Daily Pose Archive    

You have found the vault, this is where I put past daily pose posts as to not clog up the main daily pose page giving it faster downloads of the page for you.  Yes, I will update this page dropping older posts but you will have access to some of the older stuff here.  Tips and other instructional things will be assimilated into the main pages of the site over time.

 Thanks for your interest in what we do here, hope it helps you in some way. 

NOTE:  The latest posts are on top.

10.7.08

Well guys, you see it first here After so much work, so many questions asked and so many impossible statement made-- and breakthroughs made as well-- yesterday it was "home coming" of a sort.  Go to Cruz'in and scroll to the bottom, hold onto your keyboard-- this could be a bit exciting!

So with our heads in the clouds we still have other stuff to do so onward and upward we go.  Manny finished up Mark's custom bulletproof transmission amidst all the hooprah of the day.    Man now that is the look of determination!  Not just any pretty transmission he shows me some of the custom parts he has made that makes this gear grinder what it is-- heavy duty internal parts   makes up this puppy and with his meticulous assembly and detail it will be what the doctor ordered.  Not happy with the cleaning job we were getting from the local builders, Manny actually shipped from California a non toxic heated soap washer to clean his parts!   This was the last piece in his ability to come from California to Florida and production build transmissions here in house-- and now it's operational.  What a guy!  Why did he do this?  Now us "east coasters" have the opportunity of having a Manny Tranny just like you west coast folk.  Hey, if you don't wanna "
play" about your transmission-- gimme a call, we have "Manny Tranny's" in stock!  Mark's 32' stretch is already up on the lift so today we start the install of this moster transmission into the "soul train"

Now we move to input on Tom's interior coming together.  Take a look down the hall of a really clean, sharp interior   The last piece of the old woodgrain color stands out like the proverbial swollen thumb, it will go soon.  The radius corner galley counter will get it's color soon and we will be one step closer to done.  Tom's steering clumn will get a treatment , most of you guys have the "tilt" on your steering clolumn all the way down and still cannot sometimes find a comfortable position.  There is a fix, with a steering clumn lowering kit installed the steering wheel drops @ 1 1/2" putting the wheel right where the tilt function will help you most .  Of course for every improvement there are "unexpected results" and in this case the lower column closeout will not fit with the column dropped like this--- what to do?  We reach down into "modification land" and pull out our fix.  First using an original early design lower dash closeout panel, we lop off this .  The cleaning up years of screwing stuff up under the dash, rigging wires and simply years of all the stuff some of us feel it OK to do to our dash--- all that damage has to be fixed   Next, sanding all this smooth and prepping our surface for it's new color, we spray the color keyed dye material so the closeout will match the rest of the dash and we come up with this custom fix for the dash   True is may not look like much and maybe you could say it is an easy part to mod--- sure it is after you see it done once---- you're welcome.  Come back later and see this incorporated into Tom's dash along with the other mods I think you will like the outcome.  One step back-- you must be prepared for these things--- Tom's bath door could not be reskinned and used, we came back in from the bad fit and made up a new door for the job , you can see the old one on the floor and the new one on the table-- I'll show you the outcome and why this had to happen later.

So there you are, a great day's work and some serious progress, I love it when plans come together!  Thanks to all who are putting their fait in us to do our best.  It's why we are here and why folks bring us their machines.  Some say "they are custom specialists, their work must be expensive".  I say "doing it once and doing it right costs far less".  And being the only machine we work with, we have probably at least worked with something similar to the things you are interested to do, isn't that a real step up and a real advantage compared to trying some of this stuff yourself or going to someone who "Always wanted to work on one of them"!  Really, yes this is some gratuitous advertising" but hey, you need to understand why we are here and why it is a good move to have us help you with your coach.  o it right, do it once, come out with what you want at a better price-- thats what we can do for you.

Thanks for the visit, if you are in the area, come on by for a look at the Duramax project, come back tomorrow and see more here-- thanks for your support and we'll see ya later.

10.6.08

Sorry, no pics over the weekend Manny & I worked hard over at the shop cleaning out a bay in the preperation of something very big.  I hope to, if it does not rain, to transport the 26' Duramax coach back over here to the shop to start on the interior build up.  This day has been a long time coming, you just gotta see that critter back on the street-- we're gonna do a coin toss to see who will drive!

Oh, BTW, Janie wanted me to at least reread my posts telling me the last "cryptic" message was a bit obscure.  Hey, thats what happens when I relax too far and have a beer!  I hope you got that I was enjoying the downtime, I think at least that message came through the bad grammar, horrible spelling and disjointed thoughts-- hey, it's a jungle up there in my head when I am not on a focus!  Hope you understand though that when you speak to someone you cannot do a spell check and correct your grammar whe you are live talking so I guess that my only excuse so just see if you can figure out what I'm talking about when I do that and I'll do my best to do a better job.  OK, so there is my "disclaimer", so it's onward and upward from here!

Our shop here is a collection of 11 years of scratching our way up the side of this tan can, I wish I could say we are clean, neat and ordered---- we're not, I wish I could say we have plenty room for our expansion into the realm of the Duramax projects and all that goes with them---  we don't and I wish I had the organization to expand and fund all the exciting things we are into, with the climate of todays economy what we are doing here is a bit scary.  We have some customers who are late in payment on completed work, while I understand and appreciate their position "holding the paper" on their past due invoices is hurting us.  Borrowing money from the banks they say is going to get harder to do so here we are, trying to hold it together.  I'm not condemning you guys in that position with us and you know I really want to help all I can but hey, this is a fact of life and where we are and I need your help on this.  If we are holding invoices for payment with you, please do what you can to help us.  So that's enough of that, lets move on.

Manny is here doing something pretty important, Mark's 32' stretch is a "big mother" and as such will end up pretty heavy when it's interior is in.  The intention is to install a serious motor to power this puppy which also means all the components of the drivetrain must be "beefed up" to compliment the requirements.  Manny's transmissions are the best bet for any GMC in that he replaces all the plastic bushings with brass, he installs new spring kits no one else has, does mods no one else can and uses a torque converter especially designed for low stall torque.  All this plus his attention to detail and the quality of his parts make his transmissions superior-- let me put it this way-- I will not install any transmission in a GMC if it was not built up by Manny.  Now let get to the transmission he is building for Marl's monster stretch, it has even more heavy duty parts installed, it has beefed up main shafts and other different heavy duty parts.  The cost of this tranny is more and that cost is a direct result of those custom mods.  Manny is a bit tight lipped on what he does but I will bet you when he is done this transmission will be able to convert to the ground whatever torque any motor could throw at it.  This mindset is only natural when you build up custom machines as we are with the 32' coach.  This is the right way to do it and I am pleased Mark understands this and is taking the high road on every step of his renovation.  "No short cuts" is the only way to go so be excited about this machine and watch how it goes together.

Gonna do a steering column lowering kit on Tom's dash today, stay tuned for that.  This is a great little mod-- I have done this in my coach "Larry" , it brings the steering wheel down @ 1 1/2 " and really makes a big difference.  Let me know if you are interested in this mod.

So now the sun is up, had my $1.79 breakfast with Manny's company, it does call for rain today, lets see what happens.  I am ready for all of this, heck is there a choice so hang with me and lets see what happens.  We're also getting ready for the weekend Bluegrass festival in Palatka at the next Sunshine Statesmen rally, you know I'll do pics of that.  Hey, I don't have "dueling Banjos" printed on my shorts but hey, once in a while it's fun to check that stuff out and thats what we will do this next weekend.  The rally will be on the festival grounds so with the small of funnel cakes, cotton candy, the sounds of fiddles tuning up and everyone milling around I think this will be a blast.  If you are here in Florida you might want to take this in. Gimme a call or better yet, go to the club web site www.gmcss.com and register-- come on and meet us there-- you have been invited so "you-all come now, ya here"

I'll hopefully have some exciting pics of today so we'll see ya later and hey things for the visit.

Late update

OK, Janie & I are sitting here tonight  Watching CMT talking about voting for "Cooter", you need to be there, CMT seems to be really tugging at the heart strings of all self respecting Red neck-- and then they compare John Daly playing compared to Tiger Woods--  I'm stuck on this sountehrns Best.  Ross Perot, makes me feel better about my accent!  I have to admitt I voted for him!  Why-- because if you are going to be a minority and as such you are destined to get crushed like a  bug under a bus----   Hell, why don't ya just go ahead and really make it interesting---- And I punched the "Chad"!

