinum silver blend when the rains hampered the progress over the weekend. We're in to 30-40% rain territory this week-- oh come on Mother Nature, what's up with this! We need sunny, dry weather-- lets have it! Stay tuned for more.

Hey Chris, you back window is in

. Looked like the rear window in his Revcon used the same rear window gasket system as our GMC---- survey says----- nope! But of course we had to drop back and punt! From our supplier we prevailed and identified the correct window gasket profile and with that success followed. Thanks Kevin, Brian, Mike and others who made it happen. Installing one of our microprocessor controlled cruise controls goes in next and a test drive to see the fuel issues are fixed and this puppy will also be off the porch. Wish us luck....

It's soooo good to have such support, all the guys are here. We have a full contingent to make this happen-- at least for this day and the future is wide open. And as Tom Petty says, "I'm free--- free fall'n"! Things are getting exciting around here, stay tuned-- oh, and as always have a great day...

I can tell good things are coming soon seems like time is spinning past. One minute it's dawn and the next I'm looking out over an empty shop-- it's after 5 and the only thing left is to get some sleep for the next day. Yesterday was a good one although it wizzed by. I just hated the way that "SOB" awning (that means it wasn;t a Zip Dee) attached to Joe's coach. The butcher who first installed it tore off the top rail end caps and drilled home a set of huge lag bolts. Man, it looked like crap and leak-- oh you betcha! We've been struggling with some new installation, afterall after all that exterior work, how could we just rig it back like it was. This is why I try not to work with these things but hey, you do what you need to so on with the discovery.

I'll show you the last pic first of the awning on which of course means we figured out a tasteful way of getting that big ole awning on

. Looking at it you would never know all the hassle that went into getting the thing on. Mike & Rusty braved the glaring sun, that's Mike in the Mr. Greenjeans straw hat

following through with the design. Rather than sending those well digger bolts through the top rail and beyond, we fabricated an aluminum plate to straddle the new end rail end caps where they were screwed into the aluminum body. Here you see the top screws in with mike getting ready to send home the bottom screws

. This morning I couldn't help taking a pic of Joe's coach just one step closer to complete

and I know they are happy to see their machine in this condition. Me too...

Another project I gave a little report on--- non GMC--- was the project to turn a mild mannered 71 VW Westfalia camper into a luxury, fully equipped travel RV. Well, yesterday we got in the sewer system with John putting the final touches on the dump outlet

You can see the 30 amp marine style power connection there. They said it's couldn't be done-- make a full RV out of a microbus. Oh and you know how I am when someone says it can't be done-- just don;t tell me that and we'll be OK! Next will be an awesome paint job but as Doyle's baby sits it has a full 30 amp AC electrical system with transfer switch, power converter, breaker panel and a 2000 watt Honda generator on the front bumper

but the big news is that generator runs the power converter, 2 way electric/12 volt frig AND the 9000 BTU roof AC unit!

Hey, don;t cha just love those peace sign drapes! See the white box at the back of the slide door? That's the outside shower set, there is a toilet and sink connected to a sewer dump system, as I said a Norcold frig, killer sound system, flat screen TV with DVD player-- I tell ya guys, this it the bomb in retro downsized travel excitement. Makes my old microbus a relic, Doyles machine has it all. Yea, it's slow like every other microbus but you know speed isn;t everything-- Doyle will have his tinkerbell at the upcoming Drag Race rally for exhibition purposes. Thanks Doyle for letting us do some wild stuff top your bus, you're the best.

Yea, we are a GMC restoration shop but I can't discount the importance of the other classic vintage travel machines. The VW bus spurred the dreams of many "back in the day". I had 2 of them but back then, there were no compact roof AC units, generators or things like that. Back then a 19" TV was a huge cube of weight and no one had a toilet small enough to wrestle into a microbus. Technology has made outfitting this machine possible, having the creature comforts we just have to be exposed to today. I mean how can you relax in Florida without a good air conditioner! Hey, and when the urge hits, well it's there and something has to be done! We're working on some other similar unique machines harnessing the value of older RV's-- of course GMC's included. Getting ready for the shoot and the drag race rally is, as I said, looking to be a good time for all.

Here's another "non GMC" special, Erwin's monster Airstream is getting it's glamour coat bringing it back to the living

Kevin and Brian are in there working like a pack of ants over the beast, I told it to not peek but I guess it just had to watch what the guys were doing to him

The beltline and rocker panel colors are on with the platinum silver to cover the corroded aluminum of the roof coming next

The guys are doing a great job and I appreciate all of their hard work

So today I'm over on George's interior putting in some of the final trim and stuff. I'll do some pics for ya. We've had some snafoos on parts shipping lately, please excuse, we'll get it together. Like I said, the closer we get to the shoot, the faster things are happening around here. Tony is stopping in to lend a hand which is a great help. We have Andy, Angela and Capt. Dave flying in next week to help, Barefoot Bob H., the 1/4 drag race record holder will be in the mix as will a pile of other friends. Jim G. will have Anne out there flirting with the guys and of course Larry will be sporting his flames like the punk he is. Like I said, this is shaping up to be a plast, if you will be in the Orlando area Thursday here and then Friday at the Orlando Speedway, son you really need to make plans.

OK, Kevin and Brian are here which is my que to get out there and do something! Gotta go, the walk in to work was exhilarating so lets do something with that new found energy. Have a great day and weekend, we'll be here and next week will be awesome-- get some sleep, eat your Wheaties and don;t loose the address for the daily pose!

Missed a really important call yesterday Raymond Cruz rang up my bet is to see not only how his baby was doing but also how the shoot was coming together. Raymond's "Duramax GMC" code name (Cruz'n) is looking to be a centerpiece in the upcoming video. Not to race--- are you kidding! We've got too much in the beast to put it out on the 1/4 strip no, the shoot will be all about the new RV movement young folks are coming up with. Using vintage and other older hardware to reinvent their lifestyle. Airstreams, Revcon, Cortez, of course the GMC but also other RV's that are less than in "new" condition can be rehashed into unique and functional parts of the new RV community. The Duramax coach is one that has taken a bit of both worlds to come up with something many will say "cool"! We're as they say, "pulling out all the stops" to show the world just how much fun and excitement there can be messing around with motorhomes. It's not just a money pig, 3rd world country on big wheels too expencive to all but those with enough extra money to burn. Hey, that's not it, it's all about using what is there, what you have transforming that raw material into something that makes sense-- or maybe no sense but fun nun the less.

