Hey James, why don’t you give me a call, it’s the friendly thing to do-2
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Today I’m installing a Mac McNeal dash I name “Mac Daddy”. Lemme process some picks, be right back…
Ok so with the prewiring done on the harness, the original dash uprights cut away we’re ready to install the new “Mac Daddy” vinyl stretched fiberglass dash shell Here is the shell ready to go in
There are 4 holes drilled in the original surface with attaching nuts and 2 “L” brackets toward the bottom. With the right side of the dash vinyl covered in the same material the shell is covered in the dash looks like it belongs
The vinyl is heated and stretched for a smooth finish
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. OK tomorrow I’ll show you the install of the prewired gauge clusters and radio.
So as you can see above, there has to be some modifications to the coach that will forever mean this Mac Dash will belong to this coach. It’s not uncommon for other updates to your coach mean “there’s no going back”. The same homes true with out new “top-to-bottom” front slider windows. There is a “U” channel at the front of this new window that must be modified into an “L” for the new frame to fit. Now cutting this you could still reinstall the original frames but yes, the “C” channel would be changed. Recently, we had a customer who was scared to cut this channel
.. Guys look, our classic coaches are already pushing 40 years old, granted we want to have them outlive us but really…..who are you building this coach for. The answer should be for you and your enjoyment. It will not matter and will probably draw a new owner to a coach that has this new window.
Tim S. has already put some miles on his new windows and he said they were awesome Thanks Tim for the report. No wind blew in and he could actually talk to someone outside his coach without bending down to put his mouth in front of the opening window….. how nice…
So guys I gotta tell ya, if you want a nice dash, you gotta do some cutting and if you want a better driver and passenger window there will be some modification. Takes us between 1.5-2 hours for the install plus time to get the inside panel out….not bad.
There is a write-up on the install in a past Daily Pose…. look for the daily title for it.
We have 2 GMC’s who hunkered in last night here at the shop one is Craig S. and his stretch coming back from spending the winter in south Florida, the other is a full timer who is coming in for some work and attend some seminar here in Orlando. I’m off to breakfast, we’ll see ya tomorrow. Thanks for dropping by and for your support… .
keep the how-to’s coming. Makes for great reading and learning for someone 2000 miles away
as an after thought, how bout showing how you cover the dash
Wow, that’s a good one. Here’s why I hesitate. You know how people trying to eek out a living catering to some niche market will have some special thing they are noted for that helps them stand out in their group? You would be surprised how that attitude is alive and will in this community even though folks are very open to help….. they will ask about something you have taken years to prefect… something it has taken years of trial and error and something that you have a chance to stand out with doing and just turn it into another how to video… and now the guy who made it happened is thrown to the side. I’ve been doing this over 20 years and in that time I have perfected many things….. as the some goes “will you love me tomorrow?”. I want the answer to that to be yes but there are some out there just eager to copy special things and call it their own. Waite Phillips once said….”the best way to have something always bear your name is to give it away…. and I try to live by that but still, it’s hard to give away something you have worked very hard to figure out. Tell me how we can balance this…. it’s something that’s thrown up to me @ every day. I want to believe but Altruism does not pay your taxes. I’d love to have a dialog on this.