Home » Public Forums » GMCnet » [GMCnet] A weekend drive around Lake Ontario (GMC Parts Trip)
| [GMCnet] A weekend drive around Lake Ontario (GMC Parts Trip) [message #167277] |
Mon, 23 April 2012 12:17  |
GMC_LES
Messages: 569
Registered: October 2009
Location: Montreal
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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For some reason I'm having trouble emailing GMCnet. Let's see if the entire message gets through this time.
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> Well I had a busy weekend. Drove around lake Ontario and touched the lower tip of Lake Huron, and was still able to sleep in my own bed Sunday night!
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> Saturday:
> I left in the morning to head down to Marcus McGee's shop in Rochester. 6 hours on the road to pick up several parts that I needed and to give Marcus several hours of help to move some of his shop equipment. Marcus has quite a collection of stuff and is an interesting fellow. I enjoyed meeting him and giving a helping hand. Hopefully he is able to find safe storage for his 3 coaches and the plethora of misc GMC stuff he has. If it wasn't such a distance away from home, I would have purchased one of his Transmodes and brought it back with me. Left Marcus' shop Saturday evening & spent another 3 hours driving up through Niagara falls and on to Mississauga Ontario where I stayed overnight in a hotel.
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> Sunday:
> Woke up early to find a damned flat on my trailer!%&#$!!. Fixed the flat, had breakfast, and then slowly headed up to Owen Sound , pulling into Ray McHugh's place 2.5 hrs later. Ray & I spent a few hours separating the front sub-frame from the main frame and then loading all the parts on my trailer.The frame came from his burnt 78 Eleganza which was apparently rebuilt in the 90s by Clarence Buskirk. Several years ago Ray's coach caught fire in his driveway and burnt down to the floorboards. The fire must have been hot because there were molten pieces of aluminum stuck to the frame in several places. Fortunately (for me) the fire's heat was reflected away from the frame by the floorpan, which oddly didn't burn. Ray later removed all of the flooring and rubble from the frame. Only a few rubber parts suffered heat damage, mostly on the right front suspension, the rest of the rubber components on the frame are still intact and useable. Even the black water tank was undamaged. A
n un-named Aussie purchased the engine and transmission from Ray last year and is presently cleaning them up for re-use.
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> My trip to Ray's yeilded a complete front subframe with all brakes, steering & suspension, a Caspro front anti-roll bar, & CV Axles, A complete rear sub-frame, main frame rails, crossmembers and bogie frame, rear bogies, Black water tank, A front wheel well liner, as well as a slightly burnt ONAN that still has many good parts. Ray had installed all new brakes, Bilstein shocks, and Applied's 4 bagger with the swing-arm center bracket just prior to the fire. The air bags didn't survive, but most of the shocks appear to have survived. only the dust boots melted away, but the yellow paint is undamaged on 4 of the 6 shocks. The rear end of the frame rails got bent accidently by Ray with his tractor, but are repairable with a bit of work. With a thourough cleaning & inspection, and a bit of paint, most of these parts will make it under my coach in the near future.
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> Once all of Ray's parts were loaded and secured, I left his farm and headed home. 9 hours later I was pulling in my driveway, and it was just after 11pm!
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> Had I have had more time, I would have made an effort to visit with Albert Branscombe and Norm Bowker, but Sunday was long enough as it was and I needed to get home so i could be at work on Monday.
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> Total trip was roughly 1060 miles (~1700kms) & 19.5hrs on the road, and 6-7 hours of labour.
> Headed from Montreal down under Lake Ontario, then up around the west end of the lake to the bottom of Lake Huron(Owen Sound). From there, back down towards Toronto and east along the topside of Lake Ontario to Montreal.
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> All I can say is you gotta love a GMC to do what many of us do to keep them alive!!
> I also have to give lots of credit to the many people who tenaciously hang onto the many useable & hard to find parts that ultimately help another GMCer keep their coach alive. Without these people, there would be very few GMCs still running.
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> Marcus, If you read this, I hope you find the time and energy to save all your GMC spares. Someone will eventually make use of what you have.
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> Ray, Thanks for saving what many would have declared as scrap metal, your foresight has made the task of rebuilding my GMC easier, as well as supplied me with some spare parts that might some day keep a GMC going.
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> Thanks,
> Les Burt
> Montreal
> '75 Eleganza II 26ft
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Les Burt
Montreal
1975 Eleganza 26ft
A work in Progress
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