COOPSTRIPES: It's been a long hot summer

Thursday, July 15, 2010

It's been a long hot summer

Since the last post I have been going a hundred miles an hour.Our club held their van event in May. The weather sucked ,as usual. The wind was terrible especially sat night. Blew everything away.

We moved the show inside because of the rain. It is nice to have somewhere to get inside. We had a Halloween theme for the weekend and it went over well. The kids loved it !

and of course , the who can build the largest fire competition.

A short 2 weeks and I'm off to Utah ,for the Rat Fink Reunion. Got there the weekend before and it still wasn't enough time to do everything I was suppose to do. Got to go to another Park in Utah.
There is a small one north of Manti. The pass over the mountains was still closed by snow so we couldn't go all the way through. It was still worth the trip! We were on the way to Provo. Since I was there last year there has been 3 new In-n-Out burgers built near there. and when kenny got there, we went back to the other!! woooho!The reunion started on Thursday. We painted, striped, and printed shirts. We had a great time. The reunion just gets better every year.

Franks

Attendance was up. The car show on Saturday was a success as usual. A lot of cars from all over,to help celebrate Ed Roth's memory. I love this event. I haven't missed a reunion for 20 years, long before Ed left us.

this is one of the cars I striped. they liked it so well they brought it back next day to have more done!
The remake of the dragula was a trip!

Here are some of the awards ,and auction pieces we painted that weekend. lots of cool stuff!
One of the coolest things of the weekend was this Rat Fink cake made by the lady who runs the local bakery.

Alas, the week went to fast. I had to get home. To much work to do to dally. Little more than a week and I had to get to Back to the Fifties.but before I do I need to get some work done on the Flying Eagle. The motor work I started needs to be finished in about 2 weeks or I wont make it to the Nationals. These pics show the serpentine belt system that I am installing. Boy this will look good.

It is looking good but before I can take it out, I must rewire the entire motor to hide all the wires. hook up the water/ radiator, power steering,and so on. as well as finishing the paint work. Not to mention the interior.
well , next time i'll finish this and get you up to date.

1 comment:

Travis Van Ness said...: Coop! This is Travis Van Ness, Grady's son... I have something I would like for you to work on. Here is a link to my project: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Columbus-OH/The-OSU-Fire-Buck/148087683809

At the least, I would like to have you place the namesake on the two front doors.

Call me whenever you get this. I couldn't find an email address for you.

Travis
614.353.1513; September 6, 2010 at 11:17 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

Thursday, July 15, 2010

It's been a long hot summer

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