Daily Pose

The Co-op is proud to be a member of the elite new force of bloggers bearing their soul at the same time offering you an inside look at the things in their world through the WWW. Before a "blog" was called one, the "Daily Pose" had been here pumping out GMC owners and enthusiasts a dose of what its like hanging around our shop, seeing what we do and maybe picking up a tip or something that can maybe improve your GMC experience. Heck, I didn't know what a "blog" was, I was just having a good time showing you guys what we were doing. We certainly did not invent the blog but I will say it's good other people figured out doing it was an interesting thing to do. So here is our "blog" and for what thats worth I hope there is something here that helps you. I am most interested in your comments and suggestions.

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A big day here at the Co-op The internet boys come in to move our service over to the new office-- yep, no more working from "the hole". Our old office served us well but we are long over tripping over everything. Next time I post you guys I will be sitting on my green astroturf floor in my office! I need to start looking around for some patio furnature at the thrift stores around here! I think I need one of those fake volcanos in the corner, some plastic palm trees, hey, maybe a Weber grill for the desk! Maybe one of those plastic nomes and a stockade fence gate instead of the door? What about a beer cooler? Naaaa, no work would get done!

Promised Eugene some pics of the paint repair worjk we're doing on his Explorer coach and maybe this would be some good info for the rest of you. Paint work and body repair is not all created equal, you just about need to be an alchemist to figure out how all the different compounds react. You not only have chemical reaction but also time that causes things to act weird. In Eugene's case, it was time, previous damage to his coach before he got it and the processes that were used on the coach by Explorer when it was renovated in the late 90's.

Back then, the paint industry was learning many things about the then new base/clear finishes. Like the industry is learning about water based paints-- BTW, most all new cars are being painted with the new EPA and California approved water born paints. yep, the days is written on the wall when we all will have watercolr paint on our machines. Can't keep from thinking about those long metal trays filled with different colors I used to use in kindergarten. You know, you dipped your paint brush in a waterglass then swashed it arounf in the color till the brush was the color of the tin pocket and then you would scrub it over and over on the construction paper to make the color more vivid. I mean, how can they make that stuff look good on the side of a vehicle-- and what happens when it rains! Do I have to use waterless wash stuff? These are the things that bother me but hey, I'm not a paint guy and I sure am not an alchemist so I guess we all will have to trust the boys up there in the head office. My guess is we will go through a time like we did on the base/clear paints of the 90's where there were "unexpected results" to live with. You know-- seeing an early 90's car go by with all the top surfaces void of color with little patches of surface rust. Yep, that was the bad paint they used,-- not bad but just not figured out as yet.

Eugene's coach was totally renovated top to bottom by Explorer Vans in the middle to late 90's. They were using PPG base/clear paints at that time which BTW, was the better mixes you could use at that time. We used the same stuff at CLASCO. Eugenes paint was a special 3 process Cadillac white pearl. Back then, a pearl paint was the super sexy thing to use and just like the guy on Jurasic park said "spare no expense" as he was eating that melting ice cream! The problem back then with base/clear finishes was you had a very short work time between layers, the pores on the base would seal up in 6-8 hours which meant when you shot the stuff you had to have perfect weather, all you materials ready and you had to go for it in one session. Add to that the fact that Eugene's 3 process paint meant you had to shoot the entire coach with the base color then come back with a pearl coat and then race to get the clear on the coach before the window closed-- the painted was mixing and shooting like a madman! If the pores of the paint closed up, the next layer would not stick and well, you had paint flaking off pretty soon. And even if they did win the run and get it all on in time, put years into the equasion and you would find in time the clear pealing. This is where the base/clear finishes got their bad wrap!

You say Eugene's paint looked great for what 13 years but all good things do come to an end and in the case of his early hotshot base/clear 3 process Cadillac white pearl paint-- the end is coming to pass. Coming off the last trip, Eugene noticed a huge lift bubble on the front cap of his coach. He brought it in to see whats up. Here is what we found

You are looking at the base white color where the pearl and clear coats released and came off in Kevin's hands. The stuff hung in there for a long time but as in everything time claims us all. Remember, none of us will leave this place alive! He also had a pesky paint flake at the corners of his front hoods

I mean it wasn't a big deal looking really bad but there was some cracking in the body and the paint was lifting

so we started picking at the wound and just looking around. As we find in most coaches, there had been some previous body damage, looking at the back side of the body in the battery area you could see the scabbing that had been done

Thats not a grievous problem because most coaches do have some repair but what it does mean to us is we need to look into those stress cracks where the paint had lifted. The more we picked, the more we found. There had been a real hammer taken to the front of the coach-- hope no one was hurt! There were several different mixes of filler and bondo used in the repair

which means it was fixed by a couple of different people a couple of times. Different fillers means there are different componds used which means chemical reactions can happen. One of the fillers was not mixed well and it broke down and turned mushy, the awesome base/pearl/clear paint reacted to this situation and released. The crack came back because the filler went away and booom-- we have a problem. Kevin has now dug all of that stuff out refinishing the repair with the proper SMC filler (back then folks really didn;t know regular fillers would not bind to our SMC plastic body panels) and then he'll prime and reshoot the base, pearl and clearcoat. The paints today do not have that narrow application window, they also bind better to the better primers they now have which stick better to the SMC filler which also binds to the SMC plastic the coach is made of. Kinda stinks but today, the paints are so much better, the repair and refinish will stay. You guys out there with 15year old base/clear paint jobs keep the coaches out of the sun. The UV and heat are the catalyst that sets off all of these reactions. You can expect your paint to have problems-- what can I say, we live in this imperfect world!

Eugene will have fresh paint on the front cap and nose of his coach and as other areas of his coach get their gold watch, we will try our best to keep up with the issues. So you guys that say base/clear paint finishes stink-- you are right when you refer to these older paints. Better get up with the times because soon you can use that comment about the new watercolor paints and the "good ole base/clear stuff is what you will try and look for when you refer to "better stuff". Yes, single stage paint is still out there though I would not try and shoot the stuff. It's very unforgiving and within a couple of years, like I said, we will all be playing with that ole water color set! Wonder if Crayola will get into the automotive paint finishes game soon?

Well, the roofer guy is here to try and again stop the leaks in the roof, the cable guys should be here soon, I need to get out there and work because shure as anything, it will again rain in the afternoon. BTW, we're working on making that issues better arounf here too

Stay tuned for more

What I was saying yesterday was--So there I am driving Larry to Winter Garden (@ 15 miles) to pick up a metal storage shed with Kevin for his place. We're giving Larry a run to see how he's feeling. It's hot and sure nuff, we got the ole vapor lock going on. The electric pump on Aux. fixed that-- coming back, I'm 2 miles from the shop, in the turn lane on OBT and he goes flat-- motor shuts down. Thinking we're having vapor lock issues, I do my thing to no avail-- plip the cover, we have fuel, we have no fire-- dangit! it's raining, I'm blocking the turn lane and I have no tools or parts-- have ya been there? Using my GPS charger, I check and yep, I have 12 volts to the dist-- we have a malfunction of the ignition system-- module, pickup, coil--- something. OK, plan "B"-- we need to get outa here. Kevin called Margie to pick him up-- told him to go get the Suzuki, I pit on a poncho I had and went in the turn lane acting like Barnie Fife to direct traffic around the big white whale sitting there. I have one tail light out too-- seems like I have a couple of issues with what i would right now look at as a seething steaming pile of crap! It's raining and I'm waving traffic around the coach, 3 counties pull up-- told them I have help coming and since they were not excited about getting wet like I was, they took off leaving me to direct traffic. Oh-- fiddle dee, fiddle dum, we're having fun now! It's funny how aware and unaware people are while driving, some people saw me and moved over very orderly not missing a lick while others almost hit me, probably thinking I was some homeless guy waving at them for a donation and pulling back in around me right behind the coach sitting there! It's just amazing, I knocked on the window of one car who was sitting behind the coach honking it's hown-- Said, "sorry but I tried to have you around the motorhome, it's broken down". The guy looked disgusted, I held traffic while he pulled out to go around-- I mean it's raining, traffic is brutile and this guy was falling forward in life--- amazing!

Finally Kevin shows up, I had put my 2" reciever on Janies truck so he had to round up another one, we hooked the Suzuki to the back of the coach-- told him to hop in the thing, when the brake light goes out, put the thing in gear and let the clutch out-- don't touch the steering wheel, when the brake light on the coach comes on, press in the clutch and let it coast. The light changed and he pushed Larry the last 2 miles to the shop where Dean K. was waiting with "Waldo" to get in and plug up. He beat me to the shop, of course if I had a motor I would have been there earlier! It was like an ant carrying a dragonfly! People along the sidewalk were staring, Kevin was scared when we passed that county cop but I guess he was happy we were out of the turn lane! Hey, yet another reason to tow a car with you! Yea, the Suzuki didn't like it's duty but hey, life is not a fair place!

Need to check the tow bar mounting and everything to see all is good-- I'm replacing every part of the ignition system today-- this ain;t gonna happen again! At least from this problem whatever it is! You need to carry tools and some basic spares -- don;t do what I did, wing out there with no "nothin"!

We're working hard today, the weather looks good, the guys are all here, Steve is dealing with a kidney stone-- ouch! Hey, but thats life!

This weekend was something! I feel like I went through a Maytag wringer from the festivities! We have taken custody of our office, gotten the walls all painted, carpet is down and we solved the problem on where to put all the boxes we've been squirrelling away It rained really hard yesterday so all the boxes left outside are a soggy mess-- yep, that took care of them!

Speaking of effects of the rain and how much fun we had playing in it, I took "Larry", my coach for a shake down run to pick up a storage shed for Kevin some 15 miles away. I'm driving it with Ralph, my partner in Fire Fight products to the GMCMI convention the end of the month so I really need to have the shake down well mixed by that time-- I'm planning a white knuckle "Blues Brothers" run straight up-- going to do 2 seminars on that Monday then bug out for another hard run home. I do feel it important to support the clubs but really taking time is crazy right now.

Man, has it been that long since I sat down here! Sorry bout that, I know you guys look forward to coming here as much as I do. Rob blew back in from the key at 70MPH coming back (take it easy on the ole girl will ya!) and wanted me to know I need to put something up at least to let everyone know we're OK around here. Well, OK I think dows not quite size up the madness we've been in over the past week. The expansion of the shop is really taking shape-- yesterday we got the office painted up and you guys who have been here before will attest that this will end up being what we've needed for some time. Putting down the carpet today -- and I tell ya I get one thing I have never had. I've had several "offices" over the years given to me to do my thing. Yea but there was no mistake the room actually belonged to someone else-- I mean sterile white walls, a genuine simulated, particle board woodgrained vinyl wrapped desk with a chair that always seemed to be the one no one else wanted. No windows and some carpet that could be used as 80 grit sandpaper in a pinch. So in steps MY office-- I have a 2 window wide opening looking out, yea we had to paint the walls a sort of tan, I mean the sheetrock isn;t mine but ah, now comes MY picks-- I have green astroturf carpet, when you come into my room you can choose whatever folding lawn chair you like and set it up where you want. Yea, they call it indoor/outdoor carpet so lets do that, lets bring the outdoors in! I'm thinking the walls need murals of the woods, the desk maybe of concrete blocks and boards, we all say we like out outdoor living so lets just do that, be outdoors! I seem to do my best thinking sitting outback with a tall glass of ice tea-- feet up, breeze blowing watching the clouds move by-- thats it, we need a cloud mobile from the ceiling!

OK, so I'm loosing it, not really-- this is my space with the rest of the shop really being a place to do great wotrk. The trim shop now has 4 (countm) working tables, the mechanical shop has a 32x25' cover to get Jason, Chuck and the guys out of the sun-- Kevin has a covered outside bay right next to the sores of beautiful lake Co-op-- well it's next to the metal building beside that retention pond but hey, who's looking! The trim shop is ending up with a 25x maybe 100' cover to keep their brains from bubbling-- after convincing Omar to throw in with us I don;t want to have him abused by Mother Nature the way we have in the past and guys, you can actually pull into the shop and turn your coach around without moving another coach! Yep, the extra lot next door has made us a place to work and do it well!

Margie, Kevin's wife and some of his kids have been working with Janie to dig out our warehouse and mad I can't believe all the stuff I'm finding!

I need to get out there, I have guys that came in on a Sunday to help out-- we're in it now just wanting to "get-r-done". We have a cookout tonight and all to thank everyone.

Know we are good here, good things are happening, stuff is happening and it's beyond my dreams. Oh BTW, I'm a bit embarrassed at first that Janie sent out to some of you a video we finished last week to show some of the stuff we're doing around here. She was excited and I think after thinking about it that it's OK , here's a link to whats happening around here on our You Tube page-- well my son John did-- thanks Man-- helping your poor ole decrepit Dad still drinking soda out of a glass bottle!

BTW, thanks Richard W. for thinking of us with the link to that production company, you just never know where things will go! Over and out for today, I'm laying carpet now!

Haven't meant to neglect you guys, we have just been hammered for so many years now you have seen us pushing hard the GMC and basically the idea of renovating classic motorhomes-- to you guys this may seem normal-- even commonplace but to most people this is a really foreign idea. Well, things are coming together it feels like all at the same time-- hey, I asked for it and here it comes so you guys hold on too!

This morning I didn;t get the obligatory "2 grapes" with my toast, I did however get 2 mixed fruits so mayne it means you don;t get what you want rather you get what you need. The rye toast (yes rye) was toasted just so and with the light butter on top tasted like my Mom's pound cake and with the mixed fruit on top--- well, I was a wonderful taste sensation. Is this a sign of things to come today-- I'll take it as a yes. Thats what things like that are for anyway, to pump you up and give you the enthusiasm and excitement to make things happen and happen today they will. I'll clue you in later but just tap your foot twice for us today, there I go again-- hey at least I didn;t ask you to rub a rabbit's foot or anything!

On the sorry about not getting with you thing, I know I have some people glued to their computer screen trying to catch a glimpse of whats happening with their machine-- sorry, just been involved in too much. Ken is one that really peaked right now and rightly so. Omar, Eric & Craig are all over his machine

getting silly loose ends done. Omar is the breath of fresh air we've needed getting the fuel inlet connected for one. That has to happen before the sidewall can go in. He's got that and good thing because the carpet for the front will come in today. Craig ands Eric are connecting up the water system for the furnace

. Throughout the coach are small "radiators" packed with a muffin fan. This will be the heat for those cold Colorado nights-- stay tuned for info on this system. Pulling the coach out of it's bay yesterday

check out the obtuse angle the wheels turn to

is that cool or what! The profile of the front of the 23d is about as extreme a GMC as you have ever seen-- check it out.

Yes, it's been a long journey but this puppy is paying off! Pulled Cruz'n outside yesterday too, yea baby!

Sometimes it's just too much for me to take in! Those that have been here to see these machines in person know what I mean.

And manybe this is as good a place as any to drop in some advertising but yesterday we got in our inventory of the awesome frameless windows

The first order was sold out, these new design windows are the ones used in the Duramax coaches

, go back and look at the style on the coach. These are the real deal-- if you are going to put together a good looking coach-- oh man you need these! George H., the first set is yours! Not big ventilation

but man what a style! Give me a call if this is something you're interested in, they are custom made and not always available. We have 50 sets right now, tomorrow... who knows.

On the home front the expansion of the shop is continuing, this weekend we moved the big printing machines out of our new office/warehouse up front and Tony and the volunteers got out storage awnings up

The place is shaping up, more storage area, more work area

as well as a larger warehouse and office-- it's getting better around here for sure!

Here it is 7:15, I promised myself I would not plunk away the best time to work here on this keyboard so you guys are going to have to excuse me while I get to work. Like I said, a big day and I'm going to make the best of it. The carpet for the 23d is coming in, the furnace will complete and man things are shaping up on that machine. We have more happening, Eugene's radiator is in, found other stuff-- will explain later, Jeff Shadow's coach is getting close to leaving, the coach Nelson sold is looking good, Brian M. rusty frame is getting attention and we're all moving forward. Exciting stuff-- you betcha. See ya later, thanks for the visit and tell a friend about the neat stuff here-- yea, they're interested!

We're all preparing for tomorrow And this is not the open ended "tomorrow" little Anne sings about -- not tomorrow IS a biggie. We will be moving out the printers at our gate and moving our world headquarter executive office complex (better known as that pile of papers in the first room) to our new, spacious 3 office board room complex. Yes, "We're movin on up" and George Jefferson said! This is yet another facet of the combination of improvements that I hope will transform us to where we need to be.

Tony S. came by yesterday to help us

get the awning cover for Craig S. spot ready. Craig, Max and then the reast of us helped as Tony played forman on that project

. We have one other covered storage spot available at $135 monthly, gemme a call if you are interested in storage of your coach here in Florida at our place.

Pete & Ed dropped by for a little moral support taking Sam & I out to lunch

Tony is coming back today to help out, we hope to have Sam & Rob M. out the door the weekend so our focus will be able to narrow-- man, it's great when plans look like they will work-- hope we don't unload like the pigeons do on Janies Blue truck! All you can do is stick your best foot forward and put weight on it to see if the ground is solid over there!

Now that does not mean we're just sitting here like county workers, Kevin brought the 23d back over to his place for the wet sand & buff work it needed

while Twinkles guarded the door Kevin was a wet sanding fool! I went over to Dawson's to fret over picking the carpet for his driver and bedroom areas. Hey, I've been told I have no style-- I'm not going to argue that one so I put colors and all that into the hands of decorators to bring all the colors together

OK, I think we have a decision! The pad material is here so when the carpet arrives on Tuesday next it will go in. Ken, our paralysis is broken.

Recently, several have asked how we treat the fuel delivery system when we pull tanks down. This ethanol laced fuel has caused so many issues that our fix has to be multifold. Here is the aux. fuel pump tied to the AB solenoid with the electrical connections rerouted to home run grounds and removed terminal connections, this is also showing the barrier hose (alcohol resistant material) including new 1/2 thick body pads to keep the body from crushing the hoses

This and much more is just plain exciting, thanks to all who are making this dream a reality. Oh, and just wait till you see whats coming next! Thanks for the visit-- just watch us grow

Big news from the Co-op so hang with me on this, I think you will find it interesting.

With the revamping of our facility here, heck I had to do something of figure out how to stack these coaches to store them, there are several other things that must go hand in hand with this expansion. I mean a better, larger facility means it costs more to have that space. More expense either means you charge more for your services (of which I can hear through my flat screen a resounding -- noooooo) or you need to do more work, more "volume" of work to bring in more $ to keep the barge floating. OK, thats what we want but along with that you need things like more hands to do that work, more parts, tools and a better organization of the workload. You need to ramp up all the aspects of the business-- the entire package needs to grow along with the facility or it just will not work. This has been the problem here, getting all that stuff to rise to the challenge.

lets talk about manpower-- OK so over the years, it's been a struggle to find people willing to do this work. The problem is there is no "cke" working on our vintage monsters. Workers will work hard for X amount of time ond on X number of projects but there should be some easy work spinkled in with the rough stuff. Sorry but there "ain't no skatin" doing work exclusively on vintage motorhomes! They are all old, heavy, greasy, dirty, more worn out than not, dated colors, parts and equipement. It seems like every bolt is swedged tight, break when you touch them and when you pull of one part 3 seem to fall off with them! Couple that with te fact that we doo most of our work out in the open, under the open sky where it's hot in the summer, wet when it rains, cold in the winter and just down right demoralizing most of the time because of one thing or another. Heck, I wanna go home just writing all of that! Bankers look at us and say "you do what!", they just can't figure out how we make and money and what their exposure would be if they got in bed with us so there is little to no help from those boys trying to scrape along and grow. It's been a matter od scratching our way up the side of that proverbial tin can building this business-- there are no templates!

Hey but how do we grow because in any small business, if you don;t go forward you are falling behind. We can ID problems with manpower, the shop and all of that but the underlying problem is how do we fund this sort of business. Oh, let me check my pockets--- nope, no wad of grrenbacks! I don;t buy lottery tickets so since you have to play to win, that won't help and every afternoon I eyeball the bench at the bus stop to see if that brown paper bag full of money is sitting there with no results. OK-- now what! And how do I find enthusiastic people crazy enough to throw in on this sailing vessel to work very hard -- all the time?

That IS THE big problem in this business. I need people who can think, not just hands to stand around. There is no cake here so you need someone who lives on meat, who knows their skill and who cares to do quality work and has pride in that work. We must have this person to grow and do anything more than we are. OK but you probably know all of that and also know that the brave souls I do have here care to be here or they simply would go away and thats what I feel has powered the "revolving door" here throughout the years. Most workers are looking for that BBD. "How much are you going to pay me and how little can I work to get that money" is what I find. The minute that ugly head pops up, I chop it off and move on because there is no way to fix that attitude. I have tried but in the end it always ends the same way.

So here we are, investing big bucks improving our plight here at the shop, how are we going to do this-- where do I find people to help this ship float? We have 3 areas of labor to focus on-- interior, exterior and mechanical. I want you to know we have had breakthroughs in all 3 areas:

Mechanical We have brought in another mechanic, a good friend of Jasons who cut his teeth working tech for the past 6 years in a commercial maintenance shop, Charles. Also, we are moving in our radiator/fual tank repair subcontractor under out roof, thanks Tom for accepting our offer.

