As many of you know, we recently found the perfect person for the Explorer II Hum V diesel GMC and now we’re finishing up the engineering. As you do something for the first time, you always need to do one improvement at a time to see results. Left to engineer on the diesel was the sound insulation. At the point, we had not increased insulation from the gas drive train…. needless to say it was noisey. Some came to look at the coach and may have been turned away from that noise.
I’d I’d like the take away from this is you need to use your imagination. Folks were told sound needed still to be engineered…. that drove them away, this is why I said we found the perfect person for this coach…. he understood we weren’t finished yet. When you investigate picking up a coach, don’t go out expecting to find exactly what you want in the perfect shape you want. Find something and make it yours! They all will need something……. so this diesel will be finished now and will be the best it can be……. the other folks may never find that exact machine…. give ya a hint…. it doesn’t exist …… these things are 40 years old! What can you expect than to need a few things when you first see one for sale! Guys, this is really important, you can spend thousands looking for that “perfect one” when you could find one close and make it yours for a whole lot less searching… and possible for less money invested. So just think through that one.
So here are 2 layers of our sound insulation project 
First the entire front floor and first step was painted with “Lizard Skin”, a sound deadening coating. Next you see a hi mass material “2 pound sheet goods” which means a 1′ x 1′ section of the material weighs 2 pounds. Now THATS a heavy sound blanket! Next we install another sheet of 2 pound sheet goods with 2 foam and 2 layer of chrome Mylar. The rear of the step will also get 2 pound sheet goods with the rest of the floor getting a 1/2″ rebond pad. All new carpet on that and we hope we’ll be done. Stay tuned….
Well my big job today other than getting a carb replaced on a coach…… yes, I still do believe in carbs but we’ll talk about that later….. in fact this morning I’m hoping to get a little time to do a Patreon video about fuel injection vs. carburation. Stay tuned for that…..
My job today… difficult as it may seem is I’m driving “Rock the Alps” to Kissimmee and back 
Tough duty I know but someone has to do it! Stay tuned…..
We have the 4 wheeled Revcon up on the lift fixing it’s front suspension 
Now the beast DOES have a GMC style front wheel drive set up in fact Revcon bought crate drive trains from GM and put them in here 
They just bolted on this huge 5 lug spacer/adapter to the hub 
Guess what we found… they DID use the Toro drive train right down to the smaller taper Toro front ball joints… and both A arms were cracked 
BOTH SIDES. Phillip cleaned up then welded the ball sockets for the lower ball joints back together … I tell ya man, this coach was 1 set of railroad tracks away from loosing both front wheels! Just imagine how the steering would be! 
The goal on this project is to not totally rebuild the suspension but just get it safe and drive well. The control are bushings were weathered but not as yet dropped so we didn’t remove the A arms. One day it will need that… see the question is not “what to do?” rather it’s “where to stop?”. It’s a fine line with more we find needs total replacement and updates… just gotta find that level…… Stay tuned…..
Finallyfrom our “skunk works” project department…. SSSHhhhhh, don’t tell anyone about our 350 project. I went over to the machine shop where the project is brewing. Check out this other motor they’re working with…. 
He said it was a 7.4 Merlin all aluminum custom motor…… Wow!!! Anyway out of punching holes and line bore, here is our 350 Olds block 
The nodular crank was so good the mains and rods went stock 
Punched it out 40 over for a little more… you know….. What are we doing? Well, it IS on a need to know basis and I guaranty the Russians don’t have THIS secret yet! We’re building up a strong, low compression, performance 350 motor for a very special drive train for Spaclys’s 23′ coach. Remember this fact from your school days ” you can move the earth with the right lever action”. I know 1 person who will be glued to his lap top screen…. you may wanna stay tuned for this one too….
OK, that’s enough for one day…. I gotta fix a carb and drive a coach…… good work if you can get it! Willie has most of the doors and drawer latches on “Savoy Brown ” in , we should be making some moves on that project soon. Hey, I gotta go… see ya tomorrow……