Anyway, I would have to seay I am about as far away from the shop as I could but I forgot to post the days results so here goes -- through the marvels of modern technology, DSP, WiFi and really fast lap tops-- I can plug in the SD" board directly into my Lenovo Lap top and I have a few pics for ya-

So today, I went at Tom's dash.  Sorry but I got so involved that I forgot to take "during " pics so here is the dash back together   I finished off the dye of the hard parts, then went after the "take offs" the glove box, back panel then mounted those and the dash donut then reinstalled the oak bezel "mac dash" panel.    Looks great but there is still somethng missing.  The under dash AC will blow icecubes yes but it is on the ugly side!  We will be wanting to move 3 12 volt outlets from the "ledgie" under dash closeout to somewhere and I wanted to do something to make the AC unit look better--- so this will be our challenge.  Just finished watching "mythbusters": and I have to say this is the "real world" investigation--- Make that dash look good--- is the challenge!  First I need to deal with the side panels and making them look better.  The electric mirror control need some help.  The original "pocket" was mangled up with the Ramco plastic panel screweed down to the flat area of the pocket.    Thats the one on the right.  I had another pocket so I cut the opening to fit the switch. The finished panel with the new vent, recolored panel, new pocket and all  Did the "take offs"  The glove box insert had a sludge buildup that had to come off before I recolored the panel black satin   Here's something that will help all of ya.  The back panel of the dash is the main way to access the dash wiring.  It is a *&^%$ to get out mainly because of the left corner to slip  past the corner     So do this and it will always come off easy.  So I can't believe it-- I usually will not stop til I have a job done and I did that today but after looking at it done, locking the door and going home--- I forgot to take a pic!!    So wait til the moring & I'll give ya a look.  Ah wait, I found another pic in the camera  I'll do more pics tomorrow 

See ya then

10.4.08

10-4 there captain, full speed standard  Just had to say that it being "10.4" and all!  Yep, we're looking at a beautiful Saturday, a good looking day and I have only to do things I want to do.  That is stuff at the shop, tomorrow morning will be the bike ride, right now we havethings to do I usually don't have time during the day to do.  Tom's dash will the the object of my attention today.  I'll have his driver area refinished before I leave.  No pics right now but I will try and post a series of pics at least before I go home.

Yesterday was a good one, Manny went out and got his bench set up and got into Marks super tranny build , we got in a new core set of motor & transmission and he checked out our "booty"   From  a Toro harvest, we're finding these transmissions and motors not being whipped pulling a motorhome previous make a good donor core as long as it ran well when it came out.  These are the ones we like to find.

Dan dropped by from St. Pete to get an exhaust system installed over at Ben's , thats where we have all of our work done.  Ben is a valued part of our team-- man he does great work! , you gotta have a pocket full of pros that can do the job and I gotta tell ya there is no muffler man around better than Ben.  The part I get out of the job for Dan was a pizza party for the guys , hey and we also had Jeff Sirum drop by, he was in Orlando and always comes by for a visit when he's in town   BTW, thanks Dan for the pizza.  See, GMC dealers are a tight group, we all appreciate and respect each others area of expertice.  Jeff has the shop down in Okeechobee where he does a great job at GMC repair and maintenance.  We work together and help eachother-- thats the way it should be   Just another part of the crew, he leads and I'll follow which BTW is the test drive for Eric's Airstream destined for the UK   Buster took it out for a test drive, it's the first run after the pile of new parts I helped Buster back out through all the other coaches in the lot-- not an easy job-- to get him out to give the legs of that beast a stretch   All systems are go so now we wait for now is the new Zip Dee awning and the drive out tag and it will be off to the port at Brunswick for it's cruise to it's new home.  Well, there is one small part that has a bit of damage that we will not be working on, looks like he has a flat problem , that flat tire is not a critical one!

One more pic, Ken was impressed with the rear wheel dics brake on his Duramax rear wheel, thought I would give you a real look at the emensity (if thats a word) of the suspension on that machine. , I mean if we're only gonna have 2 rear wheels, lets makem count!  hey brother-- I got your brakes!    Sorry for the dust but Lionel is in sanding mode right now!

So I'm off to Tom's coach, I'll have the camera with me so we'll talk later.

10.3.08

We have an honored guest here today  Manny Travaeo -- you know "Manny Tranny" flew in last night for a custom build on the transmission for Mark's 32' monster machine.  He's putting together a super heavy duty gear grinder to pull the weight that will eventually make up the "soul train" of a coach Mark has in his minds eye.  Heavy duty internal parts, not just a few "bigger bolts" will go into this super tranny, stay tuned I'll do what I can to give you pics.  Manny doesn't like me to run around like I do snapping pics of everything-- he likes to work behind the scenes doing his magic.  I understand that and certainly do not want to interrupt his flow but hey-- Enquiring minds want to know!! Thanks Manny for taking some time out to come and build up this special part for Mark.

This weekend I'll probably stay at the shop working, we're getting close to starting in big time on the 2 Duramax interiors and the shop needs to be "blown out" to make room for the specialty work needing to get done.  Today, we'll be focused on getting a lions share of the interior work completed on Tom's coach.  Craig & Steve are really making Tom's interior something of beauty.  man, take a look at the floor how it goes with the laminate walls   , the floor should be completed today, they are connected front to back now it's a matter of cut , fit, install the custom cot boards.  I'm on the dash, covering the main "donut" pad after Craig pulled the thing apart , stay tuned I have my camera with me.

It was brought to my attention an issue that I wanted to cover a bit.  At the Herrington rally I was showing pics and talking about all the wild projects we are involved witth-- the dual fuel coach, the 2 Duramax monsters, talked about the double slide project of last your, the flat bed and on and on.  I was told that many people look at these "big" projects and figure we are making equal "big" bucks doing these things.  No man, you must understand that through repetition you get efficiency and profit-- doing things not only for the first time but things no one has ever done-- things that there are no models of diagrams to follow take and unbelievable amount of effort to accomplish, that is not the way to make "big bucks".  In fact many people have confided in me that we should stop all this "one off" stuff and pay attention to the normal "meat and potatoes stuff.  Yes, I do fully understand the fact that no one could possibly pay for the time it takes us to work through some of the issues we have with this custom stuff and we would make more "profit" doing only brake jobs and oil changes-- look, thats not why I got into messing with these "26' hot rods", I got into this to support an awesome vintage machine, to do things that are different, interesting and fun.  Yes, we do brake job and oil changes but I also take on the projects others look at and shake their heads.  I want you guys to know and understand that we are not racking up on this stuff-- as a matter of fact this stuff is part of our profit issue but hey-- I tell they guys, "if it were easy Jiffy Lube would be doing it, people bring us the hard stuff and thats what we do here".  So please appreciate what it is to figure out some of this stuff-- know we are struggling like most other small businesses and please support our efforts.

Thanks for the for todays visit, thanks for the past and I hope future support and thanks for caring about such an unusual and exciting machine-- and because of this we are all "brothers in arms" !

Call if I can help, channces are I will be here all weekend cleaning up, getting ready and getting out work load clear for some real stuff--- see ya!

10.2.08

Way too much salad and not enough meat I've been away from the bays too long and need to stick with stuff thats going on here-- bet you are happy to hear me say that!  I missed yesterday mainly because I had 3 of the guys not here which means I really needed to get out in the bays and get something done--- when all else fails, I do it!  Hope we can get a better team together today, we have much to do-- fingers crossed.

We did get stuff done though, Lionel is continuing on Ken's 23' Duramax getting "must do" body work handled before the big push on the interior.  One main issue is wheel wells.  The original rear wheel wells have a plastic liner secured directly to the body and that does a pretty good job.  The new ground effects reshapes the lower body so we end up with a gap between the old body and new   In this pic you can see the old body and where the new body is now.  The plastic liner with it's reshape repair is inside and sealed to the inside but something has to be done to direct water from the wheels.  A liner ring is molded to the new body panel Which will be painted with resin then secured to the new body panel.  These are the small things that actually are big deals and must be figured out.

Tom's closet gets its finish, a new product is a laminate styled rear wood aromatic cedar vineer In the past, a cedar closet entailed cedar plank installation which was time consuming and difficult to cut into tight, small places like our closets.  This material is still "fun" to install but much better than before and really smells great.  It can also cover the inside of the closet door as well , the cost is much less than planking but still gives the cloths protection.  Steve is playing double duty while the others are out getting the floor going.  First the foam substrate sheet goes down before the laminate wood slatfloor is cut in, stay tuned today to see that floor going in.  Craig will be back from dental surgery (ouch!) and will help Steve cut in the laminate floor.

Eric's Airstream coach destined for the UK is about ready to hit the ground again, the suspension and brake work is complete    Se we have it made, here in the states if a part fails we can have a part to us soon-- think about taking a trip from the UK to Spain and you loose a brake caliper or a pad--------- as Daren says, you are "hooped"!  The goal in working through the 82 Airstream chassis is targeted on replacing all that stuff here and now before it makes it's trip over the pond.  If the guys will show up today, this puppy will hit the ground!

We're preparing to bulk in the twin holding tank system for the 32' stretch, with it's floorplan change, new inlets must be set for the toilet, shower and sink drains so new tanks must be installed with inlets cut.  This will be one of those "fun" jobs (kinda like that show on the Discovery Channel "Dirty Jobs")  well, not really in that all the duty will go away wit the old tanks (good thing) and the job will be like plumbing a new house--- before the pipes are tested!