Exterior This is a tough one because painting one of these machines is like working on 2 elephants stuck together. A quality production painter would run away screaming after a session of sanding one of these machines. You need someone with patience and dedication. Kevin has been about the only guy I have found in the last 5 years with the tenacity to make it happen here. Bring in Dave-- a personal friend of Kevin's. Dave should change his name to Jobe, will do anything and do it now! His first job was to DA "sand" the roof of Sam's coach. He did not have any knee pads so he just wore a hole in each knee before we found he was doing that to himself. Stop that man, we want to save your skin for more work! Bout worked himself into a dizzy spell next helping spread out the rock in our new storage lot. Come on man, I want you to be here next week! We need to calm this boy down-- man and thats a first class problem to be sure! Now Kevin has a real helper and thats going to help us big time.

Interior and here, we have had a real bottleneck. Interior trim is "fit and finish". You can't be a bull in a china shop to get things done on interior work. I have had to personally involve myself in most every aspect of our interior restoration projects and that in itself is a proble, I mean I have to write the Daily Pose! I mean there ARE priorities! Interior work needs a team effort so we have been badly understaffed on interior finish and that is where we are stuck right now on several jobs. Interior work is where the big revolving door has been on bringing in people to work. I have been successful in finding specific subs for quality work of components of our interior work but there always seems to be some "baggage" that comes with the workers willing to do this work. And then there is Omar. Omar has been my upholstry guru for a number of years. What a great name for an upolster--- Omar-- and what awesome work he has done

Omar, my tent maker has always been the term I would use to introduce Omar and his work. Well guys, the Co-op has again hit a home run, Omar has agreed to head up my trim shop-- that may be a short statement but it will go a long way to bring us where we need to be. Hey Ken, this one is for you! Omar is going to make good things happen, I proposed the idea to him yesterday-- he not only said yes but started work immediately planning the finish out of the 23d and Raymonds Duramax projects. Thank you God! He will be bringing in his hand picked crew to make things happen right away-- boy howdy we have a winner here! Omar cut his teeth building tour buses out of old Greyhound and Trailways buses back in the days before Prevost came along. The crew foreman, how do you train someone for this job-- simple, you don't, you need to find someone who has come up through the college of hard knucks and we have a hard headed interior man to help us now!

There are so many more things I could talk about with regard to manpower and organization, I just wanted you to see (mainly because many know the issues and have asked me about them) we are doing more here than just making our shop better to work in. It's the men--- man! it's about finding the right man for the job and man I have been fretting over this for some time. While I appreciate all of your support, I need more than that-- I need people to work and work hard at work that is hard. We also have enthusiast volunteers in Tony S. John D., Lou D., Bob H. and others who want to help and their efforts are of course appreciated. The Co-op IS truly a cooperative effort, thats the way I felt a business like this had to be. It's here for those interested in the classic GMC and other vintage RV's and those folks need to, should and as it has turned out want to be involved to make the effort all it can be. I am proud to be a pert of this, proud to say the people here care about what we're doing and just proud not only to be an American, to be here at this time in the history of the world but also proud to be involved with such an interesting machine with such interesting people.

OK, are your eyes tired yet? This is enough verbiage for one day, probably a weeks worth! Watc h us grow, watch us do more-- man, is this exciting or what!

Guys, it's not of course for not wanting to be involved, I have had so many people wanting me to get involved on their Face Book page-- while I appreciate that and certainly want to help you any way I can with your coach and stuff, I think if I ask my computer to do one more thing it will implode on me! aND OF COURSE THOSE OF YOU "IN THE KNOW" WILL SAY IT'S NO PROBLEM--- BUT IF IT IS AND IF IT CAUSES MORE FODDER TO FALL FROM THE GREAT -- see that just because I hit the "caps" button with the side of my burned out finger plunking on this keyboard-- I just can't take the chance that there will be more "IT" stuff for me to do. As it is I am sitting here-- it's 10:30 and I still haven't had a chance to post pics you guys are "jonesen" for me to get up. They say when information turns to data it is on no value-- I don't want that to happen so please do not think me stuck up or anything when I do not respond to the Face Book enquiries. It's not that I don't care, I just don't want to start up something I can't deal with! For now and until I can assure that getting involved with that stuff won't throw my equipment into the 5th dimension, let me stay out of that stuff. Thanks for the offer though guys.

This 23 is back in the fold and up on the lift for a looksee

Check out the neat row of windows, this was a transmode converted to motorhome use and when you see this you also see some interesting outfitting. So it's up on the rack-- turn your head and cough, it won't hurt a bit

Not you Charles! Anyway, it's up and we see our challenges. If you subscribe to the adage "there are no bad products only bad prices" this coach qualifies-- the machine has some rust -- the word "some" is a relative term-- let me say we have rust and let the pics say the rest

So now that Brian, the new owner, has called 911 and is breathing into a paper bag let me say this can be stabilized. No, it's not good but I really have seen worse. I said you find interesting hookups-- yep, the sewer system has a maserator

set up as a target below the frame rail-- not what I would call an optimum situation. The undercarriage is most unique

. There is only 1 aftermarket fuel tank and in front of it where the Aux. tank should be it looks like some water treatment plant from a 3rd world country! Yes, we have an exhaust system but it it's construction reminds me of a certain type of cheese

and having it route it's way to the back down the driver side we will have a custom system replace the petrified remains.

Pulling down the single fuel tank, we found no wires connected to the sender-- good reason the gauge would not read. This is the sort of stuff that's expected-- have no fear, we'll handle it. So it begins-- stay tuned for more, I know there will be one guy glued to the flat screen, the rest of you guys think positive thoughts and throw some good karma his way.

OK, so say goodbye to the "Litigator"

Eugene is back off the road and though his gator on his coach was good for some rousing conversation, he and his wife are over it and our direction is to take it off. The previous owner who was also an attorney put the logo on but as all good things it must end. They just got off the road-- had a great trip but it was not without incident, as you could see his rear awning arm took a hit and pulling off a lift somewhere to get his brakes attended to his mirror got in the way

. All can be fixed. We also have an issue with 2 fouled sparkplugs on his throttle body injected motor-- stay tuned for results on that one. The tip off was lousey mileage-- lets see what we find.

Paul will be happy to see this shot

I was skeptical about the colors but really, it's looking good and I think the black accents of the window frames and the black out body molding it doing the trick

. Details like the side marker lights and the future details are helping

to make this 2' stretch 23' rear lift gate coach even cooler than we thought it would be. We have had serious back order issues on component parts for the roller cam motor for the coach-- dangit, another speedbump in life-- and time marches on while the beat goes on-- it is what it is and here we are!

So now it's 11:30 and the rains just hit us and without our awnings in place where back to passing out snorkels and umbrellas-- man, this is no way to get work done! Had a white knuckle run to Jacksonville in the middle of the night with Kevin to collect the pieces of my son's truck who got sideswiped by a hit and run driver last week

. Got it in last night at midnight using a tow dolly-- now that was fun! Hey, you do what you need to.

Now it's 12:30, gotta stop and focus on the shop, talk to ya tomorrow-- thanks for the visit

Just hit me that I left you guys on a somber note last Heck, that's no good, everyone has ups and downs-- around here the highs are very high which makes the lows seem very low but as it is with life it all balances out if you let it. Really, we do have some very positive things happening around here and the issues one might call "negative" I find are preludes to doing still some good stuff to don't fret over us here-- yea it's hot, the sun is brutal and we have all sorts of materials, labor and other challenges that when you step back from it all make us what we are. So here we are, it's Sunday, it's clear weather at least for a bit and we have great stuff we're doing.

Thanks for all of the posts of support, I haven't pulled up today's new ones, heck the past couple of days has lifted my spirits to the point I'm ready to get out and do it all again so I have to say you guys are the greatest as Jackie Gleason would say.

The shop here is under an extreme renovation, not just sweeping the floor but some real positive, helpful things. This coming Friday, I've convinced the printer who has occupied the front office at our gate since before I was here to move to another building behind us-- We will be expanding our warehousing (man has that been long time coming), expanding our paper filled office (as I call it) to a 3 room facility out front of the gate and Friday marks day one of us bring in a warehouse person to help me organize ourselves so we'll be more effective on parts sales, shipping, organization and all that goes with getting serious about offering you guys the parts you need to keep your GMC on the road. Our parts sales has suffered extremely because of our organization so because of popular demand as they say down here in the south "hey you'all, watch this"!

Can you tell I feel a little better? Tomorrow I am hoping to bring in a trim shop foreman to take that worry away from me, I have offered and have been graciously had accepted increasing our in house services to include radiator & fuel tank reconditioning. Yep, the concept of the "Co-op" is working bringing together talents to hold our classic motorhome together. Upcoming, you will hear our take and solution of the fuel tank dilemma as well as what you really should do about your radiator! This is some seriously needed focus for the GMC and we're doing it!

With the increased size of our facility, increased manpower and labor focus, our redoubling efforts on parts sales and actually organizing this ball of wax into what we need to be more effective-- oh, oh and add to that mix a new focus on exposure of the GMC to the general RV and "baby boomer" communities-- heck man we are rockin! I feel like someone just opened a hatchway down the tunnel and with the light hitting our faces we can see where we're going again. Refreshing-- yes, exciting , you betcha and something that's long past due-- if you have been following us here for any length of time you know that for a fact.

Damn the Torpedoes, worry about the aftershock! Those that have hung with us will be the benefactors of this. BTW, have you gotten this month's Hot Rod magazine yet? It's a great one talking about Don "The Snake" Prudhomme--- Lost photos, show rods of 66-67 and Smokey Yunick's "Hot-air engine". I was inspired reading the publication this morning-- get a copy! And won't it be exciting when you see a big ole ad in Hot Rod-- "The Dream's Alive" and a big bad GMC is in there? Ah, forget wanting to be on the cover of the Rolling Stone-- I want Hot Rod Magazine! A dream maybe but it can happen! Stay tuned.

So, have I got you up yet? Feeling good about the time & $ you have in your classic GMC, if not you need to check your pulse! Go out there and give your baby a wash job, check the oil and fire it up just to hear that big block olds rock monster gurgle at you. Don T,-- remember that's your baby. Dean K. that machine shall rise again! Tom C., it won't be long til you'll be riding high again! Butch D. has a new Honda generator purring in the back of his coach. -- Laura is getting over the last couple of lessons on what to expect from her coach and will again soon be out there following her dream. -- Tony is hard at work making his coach the best it can be -- Bob H. is loving every minute of his coach and this is just a few of the people and loops I'm in. Hey you guys, thanks for caring and lets keep this going.

Wow-- I'm so pumped up I need to get out and do a little sweating! Kevin and Dave are here laying out our new work area, think I'll go help and boys wait till you see what we're doing! Gotta go, make this Sunday all it can be, I'm already so pumped I may not be able to sleep tonight! And wait till you see what tomorrow brings-- be that way and you will always look forward to tomorrow. See ya then

I must admit I am an extreme creature of habit and as long as I am within my path everything is good. The problem though is when new issues are introduced I have trouble until I get everything woven together. "Change" is something we all resist and in my case it causes problems. We are in a state of extreme change around here-- not to mention all of the stuff going on with the shop which something just had to happen, we have also major changes happening all over the place.

Motors: In an effort to further offerings of unique power plants for the GMC our new motor program has growing pains even before we get off the ground. People say "you can;t rush quality", but to me it does not mean you give up on getting things done in a timely manner-- as it turns out any plan you make will be busted, even something that looks like could be done with no problem. We finally have our fist new design power plant on the road with the second one about to ship-- late yes but I do know the guys busted butt to get things going so what else can I expect. We are still in need of motors to be shipped, we have 2 needed at our shop-- come on guys, we're growing old here!

Paint: Kevin is a crazy man working hard at getting out paint projects handled. We have him some help but even at that it is like sanding the Goby desert prepping these machines. He's doing his best with what he has but we are still behind schedule. Walter is helping out with the heavy stuff like mark's ground effects but again, we maybe expect more than can be done-- very frustrating to me.

Interiors: The fit and finish on the custom stuff we do on interiors is so dang labor intensive and really needs me to be head down into them that it grieves me when I look at all we have to do and how much time it takes to get progress.

Guess today I will have to fight off anxiety over wanting so much to get all this done-- that feeling comes and goes with the stress levels around here. For those of you out there hanging with us on issues, let me say thanks for your support. Please know we are doing all we can to make this all happen, unfortunatly we are in an industry that does not move any faster than they do. No one takes it upon themselves to move any faster and all the great plans we try and put together always seems effected. Maybe I expect too much-- I have been accused of that but does that mean I just should give up? I just can;t do that-- I feel pushing the envelope is the only way. Of course just like that though things can go well or they can go different, small things can cause huge problems and just because the desire is there it does not mean all will happen just the way you want. All you can do is try.

I guess it comes down to what it is we're trying to do-- are we trying to do work fast or good-- it always comes down to that. I try to look at the big picture of things and while not using it as an excuse I still have to say getting things done well you just cannot predict all of the pitfalls to success. Listen to me-- sounds like I'm trying to give myself a peptalk! Hey, sometimes I need it just like everyone else-- yes, the buck here stops with me & I have to be the one to make it all happen, it's just sometimes lonely being the one all the guns are pointing at. We have every reason to be excited at our progress around here but it still does not make things that somehow just do not move at the speed you want them to to be OK. Thanks to all you out there for support, thanks for hanging with me-- please know we're all doing all we can.

OK, enough of all that-- I mean where do I get off blowing the time to write all that mess! Guess I need a little healing sometimes too. Today, along with prepping the shop for all the things going on, I have several things I will need to be involved with-- so I need to go do that right now. There are several of you out there wanting me to stop plunking here and get out there and work so I'm gone. Thanks for the visit, thanks for the support and stay tuned for progress---- over and out...

After a full weekend of working with the 23d, raking our new lot and cleaning it all up to it's new grand use I'll tell you I am tired but it's one of those good tired feelings. We are making progress--- after what felt like years of paralysis not knowing which way to go or what to do about it, things feel much better now just having a good vision and direction. We're focused now in many directions, one specifically being the Duramax dash projects which had been a real stumpling block recently. I forgot to do a pic (will do some today) but the 23d dash is looking good. We'll be focused on systems (generator, water heater, etc.) on the 23d this week looking for a delivery in the near future. The coach is now being pulled in and out of the bay each day to have it right in front of us and accessible. Stay tuned for pics on that progress.

It's been a while since I put out a (cut-n-paste) series of pics of the lot. As it turned out as I was saving these shots that I did a series of shots exactly 8 years ago on this day

Still had piles of coaches but now we have them spread out a bit. The goal is no more "musical chairs" when we need to work on

Back in the fold One of the fun things, maybe a "perk" of doing what I do here at the Co-op is helping folks find and have a GMC for their very own. One oif the neat things of that is I sometimes hook up to some pretty interesting coaches. I mean GM and the aftermarket outfitters that worked with GMC had really interesting floorplans dedicated to unique needs. Such is the coach Sam C. and I went over to Plant City to take a looksee at. I had heard about this machine from several people who had gone to look at it-- "there are no bad products, only bad prices" and this certainly holds true for a GMC. After 30+ years of whatever they run into, these vintage machine have all sorts of "modifications" involved in them-- some good, some bad and some are simply that persons interoperation of what they think should be. The question always ends up, who much to get the kkey and whats it gonna take to make it to what the next person sees as what they want.

Another problem with buying a GMC is they are literally scattered all over the place. To get a fair selection, you must cast a wide net--I mean you live in Ohio and you want to maybe buy a coach advertised here in Florida-- how does that work? I mean "ready to go" is a relative term!

Outa time, here are the pics of the coach for it's proud new owner which BTW yesterday this purchase made a great Birthday present-- Happy birthday man-- that means you have one less your to get this puppy up and on the road so lets get with it! The machine will be dropped from a Landoll trailer here today-- stay tuned.

A first look at our new place. First job is to bring in 100 yards of #57 rock

, Got a hot shop on a "Bobcat"

to do his thing to grade the lot down. Next we brought in a trailer to haul off 75 rims with tires, good bye all you 16.5 out of date tires-- it's a passing of the torch

from the old to the new

. So as of the end of yesterday, the first 2 coaches is pulled onto the expansion lot

. The tin soldier takes the fist spot

It used to be the cork in the bottle last in to the lot before locking the gate-- now it has it's own spot-- what a concept! We have 40 yards of rock down with 60 more coming, the vines will go away today and new covers to work under are planned next. Oh man, this is gonna be great!

Yesterday I was yanked off the keyboard, this morning I want to go early, that was traumatic! We have motors being shipped, Jason is welding up the exh. system

for the Airstream generator

Man, isn;t that a sharp looking machine-- different than our GMC's but still interesting

See ya later, all good things are afoot!

Dangit, when all we can do is sweat and do work, the sun is brutal, the heat monstrous so then we come up with something that might make life easier and wouldn't ya know it the weather turns to rain and overcast to work in trying to make our plight better! Why can't we have a little more sweltering dry heat so we and grade down our new space and pack in some rock! Oh what a cruel joke, better working weather if the wet stuff stays away-- stop and say a small prayer to help us get through it all.

Yesterday, well for that matter the weekend, is a time I use to catch up, get things done I need to that keeping everyone else going has kept me from and basically doing my stuff-- it rained. And in the immortal words of Ben Franklin, "When it rains, you get wet!" And I did-- you can't hold a wrench when you are wet, I can't think much when I'm standing there with water droplets falling from my nose and my hair though I keep it short for the summer is as wet as getting out from the shower. Basically a rainy day around here is not much good-- this is something we hope to fix here soon. Spreading stuff out and organizing will maybe give us room for strategic covered work space-- thats one of our goals.

Hey thanks for all of the posts about our facility, seems like many out there agree we need this. You know when you're stagnant in one area others seem to also start moving slowly, I think this has been one of the factors around here. As I said before, we had our sights on another option, much more of a jump but hey, it's not a stable thing to take long leaps-- we have 12 years in on building the Co-op, it would be a shame to screw things up now so this move while it will be a huge help will hopefully not im

OK, this will date us but who remembers Rowan & Martin's Laugh In? "Back in the day" Laugh In was one of my favorite TV shows, just behind "F Troop". I think one of the things that drew me to tuning in was to see what spoof they would do usually on everyday things we all could ID to. One of the segments I thought was particularly provocative was their weekly awarding of the "4 F" trophy for actions over and above idiotic. I think Spiro Agnew was one of the recipients, maybe Abbey Hauffman another. This "Flying Fickled Finger of Fate" award was something most proper people watching would turn their head away from (while still watching with at least 1 eye in that while everyone knows stuff just happens they still wanted to see someone who it seemed generated megga stuff. You could be in a group of people watching Laugh In and when this segment would come on many would give one of those smiling frowns-- hey, but I never saw anyone turn it off! I guess because of that, The 4F award was one of those "doodle drawings" I would leave on scrap pieces of paper, the front cover of note books. Everyone doodled in school, it was something you did instead of doing something else that might get you in trouble and I sure needed that crutch to keep me on the straight and narrow.

This week reminded me of the 4F award, sometimes it seems like no matter what you do, that bird of Paradise targets you and after wiping away the residue it seems like the only thing left is for someone to draw you the award. As you can see, Picaso has no worries but here is, from memory, my FFFF award

See, some people would turn away while others gave that dirty snicker! Boy did I get in trouble just doing something most every other student did in place of actually listening to the teacher and maybe the defiance of having my own little ""Kilroy was here" logo was why I drew this-- kinda like that gesture the mouse made as the eagle was swooping down to grab a bite of lunch! And then there was another doodle that Pete P. sent me when another such event happened here at the shop that seemed to strain our resolve

. Yea, we usually get the soiled end of the stick but thats still no reason to stop trying!

I went through all of that to try and describe this week, yep it was interesting-- we have been for some time in a real way behind a huge "8 ball". After years of making due with everything from a leaking roof where strategically placed buckets were our best defense to having to play "musical chairs" in our lot to just get a coach we're working on close enough to the only big power cord we had to plug in the plasma cutter. The Co-op started in 1997 on the same ground we are still in and if a business does not grow out of it's surrounding at least once in that time, one would immediately wonder why the progress of the company has not outgrown that humble first beginnings facility. The truth is we had outgrown our surroundings until it was so crowded, unorganized, messy and just down right hard to work in that something has to be done. I was reared in what many would call a hermetically sealed home my Mom being a librarian with 3 masters degrees and all. My Dad driving a Greyhound bus, efficiency was our mantra. Whenever we would take a trip, you had better be ready because we would always make "damn good time"! And I would always have packed in my book bag not sandwiches and toys but actually books! I am drawn toward order but one step into the wasteland that is the Co-op World headquarters and you would think I was a stepchild of Fred Sanford.

Deep down, well maybe not that deep it always pains me to live and work in disorder but what could we do, commercial property in Florida, especially Orlando is not cheap and while the rest of the world seems to be giving away buildings with vacant facilities going to seed, here in south Orlando it seems like every landlord feels he has a lock on some perfect property that you must pay homage to consider renting. Thus the conjure of the "4F" award for all of those property owners seems fitting. There just seems like no way other than me selling partially used body parts would ever set me free from the constantly shortfall facility the Co-op operates from. Ah but this week, this week something did come to fruition that has brought the Co-op to a new plateau, a new beginning if you will-- no, not a beginning but a new chapter in the growth of the business. It has taken years of figuring, looking, thinking and bringing together every asset that could be found to help the Co-op continue to claw it's way a bit further up the side of that tin can-- we have increased the size of the Co-op facility! Yes, finally I can give back at least 1 4F award out of the collection we have been forced to endure, some cards did fall right, some clouds did part, some stars did align and we will actually next week, be pushing out the east fence of our property to include what looks like a property the size of our entire present lot where the stuff that has been vertically stacked can finally be organized in a usable manner. For those that have been here you know what this means! No more pulling 3 coaches out of the lot to get 1 in. No more sunburn working in the middle of the "tarmac", no more stuff stacked where we should have space to work!