Guess you can tell we're getting on the excited side of this, well we need to it's coming up quickly! A week from Thursday this all starts up with a day shoot here at the shop then on Friday we all pack up and transfer the pile to Bithlo and the Orlando Speedway for some tire burning fun not many have had the pleasure of seeing--- that is until now! Exposure is what it's all about reintroducing the new RV community to the possibilities when you have a house linked to a set of wheels. So now the GMC guys go, "Where is your loyalty in all this?". Guys, the GMC is the mac daddy, the original, the first and engineered to be the best in this classification. The GMC is what we will be there to show off and along with other interesting vintage RV's, the GMC will stand out as will the idea of recycling your traveling and camping fun using alternative means. Think of the "art cars" at "Burning Man", not only will this classification of coach fit in but you can also live in the art form and even ride to the festival in the darn thing! So that's what this upcoming video shoot is all about and as I have offered before, come on and be a part if you will be in the area. Give me a call though and let me know you are coming, the lot is filling up fast! Cost to you? Cost will be I think $10 at the gates of the speedway and $5 to run your beast and we would encourage you to do so.

If this is the forst time you have heard about this nonsense, here are a few pics of past Drag Race events we've been involved with:

(that's our track record)

Now come on, you can't say the corners of your mouth didn;t curl up just a bit looking at these pics! And didn;t your mind run away for a moment putting your coach out there on the track? If that happened that might just mean you need to be involved! Those that want can stay Friday night at the race track that's will be fine and free! No events will be happening on Saturday so the place will be ours. We really want to make a good showing the the GMC and we'll do our best to do it. After over 5 years of promoting we have made an impact so lets all make the best of it. We've been working on the shop hoping our best foot stick out first. Here is a pana of out lot as of yesterday. For those that have been here you can see we're "raking the pit":

Yea, the back lot is full but the work area is--well, workable! Hey Raymond, your Duramax is back in the bay where we can focus on it. We'll pull it out for the camera--- if they say "pretty please"! OK, so you guys have the idea-- please come if you can., follow the fun here most certainly and let everyone know what's going on. This is a long way for a camera crew to come from Hollywood, lets make it worth their while.

OK, on to more fun, Brian & Kevin talk over the body fix for this big ole Airstream

This coach will end up in Spain-- yea, how bout that! Erwin Z. has a GMC in Germany, one of our overseas friends and picked this beauty up to take to one of his places in Spain. We're not duding it up totally soup to nuts but fixing the exterior to look sharp and together. A rocker panel and midway beltline color change, a platinum silver and body repair on the roof to actually blend it into the remaining original silver sides-- should look pretty cool. Kevin is loading up his HVLP guns to point at this hunk of steel next. Should make for interesting footage on the shoot! Stay tuned, I know Erwin will be ...

The Sunshine Statesmen rally this past weekend brought a pile of coaches together, here is a pic down 1 road

Hey, this is not a dieing club, neither is our classic coach-- this is a new, emerging industry so hang on to your coach-- there are people out there interested, trust me!

Boy, have I got some enthusiasm today, don't worry, the days fun and the heat should slow me down a bit, lets see how long I can last today. Seems like my day is filled with building up energy overnight just to burn it up as the day goes on. Isn't that what enthusiasm is for? Kevin, Brian, John and Mike are already here going at it so maybe the enthusiasm is catching! That's a great thing and can only get better. Be a part of all this here, I'll do my best to dish out some of the flavors we run into, stay tuned-- thanks for the visit and we'll see ya again soon...

Time is getting short on several fronts. Success yesterday, my Mom's house in Jax. sold, all is well and here transformation to an Orlando resident is complete. it took most of my day to make it happen but hey, it's my job. Thanks to all (Faye, Andy, Nicco, my Son Ray, Erica, Damon and the others) who made it happen. You guys are the best.

Janie, Kevin and the guys kept the shop producing and that was a good thing. We have many "irons in the fire" so we can't ---- stop! Thanks for bearing with us. I'm back but it's gonna take me a day to replace the days motion lost. That's why I almost hate to take a day off-- that's bad--- what can I say. I have to admitt though that all work makes for a really tired guy and I just don;t want to do that any more. It's kinda like the just finished rally in Goshen-- I sure wish I could go there, rub shoulders with all the folks I've come to know over the 15+ years of fooling with the GMC but it would just disrupt the shop so much there was just no way. Sorry guys, I just couldn't do it, I've created the problem and only I can fix it -- that is if there is a fix. Could be that's simply the nature of this business. We'll see.

Please pardon me one more day on not posting pics for ya, I'll do better but we have fires to put out and me being the major fire hose I gotta be in the middle of it. Tom has been out which puts a cremp in our style-- hey, we'll get through this too! Everyone here is working hard, doing the best they can and in the end isn;t that all you can expect? Stay tuned, have a great day-- I'm peddling hard and will catch up with you tomorrow....

Been an action packed weekend The Sunshine Statesmen rally in Daytona was a great getaway. Got to drive JayGee a bit, felt great getting out and I know he enjoyed the exercise. Hey, the Suzuki is sold! Chris wants to pull it behind the Revcon when it leaves. It's a bitter/sweet sale, I really liked that little bugger but reality is I need something that will sustain highway speeds at this point in my life and if someone else can enjoy it I think it's a win/win. Chris is getting a new starter today, it didn;t start once on the weekend which means out with the old in with the new. No big deal.