I have responded to most of the support Emails on the recent "swaree" concerning the -- lets name it "Aviongate".  Yes, it is nice to see that our judicial system will work when we give it a chance but you know even when cooler heads prevail, you do not come up with acknowledgement of the issues and action.  Oh no, we need to preotect everyone and even the rights of the accused and even the guilty must be protected.  Monday, while I was blurring the center line running with Nelson in his "Smart Car" and attending the GMCMI convention for 1 day, this person who was found by the court to be in violation and ordered to make things right actually came onto our property unannounced and figured he would take the trailer in question without paying the repair and storage moneys the count agreed he owed.  I don't know if he thought he could push Janie around with his rederick or what-- but it didn't work.  After he told her of his intentions, she invited him to leave the property-- Wait, let me think--- after accusing me of Breech of contract, said I damaged his trailer and because of all that had interfered with his way of life, took me to task on the issues, went to arbitration then to court and was found by the court to not only  accuse me of all that untruthfully but also did in fact owe me for the proper work we did on the trailer as well as for the lawful storage charges-- now with a final judgment compelling  him to "do the right thing" he feels it OK to just come onto our property and take the trailer away---- I think not!  Janie did what probably any of you would do and told him to leave the property--- I'll give him one thing--- he does have *&^^%!!!  Bottom line there is-- you mess up, you pay so it doesn't look like this is over.  I guess he forgot I was born-n-raised in Jacksonville Florida where the necks are red, the pickup trucks are mud covered and where trying to push someone around usually ends up you getting pushed back!  We love Tom Petty and his views on the world and as he says which I have quoted many times "you can stand me up in the gates of hell but I won't back down".  How bout Lynard Skynard's "Gimme back my bullets" or Jim Croche's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown"?  We will continue the good fight here and in that all of this is "public domain" I will be sure to let you know the particulars.  Dude I like "live and let live" but I also say "mess with me and you mess up"!  You know I could not go a day without emptying out at least some of this stress-- it's what this page is about for me, sorry if I got any of "it" on ya.

So they are calling today "perfect" weather here in the south, the heat has broken, dry air is moving in-- heck it was in the 60's this morning-- I tried out the heater in the Suzuki and it still works great.  I've modified an indian rain dance to bring in all the guys so lets see if that works.  Have one more sheet of laminate to get for Tom's galley counter so I will be in and out today, call if I can help but I may need to call you back.  So I'm now off to my Emails (wanted to get with you guys first this morning) for that paperwork then it's off to the "mines" for me.  I like hard work and without sweat hanging from my nose the weather may help us out today.  have a great day yourself and if your weather stinks--- come on down!

PS: Oops, was standing outside of the office getting some air after scanning the Emails-- Ben brought in his coach to get it reliable after is sitting for a time and I saw this.  Do ya see it? There is water dripping from under the feash water tank onto the lot, it has not rained in a while and standing there I saw the droplets-- gonna have to see whats up!  It's stuff like this, guess the old girl waited to drop the load till it was with us-- good girl, you held out.  These coaches will run broken but are smart enough to know when it's time to say something, stay tuned for details.

9.30.08

I'm back in Florida after a "whirlwind tour" to the Herrington Delaware GMCMI rally and back.  It was a 16 hour straight through trip from Orlando on Sunday morning, across the Chesapeake Bay bridge to the rally in Delaware-- a 923 mile trip-- in Nelsons "Smart Car" .  First I would like to thank Nelsons brother Vince who you see his coach there with Nelson and is car "Gumby" for putting nelson up for the night when we showed up so late Sunday night and to Jim Galbavy for letting me crash on the new "J" sofa I had built up into his coach some months ago and he did leave on the seat cushion for me!  Even the economic situation didn't stop some 103 coaches from making the get together:    Yesterday at noon, I did my talk on how to exist in the economy today with a GMC motorhome, had a really good crowd attend.  Would have taken some pics but hey, I forgot!  The big thing I wanted to convey is we really are cost effective using a GMC if we are smart about what we do, maintain the coach well and I wanted them to know there are still many young people out there rediscovering the GMC.  New technologies promise to keep the GMC on the road and a viable alternative for the future.  It went well so at @ 4PM, we loaded up :Gumby" and Nelson shot me over to the Baltimore airport for a red eye flight back to the sunny south where BTW it is cloudy and drizzling rain while I plunk this down. 

Saw many people I only get to talk to on the phone and that is always a draw for me to go to one of these.  Hey, Charles Boyd, I missed ya there, too bad you could not make it--- next time. 

Nelson's Smart Car "Gumby" was a big hit and I used it to make a point in my talk.  Always the question was, "what kinda mileage did ya get" .  Then the next question was, "how was the ride"?  I gotta tell ya guys, technology has made a subcompact car a real highway cruiser   The little 3 cylinder motor with it's 5 speed tranny gave us unbelievable power--- yes power!  You were driving along talking, look down & you were doing 80 MPH-- sorry officer I wasn't paying attention.  The ride?  It has 15" wheels and sits @ as tall as most other mid sized cars , we were looking down at the Hondas and Toyotas.  It had a really spacious dash, of course don't look behind you cause there is nothing there but hey it didn't seem like it needed the big butt to give a solid ride, no buffeting from trucks or crosswinds-- I mean it really was a good ride!  Mileage, we stopped 3 times for fuel pumping an average of $26 each time, it was giving us just over 40 MPG but doing it in what I would call comfort, a real step up from my 35 MPG Suzuki Samauri that would have rattled our teeth out on a trip like this, not to mention the blistering 55 MPH top speed I had grown to accept from my high mileage alternative.  Yep, I think they have a real winner with the "Smart Car".  It's not just one thing that makes it a "smart" decision to buy but a pile of things that make it a great future alternative.  You are going to see more machines like this thing in the future, get used to it and give them a chance!

So, the flight was delayed in Charlotte, could have been from the Wachovia fallout-- there were several business suits on the flight with a phone buried in their ear while in the terminal.  They were not pleased people.  Hey, this economic mess will rebound at some point, just like any commodity, there are corrections and rebounds.  I sure don't want to come off as having some insight on this stuff but from my view, there will be a point where all of the "money for nothing" and "get rich quick" schemes will loose their fizzle, the economy will go back to being driven by real work and honest pay for services rendered-- who knows how much kicking and fighting will go on to reach that but in the end the honest American way will survive.  Hey, we may not see big salaries and dang I hope those poofy CFO's up there on the top shelf will stop getting those "golden parachutes" and all those perks-- I mean a bonus of 20 million for running a business into the ground is just not right!  Oops, there I go getting into politics--better look out or someone is going to ask me who I'm for!  Look, let me tell you now, I am for US, thats right "US" as in the United States.  I'm for the hard workers, I'm not for spending what millions just to tell people the candidates are this or that.  I'm for I guess the "middle class" cause I think I am one.  Didn't know we had fallen back into a "class" system but I guess in many ways we never got away from one.  It seems to me we all came here certainly not from the top of the heap, we all came here to be treated equal, fair and not be held back from all that hoopra at the top-- now our own "top hoopra" is holding us back-- things always seem to come back around.  The greed is the thing, the me/my state of mind is infiltrating -- we really need to stop all that and be happy with what we have.  Hey, I know thats easy to say speaking from somewhere in the middle of the stack as they say but heck, what put those folks on the bottom of the stack there?  Was it bad luck, was it decisions they made for themselves, was it others greed, was it a combination or something else entirely-- those are the answers we need to answer to help those folks.  And then, how did a couple of guys get so dang much money!! I mean come on, when you have to count the number of 0's in your net worth to be sure you got it right-- dude there is something wrong with that picture!  Sorry and I'm not saying we storm all the big houses and drag out all the people living in them but hey, how comfortable is comfortable enough anyway!  Fat, dumb and happy should not be a desirable state of mind!

Heck, shoot me I got into politics-- I'll stop now.  People need to look at the good, news reporters stick our nose in the bottom feeders plate so much the rest of us are starting to think thats all there is!  Nelson & I had breakfast yesterday in a little "dew drop inn" spot where things were very relaxed-- old guys were holding their usual chair down, reading the paper, sucking on some coffee and just there while time passed.  Herrington Delaware is a sleepy town far away from stock brokers biting and chewing up their worthless stock tickets and wondering if the world will be here tomorrow-- it will for the guys in those little breakfast holes across the country-- they aren't trying to buy the world, build enclosed farris wheels in Iraq, huge skyscrapers in Dubai of ripping more oil out of the ground while killing the environment in Russia-- no, they would just like to have their coffee warmed up the next time the waitress goes by.  I know all this is mighty simplistic and probably silly but hey, I think we need to get centered again.

I look at it as good for my brain to get out for a small bit and get a perspective on my life a bit.  It's now back to the stresses of the shop, it's back to balancing the work load, the bills and the timetables around here.  It's back to pushing to get a volume of stuff accomplished.  I now find a new struggle with getting the fellow to do what the court has ordered and pay for his fully-- man, the end of one thing always marks the beginning of another!  If this saga plays on much more I'll clue you in on some really self centered stuff that just may be a great example of what is wrong with this system-- time will tell.  We all have to remember that the truth is the truth -- except when someone wants to insert their truth in place of the real thing-- and brother it seems to be happening all over the place!