Yes, the Co-op is growing and will also be increasing the scope of our business. We have never been able to store coaches which seems to be something many GMC owners have wanted. Storing your coach in Florida, at a shop who understands your GMC. Having the coach plugged in, kept running and actually have it ready to go when you want it-- this is something I have dreamed of offering--- and though we will be somewhat limited we will be taking in a few coaches to begin what I feel is a needed, actually desired service for the community. We already have 4 coaches slated to enter our facility as soon as the lot is leveled out and rock compacted-- which BTW will happen Monday morning. Our plan is to have covered and open storage depending on what the need is. We will maintain the coaches in our custody, rotating power to keep the electrical systems up, running and actually driving the coaches periodically maintaining the machines as needed and when the owner calls, we will have the coach washed, fluids dipped with their dream machine pointed toward the gate and ready to rock. If you might be interested in a service such as this let me know.

This increased space will also allow us to reorganize our business, focus more of parts sales and simply have a better working environment. We plan covered work space to give the guys a much more civil working environment-- something we all badly need and will welcome. Yes, I was looking at a new, larger facility but like I said, the 4F award usually goes to prove it is really hard to progress in the small business world and while it would have been grander maybe to drive our overhead out of sight of reality, this step is much more than one baby step ahead, it is something important, something long needed and something that will really help us out. If you a5re in the area with nothing to do and have a deep seated desire to do some spontaneous random act of kindness-- come on by and grab a broom-- help us make our improved shop all it can be.

Most of you are obviously too far away to do that, you can help too-- become a CMW member and if you already are but have not updated your membership in some time know that any support of the Co-op will go to helping support of the GMC community through it's services. We will be reviewing our member roster and start updating our member pages and special offering to members. My weekends and evenings are full of spontaneous calls from CMW members looking for information and help. Being a support group for those needing help is rewarding to me and have been told a great asset for GMC owners out on the road.

Speaking of that, here is a blog site for Laura. Speaking of someone following a dream-- Laura is a young woman with the passing comment one day she should jump off of the spinning wheel that attorney's get caught up in-- stop the ride and travel the country for a year with her dog and write a book. You might say hey, people do that all the time-- maybe so but do they do it in a 1977 23' Coachmen built GMC Birchaven motorhome? Family friends of Eugene who has a beautiful 26' Explorer II renovated GMC

was asked if it were possible by Laura to travel the country in a GMC while writing a book. Eugene did more than answer the question, he found her an awesome 23' coach, helped her outfit it for the journey and even traveled the opening leg to let Laura understand the "nuances" of living as a turtle with your home on your back as Laura puts it. I think her idea of book topics might just be shifted a bit from what she thought the book would be about to include maybe more of the experiences from the road. Just like Jack Karowak, my bet is he really didn't strat his wandering thinking it would make for great reading and a cult following but as his odyssey grew it just happened. I think Laura has the content for an awesome book from the road and she has started it off, feeling her way through the understanding of her coach and what it means to travel in this way. Before leaving, we prepared her as much as we could here taking her over to Harbour Freight for piles of tools and bits. One thing I made her purchase was one of those inexpensive digital volt meters saying when you call me for help I will tell you to give me meter readings. She got the meter and last week over the phone I had the pleasure of telling her how to use it to diagnose her alternator had drawn X's over it's eyes. She prevailed and is again traveling the country. This truly is one of the roots of why you have a GMC-- Laura is loving life on the road-- or should we maybe say learning to love life out there. Follow her blog:

My blog is www.rvprincess.wordpress.com and the coach's name is Fiona,
>after the Disney character, Princess Fiona.

Thats a gracious plenty for today, I'm in here early to blow out some of what is clogging my mind. Rob M. will soon be in where I will add my little bit to his coach before he heads out next week. He has had us install the aux. AC system to the dash air unit. You know the one I say will blow crushed or cubed ice depending on the blower setting! I'll help him wire than, then I get the pleasure of pleasures of working with the Duramax projects-- this weekend I hope to have the all wheel air ride systems operating where we will see just how fast and high I can make those machines "dance". Stay tuned for that. All the while I will be peering through the hole in the fence we made yesterday to open up the increased space that soon will be our bigger, new and improved Co-op World Headquarters-- is this going to be a great day or what!

Yea, I blew out some verbage this morning and yes, my 2 fingers are hurting a bit-- sure wish I had paid more attention in typing class-- guess I was busy drawing 4F pictures! Talk with you again soon, thanks for the visit and in advance for your support. it seems that the grey clouds around here just me be parting a bit, I feel much better than I have in a while-- I hope you too have a good day and better tomorrows along with us.

As of late, I've been so involved is stuff around here big things in the life of the business as well as in the life of the coaches we're working on here, I may have lost some perspective on things. Namely you guys out there, customers needs of following their projects around here and simply getting into the communication between GMC enthusiasts which is what brought us all together in the first place. This "blog" as many call it has been a real part of my life and from what folks tell me of theirs to the point that like my morning breakfast hole, without 2 eggs, scrambled fluffy, a mess of grits with 1 butter and 2 pieces of rye bread toasted and hopefully 2 things of grape jelly-- oh, can;t forget the toothpick to top it off-- if I don;t start the day off with something like that -- or this I just feel off kilter for the day. Isn't it funny how we are all such creatures of habit like that and here we are winding into out habits something many people would say is silly like this page.

So what IS going on at the Co-op? Well, I'm glad you asked because those of you who have been here, heck how bout those that are here right now know we are and have been busting at the seems of our britches for several years now. With the economy as it is, "hunker down" seems to be what all small businesses are supposed to do and we followed suit ourselves. What has happened though has caused more situations and now we are faced with what feels from this end as a huge, almost unworkable situation. If we could store these coaches up on their bumpers we would be better, if we worked on motorcycles our facility would be ample-- but we don't! Aven our "downsized" coaches carry a hefty footprint and having so many jammed into this space is cause for stress. We have NO place to store coaches, this is obvious when you even walk past our shop on the road. We have some coaches that for one reason or another have ended up here causing multiple problems because of our lack of space. We have "donor coaches" laying around blocking progress, coach parts made of pure "unobtanium" that we must keep-- no option and between all of that we have out equipement, tools, parts oh yes and then there are the coaches we are actually working on-- Like I said it's a tight nit grouping around here.

It's difficult and made moreso to do what needs to be done because of the humanity around here. I stand at the gate each morning and give a sigh-- here we go again, entering into that heart of darkness that used to be OK but which now is totally out of room to breath. So each evening I stay awake trying to figure out how to address this growing pain of the company and then spend all day trying to keep work flowing, keep the bills paid and keep my eyes and options open to make this place better and more efficient-- it's several full time jobs all wrapped into one.

And then I come to what I feel I have made a mistake on, namely giving you guys GMC fodder to enjoy, sorry about that! Just so much on the plate I'm making a mess on the floor spilling stuff over the sides, hey-- bring me a paper towel if you have one! Here's some of the stuff I think you come here to see:

And another carb to pump fuel line shows years of use

. Not failing "yet" check out the kink in this hose

Guys, you gotta understand that metal deformed in this way is fractured, no to mention a restriction to the fuel flow -- far beyond that, the age creates corrosion tha enters into the equasion-- This was not a part causing problems we were looking for but seeing it how could I just leave it there. Here is the fix

In trying to isolate a high idle issue, I installed a fresh carb to eliminate a problem possible with the one on the motor--- thats when I found the nasty fuel hose. You can see how our new Teflon, braided stainless steel sheethed, pyro shield covered hose fits in so nice. The fuel is kept as far away from the thermostat housing as possible running it over near the oil filler elbow. The tight bend going into the carb is a molded piece, not bent and fractured like the original and talk about easier to thread into the carb-- it's cake compared to the new words you make up trying to get that hard steel line to thread in! Hey and if the pyro shield helps on the vapor lock (which I have had reports it does) all the better. Found that the secondaries on the original carb. were sticking open a bit-- fixed that and now with the new hose on there I really feel better about the job. We have been shipping many of these hoses, have more coming in-- they are $38 and really seem to fit well. Call me if this is something you would like to have.

Next is another one you guys need to look at your coach for. On the GM floorplan coaches, 1975 and later (maybe also in an earlier coach or Transmode0 there is a 2 ga. battery cable running from the left side of the boost solenoid, across the front cross member frame then up into the firewall and back ending up in the generator compartment. Yesr of being strapped to the front cross member has taken it's toll on the insulation of this high current handling cable-- take a look at what I found on a coach this week

, you can see the old battery tray. When I pulled out the battery I saw the cable and slowly moved away from the coach-- ran around to the generator compartment to disconnect the living area battery before something happened! All along the top of the cross member the 2 ga. cable had corroded, the insulation was falling away

and where the owner had installed a radiator gravel deflector, the chickenwire could short out anywhere. Pulling off the chickenwire this is what we had

Unbelievable! You guys really need to check your coach out! This was not something on the punch list to do but I was not going to let this coach out of here with this grevious problem! OK guys, I've done my job-- your safety is now up to you!

OK, howd I do? Was there enough GMC fix for the day? I'll try and keep things interesting along with my ranting-- which I've been told to keep up. Guess there are those that just need that sort of thing in their lives-- go figure! Thanks for the support for all the crap we do here-- it really is one of the things that helps me keep going-- please keep it up. Have had much commenting on the generator thing as well as the fuel vapor lock issue-- thanks for that. Need to be careful how much time I spend communication here.

Generators I've fielded many calls lately about generators-- how can I get the "Ole Troll" back working--- Is there anything that can be done then it's what can I replace it with-- will it pull out--- will it fit-- does it wire in the same way-- hey, how bout one of those portable ones, I think I've had it all asked but you know the problem right now is the question has not been an easy one to answer. I mean when you first price out what it takes to replace your old war horse with another Onan you find out right away how much value people put on having a reliable way to create 110vac. There are some folks, mainly up north, who have cleaned out their generator compartments, and filled it back up with batteries, inverter systems, solar panels and all sorts of things trying to satisfy their need for power. hey, and for some it works out well but overall us soft, lazy Americans seem to need our AC power. In Europe, most motorhomes (Caravans) run on 12 volts mainly, have huge opening windows and skylights-- come equipped with cute little 12 volt appliances and are very smart build machines-- very efficient, conservative , downsized and utilitarian. Thats all well and good but I tell ya down here in Florida, when you are driving along and sweat is rilling from the calf of your leg, pooling just in front of the seat on the floor, sweat balls are hanging from the tip of your nose and the only respite is to hold the palm of your left hand out the side window in the wind to try and cool the blood flowing in your arm--- you really want that big ole nasty roof AC to fire up and blow cool air down your neck. Hey, it's just one of those American luxury things we have grown accustomed to-- and we all want what we want so a good working generator figures in big time into our classic GMC's.

So back to the question, what about the old Onan Power Drawer, can it rise again from it's ashes or do I turn it into a boat anchor and then what do I replace it with. These are the root questions that on the tip of everyones tongues when the question of generators comes up. Hey and until recently, I had a really good answer for that question. Honda water cooled generators, the EV-6010 was a water cooled, 6000 watt unit that really fitted the bill for our GMC. I had been installing them for some time, actually jumped on it's bandwagon from recommendations from our tool guys running arounf to repair shops with their trucks. You would stop your work, take a break and enter into this frigid wonderworld of tools where you felt so nice and cool that it really put you into the mood to buy their overpriced Snap on, Mac, Matco tools on their easy weekly payment plan. Standing in their truck, feeling ice would drop from your nose any minute, feeling frost was coming from your mouth-- I asked the tool guy-- "Dude, what kind of generator is running that icebox air conditioner in this truck?" The answer I got was a Honda water cooled. They run day in and day out, every day-- all day and when something does happen to it, they are rebuilt and run one. So I bit and found an awesome generator for the GMC, it fit right into the hole, built like a "flounder" fish with all the needed pieces/parts all on the outside facing side of the unit you didn;t have a spark plug facing the back side of the unit as in the Onans (what a stupid thing)! No, those EV-6010 units were awesome and then the hammer dropped and Honda , in their infinate wisdom, discontinued their entire RV generator division--- Like the time I was working for Zenith Radio Corp. in their radio division and they decided to discontinue their entire radio lineup-- again I was punted out into the wasteland!

So now what-- I found another job in consumer electronics going to Panasonic, stepping away from the American "great white hope" in electronics-- actually Zenith radios had long sense had Tiawan build their stuff but hey, who is reading the back cover-- I was then sellinf a true offshore product-- Panasonic and really I had more success promoting that stuff than I ever did with Zenith so that was proof positive that there is life after working for an American company still what should I do about generators for the GMC!

OK, I figured I would try stepping out of the box, taking into account what other people were doing with Generac and Onan units but looking around to see what else was available. I mean technology is always pushing out limits and there must be some option waiting to be discovered so off I went again jumping up and down on that thin fringe limb opting to try something new. Ah but this is where sometimes I stick myself in the back falling unceremoniously on my own sword in a haphazard way. Yes, sometimes you can find unique solutions to issues stepping around out there on that lunatic fringe but just as much you find there are good reasons why the majority of the folks are doing what they are and even with your best efforts you find that like the other lemmings you too should line up and just do what others are and make your mark in doing that in the best way possible. I said all of this to say that in the case of generators-- right now--- with what is available out there-- with the investigation I have worked to discover with the amount of time, energy and money I have available--- well, I have to say that the Generac line up is the way to go-- at least until some coampany comes out with something better. Let me explain this statement for you so you will not have to call me about this.

It grinds me too walking through Costco seeing those Generac portible 5000 watt generator sitting there on the shelf for $499 telling me to "buy me"-- "Don't be a chump-- a generator is a generator--- then you look on line & find those China knockoff units for even less than that boasting awesome specification telling you outright their units are much better, last longer, taste better and even women will love you more if you just buy one of the units and put it in" Man, what a strong pull to give it a try-- and you know me, I call one of those folks up and say "OK, I'll bite-- send me one of those digital inverter styled 3000 watt generators for $1000" I held onto every line of their description wanting to believe I had found the "holy grail" of power producing cubes and that the technology would again pick me up and take me away from the Mr. Onan! Again I stick my butt out there on that fringe saying I'm smart, I can make it happen by sheer will and where others have failed I have a better mouse trap and will prevail better for less money and we WILL make things happen!

See that's the fallacy of trying new things-- if it were a proven theory there would be less risk but as it is, if I try something new to try and make everyones teeth brighter and all that and some "unexpected result" makes the outcome less than a perfect finished project-- guess who eats the drow-- yep me. In the attempt to do what folks always want-- more for less-- I end up not making the mark and end up paying myself for my folly. This is the main reason most shops will not try unproven remedies to issues--- trying new things, you and only you take on the risk of the liability and having "no good deed going unpunished" the shop takes the hit when something falls short. This is what has us in a stranglehold on some things we attempt to do-- Hey, I do not blame customers not wanting to partner in on the trying of new things, people want to only pay for completed projects that work-- so how ponies up to pay for the good intentions that never find the light of day? Yep, that would be me-- I bring this up because I have dropped a "goose egg" on trying to find that better mouse trp when it comes to generators!

And just because I want something to work, there is so much against having experiments such as this to fall short, it really is not a good bet to try things especially when you really need to have every dollar you spend in the name of people to translate into a quality finished product. I say all of this to explain why I am now backing up to recommend not doing some of the things I have been trying and just settle with what many have done in the way of a solution for a dependable generator for the GMC. Namely installing the Generac 45g 4.8kw unit.This unit has been out for some time, it's a proven "low tech" example of a replacement unit for our aging Onan power drawers. They are inexpensive running @ $2000 which is actually 50% less than even the extremely cost effective water cooled Honda. Being almost a throw away cost, the 45g is compact, fits right into the hole and fires the first time, every time when properly installed. OK, so many of you may remember the experiment of trying one of those pulse digital inverter style China generators in that unique Airstream coach.

Having a huge compartment to devote to a generator

I figured we could certainly slam that 3000watt unit to run the roof AC unit in the coach. Here was the unit I tried

rigged in place and the customer who belived in me enough to give the idea a go

. In this case I found that all "specs." are not created equal and just like the specs in the consumer electronics industry did not always equate to comparing "apples to apples" a Chinese 3000 watt generator does not act the same as an American tested 3ooo watt unit.-- No the specs are just not comparable. I ended up going to extrame measure to pull the heat generator from that generator-- that thing was a serious hot box and then we found it did not like someone slapping a heavy load on it . The generator would only run a rotary compressor super efficient Domectic "Pinguin" roof AC unit, a normal piston driver compressor used in most roof AC units would blow the breakers in that Dad Gumed knockoff unit. Still I figured that we had found some workable truth in AC power generation-- that is until we put this unit out in the customers hands out on the road. Yes, the generator would fire up the roof AC unit, yes we could pull enough heat off the thing to keep it from melting a hole in the floor of the compartment -- but and maybe I should spell this "butt" it would shut down in the worst possible time. Rolling along, not doing anything bad to the unit the thing would simply turn off-- go around a tight turn it would turn off-- sitting in a parking lot doing it's thing it would shut off and when it did this unexpected result it would not even coax back on until some time passed. It was a heat issue, a limp spec issue, a fuel delivery issue-- of just an incompatible hardware to the use issue-- I don's really what the bottom line was but the thing just would not do what we hanted it to do. This was very frustrating from the owners prospective, the generator would shut down and then the temp would start north in the coach and before long everyone inside the machine would start to melt and guess who felt the pins in that qP doll--- me! Yep, here we go, this is where the "no good deed goes unpunished" kicks in. In an effort to make a power plant to fun the new roof AC unit we installed, we did not end up with a reliable program-- and guess who was looked upon to "fix it"? Yep, no matter how much was said about trying to save a buck on the front end, I and my company was the one who "ate" the whole thing and had to back up, spend more $ to make the system work. This was a loss project & I am certainly not so insecure to say something I tried did not work. Experiments are just that, things can go well just as easily as they can fail-- you must be prepared fo either outcome-- but (and I do understand) most folks do not want to pay for the learning curve to come to dicovering something new. This is why you usually will not find shops to take on such projects and why they look at us as nuts. Yea, and your point? We can be looked on as crazy for some of the bone ideas we try, I see that and wear that as the crown of thorns that it is! Along with being on that cutting edge of cool stuff I find myself falling on that sharp sword-- have to step back and regroup. Of course this makes Janies go crazy when she sees me have to put more money into a project like this with no real return on that investment. The truth is we just cannot absorb such experiments because long term this creates failure in your business if it goes on for any length of time. No matter how much I want it to be, we are not in Menlow Park, my name is not Thomas Edison and I just cannot sit there and say failure makes us stronger-- the fact is funding project like this really hurts our business! This is the main reason others stay away from some of the things we do-- this is also the reason many of you come here to see what we try-- it's interesting, exciting, fun to watch and I'll tell you fun to try but our checkbook will tell us how long we can try things like this.

We cannot sustain all of the risk and liability that comes with trying all of this new stuff, it's simply not economically feasable and this projects ultimate outcome is but one example of many projects we have tried. Of course if one never tries (like if you never buy a lottery ticket you can never win) I just can't help but push that envelope but really this just might be a reason we may never succeed in this business. Hey, we might just make it, we might have more success than failure but to be honest the odds are against us. and just like the Tucker was a really cool car so ahead of it's time the man that dared to be that great and take on the auto industry ultimatly shot himself -- Janie has already told me if I take that way out she will be sure I'm dammed for all time!

So-- explaining all of that, lest get back to our attempty at installing a low cost generator in that Airstream coach to run a minimum of one roof AC unit. Here is the Airstream as the sun rose this morning bringing a new day and a new way to stry cool in the coach

. Notice the muffler peeking out from under the rocker panel and the tailpipe coming off that. Opening the ex-casket compartment of this "Family Funeral Coach" as it was billed we find that Generac 45g sitting there waiting for a start

with it's Fire Fight automatic fire suppression system daring it to screw up. Even with no insulation in the compartment, the unit is quiet inside the coach. I installed a "bilge blower" fan to bring fresh air into the compartment for the old inverter generator so I left it in. My guess is (and here we go again) this will be a positive addition to the now new approach at power generation. This Generc 45g really is a very efficient little machine

, it fits nice in this huge cave but will also fit nice into the original troll hole in our GMC. It has a "prime circuit" just like the one I install to help our old power drawers, hey guys great idea! We finished this install yesterday-- paying for the install, giving credit for the &^%$%$#@&^*%%^) piece of crap China machine (BTW, I have proven it-- DO NOT buy one of these units, I don't care what the specs say or how cheap you can get one for!) This was a costly experiment not for the customer but for me and this is exactly the reason I can no longer take the hit for trying new things that if all works well the customer comes out the winner-- if it does not I am the one taking the ht and this situation cannot endure and this is what all of this verbage is all about. As far as generator I will still keep my eye out for a better mousetrap but cannot fund the R&D on trying them if you want me to. There has to be a partnership in all of this trying new stuff. I can name so many of these "experiments" and the "unexpected results" that turn a possible earth shaking great idea into my own personal nightmare-- you just have to understand from where I'm coming from!

We must keep our company solvent, we must continue to pay our bills. Our shop is at a turning point, we have been needing to expand our facility for some time, those of you who have come here can see this simply by approaching our gate! How can we make bold moves like this putting out of viable productivity and we just simply cannot continue like this. I have written to some of the folks with some avant-garde project explaining while we will still probe the unexplored they must understand the progress in area like that do not come easy and we must more partner to reach an ultimate positive outcome. This does not mean we are now going to cost a fortune to do cool stuff but it does mean there must be some sort of balanced liability on some of this stuff. Sam is sitting here this morning with me and came up with a most interesting phrase " hoisted by my own petard" which means basically blown up by my own bomb--- hand" Hey, thats it in a huge nutshell! Of course comments on this are gladly accepted, the ones from those it effects will be less than estatic I know but you guys understand I will still do my best to do this stuff-- I like to step out there but I cannot let this be my downfall!