Yesterday's replay of the 911 event was pretty sobering. We all gloss over things as time goes by, as other things enter our lives. 911 changed our collective lives forever and we should never forget it and what it means in our lives. America needs to regain it's image of a leader in the free world not it's sugardaddy and we all need to wake up and do something ourselves. We are being pushed around, that can't stand-- we need to stop people from punking us like they have. This is all of our responsibility so find a way to make a difference in your town and just do it. I am proud of being an American which I hope all of you are too so lets do something about it. Nuff said on all that, I swore I would not use this as a platform for political or religious stuff so lets move on.

Today will be a crazy one, I'll be travelling to jax. to close on my Mom's house. she's now a real Orlando resident with the house in jax. in someone elses hands. This makes her move complete so one more day & It will be done. Thanks to all who have helped in getting her here, happy and comfortable-- it worked!

It's going on 10AM now, I'll be heading out soon so I have to cut this short. Have some neat pics of last week and I hope to share them tomorrow. The shop will be open for sure today, Janie will be holding down the fort so be kind. If you need me, I'll be on the cell number.

Andy & Capt Dave are both flying in for the taping of the Drag race rally on the 23rd. It's shaping up to be a real shot in the arm for the community. I try to not get excited, who knows what will happen but it sure seems we're going to have a big time! The invite is open, if you can be in Orlando on Friday, the 23rd of this month-- you should come. Several at the rally this weekend said they were interested. hey, life is short, when something interesting comes up you just need to get involved-- so yau'all come!

A pile of posting about the GMCMI convention in Goshen good to see so much fun being had. I feel kinda bad about not supporting the effort but hey, you can only do what you can do! The local Sunshine Statesmen club has a rally this weekend just next door in Daytona-- Janie & I will make that so we'll be supporting the GMC community that way. As it always happens, nothing much happens in your life until something else gets planned then everything tries to stand in the way-- been trying to close on selling my Mom's place in Jacksonville for months now, now they wanna have me copy the ream of papers and FedEx them today! Holy Moly, there's a pile of papers! Gotta get that before we leave. Also, a customer picked up a coach that's @ 11 miles from the shop, of course it turns out we need to get it towed to us this morning-- and my main mechanic has been out sick for 3 days-- the battery on our coach is wetting the bed as we speak, oh and my heals seem to have been afflicted with the everlasting gout. Hey, what gives! Why does all this have to happen today anyway? Got a good nights sleep so I'm up here at 4AM to get a running start at the day, wish me luck.

And as it always happensit's the small things that stand in the way of success-- George's coach has been on the side waiting for this and that. I got John to put the fresh water system through it's paces to verify our new systems monitor panel was reading. Turned on the fresh water pump and we found a water leak at the new water heater-- fixed that then we found another small leak making the pump "burp" under the gally sink. Fixed that, walked out of the coach and "Hey, what's that water leaking from under the coach?

Going diver down we found that the flippn original Thetfort white gate valve screwed to the back of the original holding tank had 2 of it's 4 ears broken off. Douwwwww! Drip, drip, drip OK-- now what captn! So this morning roving around in the pitch dark Mr' Clean has it tush up in the air preparing for surgery first thing today

Stay tuned there George and other interested parties for the results of the surgery...

So we moved over to Joe's "good looker" to slip back on his A&E awning after the exterior refinish and found that the previous paint crew did not do the clearance light relocating modification that is needed to fit an awning on a coach.

Oh sure, they could slip the awning on backwards, flip it over and all that but look, we're here to do things right so Mike & kevin climbed back up to move the RR clearance light over and filling old holes

Like I was saying, it's the small crap that always stands in the way of total success on project like this. "Diver Down" there Scotty, let's "Get-r-done"!

Now with Kevin getting Mel's "paint fix" project out the door, he turned his attentions to Erwin's Airstream coach exterior repair and refinish.

First things first, there are cracks and dents in the body and bumper structures. Kevin screwed these cracks together with a plastic backing support

These are all plastic parts so today he'll grind valley grooves in the cracks and fill them in with our epoxy based SMC plastic glues and fillers then DA it all down smooth. The beltline stripe (once all vinyl stickon, has been pealed off and DA sanded to a bite finish on the aluminum. He will "bulldog" cover those areas

areas so paint will stick (paint will not body well to aluminum) and then we'll paint on a contrasting colored stripe. Se-- we're not racists-- we'll pael back SOB (some other brand) machines and help them out the same way we will work with the GMC. All vintage RV's are welcome. Erwin, stay tuned for progress on this project.

Gotta go, the day is on-- Hoo-- Yaaaa, make it happen guys. We'll see ya later...

Been reading about and talking to folks packing up and getting themselves and their machines to the GMCMI convention in Goshen sounds like all will have a good time. Wish I could have made some arrangements but as all of you know probably more than anyone else that this place just has too much happening for me to lollygag around for a week having fun. "Fun" can;t be in my bag of things to do right now. I have guys here at the shop depending on me to keep their direction clear-- we have coaches in here that many being on that final edge of finish need hands to get those small things done so how can I say I'm going to rub shoulders with friends and kick back for a week? As Scotty would say "Captn, she just won't hold together"!

OK, enough teasing, gonna tell the folks at the Sunshine Statesmen rally this weekend (only a 2 nighter, I can make that) but a video production company walked into our "Motorhome drag race" video. They are looking for unusual, interesting and maybe wild stuff for their programs. The 23rd of this month we will be taping a Drag Race rally for possible production and an episode on an un-named show. We will be mocking up for shots at the speedway. This is the sort of exposure the GMC community is destined for and stuff that the rest of the RV community simply has to see. Vintage RVing is gaining popularity, "retro" is here to stay at least for a time so the GMC being the "55 Tbirds of the RV world rightly should be the one to expose the world to the fun we all are having. If you are or can be in the Orlando area on Friday Sept. 23rd, you have an open invite to come and be involved. I think admission is $10 at the gate which opens at 5PM. From there it's anyones guess as to what we'll be doing. $5 and you can run your coach on the 1/4 mile and I hope there will be a lote of that. Afterall, thats why the cameras are coming! In correspondence with the producers, they want to see something you just don;t see every day and I think we'll at least be that! I'm excited on our possibilities with this, please come be a part if you can.