Have a great day, we have much to deal with around here. life is good-- or should I say not as bad as others are so I am counting blessing.  Rainy days like today tend to slow you down a bit and maybe we need a huge soft thunderstorm over the Northern Hemisphere right now.  Hang in there, go have some "SOS" and a cup of coffee, oh and leave the waitress a descent tip-- you'll feel better about yourself.

9.27.08

The hit counter showing 521 means I didn't post yesterday but you probably know that and as always when that happens there is good reason but I bet you guys who called in yesterday to talk to me about something or another where gurther surprised when you found I was not at the shop!  Now wait, that is a bit on the irregular side--- and you would not be wrong on that one.  I had some very important family stuff to take care of up in Jacksonville which I feel after all the time I have been focused on work really needed my attention so I bumped up the highway in the Suzuki (good mileage but there ARE some things you have to give up).  I will say you see much more of the countryside at 50 MPH!  So I was playing hooky, but don't worry it was not something I do often.

I have so much stuff to tell you today, important stuff that this post today will be a long one but hey, if you wanna know--- read on.

Along with all of the other disruptions or should I say preoccupations of yesterday, it was day 8.  You say what is day 8?  Along with all the rest of the stresses of keeping all of these crusty balls up in the air, you may had forgotten (I did not have that luxury) that for the past over 3 months I have been locking horns in a civil litigation with a dispute over the Avion trailer.  Oh yes, the Avion-- makes me not want to see another one of those.  You may remember a "family friend" had cornered me into supposedly working on his 64 Avion trashed out travel trailer.   Janie was the smart one and told me to leave the thing alone but you know me-- always wanting to help but as it turned out I was being maneuvered because of my good nature of giving.  A small project of trying to repair a few systems in the thing turned into a small businessman's nightmare.  Hey, everyone has the right in America to be treated fairly and when there is a difference of opinion the remedy there is civil litigation.  The break down in our system is mant have found ways to "use" the system to cheat, to fabricate issues then to cash in on their unethical manipulation of the facts and of reason to their benefit.  Our system of fairness breaks down when both parties do not deal in good faith and then it is the duty of our court system to try and weed out these types of injusti9ces.  It is a very hard thing our judges have to try and weed fact from fiction.  It seems to have become an end goal to take more than your share in society today, to make of facts as you see it that puts you on the receiving end of things that you do not deserve and take things from people that do not owe them to you. 

So here I have been, for 3 months dealing with the program of our judicial system trying to asertain exactly who said what, how was deserving of what and what the &^%% was going on!  You guys were in on the plight I must say from the beginning, from when I was a naive small business owner showing you guys this Avion trailer and the things we were doing to it.  I did not see this as anything other than someone wanting our services, as it turned out there was an ulterior motive to the trailer coming to us and as it turned out from the offset the intention was not to have us do fair work and receive a fair wage for those services.  

For 5 days we engaged in repairs on the trailer then the shoe dropped and I found myself in litigious action.  How can this be, how can working hard for someone conclude with anything other than the intended outcome?  It can as I found out when one of the 2 parties has other things on their mind.  A month or so ago we reached "arbitration" of the issue.  This phase is there to give both parties a chance to go behind closed doos and talk through the problem.  I relate this to going behind the woodshed in the old days and other than throwing punches it's supposed to let 2 reasonable parties air their differences and try to find a solution without the expense and all of an actual trial.  The problem is and the idea breaks down when either party is not interested in resolving the issue only wanting to lay out the facts as they have manufactured them and see if they can "buufo" someone into believing them and and such was the attempt at resolving the "Avion issue" in arbitration.  This problem was *&^^ bent for trial and all I could say was so be it.  I knew my facts, I guess I would have to admitt and say "As I saw them" and so did the other gentleman.  With an impass as this I guess the only was to resolve this was to stand before a judge and show the 2 sides of the issue and hope justice would prevail.

Justice-- thats a tough word, it is really difficult for someone who knows none of the parties to understand the issues and find the truth.  I mean if you knew someone from birth, you could know how they were and would know say--- they could not have taken that piece of candy, they hated candy sticks and would not want to take it.  A complete, impartial stranger would not know that "Johnny" hated that candy stick and it was the squirrel watching from the porch who snuck in and stole that piece of candy from under the nose of the old general store owner.  A judge in todays court system has a really difficult situation to unwind someones contrived facts to find the truth and here I was in the middle of trying to point to that squirrel and see that there was a hole in the screen--- if you know what I mean.

I had gotten several posts from "posers" here telling me I should have probably kept all of this quiet.  They said what if you LOOSE and things don't go well for you afterall when you go to court you never know what will happen!  Yep, and you know they were right.  Either I am just to stupid to shut up sometime or just so darn sure of myself that I continuously jump myself out there on that limb and jump up and down to see what will happen.  I guess I have to say I just cannot help myself, I believe in the right thing and I believe that someone who "hides" things just cannot be honest.  It may be a straw bed but I can sleep well each night knowing I have done my best to do the right thing in everything I do.  And if this is true I see no problem in hiding nothing from anyone.  This civil ligitagation to me is no different.  I have been told it's really only my business and that bringing something as sensitive as this into the open is not good for me, that others may see a "kink" in the armour to exploit.  Oh dangit, why do we have to be so paranoid of others taking from us!  The answaer to that always comes back "we live in a litigious world" and all of that.  We need to protect ourselves because you never know what truth someone will believe.  Hey, I understand all of that, people are in jail that should not be and all of that but I just cannot help thinking that truth will always win over if you are in the right.  A pretty naive way of thought right-- I'll take that, I just cannot live my life in fear!

Last Wednesday was the day, the day to go before the powers that be and see if we could lay out the facts in a manner that an impartial judge could look at them and understand the truth of the matter.  There I was in my new "power suit" which BTW I appreciated all the posts about how well I cleaned up.  I hung up my tie over 15 years ago saying "I am what I am" and a suit would not change that.  Well, it was felt that I did need to bring to the table a certain order to myself so it was suit time again.  I boned up on my Law and Order episodes cause I was going to be an unwilling but non the less centerpiece in a trial, yep in front of a judge playing Jack Web.  This was "small claims" count but anything over $50 is a big deal to me so this was serious business.  $5000 would not put me in the debtors prison but it sure would ruin my financial picture, look we are a small business and as such are close to the economic edge like most other small businesses so I saw this as a fight for my life.  It was a turning point in our business, our enthusiasm to try and chisel out some way to pay the bills and do something we truly feel is important and something worth doing.  Man and here I am, telling everyone that knows me, probably even the guy that is seeking to wreck my business, that I am now out on that kreeking limb jumping up and sown to see how far I can go-- and if I fall it will be like the Titanic on it's maiden voyage, everyone excited about the invincible ship and have it sink. 

So yesterday was day 8, the judge said we would know in 5 to 7 days of her decision, this means that here we were on day 8-- day 7 had come and gone and now we are into yet another day of finger biting, second guessing wether what I did would be seen as it was--- the truth--- I'm into day 8 of keeping it all together and trying to figure out how I would break the news of the outcome.  I could not just not say anything, I have had people call and post asking the outcome.  You guys deserved to know after sitting through all of my my ranting about it, all of my words about it, sitting through all of this deserves the right to know.  I do not know everyones name out there reading this but after pouring myself out there for all to see, you have been witness to my ups and downs-- all of it and you need to be in on this too.  Whatever happens and whichever way this goes I must be true to my belief that the light at the end of that tunnel is not a freight train!

Here we were yesterday, barreling up I-95 at the breakneck speed of 55, wind whistling past the cloth top of my skate board and my cell phone rings.  Janie was holding down the fort yesterday-- hey we can't just close the shop, the bills go on!  She paused a monent then said "We got the letter".  It was day 8 and I knew what letter she was referring to.  No, it was not my winning lottery ticket or notice of winning the Republican VP nominee slot-- that was already taken.  No, it was the letter from the court, the piece of paper that would change everything.  Will my outlook on what should be change forever, would I have to harden my heart and look at every person in front of me as what they could take from me or could I say there is still truth and a reason to be one of the good guys.  Here I was in that Suzuki about to learn something I would never forget-- do I pull over and hold onto my socks, should I just not want to know and drive the Samauri into the ditch and the news could say no onw knows why the vehicle left the road-- it was one of those times.  My heart raced, here we are-- where were you when Kennedy was shot, the Berlin wall fell, Lynard Skynards plane crashed -- this is going to be one of those times and here I was driving in that Suzuki with the top off!

So what does it say, Janie said "let me open it",  oh dang, my gas pedal foot is quivering!  I did not get the opportunity you have to actually read the page like you do--- here it is: 

That one piece of paper says it all for me!  Even though this is a public document and I am well within my rights to divulge the names of all parties involved I felt it the charitable thing to do to withhold those unless the situation changes.  By God, Arlo was right--- Obie and his blind seeing eye dog really are a great team!  It IS an issue of blind justice and it does pay to do the right thing!  We have withstood the "group W bench" and have prevailed!  Actually it was you guys I feel helped make the difference.  The 20 color pictures taken from the massive data base of pictures I take to satisfy our wander lust showing you guys stuff here on the pose I feel played key in helping the court to understand the issue, to see how out of reality the claims were that we had "damaged" the trailer or committed "breech of contract" in the intention to take something from someone!  It also was the micromanaged and totally itemized and detailed invoices that in the end showed the right from the wrong.  I take great care to be honest and fair on pricing work we do, it obviously became apparent by even someone who did not know me that all of that was true.  I mean when you see pictures of broken down parts like this that was said "we" damaged and detailed explanations by the actual workers who did the job of trying to turn a sows ear to a silk purse supported the fact that we did our best but we were taken advantage of.