We're looking at a new facility, a huge one that we will have the true opportunity to do great things. Getting out of this *&^^ hole to make our lives better is all but a must looking at what we are doing today. Along with that though we cannot bring with us some of these experimental ideas we are currently doing.without a clear understanding on what we are doing and how it all relates. I'm still the one who is willing to step out there but we all must understand and take responsibility for the good as well as the not so.

Man, did I blow out some words here-- just goes to show ya I could write a book equal to "Gone with the Wind", this is a very important issue with us here right now, I love what we do but without having Warren Buffet doing my finances we just have to relabel our "P's & Q's". So enough of this, I am sure there willbe much discussion on the meaning of all of this, rest assured we are still the same, still here with the passion for the GMC and to make them the best they can be but-- and maybe this turns me to a butt we are forging ahead with new goals in mind.

Thanks for making it through all of this, I'll have pics of more stuff we're up to tomorrow and give you updates on our progress. hang with me, we'll still have a blast-- live long and prosper Spoc

OK, I'll ask the question, where is the commonality? Thanks for all the input, some folks report they have huge problems like we have been getting while others say they have no problems. Hey, I've seen it, Jim G. drove down in hot hot weather a couple of weeks ago with no troubles, the same week we had a coach come in from Sabastian with troubles. We installed one of our pyro shielded carb to pump hose and that problem went away. Last week driving Marylin's coach to new Port Richie -- coming off of I-75, I had vapor lock, fired up her aux pump and it went away. You would think a 110psi fuel pump on Butch's direct port injected 8.1 would push any vapor lock problems but his was so predictable he pinpointed the temp which drove his coach to the side of the road. So how can all of this be! I'm looking for answers, anyone else out there wanna chime in?

95 is the number Yea, it's a highway, it's most of 100 of something and it's even a desirable octane but in this case, after testing real time on the open road, 95 deg. is the point at which Butch D. direct port injected 8.1 motor burps twice and then shuts down because of vapor lock. Butch, living in Mpls. recently made a trip down to the sunny south for a Polaris convention here in Orlando. A long time friend & customer Butch called me from the side of the road coming south --"she sputtered and simply shut down" was Butch's first report. I told him to burp the fuel system by loosening up the inlet fitting to his fuel injector rail. It worked and very shortly Butch was back on the road. But then another 40 miles and it happened again-- and again and again. Yep, it was hot, really hot out on the road, Butch found just north of Atlanta that if he waited till the heat of the day was over, his monster motor had no problems whatsoever.

Dropping his coach with us he made his convention and left us with the chore of figuring out what to do about the vapor lock issue among other things. We had 4 days so digging into his fuel delivery system we figured we would try everything we knew. He had tried a transmission cooler having duty as a fuel cooler on the return side of the fuel system-- it seemed to do nothing. In looking at the system installed by the now defunked Dyno Sources we found another fuel cooler on the ouput line to the fuel pump. Guess it was doing nothing either. Seems with that in there they knew there may be a problem but this didn;t do anything to solve it.

Really the problem is less a hardware issue and more of a fuel formulation one. Butch has had the 8.1 in his coach for several years with no problem-- what caused the issue to raise it's ugly head this summer I feel has much to do with the Ethanol laced fuel supply we now have to run our vehicles with. Our government has allowed our fuel supply to carry this alcohol & water "placebo" agent it seems because of powerful lobbyists from the corn producing industry-- I mean it's all I can figure out because there are few auto enthusiasts on the band wagon of lacing our fuel with this stuff. It causes problems and if the problem with Butch's coach is not a poster shild for this I don;t know who could be!

So we dug into Butch's fuel delivery system. I ordered up 20' of "Pyro shield" heat barrier material to cover the fuel hoses of the system. From stem to stern we wrapped every fuel hose of the syste. We brushed on thick "Lizard Skin" ceramic bead heat insulation onto the bottom area of both of his fuel tanks. We isolated his 110psi electric fuel pump in first a metal box then heat insulated it with a blanket material and relocated the transmission cooler Butch had installed on the road into the insulated box of the fuel pump. These were remedies we had heard of so Butch unwittingly has become our "lab rat" to see if any of this would effect his fuel system. This is an issue high on the minds of folks on the GMC mailing lists and in clubs across the nation. Who knows what would work, the best way for a niche industry like ours has to answer pesky problems like this is to simply put it out there and see what happens-- so thats the way we went.

Friday, Butch picked his coach up ready for the gauntlet trip home to Mpls. Leaving out of here in the evening we all felt confident he would make it out of the state leaving late as he did and we were right. Butch called to say he was just out of the state when he called to report all was good. We all knew that Saturday would tell the tale so leaving early that morning I got a call from Butch at lunchtime with a "all is well to this point" report. Feeling geed about things now next would be where the rubber met the road as they say. Calling Butch at 2PM, couldn't wait anymore, I found him on the side of the road, "She sputtered twice and shut down" was his report. Didn't sound much different than his report heading south before. Seems that the unrelenting heat had again done it's job and vapor lock was still his issue to deal with.

A final call from Butch said he was again home and that 95 degrees was when his motor shut down. Getting into cooler surrounding when he was in ambient temps below 95 degrees his motor had no problems with vapor lock. He said 89 degrees there is no problem up to 95 where his coach fluttered to the side of the road. Another note was his generator also became an issue giving up it's ghost so hot took on a new meaning sitting on the side of the road waiting for the heat to dissipate! Yep, Butch and his wife really had a fun trip down here to the heat and back. Bet it felt like TS Elliot in his book "Heart of Darkness"! He made it home and if you say any round trip is a successful one he did OK. My guess is he will NOT come to Florida in the summer again though!

So what IS the answer to this vapor lock issue it seems we are faced with living with because of this Ethanol laced fuel supply? The Ethanol lowers the boiling point of the fuel which is what many feel is the problem. Wonder if we can put something in the fuel to raise the boiling point? I mean we have not had this problem to this level before, I see no way to not blame Ethanol at least to some extent for our troubles. On a carbureted engine, I have found that plumbing in a second electric fuel pump on the front tank feed line powered off of the "aux." fuel selector switch can effectly be used as a "pusher pump" to help with the vapor lock issue. I have proven this situation driving Marylin's coach to her last week. When I pulled up to a traffic light after sailing along the highway, I experienced vapor lock stumbling. Hitting the aux. fuel switch the problem seemed to clear up in a couple of seconds allowing me to keep the motor running. We install this feature on most coaches today as a back up, a second way to provide fuel from the tanks to the motor. I feel "back up" system like this on key systems in the coach is important. As it turns out this system may also help with vapor lock issues on normally aspirated fuel systems-- you may want to consider this feature in your coach. I know this was a pile of verbage on this subject but I bet if you ask Butch he will tell you it is pretty important. Following him all the way down and back suffering from this I also feel this important to talk about. In the field testing is the only way we will know what it takes to fix this new problem. We have found in many cases an insulated feed line from the mechanical fuel pump to the carb is helpful-- but it's not the complete answer. I am convinced it does help but as I said, there has to be more to the story so lets keep testing. Please tell me things you have tried (if any), we need to solve this issue. Now is the time, the heat is up down here, what say lets get everyone down here living in the heat to see if they can come up with a fix to this problem-- we tried everything we have seen with less than perfect results. We need to solve this problem-- this is what grass roots engineering is all about!

Enough on that, but really-- give me your input on the issue, we need to solve this problem. On another front Sam's coach has a new white roof

, after years of pesky water leaks, we threw the baby out with the bath water on this one and just stripped the roof, filled every hole and went back to "basics" to solve pro blems.

Trying to catch up a bit, Monday I drove Marylin's coach to her in New Port Richey, left at 2:30 in the hot hot afternoon and found myself feeling sorry for that poor motor locked up in that hot box under the floor. It was funny but while driving I got 2 phone calls about what to do about the vapor lock issue the folks who called were having. I told them I was testing out things right then being on the road in the heat myself. While talking on the phone, I dropped off I-75 to a light at the ramp, sure enough -- pulling away from the light the ole vapor lock thing came at me-- I reached over and flipped to the "aux. tank" where I have the extra electric fuel pump powered and plumbed to the output of the front aux. tank. One sec., 2 sec. 3 sec., 4 sec. and the vapor lock bucking went away. It looks like for at least this vehicle firing up the 2nd fuel pump and pushing the fuel past the vapor bubbles in the line works. Arriving, I told Marylin about the issue and after testing my theory at a half dozen more traffic lights where the engine compartment heated up past hot, firing up the aux. pump just before taking off eliminated the vapor lock bucking as I pulled away from the dead stop.

We wire in this second electric fuel pump as a "pusher pump" to throw the fuel at the mechanical pump, you may want to try this, it works on this coach-- BTW, and what a nice looking coach it is

, Marylin & Ginger were pleased

and after all thats what counts. Kevin had outdone himself adding in details that to me make all the difference

so as the sun sat in New Port Richey, I said goodbye to a machine we are all proud to say "we did that" and hope Marylin will enjoy the fruits of our efforts

. Thanks for the faith in us.

Yesterday it was funny how this hit me but George H. coach communed a bit with another good looking coach that came in for some services. Once Tammy's coach may have looked like Georges, proof there is hope

. Interesting how a little paint and detail work brings the GMC into todays style

. This fact is what drives our business. More folks are discovering this fact so our business plan of "reinventing" this vintage machine is not only alive and well but has created the "emerging market" we are believing is out there. George is excited on the possibilities as are we and can't wait to dig into his machine. We have other projects that need to finish up first so keep watching George, your time will come. For those of you "wannabee" lurkers who think maybe a GMC could be in your future-- your thoughts are right on the mark-- all of what you think and more can be wrapped up into this classic GMC design, they can really be cool. Hey, I'm not saying that beautiful pea green plad cloth upholstery is not awesome-- it's all good in its own way but with the style the GMC has, new colors, metallic finishes, new textures, ideas and technologies fit right into this timeless design. Thats where I feel the value is, the comfort and the use can shine. I mean if your buy one of these, bring it up to a relaible, good looking condition chances are economically speaking you will have far less in that project than if you were to go our and drop the dime on a new machine. Hey and just look at the style you can have

, now sit there and tell me you would rather be seen is a beige colored toaster! I don't think so. Then think about what you have mechanically, some say I want all new drive train components-- new design and technology-- wait, is that an OBDII computer interface in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Without a white jacket, chances of fixing a late model motor are slim. Carry a set of Sears tools and understand fuel and fire to the motor and you can work on a 455 or 403 Olds motor-- and thats a fact! I do not work on my wife's Dodge Dakota but I'll pull down a GMC drive train all day long! So tell me which machine is more servicable out on the road!

Man, where did all this come from! Guess the 2 grapes this morning at breakfast may be pointing to an energy filled day! OK, thats enough, I have work to do and the sun is already burning the pavement-- gotta go. Stay tuned, we have more going on, maybe paul's motor will show up today-- come on guys, I'm waiting!!!!!

Sorry bout being away , it was probably a good thing in that John D. said he wanted to clean up some of my mess on the site Hope it will move a little faster with all that crap out of the way-- thanks man.

There have been many important things going on I've been pretty bush keeping it all lumped together! Could be good news soon. On several things at the same time! The are some news on our motors coming soon. We're trying a pyro shield product to insulate the fuel delivery vapor lock issue. Rob is having a blast getting greasy on his coach. So much else is happening. Gonna go over to Walters maybe to see whats happening over there-- the tension mounts!

Sorry for the time away but we have been pushing hard the weekend. Kevin & I have blown our weekend getting Marylin's coach ready to roll. I'll be driving it to New Port Richey today to her. I've been teasing her on putting up pics of the coach. OK, here it is and Kevin & I have the scars to prove this is so much more than a pretty face. Take a Look-- I have so many things going on around here-- Butch D. came in from Mpls. after only being able to drive at night to battle his vapor lock issues-- he have Pauls coach, Ken's, Raymonds, Marks and Rob M. , Sam's and others around here so you can see my delima. Take a look at these pics and we'll talk to ya later

Pealing away the bags, a new butterfly is about to emerge

. Washing it for the first time we also verified we see no water leaks

Now THIS is what I'm talkin bout!

(cut-n-paste) Close up looks as good as far away

Kevin just can't stay away from it with his buffer-- it's so nice working with a finished machine to this level!

So Marylin, I'll see ya later toady

No brag, just fact-- So I'm working out in the lot on this machine

, you can see the shadow of the original working thermometer on the side of the coach. We did a dual bag suspension

-- good thing Neville brought the coach in from MS, his original bags were long past giving everything they had

BTW, those bags were still riding on plastic cones! I rewired his ONan ignition circuit, installed a new compressor, rewired that and I just happened to look up at the thermometer-- the needlw was slapping the stop above 120 deg.! Ouch! Don;t know if the weatherman said we hit the record but I do know it hit a record for me!

Just so bloody hot it is slowing everyone down. Marylin, here is your coach the beginning of the day yesterday

, Kevin was pulling the bags to see what we had

. We rebased and cleared the entire coach-- basically an all new paint job. Here is the coach @ noon yesterday

Kevin & I will be putting the coach together today after he finishes the color sand & buff step. Also tomorrow we'll be on it so we should get it together by then-- that is if the heat doesn't bake our brain first!

Hey Ken, the front of the 23d is back together, the headlight bezels will go in today

Guys, now if that machine isn;t cool looking-- well I don't know what! I'm going to get it inside today and it along with the 26' Duramax can have work done away from the sun.

So the frig at the shop reviels a bit of what it's like doing work in the open lot, in the sun in the summer down here. Now we save the liquid refreshment on the top shelf for after work of course-- the main feature for us "southern boys" is the big green thing in the middle

and of course the half eaten box of good ole fried "Dixie Chicken"! That mellon will be in our bellies come lunchtime today!

OK, enough of all that, Kevin was here when I showed up, Rob just staggered in so guess it's time to go. Enjoy the day, I will as soon as I break the first sweat of the day-- which will happen now...

I know I said there would be no complaining about heat this summer after the cold of last winter and I do not call this complaining but the heat around here has become how about robust! The guys are just swimming in their own sweat-- me too! Recently we had discussed finding a new shop with more covered work space and lord knows something like that could only be a good thing. 12 years of working in the lot, when it rains you get wet, winters you are cold and now summers you get a great tan and I know the guys would be more effective with a better work environment but hey-- are we nuts! When it seems like our country is in an economic stranglehold here we are looking to expand. I guess that says volumes about the GMC community and the interest in our classic coach but still, there is reality and the prudence in jumping out there and tripling your overhead. As the song goes, "you don't get what you want, maybe sometimes you get what you need-- so on we go, sheltering our tools from the sun so they won;t burn our hands grabbing them, changing the water bottle daily to keep up with demand and looking for shade under trees, beside walls and coming in early to work before the sun bakes your brain to a mush pie. Is this complaining, no it's reality and we are still here though having to stay as cool as we can while everything around us is sizzling.

Sorry, no pics today, I promised Marylin a pic of her coach just out of paint at noon so maybe I can sit in the cool of the office for a little and do some pics then. Please come back then for something more. I really need to get out there and work, it's not hot yet, Kevin is here--Twinkles mwet me at the gate as I came in on the side car bike this morning-- a nice cool ride in the wind is a great way to start off a frying session today. Supposed to hit a record of 97 today. Rob M. & Sam C. are here sweating with us-- hey, it's a family affair. Keep cool today, lets see how it goes later

So, what did YOU do this weekend? I spent a working weekend here

with Ken's 23d sorting the engine cover. Yea, I know, it's a shame we have to cover such a cool feature of Ken's interior

, I mean how many people you know of can say they have a Duramax turbo diesel in their living room! I do have to say though that it does put off some heat and noise so something has to be done. The solution of this problem was solved by a colaboration between Sam C., Rob M., myself and Jeff helping bring to life the ideas we all put together. Truly a solution solved by working together. First, the structure had to take up the leat amount of space as possible, we were running out of room in the from and still have more things to add in so here is the basic structure still on the bench

. After Jeff painted the insides with Lizard skin sound and heat coatings, I added this weekend the sound/heat blanket to help block that stuff out

. After that there was nothing to do but fit in the cover-- sounds easy but remember things that are hand made custom have no pattern or instructions to follow. Here is the cover in place

and late Sunday afternoon, with the cover sealed and the top hatch cut, cover and secured here is what we have

The pop latches on the top secure the top cover tight. Seams are sealed with the pass. floorboard in and secure, we are a big step forward

. The top will double as a table and is covered by the same counter material used in the galley

and with bound carpet covering the fixture, I think we have a winner! From here Raymond's 26' Duramax will get the same treatment & I will continue on finishing off the dash of the 23d.

Rob. M. was at the shop with me working with his coach. Here Rob is playing with a torch to losen up the glue on his sheet goods floor

-- Hey, the idea looked good on paper but after catching the floor on fire, I think we need to regroup on that one!

We also got Rob's electrical system squared away with inverter and main power transfer switches, a new 12 volt fuse block and some wiring cleanup-- actually I got a kick out of that work.

Looks like we have good, dry weather this week here in Florida. Kevin had Marylin's coach ready to refinish

. He came in Saturday to base the colors, today he'll finish that up, tac it off and lay out the clearcoat.-- wish us luck.

Some might say "thats all you got done"! Hey, it's hot out there and doing one off stuff like all this stuff takes time and takes it out of you. I was spent heading home last night, Janie took me out for some relaxing time walking around the lake downtown and a ride with the top down in the Suzuki-- it's funny how things help you relax that don;t include sleeping!

OK guys, I've not been up on the ole soap box for some time-- you need to listen up-- If you have more than $15,000 in your coach, you MUST have and "agreed value" insurance policy! There is just no discussion on this. Again this past week, I've had another GMC aowner have their coach totaled and his insurance people are taking a maximum of $15,000 for the machine. Guys hear me-- "full coverage" policies cover the replacement of a vehicle in like original condition. It does not address AT ALL anthing added to the vehicle after it's productoion-- this is just the way the policy is written. It does not address any "aftermarket" repairs, updates or upgrades. A full coverage policy is designed to replace your vehicle with a like condition one-- so tell me about all the bucks you have spent on your coach since you purchased it--- none of that will be replaced if you total your coach! You can scream all day long but it's like your local restaurant-- "NO shoes and shirt-- no food" . And agreed value policy is designed to take into consideration all of the updates to your coach-- everything that makes it what it is-- your coach is nothing without listing all the new stuff so what does a
"full coverage" policy cover on your vintage RV--- nothing, thats what! You will struggle to get a pay out over $10,000 on a full coverage policy. I have another customer, Bob C., who had his coach burn to the ground-- guess what, he had an agreed value insurance policy on his coach and now if he wants to he will be able to replace his beautiful coach with another one set up like his old one-- the other guy last week will not! I can provide you with an agreed value evaluation, with that you can get an agreed policy and you would be surprised-- it does not cost that much! Please guys, don't just sit there and say it will never happen to me-- because it can. If you are going to have insurance, have the $ you put into it cont for something-- call Miller insurance at 1-800-622-6347, ask for Cheryl or Marlene-- tell them I said hello and talk to them about an agreed value insurance policy for your coach. There are unique things having to do with insurance on a vintage RV, it's pretty much all they do. Hey, other people do free quotes too so take advantage of it. If you don;t do this, do not get mad at me-- last week another GMC owner got the rude awakening that he was "out of the water" when his coach was trashed-- DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU! OK guys, you have been warned, don;t get upset at me, I've done my job!

OK, thats enough, this will be a big week here at the Co-op. We have some big news in the wings-- stay tuned. Gonna be a good work week, hot with little rain-- I love it! Have a great day, call if I can help,

OK you guys sending me long Emails with scads of questions I have to stop and give the guys coming here for their fix some attention-- sorry!

There are folks here that NEED to see content here, I don;t want to be the cause of even one of you guys having to check in to the Betty Ford clinic.

So here is my "20 mule team" ready to get the Chimera out of it's caccoon

Jasper has drug their feet on supplying my custom motor so here we are, it's got color but no way to motivate. OK boys, headem up, movem out, we're burning daylight! Heav-ho, yea it's a 23' coach with no interior or motor but the dang thing is still heavy!

"Whisky for my men & beer for the horses", wonder which one they will want! Out of the bay she comes, now switch sides and get the beast over to the mechanical area

And get it your back boys again

Come on you land lubbers-- give it hell

, she's movin, keep it up

Hea mule-- yup, yup, yop there's rest at the end! Paul, here it is, don;t worry about the down swoop divider at the middle, the body molding will be on top of that

Now guys, taking the machine from this with a vision

to what we have is not only amazing but should I say it Paul, just what we had in mind. You must have a vision to what can be bringing a machine like this to life. Man wait till you see this puppy on the road!

Oh, and check out that shine-- there is no wax finish on it yet!

Got my coach Larry back on the road for the run down to Danny to pick up the ground effects molds

, what a team player-- Danny offered to drive the molds up to Tampa which is @ half way. Kevin & I hopped up in Larry for the triip. Remeber the last run down delivering the molds down to Danny I corrupted my fuel delivery system with rust from the ethanol eating away my fuel tanks-- flushing out the system, carb and adding a canister style filter/water seperator (BTW, you guys need to consider getting one of there-- we'll have them, let me know if you are interested) we were ready to brave the open road again. Larry was doing such an awesome job I about forgot to take any pics. So for those of you who are gauge watchers-- readm and weep

Cruise control on, we were "in the pocket". This roller cam motor is awesome-- all the power we need, smooth, strong and just making Larry go like the wind. Like Will Smith said blowing off in that alien ship "I gotta get one of these!" You can't read it but the oil pressure was 3/4 on the idiot gauge so all is good, Larry is again on the road and I am pleased with that.