Mel flew in yesterday to pick up his coach and survey the "paint fix" job Kevin did. So here ya go, how's it look?

Remember all of the work we did "fixing" the valiant try the last people did on the paint. The usual problems, body flaking out as we sanded repaired areas, cracks in the body some fixed wrong while others were simply painted over. Replacing the old SS body molding

, masking off and blending metallic base color then clearing it all to bring it together. In many ways, the project was harder with more possibilities of error than a full paint job from scratch. At least that way we could have control of everything. I think Kevin pulled another coach out of the common. Mel's machine is back at the top level where he wanted his coach to be. Thanks Mel for challenging us to do our best.

Wanted to take a minute and give Paul an updated pic to show his gal where we are on his machine.

If you think the coach looks odd, well-- it is a bit. It's a 23' stretch! There is 24" added behind the rear wheels. Hey, usually people stretch a 26' coach-- we also have a 23' coach here stretched 9'

in process. 23' coaches are neat and there are many things you can do with them. Not going to stretch the "Tin Soldier" but it too will be a unique 23' coach

but that's another kettle of fish. Stay tuned for progress on "Chimera".

BTW, I'm making a fundamental shift in my life, the Suzuki is going up for sale

Anyone interested? I'm asking $3000 to someone I know, will go up for more than that in the auto trader. 2wd, factory AC, 2 tops, "never been off road". Will come complete with tow bar, has recent computer replacement, headers, fresh tires, clutch has been replaced, throttle body FI. I love this thing but reality is I need something a bit more. @ 100K miles the critter just got going so if you have been lusting over a 1400 pound skate board with lights for your very own, give me a call. it's going into the trader very soon.

Finally, Joe's coach blew out one of his shocks while it's been sitting here at the shop.

When we were bleeding out the brakes after it's long sit in the hair dressers chair doing it's cosmetic makeover, the shock started a puddle below it

. Hey, &^%$ happens! We don;t carry Bilstein shocks but thanks to Jim K. , we got Joe a new shock under their warranty program and Rusty swapped them out yesterday

OK, got that one fixed, what's next?

I guess as a final, final for the day, we have the seats out, watching the road for Jeff's new Mac dash before we tear into refinishing his dash area

Have had 2 people interested in watching this project. Stay tuned, the dash should be here soon.

OK, it's pushing 10AM, I gotta go. Have a great day, hope the visit was worth it. Please come to our video taping if you can and we'll see ya again soon. For those at or are going to the convention-- have a great time and tell everyone hello for me....

Hope you had a great holiday I was drug kicking and screaming from the shop, must say it was a relaxing time and I did really need it. But we're all back in the saddle now and we're also all on the start up mode which is a &^%$# in itself so I didn;t want to be away another day not putting up anything. I need to focus on the startup so I'll do more for ya tomorrow.

Bill, we have your awning on and the alignment done. I'll get some miles on the motor today with decision day being tomorrow.

Joe & Sharon, I have figured in the issues on your last post and today we'll be talking at the weekly meeting on how we will approach them. Stay tuned.

Mel, Your "paint fix" is complete, Kevin is doing cleanup and final assembly, this evening we should be ready for some glamour shots, stay tuned for that.

Chris, we'll be punching the list this morning stay tuned. BTW for the rest of you, remember we had delivery on the "King 33" Revcon coach. Of all the things we did, we were all pleased but @ 30 minutes out from the shop, another issue brought the coach back. Vapor lock or at least something that mimics it so our job is to chase out that "murphy". You all may want to follow this one!

OK, I already have heart burn this morning, not the best way to start a short week but hey, you deal with your cards. Have a great day yourself, again thanks to Jim G. for the great house warming party, Joff & Sally F. for their hospitality-- Janie & I had a great getaway -- it was really needed and Brian for his company. OK, back to work, crack that whip-- tote that bail-- hoist the mizzen mast, stow the jib and batten down the hatches. We're underway, keep those land lubbers below cause we're charted for big swells!

Good morning gentlemen Boy, am I proper today! where did that come from!! I have had in the past and as recently as yesterday been told folks come here for many reasons but one is the fact that my style of writing is like we are talking and that they enjoy that as a refreshing conversation every day. OK, that's fair mainly because I make it a point to try and write down exactly what is in my head at the time of plunking which may be run on sentances, terrible spelling and all that goes along with standing on a street corner, leaning on a lamp post while talking trash with someone about something. OK, another reason I actually do this is to try and clean out the corners of my brain, download thoughts and emotions which I feel is important so I can think about other stuff. It's crowded in here so spilling some of it out on this page actually helps me out. if you guys feel the need to wade through some of this to find something then by all means, lets all wallow in this mess.

So here is a subject that I really want to find a common ground on------ parts.

As these beasts get older, parts will become a more important part-- that's not a theory, that is a fact. Actually the Co-op restoration services is based on this inevitable fact. As the coaches age, they will each need more and more parts and services. Now did you notice that the pics I used are showing parts being installed-- guys that's the difference in parts we offer. We are not a place that "laundry lists" and solicits parts sales, thare are some fine folks in this community that do that and hey, that's all fine. We are a restoration shop, we have to be able to source every flippn part on the coach because we need those parts to build our projects. I have sources and have parts myself for this purpose, I do not necessarily keep parts around just to sell. let me refute that immediately and say yes, we do inventory extra parts for sales, we actually support the community by making several parts like awesome stainless steel brake hoses, the insulated carb fuel line and other things for other dealers and am happy to help in this way. Likewise, we purchase unique parts they have worked hard to produce from them. This is a very small, tight wrapped and specialized parts community and if we all didn;t work together we would all perish. So this is how the parts flow in this community works, you should support the folks you trust, communicate with and enjoy working with and one great way to do that is to buy parts from them.