Sorry you had to read through all that to get to the end, I know it was like the Annnnnnticipation in the Rocky Horror Picture Show and all but it was so heavy on my mind, such a pivital issue of my understanding of what is right that I just had to bring it to you in the way it felt to me.  And I'll also tell you what it says to me about how we do business here--- I work very hard for every customer who give me the honor of doing work for them.  I spend a great deal of time and effort to be fair, to be honest in my dealing and put myself into the customers shoes probably too much and bend over backwards to always give the benifit of the doubt.  For this I have been taken advantage of, been pressed to give when there was nothing left to give, let someone take advantage of a situation looking the other way and say hey, what the heck and putting up with issues and situations that clearly are not my problem but do everything possible to help anyway.  I will not say that is over because prevailing in this action prooves to me that always taking the high road is the only way to be but I will tell you this, when it comes "push to shove" I am not going to be pushed over!  I have rights too, I have the right to expect fair treatment when I do my best for others and I am not going to put up with some of what people have done to me in the past.  Call that hardening my heart if you must, I look at it as learning a thing or 2 from this. 

Working on vintage motorhomes and RV's is not like doing a brake job on a Toyota, one part comes off and 3 fall off with it.  Time is a killer for mechanisms and it truly is not my fault that work has to be done to a coach, it is not my fault-- I did not break the machine but I can fix it if the owner is willing to let me do my best.  I do not charge for things I do not do, I am fair with each function of a project and am more than willing to work in good faith for those willing to do the same.  I am not a wizard and cannot do things for nothing, we are not rich and must do our best to stay on the black side of the P&L for nothing else than to keep the doors open.  Those that have done business with us know we are fair and take responsibility for our actions.  I hate to say it this way but in putting myself and the reputation of my business out on the limb to sway I feel proves I am a man of my word.  So there you are, like me or hate me for it I am standing up and saying I care and I will do the right thing-- no matter.  And if you feel this is too much to say I am proud of what we do and what we stand for then you can hit that red "X" at the top right of this page and go other places.  If you feel we are providing a fair service and help to a narrow niche industry despite all the pitfalls a small business can fall into then you are the type of person I want reading my stuff and I invite you back again.  I told you this would be a long one, I hope I did not disappoint you on that-- heck & I'm still not finished!  See what happens when I get motivated!!!  You guys are awesome!

As if this week has not been enough of a red letter time for me, right now has other exciting things for me and for the Co-op.  We are on the launch pad, staged and ready like the shuttles over at KSC.  The plan is set and Nelson & I are hitting the road at 6AM tomorrow for a wild ride in his Smart Car non stop to Delaware and the GMCMI rally up there.  I will be there on Monday for a talk about "how to survive in the economy today with a vehicle that gets 10 MPG".  With all that's going on today, I feel this one issue is not only on everyones mind but is pivotal in the future of The GMC.  I see so many people all the time dealing with this subject that I feel it's something important for all of us to address and we're gonna do just that on Monday.  I'll be back here in the saddle on Tuesday to have no fear we are not going to "rest on our laurels" whatever that means.  If you are going to be at the rally please come by and talk with me, it's why we are going and if you are not going-- I will take pics-- ahhh, those wonderful pics, the truth truly does set you free!

Next item of interest (I told you this would be long today!) It's Saturday and yes, I am at the shop so call me if you need something.  Maybe I should go out in the boat or take a bike ride but hey-- I have this commitment here so here I am.  There's not a cloud in the sky, a beautiful blue day, the sun is up and the temps are in the 60's-- the heat has broken and it's becoming the time to be down here-- what could be better!  I have some finish file work to grind out on Tom's coach and Craig has the aluminum dash cut for the Duramax dash project, I need to eyeball that progress and see whats next.

The Lizard skin ceramic coating is here along with their liquid heat barrier so this will be a true experiment that we all may benefit from.  Stay tuned for that-- you know I will do pics for ya!

No days off for me this week, I'll be assembling my rally presentation and doing work in the trim shop today.  Janie & I also my son Ray who towed my Suzuki back from Jacksonville yesterday saving me the exercise of another long trip at 55 MPH had a celebration dinner last night and thats enough so it's back to work and to our job of doing neat things with the GMC.  I will still entertain doing work on other vintage RV's, heck it was not the Avion's fault it's owner was not on the up and up with his dealings.  I feel much better about things today, my stress level has dropped a notch now I can devote more to the other important issues we have here at the Co-op.  You guys probably just do not know how timely you have been in directing my thoughts-- thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Now, and if all this is not enough, we have developed an opportunity on the Duramax project that is simply busting my buttons, go again and look at the caliber of the finish and the style we have captured on the 26' coach  Cruz'in think of an interior that rivals the finish of the exterior Walter has so lovingly produced.  Think of a machine that is just out the top more than anything you have ever seen and think of wrapping the world into this 26' rocket.  This is all I will tell you for now, wheels are in motion that will just surpass anything I have ever dreamed of--- as if this project already has not done that!  On man, you just gotta stay tuned to where this project is heading!

Ok, so now I'm "downloaded".  I have talked through some of the things on my mind, things I have held back on and things that I feel define myself and my beliefs.  I feel better, hope your ear can be glued back on-- hope you don't think I'm nuts but maybe it's OK with me if you think I am because what you see is what you get!  We are standing up for our rights and the rights of our good customers.  We are offering a true value to those who wish to work with us and of that I feel good about.  To those that think I am an easy mark, think twice-- I am not playing and will not be pushed around!  Be fair with me and you will find more than an friend, mess with me and I will not take it!  I have been in the mouth of the beast and am not afraid to stand up for my rights!  Thanks to all for your support and friendship and I tell you it is well placed.  I promise to always do my best, do the right thing and stand up for what is right.

I've bent your ear way too much now and am now repeating myself-- bye for now, call if you need to, I'll be here to help.  See ya at the rally.

9.25.08 Thurs.

No doubt you watched our president last night talking about the economic situation and how he sees to address it.  At the beginning of his talk I was getting a bit scared-- I mean having the chief "CFO" tell us there are "real" problems kinda wakes you up.  As he went on though it was clear that the problem was too many have been going too long down a road where some have opted to try and use the "system" to get more than they should have.  Ok, hey everyone wants more, it's kinda the American way and of course the end result in so many taking this position is there is no one in the cookie store making the cookies everyone wants to eat!  I would say all those folks in the stock market doing those "aggressive" portfolio balances need to rethink their position.  I am not the one to ask questions of for the stock market-- long ago my Grandfather set me down and told me if you do not want to be a "dandy" and pull your hair out and wring out your hands worrying about stuff you have very little control over--- invest in yourself because at the end of the day YOU are really all you can rely upon.  Now it's true do that will not probably make you rich beyond your dreams and chances are you will need to "work" at your investment but hey, I figure I am going to have to work most of my life if for nothing more than to give me something to do.  I need to have something to do, something to occupy my mind and my hands so I might as well be exercising doing something for myself as he pointed out to me.

So then I thought about the Co-op and what we are doing.  Should I be concerned that no one will want to do anything with their GMC and our business will simply go away?  These are the tough questions no one wants to talk about, hey but it's me and maybe I don't know any better but as I see it communication is the most important and lest understood thing we do in society. 

True, no one is forcing anyone to invest into a vintage motorhome but I will say this, of all of the things you could put money into that will give you something interesting to do, that will give you things to see and places to go as cost effectively as possible, a vintage GMC set up to a reliable, comfortable condition is the least expensive way to entertain yourself.  Really, think about it-- if you want to not just sit at home and read the paper, hitting the road with a plan of places to go and things to do is the best way to spend quality time with yourself and others.  Think about the whole picture on a vacation-- transportation, food, lodging, entertainment, experiences and all that.  While you may not be able to see the London Tower from 30,000 feet coming in for a landing there are so many exciting things you can do and I think you will see there is plenty of excitement.

Cal & Roberta have a great diversion they use their coach for, they live in LA and drive their coach down the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) to a little roadside park where Roberta brings several of her friends for a weeks relaxation.  They take off for a couple of days somewhere in the coach, cook in the coach, sleep in it and have a fun, exciting, cheap time away from their rat race.  That is exactly what the GMC can do.  It's small enough for you to find a spot to hunker down at, big enough to give you a comfortable level of life and reliable enough to get you there and usually back again.  I say that being realistic that you do need contingency plans if there are issues but all in all if you maintain your machine it will provide for you.