Oh wait, we're talking about Mark and his coach-- let me see, with the molds in Larry, Rob M. and I headed over to Walters to bring him all those pieces that make up the gound effects kit. Pulling up, take a look at one of the machines he just finished -- without a wide angle lens I could not shoot the entire machine

An all jet black 45' Prevost-- man is that paint impressive or what! There's Rob getting in on helping Walter with a generator heating problem

Hey Mark, your 78 GMC looks like a golf cart hiding next to some of the stuff Walter works with

, we are so fortunate to have Walter on our team. Some might ask why do I have Kevin doing paint AND Walter, hey look there are many levels of paint finish-- some folks are interested in different things. We refuse to do tthose "down and dirty" paint jobs-- I'll leave that to all those folks who will tell you they can do paint for less-- thats not what you really want to bring a classic GMC to an impressive state but even at the better end of the stick, there are levels of refinment and the work Walter does is far and away the best out there. I guess you could say we only focus on the "better" and the "best" work out there. Mark, your coach is in good hands, in great company

and now with Rob helping me deliver the ground effects to the master

as the southern expression goes-- "Hey you'all, watch this"-- hea, Mark is goning to have a "treety" exterior-- stay tuned, I'll make pilgramages over to Walters to document his progress.

Like I said, we have got it happening around here. Today in fact, I will be installing the Duramax engine cover in Ken's 23d. Jeff has the Lizard Skin sound and heat insulation applied to it-- nothing left but to put it in. I hope tomorrow to give Ken a lift like I did with Paul & Mark on pics of his project. Stay tuned.

With Paul's coach finally out of the bay-- Kevin wouldn;t let it go until it was to his standard, he's got Marylin's coach in the bay, it's "shower cap" on and we're ready to fix the paint we tried another shop to do for us. This is a perfect example of why we (and you) should be more picky about the paint finish on your classic GMC. The job looked good when it left us

but there were just so many small issues that we brought it back in-- it just was not to our liking. While Kevin was with NAPA seeing where is life would take him he tried to get another shop to do the caliber of our work-- that resulted in failure which we are now fixing others work.

I'm telling you guys, if you really want to be serious about bringing your vintage GMC back to today-- accept no substitutes. If you have time to do it over, you should have taken the time to do it right the first time-- and thats all I've got to say about that!

Max is no fool

sucking in the fan, yea it's hot down here in the sunny south hey but I'm not complaining! Jason mixes sweat into his hands as he keeps the home fires burning over in the mechanical bays

building up front suspension parts

Man, it's hot in there in that bay! He's taking care though to not mix sweat in with the synthetic grease so have no fear!

And then there's Craig & Eric out there in the beating sun sealing up Rob's top rails

Oh dang it's hot out there! makes me want to sit here in the air conditioned office and just keep pounding away at this keyboard-- but no, I need to get out there too! It's just what we do here in Florida-- July, August & September we sweat!

Oops, there goes the phone, the guys are showing up to the game is on-- the heat is rolling in so here we go. Hope there was enough here to get you full for now, will try my best to keep posting. Have a great day

Guys I tried, just got pulled away I'll come in early in the morning to do some pics for ya.

Have no fear, we're still here! Sorry for the blank air the last couple of days but just so much is going on what can I say.

I've got some cool pics of applying the Lizard skin heat and then the sound insulation on Ken's Duramax engine cover, I've got paul coming out of the paint shop, Sam up on the lift getting fuel lines and body pads, have George's coach coming in on a flat bed for the "full Monty" on a all but frightfully original Palm Beach-- like I said just so much happening and now with the considerable knowledge on how to make a Duramax engine cover we'll also be on the trail of getting Raymonds cover in and then-- well we're delivering some awesome machines! BTW, Did you check out Detective Sanchez- he's lookin good this season! Check it out.

On other fronts there are exciting things going on, when I can I'll tell ya more about them I will. Good things all so yea, we're here-- it's kinda like that Jimmy Buffet song "If the phone doesn't ring, it's me". We're here, don;t worry! Sam C. will be back with us tomorrow, Rob M. is still here whipping on his coach so the place is packed, call before there's not much room here if you come.

Tom, your motor is in process, hopes of shipping to Columbia soon, talked with the guys today & discussed hoe to pull your locked up motor out-- says there is a pile of parts in the oil pan-- sounds like it's a dirty diaper!

Thanks everyone for coming by-- we get by with a little help from our friends and in this case it's a lote of help! I'll do better keeping up with posting, John D. my webmaster-- well it's more like the wizard that always saves the little turtle on Bulwinkle-- "Drizzle-- drazzle-- druzzle-- drome-- Time for this one to come home"

Came in early this morning to try and catch you guys up a bit Just got done with the Emails, it's 6:15 so I have a shot at this. Have 5 agreed evaluations to do-- backlogged on those which also require seat time in the office so I'm trying to knock those out too-- see I just don;t have the time to do it all. Anyway, I beat Kevin in this morning, he stuck his head in the door @ 10 min. ago, what a team player!

Kevin is "Buff Master" , take a look at Paul's Chimera paint

You know how it shines like that? It's called "elbow grease" and Kevin is not afraid to get it on with the high speed buffer

The plan is to have Paul's coach out of the bay by today to get Marylin's coach in for next week's fun. We had tried another paint group for our work when Kevin was out with NAPA as their paint specialist. Turns out they listened to what we said but did not do what we wanted-- fixed some damage with less than our method of SMC repair and it started to break out

Kevin had told the guys what to do but they simply didn't really do it so he's fixing their screwup and we'll be redoing some of the work. This tells me more than anything that we just have to do all this work ourselves. If you think "paint is paint" brother let me show you that you are wrong! Even under our nose, people will not do it right. I feel for you guys who are far away and feel you can't take the time to get the coach down here. I really cannot give you any comfort-- your paint may look OK when it's done-- Marylin's coach did too but in time those short cuts show through-- it just does! DO NOT CUT CORNERS when doing the exterior of a GMC, you will hate yourself later..

Ah, but there is one other painter we use that DOES follow our lead. yesterday, Walter came over to collect Mark's coach for a serious paint finish

, as he backs out yea Mark, we'll have to replace those fogged windshields.

One look at Walters chase truck will tell you where we're going on his paint

Walter is the man-- between Kevin & Walter, we are covered. Here is the computer designed design Walter will put in Mark's coach

WOW, what a cool looking machine! Go for it man! Stay tuned--

And then there is the scientific method Sam, Rob & I went after the engine cover issue on the Duramax coaches with. First Ken's dash AC-- problem was the coach is a 23' and with the door forward, there is just no room for the pass. seat, the dash AC, the door and the Duramax dash-- just not gonna happen! What do we do? OK, the only spot is a half area just under the big dash top-- OK, so the dash AC will peek out from the dash with a hump

We'll have a "hump" cover with the vents blowing straight out. Lets call this a "maximum use of space". It will work and now we turn to the engine cover. Here is the base of what we came up with

This will be insulated from heat and sound big time, the top will double as their dining table-- heck, he'll be able to have 3 lap tops sitting up there! Stay tuned Ken, I think it will work-- hey and Raymond, as soon as Kens is in yours will be in too! Off of our hands on this deal and we'll be flying soon.

See, this is my problem here it is 8:30, just got Emails done and I'm burning daylight! The length of this daily pose page is now as long as a novel and I can't get the time to blow out some of it to the archive. Yesterday, Sam, Rob & I sat there scratching our heads collectively on the engine cover-- went well and I have a direction-- wish I could have the time to tell you guys about it but the reality is I just don;t have the time. Time is the bandit here--- you guys with work in here certainly deserve to see whats happening and I have 4 people Raymond, Ken, Paul & Mark that it actually is important that they see whats happening and I feel bad I cannot sit here and do that. I'll try tonight. Time is killing me, won;t somebody grab those hands on the clock and stop them! OK, I'll try another plan, but it's really my issue here.

Let me get a handle on this time thing, maybe I will need to force myself to do this in the evening. I've already lost the cool part of today to do work-- now we sweat! Gotta go--

Ken-- I'm on it, before I leave today my goal is to make the first part of the engine cover and Raymond, that will also move your coach forward.

Danny-- the plan is to get you off the lift today, Sam needs fuel hoses so you're coach is holding him back

Hate to break todays talk down to this root mean but it is important for me to go now.

I don;t know but I knew I should prepare for a strange day when a chicken crossed in from of the Suzuki coming over the tracks headed to the shop this morning! So why DID the chicken cross the road? I think it was to give me a sign maybe, at least today that was the case. The best thing I think I can do is to get back into my routine and just get to work. For the last several days, being up in Jax. getting my Mom and all of what goes with getting the bank, her long term health car provider, the attorneys and all that situated is more stressing to me that just hunkering down here at the shop and sweating. Well, thats all done, I'm back in my saddle and we're on the road to getting stuff done.

This week I have a unique asset which I will do my best to use to the utmost hey, and for you retired engineers who since retiring find your way of life has become less than challenging to you intellect, you too can follow along with my plans for the week and help out. I am referring to the "scientific method" of problem solving they crammed into your head in those college level engineering classes back in the dark ages before the internet. The asset I'm referring to are 2 retired engineers Sam C. & now coming in today Rob M. from Australia. Two great assets and I need some of their brainpower to help me come up with some solutions that have been plaguing my efforts to forward progress on the Duramax coaches-- namely the engine cover to house those mondo huge turbo diesel motors sitting some 3 feet from the drivers arm. I'm not enbarrised to say this project has so many facets to it, so many considerations with no road to success-- no previous work to copy, no not even something like what we are looking to do that we are like those engineers when Apollo 13 needed to put a round scrubber into a square receptacle to clean up the air so those 3 guys could get home. Yes, I need a little of that problem solving right now so Sam, Rob and myself will hopefully enter into a brain storming session today to shed light on that which has eluded us for some time now.

And like I said, for you retired engineers out there, let me give you our constraints so you can follow along and maybe help the progress of out dream team here. Here we go:

o The LF72 Workhorse chassis comes with a front wheel drive, front mounted drive train so 8-12" back from the original GMC drive train location which puts the motor right next to the driver just like a full sized van.

Oops-- outa time, I'll pick this up later with what we hope to accomplish today.--------

Just about when you think you have figured out all of the green Meanies you are forced to deal with, something else always jumps in there! We have Danny's coach off the jacks, running, dash in and late yesterday his Mac dash is is. Air system working, so we're on the down slope heading for the finish line, long fingernails reaching for that big gold cup---- got up this morning and the rain that always comes in the afternoon now down here is still dumping water! Oh yea, not only are we in delivery mode but we're gonna do it in the rain! Can't talk much more, Kevin, what a trooper, is already here so he and I are gonna get in there now. Danny will be here at noon-- Hell or high water-- which I think the "high water" part of that may just pertain! Wish us luck, this is a critical delivery, we have so many other biggies to do, Danny's burn unit has to go.

Stay tuned for the aftermath on this one-- too bad they didn;t have the video camera rolling on this on!

And the last thing of the day-- She fired up! Jason was "diver down" with Danny's coach and would not put his tool tray away until he made the coach run. Had Danny on the phone him calling to check progress. While talking to him we were treated to hear the starter turn over the motor with his key. Delighted to hear that, I told Danny first thing in the morning we were sure his coach would come to life. Jason, with his as usual drive heard my words to Danny and just after hanging up the phone hit the starter again, this time with a little more length and pop, pop, pop, sputter band Danny's coach spit out some black soot and there is was-- all 8 jugs fired in sequence and we have a running motor. Shocked, I mean I know we were there but you know until it pops off one never knows! So we go into this "hump day" with a leg up which give us just that much more drive-- by golly I think we will be able to drive this machine out of here tomorrow! Lets just see how it goes.

Yesterday, I finally got away from the pile of papers in the office to cut in the new dash AC control panel and the wired remote for Danny's radio.

That plus mounting the windshield wiper control switch and cable and with those things done the instrument cluster was ready to go

. Kevin & I have been sizing the dash itself fit-- cut-- fit--cut I'm scared we're going to wear out the dash just carrying it in and out of the coach! Hey but I think we've got it good to go

so as soon as Craig charges up the new dash AC system, the dash mold will go in and then the cluster gets mounted. It's just bloody hot down here right now, thats not a complaint cause after this winters cold I am liking the sweat balls dripping from my nose! 3PM we bring out the secret weapon

, thank you Mother Nature for this seedless, juicy, red, wet, cold watermelon! That gives us that shot of energy to bring us on in to the end of the day. Janie felt sorry for the guys so she picked up a patio umbrella

to try and keep the sun off us-- it's more the thought than actually helping but we'll take any support we can get!

While we're out there baking our brains in the lot, Kevin had a great idea of getting up off the ground hiding under the lip of the metal building putting on the original style LED clearance lights on Pauls Chimera coach

Hey don;t worry Paul, he has a towel down for the ladder to lean on. We're sealing up the body to pull it outside and man I can't wait to see that project all painted out of the bay and back over to mechanical where we can install the motor. For those of you who don;t remember this coach, it has been here for many years-- a 23' with a 2' stretch-- how cool is that!

Sam C. is here helping us work on his coach-- he's doing the "dirty work" scraping all that old foam backed cloth rotted material that was put on before

A nasty job, covering the front & rear caps with this stuff used to be the standard procedure back in the old days-- then we started seeing the stuff deteriorate-- then we found the joys of scraping it all off! We no longer do this. If you have headliner material in your headliner-- sorry but you will be having fun one day!

So Kevin is already here at the shop, we're doing the final fit and mounting of the lower brackets on Danny's dash and as soon as Craig gets here to charge the dash AC we will be off and running. Tomorrow is the delivery so yea, this really is like those designer shows trying to make you think their scripted stress is real--- this one really is! And so are all of the projects we have here at the Co-op. No breaks for commercials, no retake of what we're doing-- this is "live", the real deal, one of a kind stuff is rolling out of our shop every day, we have no sponsors, advertisers or budgets-- we're just out there doing it. Don;t ya feel kinda sad for all those out there that don;t know about watching all this unfold-- I mean how do THEY start their day anyway!

Have a great summer day, we're here sweating enough for all of ya, call if you need something, drop by if you're bored (BTW, thanks Bob H. for dropping by, good to see your smiling face-- That's "barefoot Bob" our drag race champion!) We'll be here-- thanks for the support...

Came in early this morning to post have way too many things to do to mess around here but have some very important stuff to talk about so don't think since I'm putting a pile of stuff up this morning that I'm bored with nothing to do. Today is very important on many levels.

First, I know Danny is glued to his monitor, progress on his machine effects his 4th family plans so lets get to it on his front. This should be the last day his coach will be pointing up into the air

The dash AC is holding a vacuum

Max is guarding the coach as he works, on site-- on duty

in fact everyone is turning too on Danny's machine pushing hard to get it out of the shop. Craig scrapes the burned engine cover insulation

then will replace it with sections of leaded foam heat/sound insulation. Jeff, Craig & his son Eric worked much of the day finishing up wiring of the harness, repairing damage from the fire and wiring in the harness for the new Mac dash

as his old dash looked on

and here we are-- new dash AC ready, wire harness repaired, new dash harness wired in

all thats left is to fit the new dash in which Kevin & I were busy fitting the new fiberglass dash --- and here it is

, the first fitting. We'll have to trim, fit and fuss over it before it's final install but hey Danny-- we're there!

Today, we'll get the mold in place, secure it and add in the dash cluster. Then it's time, the motor will spool up and if all goes well we'll have again a running coach for ya-- fingers crossed!

OK, next on the list, we took Mark's coach over to ben's muffler shop getting ready for a trip to Walter for an awesome exterior finish. Each part of Mark's coach is to be of the finest work available so the exhaust system has to be to this standard. On this, it's an easy choice as to ho will do the work

. Ben is my man when it comes to fitting pipes to our projects

Ben has been doing my work on exhaust systems over 30 (yes a big 30) years. Stand behind the work-- he'll stand anywhere you like including hanging from the pipes, his work is beyond reproach

and as you will notice our forward "Y" pipe is not fitted with mufflers-- we said we want each part of Mark's coach to be awesome so we fitted it with a rear mounted "one in, 2 out" muffler. You should be so lucky to have a professional such as Ben to do your work-- not the fastest and I don;t care, he is the best

and when Mark pulls up to a rally, the tech heads will wonder at what they will see-- 2 pipes

, countem and be impressed

Do we have a kit to ship you for this feature-- no, it's hard to package this sort of quality. There are systems you can buy and I'm not knocking them-- but could you hang from a bolted together exhaust system-- I wouldn't! Oh, BTW Mark, remember you were telling me that you had a strong fuel smell in the coach, I found the problem-- forgot to take a pic but the downpipe to the fuel filler neck is rusted out! We'll deal with that when it gets back from Walter. I hope to get it to him today.

OK--- now, this is the reason I am sitting here--- I just had this happen and you MUST listen to me! You may have been following all the hooprah here and on the GMC Net about fuel systems, the ethanol in our fuel supply, clogged filters and the dangers of all that. You may also have been following the dangers of fire in the RV world and how stuff like that can really mess up your day. Danny had an unexpected thing happen to his coach with the carb fire from a cracked fuel inlet line, thank the stars he did have us install an automatic fire suppression system which saved the day keeping the fire damage to only the engine compartment--- well guys--- let me tell you a story:

Let me ID this GMC owner/ Co-op friend as Bob C., some of you Forida GMC awners couple call him Mr. Secretary in that Bob was a past Florida government sec.-- for personal reasons lets leave it at that. Bob has been a customer / friend for many years, his coach being a really nice, well restored and impressive example of how nice a coach can be

. Bob is a quality person and expects his equipement to be quality kept. He had parked his coach for a bit pulling it out this week for a trip. Calling me from the road after @ 200 miles, he reported there was fuel starvation happening. Going up a hill, he would shudder and miss, I chalked it up to a clogged carb filter from ethanol rusting his tanks then sending the fine rust particles to his filters. He was where he wanted to be so the plan was to have at it the next day. As I have done with many before, I hooked him up with the filter numbers and how to do the job of replacing the carb filter. Bob called up a moble RV service to come on out to do the job. I talked to the boys explaining what was needed and how to do it. I told them "be very careful not to crossthread the carb inlet line or the filter housing and to check everything you do. Well, as happens with people doing something without experience, they did the work but neglected to check the integrity of the install of the line and housing before replacing the air cleaner and closing the engine cover--- you guessed it, they fired that mother up, it was running rough so the tech brought the idle up to 2500 RPM and POW, it happened--- the motor--- yes--- caught on fire and with no warning and no way to get to the source AND no fire suppression system in the engine compartment--- the coach burned to the ground! Yes, this baby is gone

, this dash-- gone along with everything that was an awesome motorhome! It was the tech's fault pure and simple but hey, you just need to be prepared. Bob was prepared to protect his investment thank anyone who will listen with an agreed value insurance policy which will now pay out the amount his coach was worth based on the evaluation we had done on it but dang, another really nice GMC has bit the dust! Danny, you were fortunate to have the fire suppression system to save your coach, Bob at least did save his investment but guys and this is what you MUST do-- either have an automatic fire suppression system for your engine, generator and frig compartments, have an agreed value insurance policy guaranteed to pay out the exact amount if there is a total loss-- or both if you are really caring for your coach or just be unprepared! Your classic GMC is worth too much to have it go away from fire or accident damage! This is the story of a sad but happy ending for 2 people-- one still has their coach, the other does not. Do you need a clearer picture? I am sad that Bob C. has lost his coach and hope after the shock wears off that he will still want to be in a GMC. As a friend I am sorry this happened, as a part of the GMC community I am upset about the inept action that took yet another coach from our ranks. Guys, just take these lessons and do not let this happen to you.

OK, I've blown enough time here, gotta get out there and work. The blow drier has already stepped up the heat-- hey, no complaints! gOTTA GO, IF THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE i CAN DO FOR YA, CALL-- HAVE A GREAT DAY.

We're hunkered down here working Sam C. is here working with us on his roof. His coach has been leaking for literally years! His headliner, side walls are both water damaged, his headliner had been replaced some time back with the foam backed cloth material which of course shows water stains big time but when the foam started deteriorating and the cloth fell

Just like those manufactured "designer" shows about working on cars, trucks and whatnot, we have the very same stresses they work so hard to try and make you believe is the drama of it all-- hey but all of ours is REAL!! Friday say a couple more machines take flight back out onto the road.

After a front end alignment on Phillips coach

we found why his coach was such a ditch diver, fixed that

then finished up the rest of the spec. set up

and he was out of the shop. Called me from home in Tampa, reported a good ride except his thermostat was sticking. Ran a bit hot and pinged, then guess the thermostat slapped open and the water temp dropped like a rock. Thats pretty dangerous thing, what if it just jammed closed! He fixed that and things are good.

Danny's "toasty" coach is one of the stress points I was referring to a minute ago, he and his family want to ride the rig to a 4th shindig so it's pull out the stops this week on his. His new dash AC is mounted

, thats shipping paprt on the windshield to try and block out some of the sun-- his coach is facing right into that heat ball! His awesome rear bumper has a new feature, a thru bumper hitch bolted in place and his bumper cut around it to fit.

was actually a pretty scary cut, being so nice looking but hey, somebody had to do it!

So we did. His dash and wiring harness gets our attention today.

