COOPSTRIPES: January 2012

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

What I did on my winter vacation LOL..

Since the last post I have been all over Gods creation.. I went to Florida ,Thanksgiving week, and worked the Turkey Run at the Daytona speedway.

Got setup on Wednesday. Next day..........

Buried.

Gee Can I take it home LOLLots of cool cars at this show. Always one of the best I do each year! After the show, my helper Jim Bag, helped me tear down and I left all my stuff at his place for the winter. Monday I headed over to Lew and Agnes'. We ended up at my favorite Mexican restaurant.. as usual lol

Did a couple stripe jobs while at Lew's, and spent a day hanging at Lew's shop getting my van ready for the rest of the ride to come.

Van doesn't look to bad when its clean. haha Next three days was spent on the road , heading to Calif. for part 2 of the trip. O look what I found in Arizona. LOL

I made it to the home of two of the best people I know. Jimmy C and the Queen, in San Clemente Calif. For those of you who don't know , Jimmy is another Rat Fink artist that I met 20 years ago while attending my first Rat Fink Reunion. Jimmy is one of the most prolific artists that I have ever met. He can do it all, and is the best friend a guy could have. Love working with him. I've learned a lot from Jimmy.They put me up for the week I was in Calif. (yes, that's the ocean out there) No 5 star hotel can beat this!!!

Tat Fink.........Awesome!!! lol

Jimmy is an inspiration for me, since Ed has been gone..

The reason for me being in Calif in the first place was the Mooneye's show and the Brush Off. Sat found us at the Irwindale Raceway at 6am, sitting in a massive traffic jam,trying to get in to mooneye's show. This show gets bigger every year.

Tom Kelly was there with this beautiful bike and side car. He does fabulous work!!

Modern artist icon, Robert Williams came by to have a chat with us.. hi Bob!!

Coby was there with his beautiful early Ford van..Maybe the nicest van ever builtTalked with him till it was time to head to the Brush Off

Those of you who have been following my blog,know I get invited to this striper get together each year.. There are some of the top painters around at this gig. Besides the great food ,the attendees bring panels they have painted for a panel exchange. Here is some of the art from this year 0 yea. this was mine
The exchange went off with out a hitch. For a change, LOL Yes, I drove across the country to eat this mans cooking. And its worth it!!
The following week I went to Burbank to meet Kenny. He gave me the personal tour of Warner Bros studios.. how cool was that?? This is the back lot. he gave me the run down on where each shot in what movie was done... I'll never look at the movies the same. lol
They were setting up a shot for the new MIB 3 movie... Before I left town I went to see Patrick. Vanner buddy that I met last year at the van council meeting in California. He wanted some pinstripes on his beautiful early Ford. Turned out pretty good , if I dont say so myself.. And I want to thanks his beautifull wife for the fabulous dinner. Love Mexican cooking..lol Then it was off to Manti, Utah. Need some time with Ilene the Rat Fink Queen. and Deb. Ended up taking a couple days to go to Monument Valley.and Four Corners.
A gorgeous place I didn't know that the valley is Navajo land. Quite interesting. If you want to hike the valley you have to hire a native guide I will definately be coming back here!After all that its was time to hit the road. I have a garage full of work waitin for me... stay tuned.

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, January 10, 2012

What I did on my winter vacation LOL..

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