COOPSTRIPES

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Well, it's spring and it is now busy time. Last weekend I was able to bring home my chopped Astro van. Mike has been nice enough to keep it for me since I acquired the Flying Eagle. This is the first time these two vans have been together, both are national Best of Show winners... cool! . Vance has been buggin' me to redo the chop. He wants to suicide the side door and redo the rear body work that is showing some stress cracks, and of course a new paint scheme. I have to admit that I like the idea,but first..........Yesterday I worked on 3 different motorcycles and today I did a chevy HHR. ...... With the weather warming up It will be time to go to Daytona for the spring show. Gona go see Jim Bag. Maybe hit the Holiday House,and Hampton's for some chicken. Before I leave we were to get the tandem van stripped and primered. That has been slowed down by having to sand all the old paint off instead of using a chemical stripper. The plan is to have it ready by the time I get home.. Had to get the van to the shop before I could bring the chop home.

Here we go Off to Sam's shop. First thing was to start taking apart anything that would get in the way. Lights. bumper ,grill,anything that wasnt to get painted. We were able to squeeze it into the shop. This thing is as long as 2 vans. The van has 2 paint jobs on it and we wanted to

to strip it with a chemical striper,but we found most of the van has bondo in it and we didn't want to have to redo all the body work. so its going to have to be sanded of with blocks.MAN what a job that is going to be.. The new scheme has been taking shape and has grown quite a bit since I got the van here and have been able to study on it. Sam and I have brainstormed it and it is going to be a knockout

When I get back from Florida, we will be going gangbusters, to get this done. The target date is the Van Nationals in July. Stay tuned to see if we make it.!!

6 comments:

Chris Anderson said...: Hey COOP, any chance I could get you to snap some photos of the glass that I made for you installed in the van?

Thanks,

Chris; April 1, 2009 at 11:45 PM
Greg "COOP" Cooper said...: chris. how did you know I was wanting to talk to you......I had a mishap.. the center glass in that window got cracked..the colored glass is o.k. can that center be replaced? please say yes...; April 2, 2009 at 9:26 PM
Chris Anderson said...: What a bummer! But lucky for you it can be replaced. All I need to do is some surgery to cut the lead and split the window in half. I still have the patterns so I'll have a new piece ready to go in.; April 3, 2009 at 6:38 AM
Greg "COOP" Cooper said...: I'LL HAVE TO TAKE IT OUT OF THE DOOR SHALL I SEND IT TO YOU???? AND, THANK YOU!!!; April 5, 2009 at 11:05 PM
Chris Anderson said...: Yeah, you can send it up! I probably wouldn't be able to finish it up real quick. Would it be ok if I delivered it to you at Back to the 50's?; April 7, 2009 at 9:27 PM
Anonymous said...: I have an '87 6-wheeled tandem Astro van very similar to your green one. Any chance I could talk to you about yours? Email me at abandonedreality@yahoo.com; August 17, 2009 at 6:01 AM

Post a Comment

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

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

6 comments:

Total Pageviews