So back to the Co-op and are we at risk of collapse-- I don't think so because we have built our business on being a cost effective link to keep this affordable vehicle doing it's thing for their owners.  Compared to most places you could get your coach worked on, we are a pretty good value and after 11 years in business we must be doing something right to have that many folks do business and repeat business with us.  Neglect of your coach will only make it unreliable and thus not cost effective.  If you park your coach and do not use it or do not find a way to get use of the investment you have put into it-- you are wasting money there.  Don't do that, use your coach--- wrap it into your lifestyle and you will find you will spend less money than doing anything else.  We have several customers that do this.  Heck Craig lives in Sacramento, has a coach there-- he also has a coach here in Florida and keeps it stored.  He calls me when he makes a plan to come to the east coach, I go get his coach, do a few check out and maintenance things and he flies into Orlando and makes a tour from here and back again using his "Florida coach".  You might say having 2 coaches is nutty, spending what $2-4000 for fuel and wear and tear bouncing from one coast to the next looks nutty to him.  He has only a plane ticket, he has no lodging to pay for, no meals other than preparing his own food in his coach and as far as things to do-- he is a photographer, he drive into an area, sets up and does his thing then moves on to the next pace for more pics-- he has a ball and the GMC's he has makes it all possible.

True, if you have no desire to ravel a GMC may not be a cost effective thing for you but if you do want to get out and do things, a GMC can really make that dream a reality.  So I am continuing to have an optimistic view on the economy, we have been a very cost effective choice for folks since we opened and I have no plans to change that.  We have many friends and if they support us by keeping us in their loop of maintaining their coach with parts and services we will be fine-- I feel.  If we continue to renovate coaches bringing them to a reliable, comfortable, impressive level I feel folks will continue to do business with us and continue to use their GMC in their lives.  Yes, the economy has problems but I think we are all on the right track of finding a way to make the best of the dollar we spend.  I feel for those that took out a 20 or 30 year mortgage to get one of those monster RV's figuring all they needed to do was make the payments-- thats not the right way to invest in yourself and now they have a variable rate mortgage on something that is falling apart, that will cost big bucks to use and maintain.  Those people are walking away from that deal and they are part of our problem.  We are not the problem, they are and the lending folks that took their money and gave back very little.  I feel bad for the people who took the advice to invest and flip houses, get custody and sell it right away and pocket the "profit".  That's OK till the market implodes and now things are not worth more and those investments close out-- this is our problem-- we are not part of that -- we are a viable solution so watch for a group finding the GMC and investing in them as an economic alternative-- I have already seen this.

This issue is certainly much more complex than what I can see from my vantage point and probably from yours as well.  We have to believe in our economy and in our government to protect us somewhat-- I know that may sound naive but really, give me an alternative!  Hang in there, don't jump under your mattress and hide-- we only go through this once so lets see how it all pans out-- and for gosh sakes we specialty GMC dealers need your support so please us us, buy parts from us, have us work wit your coach and lets all support eachother doing this, I promise I will do my part if you have faith in me.  We'll get through all this, yes it may change some things in our lives but we will still live and depending on how we look at it we can still have a quality life-- hey and one good way is with your beloved GMC!

Viva-La GMC!

9.24.08

Thanks John for fixing the "Member Pages" I have a narrow path I need to stay on when it comes to messing with a computer and especially with the web site.  I somehow got off my yellow brick road and fouled up our member pages, John our resident hardware and software guru (BTW, he also has a GMC) got us back on the straight and narrow-- and I'll do my best to keep my 2 business fingers off those buttons, I promise!

Yesterday was filled for me at least with a job I have not been able to spin off to anyone in the years I have been with all of this-- namely the laminating, sanding and finish filing of cabinet doors.  We're at a point on Tom's interior where Steve has produced the nice fitting doors and drawer front and now they need their laminate skin.  First let me show you the finished product then I though I would step through what's involved.  So here ya go, here is Tom's galley cabinet with it's doors and now his galley overhead included .  Messed up again and did not get a before pic but you can see from this in process pic we have come a long way from the laminate color on the front of this cabinet to where we are.   So we say, hey that looks really clean and with a word we have described all that work but what does it take to get that look?  The "no handle" look went a long way to give us the clean style but what about covering those cabinet doors, I mean what's involved in getting them hung on the coach--- well first it takes some serious lay out.  Tom's spec was each door to have a 1/2" gap between the next one.  This means Steve had to lay out that "wall" in a 1/2" grid in front of each door and drawer.  Then take measurements and cut each door to fit the grid and hang them in place.  Next is where I come in, one at a time, each door needs it's new skin which means all visible surfaces need a laminate outer cover.  Ok, so every door has a face that needs a panel cut but each door also has 4 sides each needs a 4 sided panel glued to it then cut to fit with a hand router , then sanded to an exact fit with means every panel gets 5 custom fitted face panels   Then each door needs a router cut finger pull in that there are no outside opening handles, you can see the finger pull in the last pic.  Now the tedious stuff begins,  each panel has 8 edges that must be hand filed smooth, any edge sticking out could snag and pull the laminate finish, then all the glue and wax residue is cleaned off and the final finish is revealed   I use 3 grades of files to bring the edges to this finish.  After all that, the inside unfinised face is color dyed to at least mask the fact that it is wood and not covered-- then and only then can we hang each panel in place one at a time making sure the 1/2 gaps are correct .  So we had 7 panels that made up the galley cabinet door and drawer compliment, that is 56 edges, 35 custom fit panels on the 7 doors.  You just can't look at the volume of work put into these as you work, you just take them one at a time!  Today I look up and go after the hall cabinet doors, the closet and bath doors and the 4 overhead cabinet doors.  This means, and I said not to do this, we will have 11 panels, do the math I'll be busy!  The work is worth it though, Tom's interior is really going to look sharp, clean and fresh so "Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's off to work I go!"

Lionel brought over Mark's 32' stretch with the body work completed we had talked about doing .  More to do of course but we have many issues of the body addressed.  The rear door now fits even to the body .Bringing this door from it's original no window panel to what we have has been a struggle.  The door jam was found to be 1/4" narrow when we got into it and with the body "squat" the new door had to not only be resized to fit the reduced opening but also had to be recurved to fit .  You know sometimes some of the simplest looking things end up being a bugger!  Well, it's done now and we can look back and enjoy the fruits of the labor--- kinda!

Then Craig is in the middle of Craig's new holding tank .  Craig also has a stretch coach 28' long.  It is using the original GM floorplan single tank but when he ordered the tank in for us he did not specify "no sender hole".  We had to make a cover panel for that issue.  Hey, no problem, Craig has that so this morning he'll install the new tank and Craig will be all happy again-- and the folks parked next to him in the RV park too!.  Good thing Craig is coming in early this morning, Craig is flying in today from Ca. to pick the coach up for an east coast vacation!  Many times it's this way, we fall across the finish line winning by out fingertips-- hey but we won and thats what counts!

So one more look at Tom's overhead cabinet in and door on   man, what a clean look, I will see this each time I walk in fitting, then covering and hanging all of those other doors-- it will keep me going.  I really enjoy a project when it starts coming together.

Oh, and speaking of coming together, I am intentionally not showing pics of our Duramax progress right now.  We have some really big news a foot, just cannot say anything just yet.  Both coaches (countem 2) are on the verge of something big, exciting and of course fun.  Stay tuned, cross everything and wish for these projects the best-- we all will end up the benefactors!

So there ya go for yet another report on the daily pose.  Hey, I can't tell ya exactly why I settled on calling this page the "daily pose".  Guess I though of a look         or pose of stuff that happens around here.  You guys were either interested or just wondering what mess we get into and have started hanging around -- hey and I'm good with that   I don't think it's "misery loves company" rather I'm happy you guys care enough about the GMC and us to be involved and drop by-- thanks for that and thanks for all of your support, it makes a difference .

BTW, who's going to the Deleware GMCMI rally?  I'll be coming in with Nelson on Monday morning so plan to come to my talk about energy and the economy and hang out with me at Kanomata's booth in the vendor section.  I'll be bugging out Monday evening so Monday will be the day-- hope to see ya there. 

9.23.08

Thanks for the flurry of recent posts about enjoying the daily pose, I must have hit some primal note!  It's interesting to me that we have people other than GMC'ers here using us as entertainment and folks in other countries around the world that have no way of ever just dropping by. 

I have had dialog with a fellow with a Barth motorhome-- no that's not "Barf" and it really is a rather quality built machine.  Hey, I enjoy any mechanism that somebody did some head scratching to design and build. He's looking for some interior modifications and that is fine-- the thing that I am less interested in are mechanical issues on other coaches.  The Airstreams we work with are tiptoing into a new bed of tulips for sure but it's about as far as I am interested to tread.  Revcons are not bad but the replacement parts are just so bloody hard to find and expensive for the ones hewn out of a solid block of steel that you really need to be determined to maintain one of those.  My hat is truly tipped to those hardy "Revconners" and their plight.

Anyway, one of the great things about the GMC is there were enough copies made that the market is still out there for a handful of parts manufacturers and being similar in design to several auto designs parts through those sources are also available.  Link that with the what 20+ enthusiast clubs and the power that GM put behind the design, manufacture and marketing of the machine initially we are still living off of that combination and really those are very important features of the GMC. 

