COOPSTRIPES: August 2012

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Been workin!!

I've been working feverishly under the van for the last couple weeks. Got the front axle out and have been grinding, sanding, and priming the parts and the underside of the van. Last weekend, John showed up to help me get the steering column finished. It's been in limbo, waiting for parts and Dale putting it together.., if you forgot.. i'm putting a tilt column from a chevy into the early. The boys trial fit it several months ago and all that is needed now is to fabricate a mount to hold it in place.

Dale got me the cover from a Camaro, to eliminate the column shift lever.even tho it goes around the outside we had to take the column completely apart to get it on. what a job. I know I wouldn't have been able to do that without his help! We made a steel tube to go over the lower part of the column to bolt to the stock mounts on the column. That was then welded to the stock Dodge bracket that held the original steering column. With a little modification of course.

This is what we ended up with...,.,...,

You would hardly know it came out of an Astro!

Only thing here is to finish the wiring and this part is DONE! !!

Been musing over how to finish off the headlights. I wanted to do away with the ugly stock trim rings. I modified the light buckets to set the lights back several inches similar to the sunken taillights. In a previous post I tapered the sides inward and now finished them off with a trim ring from a 56 ford f-100 pick up. Man I love this look!
It reminds me of the turbine car that Chrysler built back in 1962.. you think that the van Dodge built right after that, might have a little of that influence?

Last weekend we went to Van Slam. Took the Flying Eagle and won Best of show!. But the best news of the weekend was when our old friend Woodstock showed up. Woody has been battling cancer the last several years and it is now in remission. That is great news! Hope to see a lot more of you woodstock!!!

So it was back to the garage to sweat over (or under) the Dodge

Got the front axle painted and replaced the spring bushings.

Finished painting the underside. its time to start putting things back togeaqther.

Got my serpentine system for the engine. Can't wait to get the motor back in and start playing with this!

Boys were here to help fabricate the mounts for the radiator..

Gonna put it in at an angle ala Corvette.. it is a Vette radiator after all lol.

Vance's weld. Isn't it Purrdee.. Haha.

The engine is ready to go back in... by next time it should be back in the van. Till then.........

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, August 14, 2012

Been workin!!

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