Ccoach come into us…..move in line and eventually pop out the other end. Its the only way we can fulfill as many requests as we do. There’s never more than 11 of us here and even throwing ALL of those ants on a cake sometimes still it feels like we’re a herd of stampeding turtles…..never the less it gets done and the coach above (Mr. Clean) has been here for a while but soon it will be terrorizing the highways…..its was time for its test drive. I have a 35 mile course I do with every restoration now to give it some time to screw up, come loose, fall off or break! Its actually a harrowing drive…….you are looking at everything expecting anything to happen at any time….. My course has several turn back points depending on how well that space ship is flying…..this day was the BIG day for Me. Clean and one for me too.
First taken in restoring it for a 9th Circuit Judge then before it’s done was bought by an ex Secretary of Agriculture of the state of Florida with special modifications …….used well and enjoyed for several years it came back fulfilling its owners tasks now ready for a new owner and mission……..Mr. Clean, Mr. Secretary named it for its theme ” if GM built the coach today, how would it come out” the color is a light metallic grey with darker contrasting (stick on) decal striping. The new “frameless windows” and “toll booth” front windows styling and construction is as new.
With the new single aluminum fuel tank behind FiTech fuel injection 40 gallons went in with the handle set on highfor those of you who have never pumped 40 gallons into the 2 original steel tanks……you won’t understand!.
So next it was time to ride….winches up the saddle, set the GPS speedometer odometer 1 to reset and fired that mother up!
A quick Stan of the instrumentation on the MacDaddy dash complete with rear facing full time camera……Cap-Com we are ready for departure and yes, that’s the top of the Coke filled with peanuts…..my usual travel elixer.
With the 3.55 gears and the response of the fuel injection I made sure I was NOT the slowest thing pulling off from any light!padding along the backside of Orlando Intl. Airport….Rostra cruise control in command and man the drive was another epic one. I found this 2 lane road that’s just u, nature and the road…..THIS is seat time!
As you can see by the speedo I don’t go fast….why shorten the experience! There’s always a place for that….like here
Like Dennis Quaid says on the Geico commercial….”now it wouldn’t be safe for me to be taking this picture at highway speed……” so let me just say there were times the cruise control was set at higher speeds…….Half way in I paused for a couple of pics:
The ride back was 4 lane stop-n-go traffic…….. Hey, it needs to do that too! The Honda EV-6010 pumping 2 15,000btu Carriers and the new Senden compressor pumping the type 3 original dash AC system running well it was a cool ride home in 90+ summer Florida humidity.
Man, Mr. Clean HAS some brakes! Yes, it’s fitted with a sensitized booster but seriously, I may have the guys spend a little time making sure there’s nothing causing that AND to see what we did to make the original brake system make my head hit the windshield like it does!
Anyway, Mr. Clean has a 4 item ….small stuff…..punch list and he will be next up for takeoff to his new life.
This may have been a bit boring to some….I know 1 guy who enjoyed it and can’t wait to take the Con…….
Another test drive this morning on a coach just coming back alive from an 8 year mothballs……they all need to be at least mechanically sound before they leave and there’s only one way to test that………..stay tuned tomorrow for that and thanks for dropping by.
2 freshly remanufactured single wire, hi output alternators…….very cool:…..