Some parts are still available locally and we do not waste precious money to inventory those items ourselves. If you call me for something I know you can get locally, I feel it my responsibility to guide you to that part in the most cost effective way I can. Sometimes, I will send you to another specialty dealer for a part if thats where I get it. It is not productive for the dealer network to get into price wars on specialty parts. You can get parts from anywhere you like, this is America. I offer parts mainly because folks ask for them and who am I to say no but I do not get involved in comparing prices with other dealers playing one agianst the other. I feel the value I offer of not only the part but also how to install, adjust and maintain whatever system it is and to suggest other things to consider working in that system as the extra that when folks understand all that will always buy stuff through me. That I feel is the reason people get stuff from me-- at least I hope this is true. I do not make a point of comparing my prices to other dealers, don;t have time for that and besides, what good would it do. I price things at a cost I can live with and that compares well when sought out from dealers outside the GMC community. If there is something I cannot compete with I don;t and suggest someone buy that item elsewhere. Some people tell me to stop that, I should not shoo people to other dealers-- hey but I look at it as when you call me you are asking "where do I get this part?". Many things I will have but there are others I have no problem in recommending you call other folks for things. I feel if I have helped you best I can that you will recognize that, appreciate it and call me next time when you need something. I enjoy being in folks loops and want a win/win for everyone involved.

See how convoluted my mind is! It's crowded in here and getting this out really helps. I am honored to be on the list of specialty suppliers for the GMC along with names like Jeff Sirum, Jim Kanomata, Dick Patterson, Manny Travao and others. I look at it as an awesome responsibility to help you guys with your machine and take my job seriously.

Here's something else I need to cover on selling you parts. Being a very narrow niche market with limited funds, some parts may not be on the shelf like seats and dash covers. These items have lead times to be manufactured. The speed of the parts delivery may be effected. What can I say, this is not a "fast food" resturant and as such Janie & I and sometimes one of my guys are the ones picking, packaging and actually carrying your parts order to the post office, UPS or FedEx. We wre not one of those on line services with huge warehouses, golf carts running the isles and all that. We are a small, family owned specialty house and we do our best. My suggestion is to not put yourself in a bind over special parts and don;t transfer your issues expecting parts to always be there "next day". if you are in a bind, broken down and need something pronto let us know that. There may be special ways to get it to you on a timetable but those things need to be discussed and planned. Most things we ship go out the next day if we have it, a day or so if it's available but just not here and the rest will be discussed when they are ordered.

This is a pile to read over just buying parts I know & I'm sorry to drag this out but it represents a huge stress on Janie & I. It is a service we offer, yes we make a little income from selling parts but we could not live on it. The price of parts has eroded, there is little profit in selling parts so there is little difference in costs between dealers if everything is on the level. I assure you I am so that's why I say the cost matters less than the knowledge and tips we offer with our parts to make that part work it's best for you. Had a guy send me a detailed list of a pile of parts he was sourcing and I appreciate his intention but it is spending time and energy in the wrong direction doing that. Ok, so you wanna buy the cheapest-- remember doing that will usually cost you more! It's not just the price of the item you should seek, you should look for someone knowledgeable in that field to direct you to what would be the best for you. Example, if you feel you want to install a fuel injection system onyour coach-- do not call me. I would not and even will not install a throttle body or direct port fuel injection system on a coach so I would not sell you a system to put on your coach. I simply do not believe in them. Give Jeff Sirum or Jim K. a call for that. Hey but if you wanna know why I don;t offer such parts-- ask me and be ready for a lengthy, specific explanation because I've been there-- done that-- and have the scars to prove it! Same goes for everything else, I spend more time explaining stuff than anyone else I think because of all the heat I get spending the time. Hey, that's OK, at least everyone knows more when the discussion is over and I feel that is a help. So call me if you are looking or thinking about something--- thats what I do best, getting into a system, making it work better and be more reliable. I try to not throw stuff on the wall to see what sticks! We all have the right to do things any way we want, I feel though to do that you need to hear others ideas to make an informed decision-- thats what we offer--- not just the part.

OK, enough of that, you will either understand my view or not. You will call when you need something or not and I can live with that. Please support the other specialty dealers-- hey and support me too! We all need to get through this together so hey, let me know if I can help.

More stuff for today, we're getting several coaches ready to deliver so we're all over checking things we've done, proving the machines are ready so this is not what you would call fun to watch. Kevin is out there clearing Mel's "paint fix" as we speak. Here are a few pics of the coach in base color ready for it's gloss

The main feature of our work was to remove the cracked body work, bubbles in the paint then remove the early styled stainless steel beltline molding and convert the body to the second design stick on body mold system. You can see we added a matching dark grey stripe on the beltline area to cover all the corrosion we had to repair. A good looking coach will end up looking even better. Mel is a car enthusiast, and pretty precise on what he's looking for and that is our job. Stay tuned and see how we did.

Another sunset pic as Janie & I put in a long day and went to our local watering hole (McWells) for some dinner and refreshment.

It was a great day yesterday, a good refreshing sleep and today we're back at it. Thanks for the support you guys give us on this incredible journey. I never thought I would be doing this but I have to say "thank you God" for putting me in a position to do exciting things and help people, I love this. If in the end there remains 3 things-- faith, hope and love with the greatest being love--- then I'm where I want to be. I hope that for you too...

Sorry for being "off the air" for a bit the weekend was a long one for me. I've got to remember it's been 14 years doing this in this same location-- I can't pump out the energy like I used to! Hitting the wall hurts and if it's weren't for the liquid refreshment taking me to my quiet place it would be much worse-- of course in itself that may be a partial caise of the tough Monday we had. Hey, for whatever reason we're here and having some fun. Gonna show some pics starting with the last ones-- my Photo Shop and camera memory spits them out in backwards order-- or is it the fact I'm left handed I do thngs backwards. Hey but for whatever reason, here is the sunset yesterday as I made it home-- hope the folks up there cleaning up from the hurricane have some nice days to work in

I've been exercising my coach "Larry" getting ready for the 23rd of next month. I need him in top shape

. As the guys straggle in I'm sitting here trying to plunk some of this out for you, if I have to stop sorry but the day is starting up. I must say that driving Larry to work as my "daily driver" is great, I can park it without docking privileges or permits and being the biggest thing on the road in the commute you really feel in charge besides, all of those sorry people that fly to work look at me as the plug in their bottle-- sorry guys, if you wanna do a stupid speed to work you'll have to go around me doing the speed limit-- man, were is a cop when you need one!

