COOPSTRIPES: GETTING THE DODGE OUT OF HELL

Sunday, January 17, 2010

GETTING THE DODGE OUT OF HELL

We got up early to get back to L.A. When we got to N. Hollywood, I remembered we were close to George Barris' Shop. I figured the "Boys" would get a charge of stopping to see him. We arrived to find George At his desk working away. He welcomed us and let us loose to wonder the studio.
There's George back there yakin' away on the phone. This would be "Kitt" from the show ,Nightrider. The original "Batmobile" And the Munster coach.
There is so much car history in this place. This is the car James Dean died in. A repro for the movies.

George has been doing vehicles for the movies,and T.V., as well as personal vehicles for the Hollywood crowd,and don't forget the show cars. and he has records of everyone of them. I could have stayed there all day, but we have places to go.. And this would be Georges daily driver. Cool! oh yea.. this was just down the street...

We made it to Tom's to get the DODGE. Now to get out of Hell! lol Next stop ..Las Vegas... Well, there was one in Barstow Driving across the desert, we stopped at a rest area, NO BRAKES! We limped it to the next exit,to get some brake fluid. stumbled onto the worlds only water fall urinal?? yes that's right! what an experience. We managed to get there O.K.

Stayed at the Rio. It was a great place. This was the first trip to Vegas for the Boys, and we hit the town ready to Gamble. Went down town to the Horseshoe and I showed them how to play the crap table. Hung out on Freemont street then went sight seein'. Later we went to the Venician. they had some cool Christmas decorations. Ended up at Emeril's steak house for dinner..WOW THAT WAS GOOD!! This is a water fall pool with cranberrys floating in it. neet!

Ready for a night on the town?? The next day we hit the World buffetWe packed up the vans and got ready to hit the road. We put the Dodge on the tow bar.

now for the next 2000 miles!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Coop,
DO you have any Pinstripe panels for sale?; February 23, 2010 at 2:41 PM
Greg "COOP" Cooper said...: Not at the moment. but I have a couple started... email me.... finkchopper@yahoo.com; March 7, 2010 at 10:57 PM
Anonymous said...: hey coop this is jeff the fellow with the 59 chevy wagon in fla. the blue one you been stripin for the past 6 years now . well today some lazy trucker didn't secure his dumptruck's tailgate and the hood and fenders got chipped any way i could get an estimate to restripe this year in daytona or maybe sooner . you can email me at jspb@aol.com thanks; March 31, 2010 at 9:31 PM
Anonymous said...: hey its BajaCharlie from WHEELS the guy you bought the 70 from what happened to the grill?Would like to hear more about the vans trip from here to your home.like I heard it overheated or somethig?hit me back at wolfsburgmotorsports@hotmail.com check out a pictorial history of this van at myspace.com/wolfsburgmotorsports; August 5, 2010 at 10:54 PM

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THE EAGLE SAGA

It was 40 years ago and I attended the largest van event that I ever went to. Even tho I had had a van for some 4 years, this was to be only my 3rd van event. The Nationals at Bowling Green, Ky was sensory overload to the van enthusiast. 6300+ vans in one place? It still stirs the emotions. I belonged to a club from Newark, Ohio at the time called, North Fork Vans.

It was hot that weekend. Very hot.. To hot to even move. Got up sat to enter the show & shine. This was to be the first for me. When I got to the check in area we discovered that there were nearly 1000 vans in the line ahead of us. Didn’t do it. After parking back at the club camp we went to look at the vans. The heat was oppressive, and we spent most of the time in the bleachers watching the vans inch their way through the judging lanes,occasionally walking down to take a closer look. There were so many vans it was impossible to see them all. It amazes me to this day how the N.S.V.A. group was able to judge all of them and pick winners in just a few hours. There were a lot of real nice vans. Many were even outstanding. Saw the B.F.G. van, future shock. It was extreme, especially for then. But the one van I kept hearing about was a van from Ohio. Built by Greg of Akron. The van was the Flying Eagle 2. I never saw it. But a number of people said it was the best thing they had ever seen. I the host group must have agreed since the Flying Eagle 2 was awarded top honors at Bowling Green. including best overall paint ,and best interior. I never did see it..until it started showing up in every van publication there was and back then there were a lot of them.

Greg toured the van all over the country that year. Taking top honors at many shows, including Best of Show at the west coast van nationals in King City Calif . Over the next few years I became a fan of Greg's style of paint. He was the “Foose” of his day. His paint was on many of the top winning vans for years. The Superstar, Rocky Mountain High, Hotel California, Rolling thunder, and others were among the elite of the vanning scene. But the Flying Eagle 2 was Greg’s personal van and probably the best one he ever did. What ever became of it.?? Well in 1978 he repainted it. The second paint job was not as elaborate as the first but was still very nice. I know this from pictures I saw in a magazine called small car trends. But I still hadn’t seen it. Then later that year he sold the van to a guy in Louisville,Ohio , Ben Merkle . Merkle Had the van at the 7th. Nats show & shine. in Cortland. Never saw it. Later that day someone told me it was there. Hunted it down but it was locked up and I had to settle for seeing the exterior… after that it was never seen again. Fast forward 24 years to the Nats ,2003, in Kansas City. A long time Vanner friend comes to me with pictures of a van that he just acquired ,and wants to know if I would be interested in helping him restore it. Woaaaa. It’s the Flying Eagle. And it had been on fire! Well, to actually find this van after all these years was real cool ,but the story behind it was even cooler.. Blaino bought the van on ebay. as the story goes, Merkle was driving the van one day and it stalled at a light. Then there was smoke ,then fire. The fire department came and put it out but the van was pretty messed up. The van was insured, and after settling with the ins. company they sold the van at auction. No one wanted it. It had no parts a junk yard could sell and it ended up selling for $100. That person put it on ebay and it sold for a ridiculously low price. That’s when Blaino came to me. Blaino lives in Oregon. The van was in Michigan. And after a year of banter Blaino offered the van to me. I took it. Then Mikie and I took a 12 hour trip to Michigan and I finally got to see the Flying Eagle. Upon inspection and a little detective work , we determined that the fire was caused by a fuel line leak.The rubber hose at the carb, either cracked or wasn’t properly installed and sprayed gas over the engine., That's why it stalled. Then the gas hit the exhaust and fooom. The fire was contained to the intake and above. The paint on the block wasn’t touched.The fire melted the wiring harness, heater box and then came through the fire wall. The front of the cab was burned pretty good, some wood will have to be replaced but most could be saved. The pictures to follow will show the progress of the restoration… oh yes, in 2000 the van was repainted again, supposedly by Greg at least partly. It has his mural work on it. The theme is still the sailing ship, but it is now a futuristic look. Actually I like it. The idea is to eventually restore it to its original paint job, but that will entail striping the van completely as all 3 paint jobs are still on the van, and at least the first 2 are lacquer. If you look just right you can still see the old paint outlines. I am going to fix the van as it was before the fire for the time being. The restoration is pretty much done . Now i'm working on improving it. you know I can't just leave it alone. coop

COOPSTRIPES

Vanning

Sunday, January 17, 2010

GETTING THE DODGE OUT OF HELL

4 comments:

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