Those are also the main reasons for the existence of our company.  We could not base our business on any other vehicle of it's kind, there just is not enough interest and enough production to support the dealer structure we have.  Folks with other vintage machines can use our service mainly because we have the association based on the GMC and not the other way around.  Even the popularity of the Airstream is not enough to entice companies to devote their total attention to the one unit.  You have to have a complete package and there simply were not enough Airstream motorhomes produced to have that support package.

So here we are, with the only machine of it's type that can be addressed as a viable alternative to spending big dollars on what the RV industry calls "cutting edge".  Personally, I think they are using a dull knife!  I'm here waiting for the storm, I feel it is the lull before it begins.  I see no way to stop what is going to come, no way to just sit back and no way to do things other than go forward.  Those that know what I'm talking about well, know what I'm talking about and should hold on with me.  Others need to stand by--- As the line in "2001 A Space Odyssey" so amply put it--- "Dave, will I dream?  Hal, it will be something wonderful"!

The sun is up and I need to get out there.  We will have a full compliment today and with luck the rain will not wash out our plans as it did yesterday.  Have a great day and stay tuned.

9.22.08

Today is a new day, the first day of fall and I gotta tell ya I have renewed vigor.  It worked, a little time to do some things for ME has yielded energy to do more at the shop.  But of course "too much time on your hands" as the rock song says does cause problems sometimes-- I was trying to clean up some old pics on the web site and somehow blew out the links to the Member pages, figures right!  Have no fear, I'll get my crack team (hey that's you John) on the technical glitch right away so members-- if you need to know anything just call me.

I have been wanting to show Tom some of the progress on his interior, he has been out in the woods hunting and off the grid (man does that sound like a great time or what).  He's back & I need to catch him up with where we are.  Please bear with me a bit-- you can follow along:

Tom, we are up to the galley now, the lower counter base has been laminated, the "toy box" drawers are in and today Steve will finish up making the new door and drawer faces with the 1/2" spacing then I will start the tedious covering and filing of each of them.  I finished up refinishing of the galley overhead cabinet on Friday , if you will remember the original cabinet had no storage with only a huge vent and the microwave and a toaster oven sticking out, you had the Sharp Aquos flat screen perched on the front edge with a sharp corner going from the face to the forward angled face.  This new design is the same size as the old arrangement but the cut outs gives us access to the interior of the cabinet for storage.  The microwave will still come through the face and will pretty much be flush to the overhead door.  The toaster oven will be recessed inside of the cabinet so you will just open the door to find it.  I think the appearance of the cabinet is better balanced with the toaster oven hidden except when needed.  This bring the large look of the cabinet down and gives great storage access.    I gave a smooth radius to the transition from the front to the forward side and rather than backmounting the flat screen which always brings the issue of how to tastefully finish off the opening (I've really not seen a way to do that and look good in a high visibility situation like this), The monitor is partially recessed with half of the unit inside and the rest of it out.  The top angled cut out is to reach the manual controls of the set.  Hanging the cabinet the TV ends up looking like this Tucks right in behind the corner of the original large window valence which we designed the interior wood around.  Here we go, the overhead cabinet is up now   and the microwave is boxed in.  I'll need to build the toaster oven mount which will leave ample space for the TV antenna amp and the DVD player.  We have a recessed fluorescent fixture on the bottom of the cabinet connected to the light panel at the door to switch on when you come in the coach.  Keep watching, now that you are back with us I'll be posting more pics of your progress, this week we will be really finishing up many projects on your coach so stay tuned.

Here is what we will start with on your dash project   There is the usual stuff-- the forward corner of the pass. pad is lifting, the closeout under the column is a bit to "busy", the add on AC unit while blowing ice cubes could be dressed up a bit, there are chips in the vinyl dye from use.  The cluster itself looks great and will look much better when we dress up the rest of the dash to meet it's level of refinment.  Stay tuned for more, right now your dash looks like this   Hey, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet so to update the dash it first comes apart.  There's a good reason there is black outside the windshield-- it's still dark out there!  Yep, I'm in here plunking this keyboard before dawn-- proof I put in the hours around here!

Thanks guys, I hope you enjoyed my "debriefing" with Tom.  Hope it gave you some ideas. an overhead like this might work well in your application. 

On to other stuff-- that was fast, my "lizard Skin" arrived so now we get to experiment with an all new paint on ceramic coating-- listen to that one guys-- so I see many uses for a product like this!  And yes, we are dealers for this stuff, if you are interested why not support us-- the folks that brought this idea to you and give me a call if you are interested in some.  It is the same price from us or from the manufacturer.  Check out the data on the stuff on their web site www.lizardskin.com , follow our investigation here and let me know if you are interested.  I can see application on insulation of our fuel tanks, maybe even painting walls and ceiling panels, engine cover panels, floorboard panels-- wonder what it would do on my motorcycle header pipes!  We also will be using their paint on sound insulation, both for the Duramax dash and firewall applications.  Hey, just like products we use today developed for NASA application we are finding stuff for our coaches may spill into everyday application-- stay tuned for this one.

Oh and speaking of the Duramax projects, I had a request for some more exterior pics of Raymonds 26' coach.  I was over at Walters having some very productive meeting (I'll tell you more about that as it materializes) and snapped these shot for you guys:

There is no mistake, this is a classic GMC-- on steroids!  The stance of "manly" the lines are still classic though.  It has flow and thats just the way we wanted it to look.  This week majr decisions are in the works to have "Cruz'n" on the road soon, stay tuned for more.

And finally, while we are running around playing with all this new stuff, doing neat new things and finishing stuff off in the fine manner they need to be-- Buster & Jason are over there playing in the grease All the glitz is great but these puppies have to run too!  The 82 Airstream going to the UK is giving up some of it's fluids to add depth to Busters tats.  Hey, a mechanic without grease under his fingers is not doing his job!  Thanks to both of my guys for showing us they don't just play around and really get into their work-- and get their work onto them too!

Gotta tell ya guys, we have developed a team here, specialists that know your coach, we can do it and look, you cannot get something done cheaper anywhere else because by the time you pay for the learning curve other folks would need to get going on the specialties of working with your coach, we can "just do it" and I would have to see the final job should be better, faster and done for less overall.  You don't bring a specialty dealer for them to ply, you bring it to them to get it done the best way possible.  If you own a British car, you want someone who knows not to put "DOT 3" fluid in the brakes. You want them to know there is a hydraulic clutch system and where the slave cylinder is.  Ok, then you want someone to know there is no drive shaft to the rear wheels when you have them work on your GMC-- sorry but thats the truth of the matter.  "Always wanted to work on one of those" is NOT what you want to hear from the shop manager and "Well, I did work on a Toronado once a long time ago" should put shivers up your spine so look, support the GMC community, let us help you with your baby-- yes, this may be "gratuitous advertising" but you came to my page so I didn't force this on you-- it's the truth though.  If you have a good local mechanic, go buy them a pizza for no apparent reason, it goes a long way to having them do their best for you and if you do not have someone, gimme a call and plan a trip to the "Co-op RV Resort", the water slide is down but we'll hang out a power cord and leave the light on for ya!  

9.21.08

It's Sunday and I gotta tell ya this week has been a wild ride.  So many things have happened, so many emotions have been felt and so many issues have been addressed today has got to be mine.  Went for a bike ride last night with Janie in the side car, hooked up with a small bike show which reaffirmed my belief that I had the right idea as far as rolling stock for ourselves.  I just don't like making that much noise and shake around like I'm in a washing machine.  I've riden motorcycles fast and lived to tell the tale, tempting fate at this time in my life is not prudent and what can I say, I love to see people stare at us and wonder what the &^%% is that!

This morning there was no milk in the frig so I had the perfect excuse to stop at my breakfast hole for some good ole biscuits-N-gravy.  It's just so bad for ya as Janie says I can't do it often but this morning was one of those time I think would offset all of that good crap I've been eating.  Just a buck seventy-nine but it was wonderful and as usual several people who came to eat all stared at the bike parked nose out as all bikers should park up close to the door of the diner. 

After my "SOS" and of course iced tea I went out, dawned my gloves with the cut off finger tips, my amber tinted goggles and just to show off I kicked it off, 2 hits and the beast came to life, I know it must have looked pretty good!  A cool morning for summer dow here with some mist from the fog in the air, I went through the non-synchro gears-- got to top cog and just rode.  Rode to go anywhere, rode to just feel where I was and what I was doing.  The mechanism under me sounded like my Granddads ole 48 Chevy truck, no precision ground gears gave it a sound that went right along with it's look.  

You really don't go very fast on a circa 1938 design motorcycle so several cars passed me as I rode, hey thats OK there is no race to win today.  With a toothpick hanging out the side of my mouth, amber goggles on and the gloves that say you mean business I have no doubt in the view I made for those folks passing me and I must say it was exactly what I wanted them to think.  I had no agenda, no place to go and no time to get there. it was just me and that machine that was taking me away-- and away we were going.

