COOPSTRIPES: Here we go again.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Here we go again.

Every year for the last 18 I've been going to Mooneyes Christmas show.It was the Rat Fink Reunion, until Ed passed away. It has become my annual trek to the land of fruits and nuts. Hanging out with friends I've made through the years, sharing art and experiences.I just can't miss it. I got there Thursday. Ended up at Jimmy C and Dena's place. I love their place. Friday I ended up going with Jimmy to his current job striping guitars for Gretsch. They are doing a series of guitars with Jimmy's striping on them. He is doing several hundred of them.All destined for the European market. Take a gander

We spent the whole day there .I finished up my barrel for the brush off party. At lunch time I met Joe. He is the head of development and marketing for the Gretsch company. The first thing he did was offer us some lunch. Next thing I know he has a bag of In-n-out burgers!! This guy is my friend for life!! Joe spent some time in the room with us and told me of the project he was working on. Seems when George Harrison was with the Beatles,the first quality guitar he acquired,was his black Gretsch. In the early 60's,he bought it from a sailer who had put it in the want adds of the Liverpool paper. He played it for several years while the Beatles were in their early years. He later gave it to a friend. Several years before he passed away, George reacquired the guitar. As his first real guitar, he had a fondness for it and wanted it back. Joe was able to contact the Harrison family and made a deal with them to reproduce that guitar as a 50th anniversary commemoration. Joe made the trip to England,met the family, and brought the Guitar back. Got it it's own first class seat! They have reproduced that Guitar,right down to the dents and scratches. They even did an MRI on the inside to get it exactly right. They are only making 60 of these, and when you buy one, you get a DVD showing interviews with the family ,even some old tapes of George, and the making of the guitars. All of which, only the guitar owners will be able to see. He showed it to me.. wooww! The facility there is enormous.

Fender now owns Gretsch. They both share this building. It's a warehouse,assembly and inspection facility. It is a Quarter of a mile on each side. Who would have thunk it!! Guess guitars are pretty popular!After a very interesting day, we headed back to Jimmy's to load up for the moon party.. it's going to be a long day!

1 comment:

Gear_Shifter said...: Of course there was an In-n-Out run made. Jimmy does amazing work on those guitars! Can doesn't look to bad either. :); December 30, 2010 at 6:30 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

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Here we go again.

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