Work is work but sometimes there are small jobs that make doing all you do worth the time spent. One such think is driving a completed coach out of the shop and back to the waiting hands of the eager customer. Travel with me on a recent delivery and enjoy–
Sunday my job would be a small perk of having this business. The plan is to drive Marylin’s coach to her in New Port Richey early in the morning. I say a perk in that her coach has had many upgrades and actually represents to me some pretty important milestones in the refitting of the GMC. First I had one more project to complete on her coach, we had installed a new Ragusa screen door (which BTW, really fit pretty well in after some alignment adjustments). 
. The last project was reinstalling a window treatment in the door. We had installed 1/2 micro-mini blinds and our standard valence before but with the screen door you do not have the room for the conventional blind/valence treatment. What needs to happen is to cut the blind to fit inside of the window frame recessed in to give way for the valence tight to the door then the screen door. I have done several different window treatments in this application, using Marylins blinds and valence set, here is here completed window treatment done Saturday 
Actually her original lower panel was descent, the latch plate though original still looked good as did the original 2″ plastic window trim which I usually toss out. In this job, all I did was recess the 1/2 blind into the frame then resize and attach the side valences. The upper insert was a bit on the large side but needed to be there to cover the radius of the window. I think the final look was good 
. With that done, we were ready for Sunday’s delivery. Like I said a good looking coach filled with many improvements
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Let me talk a minute about what makes up this machine. First, the interior had been totally removed and a “twin bed” floorplan had been built some time back at Golby’s. This was done in the CLASCO/Golby days when renovations to the GMC was a new concept. The twin bed floorplan was an idea Tony Bell had come up with basically mimicking the “center galley” Coachman floorplan. This afforded a seperate shower, a twin bed rear and 4 seperate living centers. Here is the original CLASCO brochure on this idea 
I was very proud to be involved in the concept the was the “CLASCO look” and proud to have my pic in those brochures 
. Like I said, this is the start of what we are doing today and Marylin;s coach was one of the originals. Added to that since we took over care of the coach we have installed our new Honda water cooled generator, the Quad bag rear suspension, a rebuilt trans, our roller cam crate motor, the new computer controlled cruise control, rebuild dash AC, new Carrier roof AC units, nw a new Zip Dee awning and a Ragusa screen door. We redesigned parts of the interior to turn the twin bed to a huge master bed with a “toy box” lift. We’ve installed a Flat Screen TV and now our new paint job and aluminum rims– what an awesome motorhome!. Hooking up my Suzuki up yesterday morning getting ready to go the anticipation was high on the upcoming great 2 hour ride 
What a good looking rig! The sun was up and I was ready to go. Plugged in my new GPS, fired the mother up and hit the road 
. It was a clear morning with light traffic heading out of Orlando headed west on I-4
— this is most unusual passing “Mickey World” and all. The coach was running like the champ it is 
low temps and high pressures. Yes, she still has an original dash even though so much else had been changed, all you really need is a trans gauge to the original gauges to see all is well. The electronic cruise control was set at 60 MPH and I was flying high, calm and reallt cool with the rebuild dash AC system.
I mean what else could you ask for from a “26′ Hot rod with plumbing”— I had to ask and just then the rumble of the motor increased to the point it sounded like a drag race car at the tree! In the past, the motor had backfired bulging out the mufflers. They looked stable, no rust or anything, so we made the calculated decision to leave them for a future replacement project– guess we rolled craps because one of the mufflers gave up right then! I pulled off at the next rest area for a looksee 
. No I RREALLY had a “Red Neck Hot Rd”. Going through the gears was a thrill though everyone that passed you looked over wondering why that garbage truck looked like a motorhome! Hey, I didn’t care, it was a wonderful sound to me. A hi-po roller cam motor, hopped up with open headers, what an awesome sound! Called Marylin and she had a local muffler man that could deal with it so it was hammer down and we kept rolling.
Coming up on to Bates RV on the left, a huge Airstream dealer 
I got an eyeful of the new shiny airstream offerings and their landmark old Airstream “Cadillac ranch” styled display 
Hep, thats a bunch of Old Airstream trailers buried standing up in the dirt 
I hope they are not looking to sell those units! Anyway, it sure does get the attention. Hammer down I kept running. Met up with Marlyin & Ginger north just off I-75, unhooked the Suzuki, dropped the top on the rig and turned it into the wind for the run back to Orlando. Hey, you drive 55 and thats it with that toy but with the top off it’s another type of fun 
, no particular hurry just wanting to make the trip with ease 
the traffic had picked up a bit and I of course was the slowest thing on the road but thats OK. The day was still beautiful and I was in no hurry
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Thus ended a wonderful delivery and a perk that sometimes makes this all worth while! A fantastic machine, a fantastic project with a fantastic outcome, what could be better.