To increase Cedric’s Annnnn…ticcccc….apation, let me show the folks first some final work bringing an Avion trvel trailer into the realm of cool…… Listen I hate to tell ya but there ARE other cool old stuff folks are interested in…. take this Argosy travel trailer 
I kinda like the “leaded” look maybe satin on the aluminum, actually the rear had been repaired and painted… you can hardly tell. Anyway, we’ve been sealing up the body at the same time cleaning up the look. 
This amplified “Euro” style antenna will also seal the hole unlike the fendermount original antenna Avion used…. like I said before… no one thought about it, antennas went on fenders back then. The black Hehr windows (same brand as our style 2 GMC frames, they took the same fixed window rubber! Only being 1/8″ thick glass caused a little extra work but we pulled our restoring window frame process for the GMC windows……. replace the rubbers, bag off the frames and refinish them in satin black 
Pull the bags then seal the window frame to the body 
AND in that the satin trim paint is on the rubber, UV is more blocked so shrinkage will be less. Anyway, the final look of this puppy is clean, superior quality and stylish if I have to say so myself! 
Next, that brown tub here is a rear window ZipDee awning designed just for the rear bath window… same Sunbrella pattern as original… should look cool 
OK Cedric…… we’re on Ruby…….the firsts on any interior is the infrastructure and the first of that is the wiring. Oh but wait… take a look at this first! Gotha….. I pulled down your interior pallet to find the remnants of the hand made rear cap 
The original production 1 piece rear cap and window lower panel (also 1 piece) were made of 4 hand cut panels. Go look at the surround on your rear window….. see that lip going to the window? This rear panel is hand cut to shape but has no lip…… historic baby! 
The front cap is a pice from the finished mold but like most of them it’s cracked. I have this really unusual front cap (don’t know where it came from) that has a unique flat design… sort of like the Explorer II caps…… I think we’ll use it on the front cap restoration. 
The 2 front side panels are in pretty good shape, I think we can use those 
which brings us back full circle…. betcha Cedric is ready for this…… Ruby’s dash. Say fare-the-well to the original prototype dash…… we’re going in on a historical forensic search for the root of the GMC…. strap in and come with me….. 
Goodbye old friend, there are new things you could have never dreamed of getting ready to happen….. “Dave….will I dream?”………. “I don’t know Hal” 
First the face is removed to unearth an untouched dash…. 
other than the butchered up speaker wiring (we will not use) and the Radio Shack cassette deck the rest has been untouched 
The 3 illuminated legends via a fiber optic strip was not on this bezel 
It really didn’t work very well but every dash I’ve ever opened up had it….”prototype built”……
We will save the speedometer… just cuz but this dash donut will be retired and eventually thise still standing dash supports will be taken out for the new Mac Daddy dash. Don’t call wanting them… you could never graft it into a rotted dash……. saygood job man and let it pass. NOW to my fun job… the prewiring of the Mac Daddy dash harness to the original wire wad harness 
Another forensic discovery, all of the original dash AC control panels are vacuum connected with a clear rubber manifold….. This dash AC control was plumbed with separate vacuum lines… with 2 tie wrapped to stay on! 
Very cool. So starting the dash wiring it’s a must to create a “service loop” harness with a centerpoint circuit connection area for testing and tracing 
a 24″ harness to the new dash is loomed to the connection site in the dash. Now plugging the main dash cluster in you can drive down the road with the dash in your lap! 
Man, for servicing this is the ONLY way to do it. I’m too old to get upside down in the footwell! Here’s the new dash cluster face down on a pad… 24″ service loop ready to wire up.
There’s BooKoo wires in there…. keep it clean brother!
So today I’ll be clearing out the original dash AC/Heat system…. in 1973 it simply didn’t work! We’ll be building in an all new electric servo in dash system that WILL work…….. stay tuned for that…….
OK.. crap, it’s after 8…. I need to get to work. Thanks for dropping by, tell your friends to come on over and check out what we’re doing… we’ll see ya later……