Paul's Chimera was the object of Kevin's frustration this weekend. Here is his 23' stretch, rear opening hatch coach in primer

Most people would say "she's ready to paint" as well as many painters-- ah but there lies a difference in what they do and what we do. Yes, the body is smooth and we have a bite surface, next though Kevin tapes off and seals all the side horizontal and vertical seams

with a flexible, paintable seam sealer, wipes it down to out thin finish-- OK, now is it ready to accept base color? Nope, this primer is not ready to hold the new base color. There are so many old paints peeping through the saneded sealer that there could easily be reactions with the new paint and with the colors. No, you must "seal" out any reaction between the old and new paint with this stuff

This is a sealing primer, a step most people painting big things like this simply bypass

but if you want the real deal, a really outstanding finish you just cannot cut this corner. Now, we have @ 8 hours to lay on color to this highly paintable surface and lay on color Kevin did. First you cut in the jams and edges

WOW, you say, what is THAT color-- hey, you remember the Chrysler color "plum crazy"-- well we're gonna have a Plum Crazy coach! yep and as the color covers the lower section of the coach I could start to see the "method in the madness" 3 coats of this color, here is the body with a dusting of the plum under where the silver will go to bring some of the highlights up into the silver

then a bag off and 3 coats of the top metallic silver -- then yesterday Kevin's Sunday worship had the subject "clear coat and what it does for you". This morning he unwrapped the moth

and out came a Chimera butterfly

Now you can start to see how unique this coach will be-- a 2' stretch on a 23' coach with an opening rear hatch-- you don;t see something like this at a rally!

Today, Kevin will start exterior finals and assembly of the exterior lighting and everything. We have Marilyn's coach coming in for some paint issues and Sam C. will be living with us at the shop while he works with us on his repainting his roof-- stay tuned to watch that "mud, blood and beer" project.

I'm going to get some quality time in on the engine cover on the 23d, Rob M. will be coming in next week and with him and Sam who is also a retired engineer rocket scientist, maybe we can make some sense out of it. Stay tuned. The day is on, it's already hot out there-- thanks to all of those who were asking about my Mom. I spent the weekend up in Jacksonville working with her-- it's amazing what happens when a body does not get enough fluids and dehydration sets in! We got it under control so she'll be fine-- thanks all who have asked.

Gotta go, as they say "hey, you'all, watch chis", this week will be action packed-- hey, forget those designer cable shows, you have the "real deal" right here! Remember how Boyd C. used to rant and rave-- hey, I do that for real! Ever seen Jessie J. blow up at someone that messed up --- me too! Except this was not scripted, there are no cameras or a producer calling the shots-- it's all on us and it's all for real! Too bad those boys won't know what this stuff is really about! OK, we're off- beak on 3

Today will be push day for yet another coach out the gate Phillip brought his coach in for some mechanical upgrades . He had done the exterior and is deep into bringing the interior on line but brought it to us for some mechanical issues. One was a new tail pipe. His, looking like swiss cheese needed some help and you know I have the guy for that job. Driving his coach over to Ben's Muffler Shop I also found that his steering could be better. We had done some replacement of suspension parts but none of it should have presented steering issues-- guess they did. This means today we will do an alignment for his delivery tomorrow. Bringing is back from Ben's, we also noted a hesitation in the motor. We do have a "tune up" on our list so we'll do that too.

Thats a good one "tune up". So what IS a tune up on an electronic ignition motor? In the old days you replaced the points, plugs & condenser then set it all up. On our motors a "tune up" involved reading the plugs which tells you how the motor had been performing then replacing them based on the condition of the old ones--- popping open the dist to check the rotor and cap-- these things are simply checking for wear and damage. The real action to me that puts teeth in a "tune up" is the set up of the carb & dist. timing, also looking to see if the motor vacuum is properly plumbed. I would have to say that 40% of the coaches that come in have their vacuum routing incorrect. The motor has a stumble as it revs up (that could be vacuum), poor mileage (yep, could be vacuum), spark knock (vacuum), dieseling when turning off or hard starting (vacuum again). The vacuum system in an Oldsmobile is different than most other GM motors-- the saying is "never have a Chevy man tune up an Oldsmobile". Vacuum to the dist. advance is plumbed to ported vacuum in that the dist. turns backwards. If you plumb your dist like a Chevy, you will not gain the @ 10 deg. of timing you get from the vacuum advance, actually you will loos 10 deg. which will really effect your performance. If you want to know more about this, let me know. The sure fire way to know if your dist. vacuum plumbing is right, pull off the vacuum hose to the dist., and connect a vacuum gauge. Fire up the motor and run it till the choke is off. Do you have more than 3" of vacuum on your gauge-- if so you have some work to do. The vacuum gauge should show little to no vacuum at idle-AC off-- in park. More than that and you will not get the advance you need as you rev the motor. Enough said, let me know if you need more on this.

Yesterday was good work, mostly on Danny's "toasty coach"

. Here's an interesting view of his motor without the radiator installed

. All his new "bolt ons" are in and now the radiator slides back up in place

Danny, we're pushin hard on ya-- don;t worry, you won;t feel a thing!

Had a post and talk with Tom C. yesterday. A long time friend & customer I didn;t know he too starts he day here with the daily pose-- it's reassuring and helpful to know I have all of you guys in the corner with me-- you really don;t know how it makes me feel to have all of you around, hey I need it so just hang with me and and Red Green says "we're in this together and we're all pullin".

Got a ring from Allan on the road, looks like the water temp gauge needs calibration and the hose on his fresh water pump came off-- hey, we can fix that! His neg. on the engine battery losened up so there was some drama at the gas pump till he called and we figured that one out. These are the things a "shakedown" cruise is to find. Keep he pointed north thare Capt.!

The sun is up, the heat is rolling in and I have some important family matters to deal with. This will be a hard day so please think good thoughts for us. Thanks for the visit, hope all goes well for you-- we're gonna give it a try...

We Did It! Yep, here's the blue print again with an update on our "hell week" pushing some of these machines out the door. I wonder if this is how guys in the air traffic control towers feel about managing the planes landing and taking off. Is their end goal to clear the tarmac of all those pesky winged monsters-- getm outa here! Wonder what would happen if they DID actually get all the planes off the ground and all the gates empty-- yea, the folks at the gates are fighting to bring planes in twarting the air traffic controllers work in trying and have them all leave. Naaa, thats probably not it for them but sometimes I feel all I'm doing is keeping the gate open but the real job is to make them go out. Well yesterday was a good one in my mind in that we got 2 coaches out the door on a timetable that fitted what the owners needed so I guess that means we won!

Thats not to say we can now sit back and sip a mint julep--- no, we have a deadline on Danny's "Toasty Coach" as he calls it-- I say "burn unit" fits. We have Phillips going up on the lift first thing for fuel tanks so we're on the heals of 2 more deliveries if we can keep up the pressure. Maybe the stress levels these designer reality shows aren;t far off afterall! Yea, but these are real pressures-- you know some of that stuff on TV has to be made up-- like one guy stressing out cause he can't find his fan-- wait, we do that too around here so like I said, maybe that stuff IS more real than we want to believe!

We wrapped up John's new coach--- well Harry's old one--- first thing yesterday morning

, getting the panel mount shraeder valves fitted, his quad bag system completed

all that was left was to change out the 10mm belts we had put in before for the original style smaller belts (now this is a good one, we in America always feel fatter steaks, longer rope, bigger tires are good, in the case of replacing the smaller belts with the wider 10mm ones made a squeeling noisse in Harry's coach-- go figure so we pulled them out!) All of it done, 2 days worth of going over the coach with John and Dixie and there was nothing left to do but push that baby out of the nest and point it toward Idaho so with a big smile for the picture

they were gone. "Bon Chance you'all" is the way we say it down here and they were gone. Now it is time for Allan to get outa here so everyone waved goodbye to John, turned around and ascended onto Allans coach like a pile of ants! With the all new electric seats in place, Allan was happy with what he saw

, the dash with it's new fiberglass mold and new compete dash AC system was in and doing it's job

One neat thing about the glossy finish on the fiberglass mold is you can suction down a GPS-- a cop holder

so with all of Allan's "accoutrements mounted, he was ready to go. Hooking back up his 3500+ pound CJ

he was ready to go. Now thats a scary one--- his coach is sporting one of our roller cam design motors, I mean it may be his coach but thats my motor he's hooking that log to! Oh baby, be good--- give it all ya got! His motor is timed to the hilt, running like a watch and we've done all we can do but you know, the road does funny things to a motor! it's hot as crap out there under the engine cover blowing down the road and here he's got that Jeep pulling in the opposite direction-- it's one of the things I just have to sit back and let happen. You do all you can but it all comes down to "can the chick hold the smoke" and I'm the one holding the cell phone-- Go for it man and hooked up, Allan and his buddy were ready to run the gauntlet with their highly modified machine.

Brave souls both hey, but what else can they do-- what else can we do, the coach is made for the road so out on the super slab they go for a white knuckle drive to New York. Hang with it guys and hang in there my beautiful motor! So on the launch pad back in the lot Allan prepared for take off

Checking his gauges all was ready so pull the lever, push the gas and hold on bunky cause we ain't walkin no more-- we're riden!

Yeeeeee Haaaa, we're outa here and 5PM came with Allan out the gate! As I started the blue print here, we did it! OK, so it was a celebration dinner with Janie-- got a call from Allan saying all was good--- and here I am again, shot out of that proverbial cannon landing back in the same seat I started on with more stuff lined up--- "And the Beat Goes ON!

Today, we'll be looking up the bottom side of Phillips coach, probably finding cracked fuel hoses from the ethanol--- BTW did I tall ya I got a call from David-- made it to Mpls after a 33 hour ordeal with his fuel tanks-- totally clogged with the crap from down here in Florida-- the ethanol has done in his fuel delivery system. His wife & kids love the coach and want to get out in it-- David, still licking his wounds from the gauntlet getting the bugger home wants to run from the drivers seat! He said he's dropping those tanks before he runs it another mile and I don;t blame him. We will be doing to Phillips coach what he wishes he had done on his. Phillips tanks will come down so lets see what we see-- stay tuned for news on it.

We'll also be piecing ba ck together Danny's burn unit, Kevin is over there sanding and shooting out his brains on Paul's Chimera and I-- heck I'll be stressing on it all plus trying to get the 23d back on the road from it's paint work. I've decided to start driving the 23d to work to sort out the pile of things on it. Won;t that be terrible-- driving the road rocket of the world back and forth to the house. gonna turn some heads!

So I've been accused of spending too much time here-- sorry for those that fell that-- I think it's important to let you guys see what it's really like doing the things we do. I am proud of all the guys and the stuff they do to make all of this happen-- don;t think anyone else could come close to doing this. Yea, I think we would be great showing all this to people-- hey but I guess there are others so we'll show you guys, sort of our own reality show right here. Thanks for the visit today, thanks for being with us through the good, bad and ugly of all of this-- we're pushing hard, I'll keep up with this the best I can for ya-- we'll see you later-- hey and watch for John & Allan on the roads-- and Laura too!

Day one went off well. Laura and her 23' Birchaven now names "Princess" has left the building

A check of the rear wheels showed 2 leaking wheel cylinders so she got all 4. If you will remember, she is one of a pile of new GMC owners rediscovering the coach and it's possibilities. She is also one of a new breed of travelers with a purpose to get out there and see this country before you can;t. Laura and her dog will soon begin a year long trek around the country, sort of a "walkabout" as they call it in Australia. A government attorney, she had seen her share or what we and the greed some have is doing to our lifestyle-- this is her breakaway move so lets all welcome her into the GMC community. Look for this coach in your area, great, help and invite Laura to see your coach and what it does for you. She will be writing a book, I've asked her to give me a link to her blog so we all can follow her fun. Yea, I'm jealous too!

So Laura is out, now we turn full force on the next 2 coaches to leave the ground-- namely Alen and his friend and John, his wife and Harry's coach

We have a short punch list on John's coach, he mainly got a quad bag system

and the first of his automatic fire suppression measures with the one in the frig compartment first

Biting at the bit for his long trip home to Idaho, we want to get him out ASAP. We have 2 shraeder valves leaking that are mounted just above his T skirts from his old shut off kit we pulled out with his original air bags. They are that "push lock" style-- man I hate those push lock fittings! Think good thoughts for us finishing up this awesome coach and for his trip hime. If you are on the way to Idaho, watch for this coach. John has had a 23' coach for some time so now he's a 2 coach owner-- good-on-ya-- for supporting the community. Lets see how well he likes this center galley Royale build to the hilt!

Next, Alan's coach is also up for take off today. our punch list on his machine is a little longer after having not only the new dash, a new Mac dash & dash AC system you have been following

but we did a new roller cam motor, a Manny Tranny, tires & Eagle wheels, systems monitor, fuel tanks, suspension & brake work and a pile of other stuff. Final loose ends need to be finished up. Alan & a friend are staying in town last night hoping for flight today and boy are we going to do our best to make that happen!

These 2 machines are our focus. Oh yea, Kevin is over there laying color on Paul's Chinera, Jason and Eris are slapping around Danny's "burn unit" for an end of the month delivery and I'm-- well I'm out there stressing out on all of it! Looking, checking, making sure all is done and ready to go. I have paperwork on both units to complete-- hey, it's ain;t done till the paperwork is done!

It looks to be a sunny morning out there, of course clouds will roll in the afternoon so the race is on-- can we get both of these guys out and on the road before the rains! This is what it's all about here in Florida in the summer-- wish us luck. When these machines are out, we have the next layer of coaches to leave then the next. We're waving off projects to start for a bit, we need to clear the lot of whats here right now so please think good thoughts for us, the guys are doing a great job-- working hard, sweating hard and basically making this all happen. Pray for Steve's binding machine, the repair guy has been with it for a time-- boy do we need him sewing our carpets!

OK, we we're back into the black print, we have much to do around here, got a call from David heading to Mpls., another couple of fuel filters and the hope is he made it home last night. If you wonder if there is a fuel issue with this ethanol, ask him. I want him to do a writeup on what it took him to get home with his new toy. Hope it didn;t damper his spirit for the coach and I'm just glad his wife was not with him on his trial by fire drive home! Get that thing in ship shape man & you will have something-- good luck.

OK, I'm outa here, I came in early to get a handle on the paperflow on the next 2 coaches on deck and to give you guys a view of whats happening. Exciting things are in lane after these machines leave. I'll be driving the 23d home the end of this week checking out bugs-- now that will be cool. We are close to delivery on the Duramax coaches-- 23 & the 26'. Keep wathcing for more on them-- thanks for the visit, hope it was interesting...

So it's the Summer Solistice, good thing it's the logest day of the year-- we'll need it At present, our gate will be closed to new work at lest for the next several days-- events and unexpected results on some big projects have put us in a stress level we just cannot sustain for long. Today will be a bugger-- several things have come to a head-- Laura will be back today to pick up her 23' Birchaven-- Jason had a problem with his dog at the vet Fri. so he came in saturday to try and catch up--this one should go out today. But along wiyth that today we have Harry's coach going out too with a Quad bag system that UPS has lost one of the 2 boxes-- thanks guys, Alen flew in last night and we're on a mode of getting him gone ASAP His dash handled the vent relocation well. We needed a straighter route out of the unit.

then I sent the rest of the day handling loose ends-- of course it rained on me

then the sauna humidity moved in, it was wonderful! Please don;t call me today to just chat, there will be no chat time today. If you have troubles certainly call but just know I am slammed.

BTW, got a report from David M. trying to get home for Fathers day-- if he made it he was very late--- his tanks and fuel system are completely contaminated-- he is changing filters every 100 miles or so. The socks in the tanks are now clogging up, last time we talked we went over procedure of blowing air back through the feed lines to try and either clean out the filter socks or just blow them off all together. His tank is filled with fish soup like stuff I bet--- do not jump into a coach that has been sitting and expect to just drive off-- this ethanol with out steel tanks has become a serious problem! Store your coach will full tanks to try and keep the air out. Check your filters before a run, carry extras with you and the toold to change them out-- do not get fuel at a small out of the way gas station, do not fill up witha fuel truck pumping fuel into a service station tank-- the sludge will get into your vehicle. You can blow my ideas off if you like, just be prepared-- I have asked Davids to write up a complete story of his journey for you to read-- this is a serious situation-- isn;t just me saying this.

Gotta go, the day is on-- think good thoughts our way, we need your Karma-- I'll try and carry my camera for you to see the days fun. Have a great day...

As you can see I'm printing in blue so if your not interested in the saga of next week go on to the black print. So today was my day to do my part of the work on Alen's coach. The last thing that got done Friday was to get the new dash AC operational. I needed that to be able to mount the dash and do the buildup. So with that impossibility done, it was time to do the final fit and build up of the dash.

Had a guy call and ask if I would be at the shop Saturday, he was flying down from Mpls. to pick up a coach he had bought near here-- wanted to drop by and have his coach a looksee. He pulled in bringing a great memory.

Mack had picked up a coach that had gone through the CLASCO restoration process. Brought back old memories, got so interested in the interior I forgot to take any pics== sorry. Here's David M. heading out to get home for Fathers day

, good thing he dropped by, his vacuum routing was plugged off. I rest my case! His air ride system was up but he didn't try it out driving it over. I had him drop the rear so we could see how the system would act. OK, after 5 minutes of pumping the ole V2 compressor was not happening-- his pass. side height control valve arm was disconnected so after we replaced the compressor, we leveled the coach then locked off the system to get him home. His carb had a rubber hose from the fuel pump to the carb. Trying to install our pyro shield fuel hose we found the carb had no filter and a 90 deg. elbow had been JB Welded in-- Had to do something about that! The ground on his dash AC blower was throwing sparks so it needed a better fastner--- a common problem. With the vacuum working, we retuned the motor-- dang thing was running pretty good! I pick up of some new wiper arms, felts, engine vents, 2 gov. gears, another carb filter and some other stuff. So he took of and I went back to Alen's dash.

A few secret words a pow--- his dash took shape

With our "Big Boy" steering wheel, Mac's custom dash looks pretty good

The dash AC vents need a relocation so that will be tomorrow's fun. The side panels need finishing, the radio installed and a few other things so tomorrow will be busy.

Jason got Phillip's coach off the ground

for the install of those really nice E brake kits from Branscombe

Pulling the drums, the kit went right in. This system is trying a new idea. The all sleeved stainless cables, bearing pulleys and all

connect only the rear 2 wheels. Theory is reduce friction further to really lock in the 2 wheels taking 1/2 of the cables out of the system. Give me a call if you are interested in this system.

Jason came in today to get work done on Laura's coach

She had one out of tolerance knuckle

The jacking up the rear and pulling the drums he found good bearings but 2 leaking wheel cylinders

Got a call @ 10PM from Mack-- had a problem with starving fuel. A few suggestions and he found that the in line fuel filter in his fuel system had clogged up. How bout that, here we put in a carb filter he was missing and we should have suspected the in line filter. There it is, his filter was clogged-- just bought the coach and already had to deal with crap in his filters! Take this as a warning, check your filters!

It's Saturday bout 9AM and yes I'm here and already fully sweat covered Yesterday was one of those days you usually don't talk about that much. One worker called in-- of course we were relying on him then at lunch another left and didn;t come back! Whats with this--- guys, we have people relying on ya! I have 5 people helping me but each has a function and when one is missing-- well, we feel it. Yea, so here I am, Fathers Day weekend & I'll be right here. Monday is a big one, Alen is coming in actually Sunday afternoon for a delivery on Monday-- and no, the coach is not ready-- we have John D. flying in to pic up his new acquisition from Harry, his beautiful coach wants a quad bag system which UPS lost one of the 2 boxes-- oh great, we're having the second box shipped again overnight-- can't wait to see what THAT will cost! The yesterday we got started on inspecting Laura's 23' Birchaven buy and founs a bed front knuckle, original lower ball joints, original rear brake hoses and dad gumit if THAT motor had it's vacuum to the distributer plumbed backwards!

Guys, this vacumm routing to the dist. is a critical issue-- Please listen to me, the vacuum to the dist. should be 0-- nada, goose egg when the motor is at idle. The dist. on an Oldsmobilr motor turns backwards to what a Chevy motor does so the dist must see "ported vacuum" which means it only gets vacuum when the motor is off idle. You loose the 10 degrees of timing from the vacuum advance if this dist sees manifiold vacuum at idle-- it's just that simple. Folks say "ahw, those little vacuum lines don't do that much, it's no big deal. Guys listen-- IT IS A BIG DEAL! Performance, mileage both are effected. Had one lead foot that took out of here with a motor that was plumbed backwards-- wanted to go fast up hills and ended up on the side of the road with a spin bearing-- don;t do that! Here is a simple test-- take a vacuum gauge, pull off the hose going to your dist. and fire up the motor-- let it warm up and drop off choke-- if you show over say 4" of vacuum on the gauge at idle, AC off in park-- your dist is plumbed backwards and your motor is hating you for it. Need to know more just call me. I would say 40% of the coaches I have come in here have their dist. plumbed backwards-- is it an epidemic or something? Don;t set up your Oldsmobile like a Chevy-- nuff said.

So just got a call from another new GMC owner who is picking up their new possession and is bringing it by for a check out. Guys seriously, do not think of the GMC community as a dying group-- we have new owners, folks interested and excited over the GMC just like the new owners were when they purchased these coaches new! Just wish you could be here and talk to the new GMC community coming in, it would excite you as much as it is me.

OK, gotta go, I'll be here till I can't see anymore and tomorrow too! The rubber is on the road and everyones watching for the tires to turn-- giddy up there Trigger, the boys are robbing the bamk-- saddle up Tonto, we have some work to do!

Something I forgot so like where am I going to get the time to plunk out all of this verbage! I'm in early to give it a go, if I'm not able to keep up with all thats happening around hre I'm sorry but I need to spend waking and cool work time out there.

