COOPSTRIPES: April 2013

Saturday, April 13, 2013

The last month has been very busy. The weather has started to warm up,and I have been able to work without the heater blowing on me. I've been doing wiring. Wiring. More wiring. I painted the dash about 2 weeks ago and have assembled the dash complete with air ducts and instrument cluster. The only thing left to do is install the unit that will drive the digital dash and the cruise control. It was back ordered and I am still waiting for it to get here. It is a cool unit. New from Dakota digital, It works off of GPS and has no connections to the motor or drive train, only power wires and a pulse that runs the cruise and speedo. technology marches on!

from this

To this

I wanted to keep the dash as close to stock as I could for a retro look The instrument bezel is from a Dodge Sportsman van about 1968 I think.It is Cast aluminum instead of the stamped steel one in the stock A-100. I have since stripped off the green paint and polished it . It looks so cool that way. I was able to make the stock Dodge steering wheel fit on the Chevy steering column. unless you really know your vans you would never know its not a Dodge unit!

With the radiator and all the hoses and the like in the van it is getting quite crowded under there. I had to finish wiring the dryer for the air conditioning mounted under the floor. uggh. No fun there.

I was getting crap for the yellow spark plug wires on the engine so I got a set of Taylor plug wires that can be custom fit exactly. I have a real dislike for unruly wires. I didn't use to be that way but after years of trying to find a short or bad connection in wires that look like a bowl of spaghetti,I want my wires NEET! This set up is the best I have come across. They can be cut to any length . loomed together so they don't flop around. The trick now is to run your plug wires under the headers and out the back. With the wires being black, they almost disappear

The last connections were the trans lines. I had 2 hoses made to run to the cooler . The connections were hard to get at with the radiator under the floor.Laying on your back on cold concrete is so much fun. lol. The lines were a little long the first time and I had them shortened, now they fit perfectly

The wiring in the overhead console cant be finished till I know where it all goes.so I am mocking up the overhead and wiring all the goodies up there. There are 3 monitors for the cameras on the sides and rear, the Sirius radio head, clock, interior light switches, and the power window switches all going in the console.

This is the cruise control module from a late model astro. it will work perfectly with the steering column connections. I can't get it hooked up till the module arrives and then the wiring is FINISHED!. Dale was down this past weekend and we pressure tested the cooling system and air conditioning too. It all checks out. The cooling system is now full of coolant and it doesn't leak. Amazing!. Ran the engine up to temp. The fan kicked on just like it was suppose to. Got the trans fluid full.
All systems seem to be working. The radiator needs an overflow tank. Dale came up with the idea of making a tank to fit right behind the serpentine bracket,and follow the shape of the components. I mocked it up out of cardboard and Vance said he will weld it together for me.

That will be so trick!!

I have been working on this project for 3 years. The last time I sat behind the wheel and drove this thing, I was in Vegas and the brakes went out! LOL.. (wasn't funny then). SO last night we finally were ready to see if this thing would actually move under its own power.

WOW I'm getting close, Today I ordered the material for the interior.

Next time I'll have her ready for paint. The pace is about to pick up! Later!

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

Saturday, April 13, 2013

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