So yesterday before leaving, I looked back at a few of the projects we're winding up right now-- George's coach is really shaping up. Here is the Last "Mohican" -- well how bout the last known new Honda EV 6010.

Man, it's just too bad Honda decided to discontinue their RV generator line, this 6010 fits in the GMC compartment so nice

. I took the battery out of the back putting it up front, you could leave it back there I just move them. Here George and others, I took a few pics of the coach before leaving yesterday-- enjoy:

The water on the ground outside of the generator door is from the roof AC's, I ran them both breaking in the generator

The weekend I got the countertops built up-- getting the radius on the corners (I hate sharp corners) was the big deal on this one Using "VT" (that's vertical thin) laminate made those tight corners possible

Brian wanted a few shots with his fancy camera so I took one of him taking pics-- say hello to Brian

If you wondered who is buying GMC's today, Brian has a 76 Transmode once being a Chiropractor's office. He is living in it while he rebuilds it to his use. He's 33 (not married) and runs his glamour photography work out of the coach, he's a chef and by night finely finishes fish over at Fish on Fire for my buddy Jay. These are the new generation of GMC owners and what they see the coach in their lives as providing-- a whole lifestyle. More on Brian and his plight later.

Jeff, your sewer system stinks! Rusty is "diver down" trying to reinvent the wheel someone had piled up under your coach Here is the old tanks with Rusty making up new words to say "get up un there you piece of crap!

Hey, we'll get it, that's why you brought it to us. The funky floorplan put into this Transmode was not made sewer friendly but hey, we'll get it.

All that's left of the brave donor coach is his face standing guard over the lot

. It lives on as we see him every day, kinda like a monument of the fallen! No, we're not taking the statue on tour!

John & I finished up George's granite look counter top with his original double sink and this fancy new "multitool" faucet

We'll be installing that today. His microwave is in and plumbed so all that's left is the countertop for the galley

BTW, there is still the protective "peal cote" over the surface but hey, they really look great-- don;t ya think?

Had a truck bring us a big ole box which I was sure was George's sofa

It was a sofa alright but it was dark grey belonging to Bud. Our seat manufacturers do an awesome job-- they just really take too long, sorry but quality takes that! We'll keep watching the road for George's sofa-- stay tuned.

Kevin is hot & heavy on the paint fix on Mel's coach. Here the coach is all bagged off, taced off and ready to blend the color

Fair winds, no rain and a steady hand Kevin -- oh and prey the guy at the paint store did a good job at matching the color! See, that's always the wild card when it comes to blending and matching to old paint, UV and just being in this world changes paint colors. Having the original paint codes means nothing-- well it would give you a place to start but it's all down to the quality job of the paint supplier and we are at their mercy. Matching colors is a tricky business, Kevin actually being previously NAPA's paint specialist for this area gives us a leg up on the paint mix and match process.

Stay tuned to see this sows ear turn into a silk purse!

Well, I hope this was enough to make up for the couple of days "off line". it's after 9:30 now, I struggle between scanning the GMC Net hoping folks don't get so off base the lurkers start screwing up their coach and plunking down stuff here. See that's the problem with mailing lists, sure it's great to be able to communicate and it's also great to hear about what enthusiasts are doing with their rigs but if you were to follow all of the stuff you read about there your coach may never run again! Some of it is great and I appreciate folks letting everyone into their own special games but man some of it is just not right so please be careful when reading all of that. You must remain cost effective, "doing it all" like we did back in high school to our poor first car can get you in trouble-- maybe you will enjoy it but your wallet will hate you in the morning so be cool on what you read. hey, even some of the stuff we do here is nuts but every bowl has a few nuts in it, you just don;t wanna only eat nuts, I think even squirrels eat other stuff!

Have a great day, thanks for dropping by and let me know if there is something I can help with. if you need parts, remember we're here and we appreciate and need your support...

In here on a Saturday it's always a day I get to relax a bit and do what I need to do Kevin and Brian came in early for a full days fun on Mel's paint fix project. First getting all the body repair replacing the early "beltline" SS molding to the late style aluminum batr style he got it in base

The paint work on Mel's coach was pretty good. There were just enough bubbles, and cracks and then there was the beltline corrosion from dissimilar metals. We are complimenting the paint scheme on the coach, fixing the bad stuff and blending the work into the existing paint job. In many ways, this is tougher than just painting the whole dang thing. Here is the coach in prep ready to tac, finish the bag off and shoot

Next he clans out his bay to section paint the coach

Hey, just gotta hand it to Kevin, the Rollingf Stones say " your get what you need not what your want" and Kevin is a great example of that. Doing sections like we are on Mel's project, he can mask up and clean out his body repair bay and do a proper job of this-- that is if you know how to do it-- and he does! He's out there right now going at Mel's coach-- what a trooper. See he understands what it is to give yourself to an idea. Most painters run from painting big ole things like the stuff we do. Call him masochistic but Kevin says he loves this work. Really he, like me, loves to make a mark, to do something worth doing. That's enough-- we say but really this takes such a dedication, you just don;t know and I'm impressed and relieved to have someone that "gets it"! You should be so lucky to find someone who understand the big picture. OK, now that I've probably turned his face red, sorry-- I gotta tell ya wether it's a full exterior renovation at in the the case of Joe's just finished coach

or Mel's "fixr-upper" Kevin has the skill set.