As harry Chapin once said, "You can travel on 10 thousand miles and still stay where your are", there's is no need to travel cross country to find excitement, there is no need to spend big bucks to entertain yourself and you do not have to search hard to find something you may have lost.  You simply need to relax a bit and for me grab a handful of crusty old gears and twist the throttle.  One thing about riding a motorcycle that is so primitive, you really do not have to travel far to get a feel that you have done something.  As a matter of fact, the thing is not unlike a Model T Ford, after it runs a bit it needs to stop and rest and who knows but if we travelled a while and then stopped to smell the roses a bit and let our machine rest a bit we just may be able to end up going farther.  I'm with you, life is just moving so fast right now to really have this feeling very often but it's funny but just doing this and feeling this way for an hour or so makes all the difference and if all we need to to reach back and feel this once in a while then maybe there is hope for us.  You guys who are retired, I hope your goal was to reach back and feel this way as much as possible, I hope I will have that chance and for you guys like me still running that wheel do not forget where we need to be striving to reach.

So it's over and out for today, I have cabinet doors to laminate, dashes to make, holding tanks to install along with who knows what else but for today-- you can color me gone! 

9.19.08

First off I have to say thanks to all of you who posted me support on all we are doing around here.  You must have felt there was a need to let me hear some people are behind us-- you were right.  The economy is scary out there right now, we are I guess a poster child for a small business, niche, cottage business-- the one everyone says is getting hit from all sides, the very ones that they say are the backbone of the American way and you know-- from this seat I have to say they are right.  This is crazy tough, people are out there looking to just take and there really isn't much left to take it from when it comes to the small businessman today.  Then you have to spend so much time and money not to mention blow your productivity to Mars having to deal with the extraneous stuff that you wonder why you don't just go flip burgers.  I think society today is governed by the big business wanting to have all the lemmings line up and take their food pellets and live in their cubicles and all wear the same clothes.  Hey, maybe Pink Floyd was right!

Anyway, it's Friday and I get to deal with this place on my own terms by myself for 2 days coming up, that will be a treat.  I'm having some pretty important meetings today.  I hate people who tell me what they are going to do, people like that have put me where I am today-- I want to believe but then many times people do not follow through that there you are.  So I'm not going to tell you right now what we are going to do, let me get it going then I will spill the beans but I have a great opportunity so lets see what come from it.

I'm not sure if I like to be called a "blogger", just has too weird a sound.  it's too close to clogger and please shoot me if I ever take up that form of dance, actually I was remrodded into that in grade school-- thank God I broke free!  I set this "Daily Pose" page up, as many of you know and have been with me from the beginning, not to be cool and do some fashionable internet thing, it was really to be able to have people I was work on stuff fo to see what we were up to and to open a line of communication with them.  You other guys started watching and it turned into much more than I had imagined-- I appreciate of you you caring enough about our exploits to come here to watch as I call it "the mud, the blood and the beer".  I have found this I guess I have to call it this "blog" very helpful to me.  It's human nature to have the feeling to download your thoughts, ideas and emotions as well.  it's one of the things I let someone do right away when they call me broken down on the road or trying to work on their coach with mixed results, I have a quantity of people that have me in their loop with their coach-- it's great and it feels great when I can help-- thanks guys for giving me that outlet, I need it.  I do hope it helps you too in whatever way.  Some people use it to find out what I am doing to try and copy or one up my efforts.  I take that as a compliment, sometimes I should take it for what it is with those freaks and shoo them away.  Hey, if you know someone deminishing our stuff here by doing that-- take care of it yourself for me -- hey? 

Hey, it all comes out in the wash, right-- but be careful where your drainage goes!   I'm having the time of my life-- of course I am, it's what I am doing to use up the energy I eat so all is good.  Thanks for the visit, I have too many things happening right now.  Lou just stopped by & I'm truing up a couple of tires for him before the nuts start rolling today-- see ya later

9.18.08

Would you trust this guy Nothing behind my back   Couldn't just take off, had to answer that last call before I went to court Now we go into the "heart of Darkness" , to the place we usually do not want to go but a place that has to be, a place to solve issues and a place where you never know what will come up and bite you.  I'll give it to you like it was said to me, "My verdict will be rendered and sent to you in 5-7 days.  I will tell you this after going through the court system, a system trying it's best to be fair to everyone no matter if you are black white, red, green, a crook, a good guy, someone with real issues or someone who works the system trying to beat it and get as much as they can.  In America we are free and with those freedoms all must be treated equally and as fairly as the law allows.  It is a very difficult system, no wonder few government experiments have lasted as long as ours,  heck it takes that long just to really figure something out!  So, unless we want to embrace socialism or communist ideology-- we all must give our justice system the opportunity to do the right thing, we have to believe in it and follow whatever it says we must do to preserve law.  Man, is this a sound bite from a Law & Order episode or what!  I can just tell you a judge has an awesome responsibility and no matter which way they go, someone will be pleased and someone will not-- it's a tough spot to be in and I hope common sense and the preponderance of the facts prevail-- we will see.  I would like to thank those that helped me along this path, I appreciate your support and we'll wait to see what happens.

In the meantime, the world will still revolve and stuff has to get done.  After all of that stuff yesterday, I was exhausted, it is amazing how just sitting there staring down people and trying to explain your position wears you out.  Give me an air saw and a glue gun anyday!  The day was shot in the foot so I figured I would go for a robust meal as if it was my last and get ready for today.  Sitting at the local pub, the cell phone rang-- it was Walter over at the paint shop.   Chris & Craig were over there during the day outfitting some mechanical issues on the 26' Duramax and did not realize that the computer on board would recognize someone playing with it's systems.  Their plan was to finish up today but what they were into locked out the shifter control where the hot rod of all time would not go into gear!  Hey, no big deal right--but the coach was outside Walters bay!  With our future resting on the security of that coach, all the stuff in it, all the work and all that we are anticipating that machine to be-- I feel like the father of a teenage girl, she has her first date & there is no way I am going to let her out of the house without someone watching every move!  OK, so what do we do-- simple, I drove Larry over, plugged in and Larry and I kept "her" company on her first night out. As the sun went down in Walters front lot, Larry & I stood guard over our baby   And so after what I would call a day of stress never before seen, I was slapped back into reality with the gentle hand of one GMC looking after another-- an awesome thing to witness, that is if you believe these puppies have a soul-- I do!

Today, we're back over to Walters for some in depth interior issues.  The dash/ firewall is looking better every time we look at it.  We have "people" who have skills involved so I'm very optimistic about our outcome--- stay tuned.

Hey, thats about it for the day, Janie held down the fort while I went out and chased off the wolves.  Doesn't seem like much but I'm sitting here unshaven, slept in my jeans, would like a big glass of iced tea with the phone already ringing and I say-- ain't life grand! 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you got a little entertainment from our "Keystone Capers" but understand we are enjoying life!  Please, you try to do the same.

9.17.08

Ok, the big day is here Today we get to see if "blind justice" can be shown how ridiculous the issue with this trailer thing really is.  Last week Janie drug me out to JC Penney and fitted me with a new charcoal grey power suit complete with a new sharp shirt and a spiffy tie complete with a tight Windsor knot (hey I was considered the :knot guy" when I was in scouts!).  Gonna outfit myself with brown wingtip shoes, hopefully the fashion police will see it as a statement of individuality and not issue me a ticket!  I think Brewer would be proud, I look like I would have a promising career in the funeral home business-- at least be a center attraction at some ceremony! I will do my best to represent the movement that is Cooperative Motor Works-- please put me in your thoughts.  I'll take a pic of my get up, you may never see this again!

Well, the aluminum sheet is here for the Duramax dash/firewall project   .090 , forgot the grade but it had to come in on the flat bed because of the size, Larry was full of last weeks rally stuff.  With our top pattern set, today when I get past this speed bump in life we will attempt to cut the "diamond" and see how the fit is.  With the expense of the material it's measure twice, measure the measure then check that measure -- then with a steady hand turn the raw material to a "David"!  Hold your breath for us will ya?

Tom's sofa base is refinished and in, Steve refitted and shimmed it really nice .  It was his original structure with his new laminate material covering it .  The final edge filing is all "my chicken" because there is just no simple way to get a good final edge   Oh yea, I pull double duty, wish I had my head set so I could use both hands while talking on the phone   Hey, ya do what ya havta do, I think my elbow could help with some duty   Thanks Janie for the pics, she has a sick sense of humor!

Buster & Jason are still "diver Down" on the Airstream slated to go cross the pond.  The steering box R&R is not like one of the GMC jobs, I think we need to call Websters and check some of those descriptions Buster found for the job!  Jason is a quiet worker just getting it done but I betcha if you could download his thoughts there would be some new words included.  They are adapting and overcoming their obstacles though, I'll do some pics of their work when I get back.

Well, I am about as prepared as I can be, I've got 20 8x10 color pics (no glossies, my printer won't do that), hey you know how I am with the digital camera!  I have a timeline, a graph, 2 paralegal gals to flip the pages and direct attention, I have detailed invoices with circles and arrows on them (if you have ever gotten one of my invoices you know how detailed they really are), I have my power suit, my wing tips, 3 witnesses and I considered bringing the partridge in the pear