Ken's right, there are so many things going on behind the scenes that it's impossible to talk about all of it so the best I can do is cover the pressing stuff. We're all fighting the heat around here, watermelon is a good weapon

this is before 10AM yesterday-- I had already put in a days work and a cooldown was in order. Alen's coach went well, the big thing here is getting the retrofit dash AC working and Craig got into his job

Eric was reinstalling the seating. The front underhood area has taken on some serious changes, there is no longer that big black AC box clogging up everything up there

and as always we find thing we had no idea was a problem. The lower grill valence was being held in place by the grill itself so Kevin pulled it off to repair it then we'll be installing a tension cable to pull back together the body

Like I said before, you have to fix things when you run into them. Many issues all come together as we finish up a project such as this. Alen opted to go with out 18" "big daddy" steering wheel for his new dash

If you have not seen out steering wheels yet-- let me tell you about them. The thing I hate the most on new steering wheels is how cheaply they are made. You pick up one of those Grant wheels at the parts story and you wonder how much plastic went into the manufacture of the thing-- they are so light and feel flemsy sitting there on the table. There may be a variety of colors on some wheels available but still they just do not have the quality feel. These wheels we have had custom made are actually used in commercial trucks and some of the larger RV's and trucks. Here check out whats left of the steering wheel on this motorhome that burned, look familiar?

BTW, this coach burned because of a frig fire -- this is why our Fire Fight auto deploy fire suppression systems are so important!

If it's good enough for that ig thing, it's good enough for our classic GMC! These are real leather, nice thick leather and the spiders is sturdy steel, real nickel plated and brushed. They are heavy, built well which gives them a real feel on the road. The 18" and the 16" are both very substantial units

. I picked these and had them custom made mainly because I liked the quality, sold feel of them, not just for color. Yes, they are black and thats the only color but hey, they are just so nice! Doing the steering column black on restorations matches right into the black leather of the steering wheel so it looks correct no matter what interior color you have.

Don't just pick a steering wheel on "color", get a really good wheel! Costs are $175 for the 16" & $185 for the 18".

Back on focus-- yesterday we did get our share done though I could not get ahead. Wiring on Alen's dash finishes up today and the dash AC needs to charge up and do it's thing. Steve will be in to finish up on the carpet so I'll be focused today on some of the smaller details of the finish out. We have Eugene and Laura come in late last evening, they plugged in at the "Co-op RV Resort" to be here first thing this morning. We have a water leak issue on Eugenes left and Laura is here today to learn everything she can about her 23' Birchaven coach before hitting the road. We'll look over the coach checking wheel bearings, hoses, belt and all that stuff. The quad bag for Harry's coach is set up for delivery today so the guys will be slamming that project for a Monday morning come in of the new owner. Harry will also be here to go through the systems of the coach. I hate to loose Harry V. as a customer but know that the new owner is going to do well for the coach. BTW, Paul M. has also sold his coach so we'll be dealing with the new owner on that coach soon. See this, we see so many new owners here at the Co-op it feels like there is a real movement folks recognizing the beauty and benefit of having a GMC-- this is not a declining market-- it is emerging!

So today has to get going-- I have much to do, to show and to talk about. This is our time, when we need to go for it so have a nice day and remember we are here going for it in the heat!

Hi Jim,
Keep it up dude, you are a cornerstone of our dreams. I'm slowly restoring/learning of my addiction. I enjoy your web rambles and voyeristicly bask in your imagination. I also thank you for keeping stock in our parts.

Cheers!
Frank

. BTW, you know the only person you can ever truly rely upon is yourself In that there has been no word from the idea of the Road Warrior Casting my assumption is probably as it should be -- to rely upon yourself and not be excited about others to follow through-- hey, we don't need no stinkin help-- we'll lay out our own high drama show right here. Would have probably kept me from doing the things we enjoy around here anyway besides, do you think folks out there would be interested in the stresses we go through every day here anyway? No, thats takes odd thinking people like you and I anyway so we have what we need. Who was it the Rolling Stones who said "You don't get what you want, just what you need" and I think we all need this. The subject of working with vintage RV's is probably a thing best enjoyed as it is by a select few so I'll do my best to keep your attention right here-- thanks for the support and enjoy the ride. Success is what you make it.

No, I'm not sitting there in the office burning away valuable cool work time to bang around this keyboard no, I just can't do that right now. We have several projects coming all toward finishing up soon, tonight I took a little time out to try and catch up with where we are. I say the Lord has blessed us with some interesting projects which I enjoy all the more but actually in the long run, one off stuff is not what you would call easy money. By their nature, unique project take more discovery may be a good one here. Hey, but like I tell the guys all the time, "If it were easy, they would do it at a lube shop!" We're nuts enough to take on some of this stuff-- hey but thats what thats all about too! You car guys know what I mean.

So Janie went to the Opera with her sisters and Mom I was left to my own devises so off to Taco Bell after dropping her off downtown. Thats probably too much information but like I said before, I took the night out to catch up--- so now you know it all.

So what quality thing am I doing..... talking to you! I'm sick, save yourself I can't tell you what to do from here out! These GMC's kinda get under your skin--- guess thats why I blew a perfectly good career in consumer electronics to sweat my brain out beating on old war horses--- what happened! I guess in a way I got pretty excited about building them up that I'm spending the "lul before the storm" to do this--- I think I might have some method between the madness-- Hey, how bout if I give you a blow-by-blow of how the nexts stormy week at the shop will go. Might help me keep track of things a bit, you can come along if you like. I know of at least a half dozen people will be interested-- those are the ones that players here with me on stage. This is kinda like bungy jumping for the first time. We have a plan but who knows what will come up-- BTW, that racoon we had for a while in the "nearly new department" was named "Murphey" it feels like sometimes but then you have to keep in mind your are working with artifacts.

OK, lets get out of that mess and down to work-- We have Eugene coming in to pick his quad bag job and bring a friend with their first coach-- a late model 23' Birchaven. A very nice machine kept very well by it's last owners who were part of the local GMC club down here, The Sunshine Statesmen. Anyway, Eugene's suspension is in, we had a few other things to do and here's a good one--we rewired the current to run the air system compressor with someone told me was an original GMC bulletin or something. Pretty simple, you run the air compressor with a stronger available current which is just above the compressor, the living area 12 volt panel. Wait, only on the GM floorplan coaches with an Electro Level system. You Converted Transmode guys are on your own-- too many variations to talk about.

BTW just though about you guys who could care less about whats going on around here-- so I'll do the updates to the next weeks trial by fire, I'll do that stuff in BLUE ink. So if this gets a bit boring and I know I sometimes do, just skip over the blue stuff, it's fine with me in fact we may need to put some sort of rating on this-- some of you my be too young to see some of this! OK, here we go, if this stuff doesn't interest you that much just move on the the black font color......

So on with the week, Uegene has long been a GMC supporter and as I understand it he had interesting someone who I will meet tomorrow in picking up a GMC and taking a tour around the country I think with her dog whiting a book-- now how neat is that! Is this a dream of at least one of you guys out there--- I thought so. So this is a 101 course in what a GMC is all about for a new owner. This is a very important time in the life of a GMC owner, you need to know a "few things"-- as most of you roll back in your chair-- hey, hey stop it-- what else could you do to have this sort of fun? Like I said before, save yourself, I'm sick! So that will be one program going on tomorrow. It will be a tag team match Eugene helping me all the way-- this will be fun.

Next we have Allen's coach about ready to push out of the nest. Allen is a concert musician with a very special coach. It had previously belonged to Allen's father in law. An obviously avid GMC enthusiast by all of the upgrades mostly known about by those "in the fold". Allen has bonded pretty will to the coach looking to wind it into his traveling with the orchestra. Thats the way to have a GMC, drive the wheels off that thing! Use them, travel in them-- make a GMC a part of your life and you have added opportunities. Allen got the coach in great shape-- heck the engine had been seriously built just before Allen took the wheel. The heads were ported and polished. All I can say it was it's time, it developed some head troubles on the road-- it happens-- and Allen had no warning of the issues-- just happened. He came in from New York, towing a CJ with 0 compression in one cylinder and 30 psi in another. He was motivating his machine on 6 1/2 cylinders! A real testament to the integrity of that coach. Well, that means a motor and hey, there's Manny in the bay sweating his brains out -- I'll take one of those. Heck, the plastic in the dash has crumbled-- Lets go with one of those one piece dashes with a new dash air--- hey, you can see the sickness is building in this man-- thats a good thing because he will get so much more by doing some of these things.

The problem we have is how much of it all can we get done by Monday when Allen is flying in with a buddy to drive this unit north! Yikes-- we have a pile to do and very little time to do it. Hey, this is what you put up with to have a vintage motorhome. Nothing worth it comes easy, at least thats been my observation-- for being so simple, sometimes it's amazing how complicated something like what we do is. Taking off the blinders and taking in every aspect of a coach we find things that just had to get done. The problem is never talking about what to do, the deal is figuring out where to stop! It's easy to throw "cubic dollars" at a project, ahhhh but make it all count, now thats the trick and we are bringing Allens "whats that funny noise-- it's been doing that for a while" question. One thing this has helped us is in the installation of 3 of our new one piece dashes with the new dash AC. This is how you really get valuable information! So this will be the second of these dashes to hit the road. The first one was several years ago in "23 skido" on the gallery page. So here is what the dash broke down to

and here it is as of leaving the shop tonight

hey and don't forget one of our beautiful

455 roller cam motors

-- hey Cal T., Jim G., Scott S. and too many others to mention. Can't wait to see how it will perform for Allen. With it's "Manny Tranny" and the rest of it, I hope everyone feels the pride of this project-- I'm pleased to be a part of this coach and it's legacy. See thats a problem with this business, sometimes you just get attached! Maybe I should call this one "1 or 3", hey Picard got away with it!

Tomorrow will be a big day, tonight before I left I cut out, fitted and covered the side panel inserts

and refinished the side panels

so tomorrow we will be in rock-n-roll mode on the dash! Updates on this project will follow

We have Danny's coach in line on mechanicals next and Phillips too. We'll get Eugene and his friend out tomorrow. We have Allen on deck with Harry's new owner flying in on Monday-- that will be a blast. Really, another coach changes hands and another new owner has taken the challenge. And we get the challenge to get another coach out there on the road-- is this a great job or what! Thanks for coming by and is the black ink was a little boring in itself, you might want to go read the blue stuff anyway!

In this morning before dawn-- Had to get Manny to the airport by 5AM for his flight home. Guys, I gotta tell ya Manny has the program on transmissions-- I just see no sense in going through all the *&^%% to R&R a transmission if it has not gone through the complete refurbish process Manny does to them. I can't be more plain than that. 0 failures, when they are intalled properly and that is a fact. Thought we had a leaker but it turned out it was the porous aluminum pan and he came up with a process to fix that. Manny flying out here to live in Larry and build us transmissions is an unbelievable gesture on his part. We now have transmission so come on down if you feel you need one.

So getting back from the airport, Kevin and Twinkles were already at the shop. the 3PM rains have set in so this means our productivity goes down big time. We're trying to fight back but having to work in the lot-- as in the immortal words of Ben Franklin, "when it rains, you get wet" is no more true than this time of year here in Florida. We're trying to not have this effect our work output but to be honest with you it has screwed our efforts in many ways. There's not much left to do when the rain pulls in but to stop work and go home. After the rain, my glasses fog up-- you can see water evaporating off the concrete and with the temps breaking 100 down here it is just stupid hot!

Guys with coaches in here, what can I say but bear with us. Our productive days have been reduced by at least 1/3 with the rain and heat. Just too damn hot around here. Manny was burning up back in the motor room building transmissions in front of a floor fan to stay alive! Hey, this is not whining about the heat which I said I would not do-- this is just simply stating fact. Kevin came in early to see how much he could do before the rains came in. Twinkles full time job is to try and find the coolest place to lay down-- and around noon each day he looses that spot no matter where he finds it, there simply is no place for a fur covered dog to find "cool". Max, Eric's dog plops down in front of Steve's fan, i'm surprised Steve lets him do it, I just wipe my face and keeps working!

Allen, got your dash mounted yesterday, Janie has my camera in her car so I'll try and post pics this afternoon. Gonna color the side panels and headliner today then if the weather allows I'll actually secure the dash-- if Craig can get finished with the AC plumbing and we'll have someting. Steve is hunkered down with your carpet going in and with the Mac dash wired as soon as the dash mold is mounted we will have a dash in place. I'm pushing hard for that big Monday delivery but we'll have to see-- the rain is trying hard to screw us!

We have John D. flying in on Monday to pick up Harry's coach with a new quad bag system, Eugene is coming in Thursday to pick his coach up again sporting a new quad bagger, another 23' coach recently purchased is coming in on Fri. for a looksee, Phillip's coach got a quad bagger and has more to go and that does not even touch the restoration work we have on Paul & Mark's coach-- oh, and lets not forget the 2 Duramax coaches that seem to go on forever! We are slammed with more folks knocking on the door-- how do I say come back in 6 months? You can't, someone with bad vapor lock issues heading on a vacation needs attention when your drag themselves in-- we can;t just lock up the gate so you can see the pressures we are under here. STOP RAINING dangit!

OK, no pics this morning, I left my camera, I need to get to work anyway. The guys are so hot then so wet there is little I can do for them-- we had a watermelon yesterday at noon-- helped for a little while but you can only eat so much of it! Thats enough, I need to get out there and sweat a bit. See ya maybe later with some pics-- have a great day-- call if I can help and I appreciate all of your support. Those that think we are a bunch of lugs falling forward--- please go somewhere else because you just can't get your head around what this work is all about. Wow, do I sound testy this morning! No, it's just knowing what is getting ready to happen. BTW, there are new oil standards for 2011 that will further effect out original flat tappet lifter engines--DO NOT BUY THE OIL ON SALE AT YOUR LOCAL DISCOUNT STORE-- or maybe go ahead and call me for a new motor when yours lunches! Reality on this and the ethanol fule thing is really hard on us all.

Trying to keep up with the days, I will try and post at least something each day It's hot (hey, no complaint) but it is and mornings are the time to get stuff doneso sitting here in the office is actually counterproductive.

Today is "dash day", here is something you don;t see every day

, the black one is for Paul's Chimera, the middle grey id Danny's and the close one will go into Allens first thing today. The hoses on the new dash AC were a &^%$# yesterday. Proper fittings, the angles and all then to have it professionally cremped, I just don;t like the hose clamp set ups on AC units. Hey but the plan is to have these one piece dash panels removable so I'll fit them, get the hoses done then pull it back off to set up the new dash AC systems-- well, thats the plan, lets see what happens. We're under a time crunch on actually all 3 projects-- hang with me guys, it's gonna be a wild ride! This is the stuff I love to do-- stay tuned.

Yesterday was a killer, John D. drove in from SC to figure out the problems with his fuel delivery system. Coming down he had to stop every 60 miles or so-- the fuel system vapor locked so bad-- well it was bad. We "threw the baby out with the bath water" replacing everything from his fuel cap to the carb-- took all day, then as the sun went down and I did a test run we found the carb was also wasted. Soome issues were covering up others so I pulled the carb off "Larry" to give it to John-- made for a stresssed out evening but finally as the sun set John's coach seemed to run well and he headed north. I asked him to call me with a report. Fingers crossed!

So this is not a whine but with a heat index over 100 deg. we have no problem with water weight around here! This is NOT the time that we live here for. What you live through makes you stronger--- OK, "follow me if you want to live"!

Bet you guys are really tired of coming up and seeing the last post sorry but it's all I can do to keep up with doing and showing all the stuff we're doing! I said I was not going to complain about the heat if Mother Nature would just loose the cold--- so I won;t but a heat index of 106 today WILL be a factor!

Allen, your motor is in and running

. A good looking motor sporting the new aluminum 455 intake. You can see the injector port bosses molded into the casting. Today Craig will put together the freon plumbing to the new dash AC which means if all goes well the new one piece dash will be installed tomorrow. stay tuned. I'm also thinking about having Steve start in on the carpet-- we'll see.

Paul's Chimera is in primer now

so today he is doing the final DA sanding on the roof which may be in color today

We will base & clear the roof, bag it off then go after the sides, stay tuned on this project.

Mark's electrical system got my attention this weekend. Installed now is the 1000 watt inverter with it's transfer switch

, then with the extended front panel in

which BTW, will pull out for access and then the 3/4" thick top cover

will be covered with carpet. The 2 thumb holes in the top will help to pull it up. The is plenty of elbow room in the compartment with space for expansion if needed. So many times folks cram all that stuff in on top of everything which makes it no fun to work with. Mark, OI also got several of the walls in the back covered so things are looking good.

Have really been doing many installs on the quad bag system, here is a coach stripped ready for the mod

Eric pressure washed the 30+ years of funk out of the wheel wells before starting. Here is the system before the air control manifolds were installed

and here is the coach heading home with it's new owner

. Joff we'll miss ya!

This oil spill thing has hit home over in the gulf and thats for sure but there are so many people who read and see pics about this that may not feel these effects first person. I have to say now that it has hit me now first person. Last year when our local club (GMC Sunshine Statesmen) had a rally hosted out in Pensacola where the big attraction was the "Homecoming" of the Blue Angel aerobatic flight team. While the club banded together

to all go over to the naval base to watch the show, Janie & I journeyed out to get a personal showing while sitting away from the Naval base over on a beautiful spit of a beach called Perdido Key--- and so we learned last night that foot thick oil has washed up on this unbelievable beach

It's hard to take this place has now been scared

The effects will devastating! For those of you Robert F. Scott S. John R., Faye & Willie W.and so many other GMC friends living in the area, this is a sad time and I fell maybe just a part of your pain and even at that I am sad.

OK, yesterday was a killer, hey I'm not complaining when I say it was hot-- cause it is! Manny is getting a true "trial by fire" hanging with in this heat building transmission back there in the motor room like a shoe maker sitting back in the dark pinging out transmissions like so many button up boots. He's a bit sensitive about pics so I may not chronicle by picture him but his work suit was totally drenched with sweat! Yea, working here in the summer heat is good for ya, there is no problem with water weight around here!

We have a diff to swap today, Allen's dash fits in today, Pauls tail gate is also getting it fitting, Mark's electrical system is getting it's pure sine wave inverter and dedicated transfer switch, if Omar comes in we will get the dash base for the 26' Duramax, Joff's coach will go home with it's new owner today with it's new Quad Bag suspension hey and big news-- Harry's coach also has a new owner and next week the coach gets the final upgrade that will put it into the ranks of coaches sporting the new Quad bag rear suspension. I'm planning a road trip before dawn tomorrow over to New Port Richey to pick up Marylin's coach after their trip for a punch list maintenance schedule-- you'd think I would have enough of bouncing down the road in the Suzuki!

The day is on, sun is up and Kevin has already checked in and is here on duty. We all have our jobs waiting as do I. Manny is over there polishing transmissions already, see he learned quickly to get motivating early before the toaster oven syndrome kicks in! I'll try and do some pics today for you and post them this evening. Have a great day and thanks for the visit, your support and being a part of the GMC community.

Sorry, missed yesterday just too many things and in that the heat is less in the morning, I try and take advantage of it.

Picked up Manny at the airport yesterday, he's back doing some more transmissions. He's late coming into the summer here, too hot for him and I do understand that. Days are hot, the afternoons bring rain and then there is the humidity. This hurricane season could be a problem with all that oil out in the Gulf, man no one knows what will happen to this place if they add 100 mph winds! This should be an interesting season!

I've talked to some of you who have followed our work on different projects, it's sort of neat that you know the story behind many of the machines we work on. Here is an ending report that I just had to share with you. One of the things we work hard to do is for folks to have a positive experience not only with the work we do but in general with their coach. I like to feel we have a hand at the enjoyment people have with their GMC and certainly hope they have a machine that will service their needs. Itr may sound simple but this is not always an easy thing to do, turning what you see in your minds eye into reality and in that there are just so many speed bumps in the way as we bring a 30+ year old machine such as these back onto the road, it's just nothing short of pleasing when someone reports good things about their coach.

Remember over the last several weeks the work we did on Vernon's coach-- the experiment with the huge Generac generator, the suspension and brake issues and all we went through to get the coach back in the owners hands. Remember I drove that bugger to Gainesville only to have a problem in the AC output plug and how we did frantic work over the next week and then the trial by fire of driving it to Dothan. If it had to be done to make everything work out, it would make all the work worth it and here is a post I got from Vernon last night. It's stuff like this that makes all the hassles worth it to me at least. You have to look for more out of this work than just the money-- if not you would really be doing work cheap! No, there is a satisfaction that comes with knowing the things you do go for the greater good and here is a post that makes off of this worthwhile:

Hi Jim-

From the sound of your blog, the trip home was rather grueling - hey, I'm just glad the breakfast didn't kill ya! Anyway, we managed a first trip on Hein's Pickle and everyone had a blast. We loaded up 11 folks for a trip to the Lady Anderson (a dinner cruise in Panama City) with a late night pass through Miss Newby's (basically a drive through bar and liquor store - and how we negotiated the drive though was - - - interesting. And it was my birthday and I had to be the designated drive - ughh! Pickle driving class starts next week!!). At any rate, we ran the generator for about 7 hours, with one 3 hour break, running both roof air units the entire time - no problems. Again, if this is not the quietest generator in a GMC, I want to hear the one that is - of course, if it's quieter than this one, I wouldn't be able to hear it. Summer in south Alabama with 11 people on board challenged the a/c systems - and the temp was tolerable during the day - cold at night. We definately need to look at bringing the dash air back on line. The hot water heater worked like a charm and the steering is very nice now. The suspension also seems to be much improved and actually rides very high in the back - surprising from what I'm used to seeing, but it handles and rides well this way. You were right about the brakes - I locked them up twice - once when I almost missed a turn at about 60mph and once when a truck pulled in front of me and decided to - suddenly - break for a right turn (this started at about 55 mph). We attracted plenty of attention - not sure if it was the 6 good looking women we had with us or the Pickle itself - maybe both. At one point, a pickup truck, with the suspension jacked up so high it needed an aviation red obstacle light on it, pulled next to us and a young - relatively speaking - girl hung out the window and took flash photos of us - what the heck were they looking at? - this at midnght on U.S. Highway 79!!