I'm sitting here inside the air conditioned office, plunking on this keyboard and doing needed paperwork, maybe this is what they mean when you raise to your level of incompetence. I sure would rather be out there doing something fun, hey but this needs doing too. We'ew getting the shop straightened up a bit

. We have a surprise coming up on Sept. 23rd.. Don;t want to spoil the fun of it, just let me say-- if you are going to be or can be around Orlando on that date-- you might want to. I feel the GMC community is on the edge of rediscovery. We see every day young GMC owners exciting on discovering how exciting it can be to have a vintage RV. You old timers I have to say take for granted the options in lifestyle you have owning a GMC. You should be able to just up and go somewhere in your coach. If you can do this, you options are open and this simple fact is what the new RV community is finding true. There are those that simply have to have the best in whatever they do. Ok, in that case the GMC being the "55 T Bird" of the industry is naturally attracting a whole new community and these are the folks we are here for. To this end, I feel "exposure" is the key and that's what will happen on Sept. 23rd. I'll tell you more as we get closer.

So it's dark outside, looks like rain. Hope Kevin has it planned-- he always does, if you wanna know the weather -- ask a painter! OK, gotta take in the rest of the day, was good talking a bit here-- and the beat goes on, see ya later...

To you guys up north I have to say sorry for us not keeping our weather in our backyard This hurricane looks like there could be some damage. Andy gave me a call from up in Portsmouth and he said it looked like the weather was aiming at his house-- good thing there are 6 wheels on his place. be sure you have a full tank of fuel man and good luck. We have coaches in here from folks in W. Virginia, Virginia, DC and at least their coaches will be safe down here. Guys really, good luck because hurricanes are no laughing matter. I've rode it out through many so if you are not ready-- well, be ready!

I got a good sweat going myself yesterday wiring back together Bill's Electro-Level solenoid tree

Check it out, there has been all sorts of conversations about retrofit air ride systems. I feel a major point is required air pressure to operate the rear suspension. The original air bag system requires somewhere around 110 psi to reach proper ride height. See it and weep, here is a pic of Bill's tank pressure with the coach above ride height (I would call in town position)

. That's right, just a little over 80 psi, I betcha proper ride height would be in the lower 70's. The more pressure the harder the bag thus the more transmission of vibration. In the 70 psi range will give you a smoother ride, it has to! So today I have the solenoid tree all back in the cabinet and I'm focused on finishing off the finals on the dash, we have a "Jack" TV antenna going in and next week an alignment, a new Zip Dee awning is already late so we're moving in on delivery on this one.

Isn't it amazing what colors and stripes do to the style of a coach. I think it more important than on a car, you have so much more canvas and giving a little style through colors and paint scheme I feel really do it. I mean look at those huge 45' monsters, that's the reason you see all those swirls looking like a 1/2fudge royal ice cream-- that's done to try and disguise a billboard so you can easily see what paint, colors and layout does for the style of a motorhome. Well, check out what a little well placed colors and stripes does for a vintage Revcon:

Doing simply a blackout on the lowr rocker panels all the way around transformed this classic machine into a real head turner for today. The, sorry but what I called, a funky wheel well/flare design of the coach

Looks dated to me reall redefined now in black takes away that Tucker looking odd style.

Loosing the roof pod in favor of a hitch mounted box arrangement (sorry no pic) and now the blackout ground effects I feel has brought this baby "back from the future"! Today we're wiring up the furnace and LP water heater, checking out the fresh water system (found a few water leaks yesterday) and basically getting the baby ready for the road. Stay tuned, it will go home soon.

Not the best news for Jeff, while breaking down the fuel delivery system and installing our new body pad kit it was good to get back proper frame to body clearance-- from this

to this

. You can see the increased gap. Now we will cut down the seat mounting plates and reinstall them. The problem we found is in the sewer system. This is not the right way to seal the holding tank to the toilet

. Euwwwwww! This is not normal either

that is the connection to the 2nd tank and here is what someone did to the dump valve

Yea bubba, it's "diver down" in trying to put this back together-- wish us good luck!

So it's after 8AM now, Kevin & John are on scene so I need to get out there. The hurricane is going to miss us, maybe some rain from feeder bands and over at Daytona they're watching for beach erosion but here at the world headquarters of the Co-op, we're OK. Work, work, work is our problem around here so you have a great day, keep your head down if you are on the eastern seaboard. I would not travel on I-95 today. Thanks for dropping by, call if I can help and we'll see ya tomorrow or on the other side-- whichever comes first!

Got an early start this morning, maybe I'll be able to get through all the things I want to show you today before things start unwinding as promised, I'll start in where I left off yesterday with a great pic of George's Mr. Clean" to Ben's for round 2 on the exhaust system

Boy, that white new furnace panel sure sticks out! Kevin has that and the T skirts still to paint, have no fear we're not leaving it white. So my pipe wizard Ben has pulled together another beautiful set of pipes, the Honda generator will speak but not be heard

and did you note that everywhere he welded a bracket there is a protective black heat paint to cut down on the rust. Missing the maserator hose is important with the hot pipe so getting all that infrastructure in before the exhaust system is installed is important. Remember the engine muffler system?

, I think we have a better situation now

and yes, we have no holes in the Y pipe connections

, now thats what I'm talkn bout! With it's exhaust on, I'll be firing up that last new Honda on the planet today-- oh boy!

So I've been asked to do another story on some of the stuff I run into working on these old war horses, been waiting for a good one and Bill, not picking on you but this was a good one! One of the main problems you have when working on these coaches is what's happened to it over the years. People have good intentions but without specific knowledge on what they are doing, as in the immortal words of Forest Gunp-- "stuff happens" and what you end up over time with all that "stuff" being thrown at the wall is a cluster of "stuff" all mixed together. Here is a great one, not that I'm pointing at others shortcomings but I'm pleased I can stay with a system to an inevitable positive result-- so here we go:

Bill brought his good looking Explorer "frame off " resotred coach in for a total mechanical update. Yes, the coach had been totally rehabed in 1997 by Explorer Vans but Bill has a particular situation where he really needs to rely upon the mechanical aspects of his coach to work. That was the focus on the work we have been doing to his coach, updating and upgrading the mechanical features of his coach to a reliable condition. This means do it, whatever we find that could be an issue address it and solve the problem. Now I can't come close to talk about all of the issues we have addressed bring his coach up to speed so lets focus on one-- his air ride system.

