COOPSTRIPES: 2010

Monday, December 27, 2010

from Moon to the Brush Off

We got up at the crack of dark thirty. If you don't get in early you don't stand a chance of getting in.. Ilene and the Fink troupe were already there setting up. Jimmy was to be next to them as usual and we set it all up in record time. I set out to see the cars. Looking for cool cars and cool pinstriping!

Nothing cooler than a stude!

Real nice 56 nomad!!

This was accuratly named

WOOOOH!!, A whole van club!!. A whole new trend with the young guys. They are discovering how versitle and just plain cool vans are.. and in California yet! I was surprised at how many vans were at this run.

All old and classic vans.. new ones aren't so cool

This early ford was very well done.

When this is finished it will be insane!

Even moon is getting into the act! Kenny brought anothr fink pig for the auction. It brought top dollar!!! Way to go DUDE!

Jimmy was workin' hard all day! It is bitter sweet to go to these partys.. Ed Is the one who put all of us togeather.Sad that he isnt here to enjoy all our fun.

What would a christmas party be without Styles Clause LOL

NO WONDER HE'S JOLLY!!
The hardest part of this is having to leave,but I have a date with the Brush Off Party. Again this year I was invited to attend a pinstriper only party known as the Brush Off. If you want to get a panel from one of these fabulous artists you bring a panel for the exchange. Some how it always gets screwed up but we all end up with somthing cool, along with some great food! Here is some of the the art

Bob Spina rode his very cool Harley!

This one was mine. Yes I took it on the airplane!

Santa even slung some stripes on one of the guys guitars, then invited me to join. Then it was time to have mexican food. Again it was a lot of fun to hang out with these guys, BUT, WHERE'S MAGOO?? Soon it was time to head to the airport to pick up the Son and Lindsay. The next day we made a trip to the Giant Forest in the Sequioa National Park.

They start out like this.....

and 1500 years later.....like this!!!

This is the General Sherman. The largest tree on the planet...AWSOME!! And now for an n-n-o burger!

Posted by Greg "COOP" Cooper at 9:18 PM 2 comments:

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!

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

Monday, December 27, 2010

from Moon to the Brush Off

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Here we go again.

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