Ok, I do have a question or two: Give me a quick rundown on the order of things when using the maserator (I've apparently gone brain dead). Do I turn it on only when I intend to dump? ...and run water through it at that time? ...or do I turn it on at other times? ...and, given that I do not trust my guages - and I know the water tank guage is wrong - any suggestion on how to know when the water and holding tanks are full? ...can 'grey' water - from sinks and showers - be dumped overboard and, if so, how? A 1,2,3 sort of step by step for the maserator would be appreciated. And I need to locate the circuit breaker - or install a switch - for the hot water heater, until then it is on anytime I am using shore power or gen power - right?? (YES, I know you already told me this stuff - but I'm old and I forget!)

Lastly, I found a small bag with some adapters or cables or something in it - I'll send it to ya.

Thanks, Vern

BTW, here is what I wrote him back about how to use his maserator, maybe now you guys can see how some days I just get so caught up on answering posts that I loose track of time.

Ready to dump--
Go to the generator door---- Connect a hose the the outlet under the generator, put the hose into the sewer opening------- Reach under the generator and pull the handle opening the gate valve------<If you want to get a more complete dump, go in the drop the rear of the coach, if you are on the road I would not do it. If the air ride system failed you would experience what Robin Williams did in the movie "RV" , it would not be pretty! For now leave it alone> Turn on the galley sink to put fresh water push the poopy out.------ Got back out to the generator and flip the switch turning on the maserator, You will here a certain grinding noise. Listen for the sound to change, when the noise raises-- turn the switch off and wait @ 30 seconds. This will put fresh water into the tank . Again, turn on the maserator and flush out the pump. When the sound again rises, turn it off and go back in and turn off the faucet. That will put into the tank just a little fluid. The tank should always have a little fluis in it. Go dump in a little "deodorizer" down the toilet and flush it. down the tank.-------- Now go up front if you dropped the back and pump it back up----- go around and disconnect the dump hose and drain it out you night want to run some fresh water through it. Put the cap back on the outlet and reach under to close the valve.--- Stow your hose-- you are done.

If you want to know if the tank is full. Turn off the water pump, drop the pressure by turning on the galley sink. Now go to the bathroom, push down the dump pedal and look down the toilet-- you will be looking into the tank.

Hope this helps

Normally, we do a bit different dump than with a hose connector but in the case of this monster Generac and the custom dual resonator/ tuned pipe exhaust we installed, there was no room for our usual holster style maserator hose delivery system most of you with maserators from us have. hey, these machines are all custom and each system has to fit in with whats there.

The opening rear hatch on Paul's Chimera coach has grown legs

-- well not really-- Kevin is finishing up the door gluing in the reinforcement structure. With the body finished he's fitting the rear hatch waiting on a final layout selection from Paul.

Hats off to Tony S. for bringing in one of those nifty new high speed vibrating cutting tools for the co-op arsenal yea, it's a Harbour Freight special but hey, some of their stuff works pretty good and this thing I can tell will be a great tool for us. Needed to pare down the shoes on the back of the Suzuki, guess I never was meant to have long lasting brakes on that thing! the tool took down the shoes right now! Oh, BTW, for those that have never seen my 2 seater sports car, here it is with a fresh coach of wax

. Good thing I spent a little time with the thing, the brakes as I said before were about gone along with the wheel bearings and driving it to Cocoa beach might have caused a problem. As it turned out the drive was pretty nice, of course at 55 MPH, bout everything on the road passed me

, hey but thats OK, you get a really good view of the surroundings at 55-- makes you appreciate the view and man it sure is nice heading to Cocoa beach

across the causeway, past the port and those docked cruise ships

then on past that famious place "Ron Jon"

, OK now you've seen it you don't have to spend the money, here's another look

so get over it! On to Wakulla and there it is

and a different sort of day off for me. Don;t get to sit on the beach that often, here's the Cocoa Beach pier where they do the surf contests

. One thing bothers me, I mean why do you go to the sun baked beach to go sit under and umbrella to stay out of the sun

when there is a perfectly good condo sitting there pumping cold air right into the room for ya

. Hey, but who am I to question the excitement that is going to "the beach"!

I'll just look at it as a diversion, take it in and then get back to work and thats what I'm doing. Now back at the shop, Kevin is already here putting me back in the saddle. I tried to stay out of the suns reach to help kill this sunburn I now have. Today is supposed to be hot, hot, hot followed by rain so with Manny flying in tomorrow, as a confirmed "west coaster", he's gonna get a little trial by fire this week. He's coming back to finish 3 of the trannys he ran out of new parts for and build maybe a 1/3 dozen more. Should be a fun time, it is whenever he's around.

Had a question on LP power for the GMC, could not hear all of the message on the machine, give me a call again whoever that was who called, I'm here today.

OK, gotta go, the sun is up, the temp if going up and if I don;t get out there and go for it I'll be loosing more water wait than I banked on! Have a great day, the sauns is cranked up down here!

Better late than never! Today was partly a bust-- Good friends of Craigs owns a beauty parlor and as things happen around here (the lightning capital of America) a thunder storm (A-- what am I saying-- we now have rain every afternoon) wacked the Hair Dresser and blew out all the driers and stuff. Craig, being the chivalrous horseman that he is, he and Eric went over to get the girls hooked up. He said hey, Saturday is their big day! Steve is out on a binding job as he schedules them all on Friday and with me a lame duck looks for a place to crash and then hearing some grinding noises in the ole Suzuki as I pulled into Orlando from Dothan-- yea, today was pretty much a bust. I just had to pay the little thing some attention. Just because it's little, slow and so basic that I think it was the vehicle all those car commercials today refer to when they say "increased legroom" or "improved sound insulation". Yea, 've got NONE of that

!!! Yea, it's not much of a hot rod but it is my 2 seater, 5 speed, convertible, road machine. Road machine cause I felt I was run through a machine holding that skate board on the highway. There's a reason it only has a 7 gallon tank, I think thats to force the driver to get out of the seat often to keep them from getting hurt!

So Jason helped me to pull the wheels and do the B&B's (bearings and brakes) on the Suzuki. Hey, just because what it is does not mean it is not afflicted by the same time & mileage ravages as the GMC-- the thing has over 110,000 miles on it, it needs a good B&B! Good thing we did, the shoes were about gone with one edge had just started gouging the drum-- 5 more miles & I would have been installing a new drum! Yep, all the bearings were blue at the center, no galling yet but defiantly in need of replacement. The front pads were still there but not much left. Those bearings and brakes gave me all they had. I needed to reward the little thing with new stuff-- so thats what we did. Got out the degreaser to yank all that road soot off it then gave it the bath it deserved. Rubbed on a little Meguiars Cleaner Wax on it with a couple of layers to buff out what was left of the grime the cut degreaser didn't get. BTW, thats one secret detailers use to get a nasty car looking good.

Mix engine degreaser say 10:1 into a spray bottle, wet the surface, spray the mix heavy onto the surface then scrub with a soft brush and flush with water immediately. The with a good mix of soapy wash, scrub the surface just stripped. NO--- don't do this to your Volvos Cal! It's for those turds on wheels folks look to a detail shop to bring back from the black hole. Hey, you detailers know what I mean! The best times I ever had was the detail shop I had back in the day.

Oops, digressing there a bit. Then about 3PM, the rains came in and that did us in. Janie took off to Cocoa Beach for the annual outing with a group of our friends. Check out the place www.wakullasuites.com do the "Tour our facility". Now you see why I had to clean up the little thing to drive it there tomorrow! Each year, used to be last week on the holiday. Today, calmer heads prevail so now we all get together this weekend-- the rooms are much less and the crowds are not so crazy, this place is a short walk to "Ron John's"-- you know that surf shop on horse pills! Don;t get me wrong, it's awesome to see what a surfer dude from back in the 70's when I was out there eating Frog Wax-- it's really amazing!

So, I'm sitting here, totally wet from working in the rain, now it's a steam bath with the humidity-- Cal and Andy, you would not like this weather! But remember, I swore I would not whine about the hot weather after the last winter--- so, &^%@#@$)_+))_(*^%^%$#$###.

It's Taco Bell tonight, Janie can't take care of me tonight-- I'm on my own! Pretty soon it will just be me and the Suzuki, funny, this car has never let it's "name" be known-- or maybe I just can't understand Cantonese! Anyway, I'll give it a full tank of high test, program the Tom Tom for Wakulla and I'll be off there tomorrow. I'll be in to the shop in the morning, if you need something but after that-- well it's over and out for a day. I'll have the cell phone if you need something but I hope to be finishing the baking process I started coming back from Dothan. Details upon arrival--- see ya soon

Update Just had to show ya this one! Last week I drove "Larry", my coach, from Orlando to Sarasota to take my molds to Danny's place. I didn't say much about it but Larry ran like crap! Fresh motor, fresh carb in a coach that ran great before it was put down by my hand. Figured the problem was fuel related so throwing the baby out with the bath water, I pulled the carb and sent it back to my builder folks figuring I would start there and go through everything. Here is the note when the carb returned:

Man, can you believe it got crusted over on the first run! See, I deal with the same frustrations you do. looks like I will be completely purging my fuel delivery system now! You might want to check yours out too!

Yesterday being a blurrrr after getting shot out of that proverbial cannon, landing with no net -- it's odd to be sitting back in my breakfast hole pndering what jellies I will get for my toast.

Let me catch you guys up with the past couple of days. It needed to happen, we had already tried to deliver the coach to Vernon with that new monster Generac that because we did not totally rewire the system (our mistake for assuming something) I really needed to make the delivery go. Logistics is always tough with picking up and delivering coaches. I mean we are in Orlando with the wide net we toss out coaches coming in from all over, it's just so dang hard to get everything completed, working and ready to go. This time, the coach needed to get to Dothan Alabama-- @ a 400 mile drive home. Vernon was tied up with his work at the FAA doing flight checks so something outrageous needed to happen-- that coach needed to get to Dothan and there was only one way! Check out this huge Generac generator we shoehorned into Vernon's coach

that baby fills the hole from coast to coast! With it's resonator/muffler super quiet exhaust, this really is one awesome power plant. We could not charge for all of the design work it took getting this unit to live in a GMC and who knows if we will do another one but for Vernon's coach, well he has a serious generator in his rig.

So anyway, this coach needed to be in Dothan Wed. morning at 6AM and there was only one way to make that happen. I hooked up the ole Suzuki to the coach and 7PM Tues. evening & filled the tank with gas and set my GPS onto Vernon's Dothan address and off we went. There are plenty of rest areas between Orlando & Dothan so if all I could do was to hop and skip from one to the next, I could make it. Actually, when I deliver anyones coach I do stop often and do a walk around checking bearing heat and just looking things over. This time I think the stops may end up being more for me than for the coach. Soo off I went, the coach really drove well and after piles of front suspension work, brake work including a new sensatized booster, power converter, transfer switch, generator and ofther stuff, I felt pretty good about the sled I was driving.

One thing I did find out about those reworked brakes, even towing something as light as the Samurai I could lock up all 6 wheels without thinking! That booster is awesome, I mean can YOU lock up all 6 wheels on your coach? So I had to watch that. The steerinf was awesome, I could let go of the wheel on a straight section of road and do a count-- usually could get to 30 or more--- also great fun! Hey, you need to make up games to keep yourself occupied. So it was an all nighter, stopped for 2 hours just west of Tallahassee then hunkered down for an hour some 40 miles out. Vernon is also an early riser so calling me when he got up I sprang back out and did the 40 miler to his place as the sun was coming up. Was sort of a surreal time, the sun coming up over a place really far away from the shop knowing I needed to get back to the shop now as fast as possible. Yea right-- as fast as possible and here I was riding a Suzuki Samurai -- 2 things that really didn't go together! Took a bit to go over all the new stuff on the coach with Vernon, oh yea-- we also did a maserator system and tank repair. So we went over it all, Vernon made me up some eggs and home grown sausages before I disconnected the beast for the ride back.

Oh man, here we go--- I checked the oil, filled her up with some good high test gas and dropped the top. The rag top of that thing is a major investment so after blowing the top around dragging it behind the coach, I felt I wanted to give the top a rest. I would take the sun and wind on me! Ah, "it's a far, far greater thing I'm doing than I have ever done before"! Hey, what more can it do to me, afterall --- are we not men! I putting on some sun glasses I felt like the first pilot of a rocket sled, I should have made the last words before firing that little 4 banger up "Hey you'll watch this". Anyway, at 8:30AM I started out for home, the GPS is telling me I should arrive at 2:15PM-- hey, a piece of cake-- yea, cake laced with something! The sun was brutal and along with the wind and noise, pretty soon I really did feel like I was strapped to the top of the mast of some sailing ship in open water. Trying to keep the rig between 50 and 60 with no cruise and no speedometer (I had to use the small speed readout on the GPS) was a thrill. Shaking off the tireds, trying to keep the morning sun coming up from the east where I was heading out of my face which was burning my forehead every second added to the fun. At the speed I was sporting everything passed me, I felt like the only turtle on deck with a flock of roadrunners. I even had a prison bus blow me off! Ther rest areas became more and more important. That sighn going in telling you how far it was to the next rest area also became important. I would make the plan to get to the next one pulling into the rest area I was at which BTW, was a great feeling knowing at least that leg of the journey was over. The fuel tank only hold 7 gallons, the Suzuki was not made for over the road driving but still at @ 35 MPG, I could make it a far piece before stopping for gas. When I did fill up, it would only take a small time to get that done and while the other cars were drinking deep at the pump, I would pull away just shortly after pulling in-- that was a bright spot.

So I could not find my 12 volt cors for the cell phone and boy, it was ringing off the hook as they say. I had to ask several peope to call me back later-- sorry but I needed to keep the battery power for an emergency , I hope, I hope, I hope would not happen. The sun kept frying my face so just south of Ocala I had to put the top back up. On the open road, you really should not roll down a window letting all that air up inside the rag top so there I was, my nose right in front of the 2 middle AC vents trying to determine if the air compressor was doing anything, trying to breath through that "blow drier on hi heat", the rag top flapping in the wind, the noise level far above anything you really wanted to experience watching the GPS count down the 10th mile of the trip-- oh and knowing there are people waiting to talk to me at the shop, the guys needing parts and I just wanting to do anything other than sweating my butt off in that drivers seat. Hey, I needed to remember though this "had to happen" and I was making it happen! It would soon be all over as I look back on it now, one coach would be outa here, space for another. One project ended to make way for another and one more step forward negating the 2 back it always feels we are dealing with around here. Pulling into the gate, nothing looked outstanding-- just like I left the place but I wasn't just like I left yesterday-- I was a bit more seasoned, a little harder from the road. I say I love driving these coaches and I do, it's just finding the time and energy to do something like this while trying to keep everything going at the shop-- just hard to do and I look at it this way, if what you endure that doesn;t kill you makes you stronger, pretty soon I need to register with some weight lifting group! Vernon's coach really gave me a great ride out, I was stressed myself paying so close attention on all the systems the ride was not as peaceful as if could have been-- hey, thats the job of a driver and coupled with the white knuckle drive home in the Suzuki, it all made for one of those cannon shot experiences. But it's done now, all went well and other than the Suzuki being a little pissed at me for dragging it hard the way I did, I don't see any lasting marks. OK, so now lets move on-- if you wondered how my Wed. went, now you know!

Got a box from Jeff Shadow when I got into the office, hey man, thats "spiking the gun" on my moring throwing of the bones at my breakfast hole. I hope each morning for "2 grapes" of little jellies for my toast-- bringing in my own Jelly -- I'm not sure if that will work

, thanks for those-- I will make good use of them! Hey, man look at my face-- is that painful or what! The wind and sun burnt me! Mommy, make the bad man stop! There's no way I have any skin cancers, I just burned it all off!

OK, enough of all that, lets get a little serious about stuff around here-- So with Crais heading Tuesday over toward Allen's coach

, we need to man handle the coach over onto the lift to reinstall his motor. Dragging a coach up onto the lift by hand is always one of those "fun parts" of this business. We usually cannot push it totally up onto the lift so then Jason attaches our chain fall

to drag it the rest of the way up onto the "operating table". It's like dragging a whale up onto the litter.

That too passed and we ended Tuesday with Allen up on the lift.

Oh, BTW, one thing that does make moving the lot around like we have to is getting new vantage point for looking at coaches around here. Check out these of Raymond's 26' Duramax

this beast is out in the lot now moving around, limbering up it's muscles while we work at the tough details of the finish

I mean, just look at that profile-- reminds me of why soldiers carried a pinup gilr pic in their pocket, to give them something to fight for-- Got in there and punched a few buttons and while the guys stopped to watch the awning deploy

the coach simply towers over the lot of coaches

Dang, what a machine! Just few words to say about this Duramax thing, we just want to get them out there-- they need to be home and brother, those will be a delivery I just MUST do!

With Allen;s motor prepped and ready for install

, yea check out this roller cam hotty

as Jason readies it and the coach for them to come together

. So yesterday during my "trial by fire", Jason and Eric got the bugger back in the hole

For Allen, what you're looking at is the fresh motor with it's painted grey oil pan, his original Ragusa diff cover and the super clean trans pan (not painted) of a manny Tranny built here several weeks ago and all of it in, bolted up in place into Allens coach. It's done and sporting it's legacy, a Jasper custom build sticker

, fresh new brass freeze plug gleeming in the light. It's truly an awesome sight seeing project we do come together. This is part of the excitement around here. Maybe, just maybe we will get the report of another great American survivor big block fire up before the weekend giving us just one more thing to be excited over. Fingers crossed! This is one of the struggles around here and it has to be this way. There always needs to be a date to shoot at for getting a coach back into the waiting hands of it's owners but in bringing a coach to that level of reliability you only get by assuring one item after another is attended to-- you just cannot say with authority when exactly something will get to a point. Just goes with the territory but hey, here we are and it's a good day in River City as they say! Hang on Allen, things are happening and I just know when it's done you will be happy.

We're taking Danny's radiator over to be pressure tested. After his fire, I need to be sure there were no issues from the heat so close to the radiator itself. Stand by for more on that job.

Mark's headliner is going in, here Steve is screwing in one of the florescent 12 volt light fixtures

Stay tuned for more on this.

Paul's Chimera is close to color, hey Paul, we need to verify the colors and scheme, give me a ring.

Gotta go, the guys are here, I have more paperwork to do but I need to just get out there, see ya later

Hope your holiday weekend went well I actually got in doing a few personal things even in coming in the mornings keeping things going around here. kevin came in yesterday morning to get Ken's 23d in color. Now in it's color, isn;t that an impressive looking front end?

Kevin layed on 3 coats

they packed it back up into the bay to dry for todays clearcoat which BTW, he just showed up to do that. One more step to completion!

Like I said I tried to do a few things of my own this weekend, patched a leak in the rear time on the side car bike then dug out my boat. The thing has been sitting there near the gate and it's true you will always find some excuse not to go out in a boat. Raining, no time, ranmp full, no gas-- it goes on and one. It's also true you just gotta make time to go out so step one was to charge up the battery, check all the geer and see if you can find the drain plug-- I did all of that and even get it hooked up to the Suzuki-- man thats a nice looking set up to me!

But like most times, I got to the house only to remember I really needed to spend some time in my back yard. The grass had gotten a little high. During the winter I picked up a Cub Cadet self propelled more from a homeless guy for $50. It kinda ran so I picked up a new carb and a drive cable last week so I guess it was time to see if it would fire up. My other mower had finally gone away after years of neglect. Looked up this Cub Cadet on the internet, looks like from the bad reports it must be the worst mower on the planet-- funny because when I firsd that thing up, it ran perfect and talk about power--

, with a 19" deck and a 7.75 Bribbs motor that thing could leap tall buildings with a single bound! You guys are getting all my energy cause it's been so long since I hacked at the back yard that Cub was self propelling itself through 4 and 5' tall weeds!

, I'm not ashamed I have not kept up my yard, been working too much and this mower was the right tool at the right time

Oh look I found a spare tire for my boat trailer buried in the grass

Like I said I can't be depresssed about my yard, I give that energy up to the Co-op but it would be nice to have a back yard and this mower sure did the job!

The drive mechanism has 3 speeds and will jerk the mower out of your hands if you're not ready-- didn't stop it in time & the thing tried to climb the steps on the deck! I picture the guy being dragged around his yard with this thing-- brute power! it may fall apart as the reports on the internet say but for now it is my secret weapon !!

Anyway, it's sunny today and if all show up we should have a productive day. I can smell the clearcoat in the next bay on Ken's 23d so I know that got done. I will be driving a coach to Dothan Alabama tonight to help Vern get back on his schedule. If you will remember, this is the coach with that Generac generator that gave me the slip last week. The new transfer switch made the unit work fine, now we just need to get this puppy home. If' you're on I-10 between here and there watch for me please.

OK, we need to get this day done, get on the road and make that happen-- my stress for the day-- so it's a full tank of gas, half pack of cigarettes (not), it's dark & we're wearing sun glasses-- lets start this mission, it will only hurt till it's done! have a great day yourself, we'll give it a try on this end...