The coach drove in from W. Virginia, Jim G. drove the baby in and had a good drive, very few issues so one might say why all the fuss on the mechanical aspects of a perfectly running coach? Ah, it seemed to run OK but were all systems running "perfect". My answer to that will have to wait until I go through it all and as far as the air ride system goes, the coach had a set of slightly weathers original air bags and while true they were working, the question there is holw long would they. We installed the retrofit Quad air bag system replacing the old original air bags. Now, if there ever is an issue with air bags, Bill will be able to pull into any RV or truck stop and chances are good they will have a replacement air bag. So are we done, is the air ride system now renovated to a reliable condition? It did seem to cycle correctly going up then down then to ride height. As we were working on other issues on the coach we noticed that the right side of the coach kept dropping, air was escaping on the left side and the Electro-Level compressor kept coming on bout every 5 minutes cycling on then off to keep air pressure up in the system. OK guys, bring the coach over, jack up the rear and lets find out where Murphy has burrowed into the air ride system. The system was shoehorned in under the galley sink accessed only through a fold down door which BTW, the door had been damaged from arms pushing down on the door while opened. To me, this means people had been in there somewhat messing around. The compressor is one of those Firestone/Thomas units, not bad but there are better. It was doing it's thing rather slowly so first I wanted to hunt around and find where the current was going to spool up the compressor better. The power to the compressor comes from the front engine electrical system-- that makes for a long run of wire so any resistence in the system will be a problem and we found a melted connection on the relay controlling the compressor. Yes, it was still working but being burned like it was, there was increased resistence in the connection thus we had a slow running compressor. Fixing that, we still has escaping air on the driver side so I went "diver down" into the solenoid system in the back. Quickly I found I could not check the system in that cave like hole so I unbolted the manifold and pulled the entire solenoid system out for better access

Now that I could see it all, I pressured up the system and started soaping looking for leaks and boy did I find them, we were blowing bubbles everywhere! Broken fittings, what's the half life of fittings like this anyway?

These 2 fittings caused me to have to take the solenoid tree apart, the cap fitting was on one of the "3 way" air solenoids. Now look carefully at the arrow denoting the flow direction on the last solenoid in the tree which routes the air out of the tree and on to the air bag system

The yellow air line heads toward the air bag but in the tree, the solenoid was installed backwards by Explorer! What that causes is a slow leak through the valve, both solenoids (one for each side) was installed backwards from Explorer! The pass. side solenoid still leaked even installed correctly so that one had to be replaced. The head on a 3 way solenoid was leaking internally so I had a good used one (new would cost over $150) which did the job

. Folks wonder why I have all these old parts laying around-- now you know. The day was getting late so I reconnected all of the air plumbing together to see if we had all the leaks solved-- I just gotsta know! Sure nuff, with a new regulator (the new one from Explorer had a leak in it as well) the system pumped up to 145 psi & shut off--- success, so with a hand full of parts and a pile of cuss words we had air staying where it's supposed to be and now I could rewire all that mess

but that can't happen until I can get air to the driver side air bag which is still not going up! My thought was the air was escaping so fast that the system could not pump up the air bag and keep up-- good theory and yea, I did find a pile of reasons why the driver side would not go up-- but it still will not go up--- Douuuuuu! I can try and blow out to the air bag system00 no go. I can try and blow from the air bag to the system inside-- no do. Hey, what the------! Oh wait, we replaced the body pads because the original ones had fallen out pinching the air lines. lets pull off the tires on the driver side and follow the air line by hand back into the coach. There is only about 3-4 feet of air line that goes from the solenoid tree to the manifold for the quad bag system. Do, dedo, dedo, running my fingers along the air line--- hello, what's this? The air line had been crushed before by the body dropping onto the frame and crushing the air line. Lifting the body back off the frame by 1/2" left the weakened area of the previously crushed air line free to do it's thing whivch was to bent itself shut! Ahhh Bach--- we now know why the driver side would not go up. It was but it wasn't all the problems I found inside, it was but it wasn;t the fact that the body had crushed the air line and now it was not-- it was the air line doing it's last act of defiance and closing off in protest that someone had not seen how the body had crushed the air line and just as the mouse gestures to the eagle just before he's wisked away to lunch and the frog chokes off the birds neck while lounging in his beak

, that issue cost time and the problems found may have but did not have anything to do with why the driver side of the coach would not work-- but, it all had to be done to make the system work properly.

Today, Rusty will replace the air line running from the Quad bag manifold to the inside solenoid tree. I will then go in, reconnect all the solenoids and then cycle the system to see if the system will air up both sides of the coach then shut down when it reaches 145 PSI and will hold that pressure for some length of time. "Air wants out" and it will find a way out so our focus is to hold air to do the job. If we get it all working "perfect", how long will it do that, hopefully for some time-- especially in that we did so many things to try to get the system to work well. All this work goes into the prime directive--- make the coach mechanically work.

OK Bill, let's see if there are any other unknown fun things the coach needs, stay tuned. Hope this explaination helps you understand more what it takes to rely upon a 30+ year old machine and just because something seems to work-- does it really and will it work down the road? The old addage is true, "If you fix it just for today, it will surley fail tomorrow", our goal is to make the coach work more than just today.

Hey, and to that end, let me show you another coach and another issue, Jeff S. is slated to fly in from California next month to pick up his Ebay purchase

. Putting the coach up on the lift yesterday we were looking to see if we had a reliable fuel delivery system. First glace showed several issues we need to address. Remember talking about a 1/2" gap between the body and frame for the air, brake, fuel and LP lines? Yea, that was the waterloo that caused all the air ride issues I just described on Bill's coach, check out the plates the previous owner had put through the floor to bolt in the seats