Howard Enterprises GMC-II

[mark grady]

Did anyone else see the ad that Bill Howard ran on GMC MM this month?

Since he's almost my neighbor, I called him. (Left the magazine at work so I
don't have his phone number). Anyway, the Howard family owns Explorer Vans.
They were doing a complete re-furb job (costing some major $$$) on GMC's a
year or so ago. I think they did about 30~60 coaches or so (just guessing).

This project supposedly details the parts/components they used in updating
these coaches. As I recall, they had one at the Titusville GMC MHI rally. If
anyone saw it, perhaps they'd care to comment.

I got an impromptu tour of their re-build line a couple of years ago, and I
was impressed, but then I'm just an ol' farm boy. I don't know why they
curtailed this line of business, but I suspect that the cost of the raw
materials (they bought up every loose GMC known in the tri-state area) had
to be a part of the equation.

I took the money I would have normally spent on lottery tickets (yeah,
right) and ordered a copy of the Howard Enterprises book. While I have no
intention of violating his copyrights, I do look forward to reporting on the
relative value of this publication, as we have done on the Mondello book,
the Cinnabar publications, GMC MM, etc.

Personally, I'm somewhat skeptical that this publication has value beyond
the 300 strong brain trust / think tank that we know as the GMC Net. I shall
report my findings at a later date.

Mark

 

[bartz paul]

Mark:

I remember the GMC II at Titusville. It was driven in a few days after the
beginning of the convention by Buddy Bethune (he advertises in GMCMM). I
recall him telling me that Explorer Van was late in getting it painted.
They taped plastic a little ways above the bottom of the coach body to mask
off the one color from another. However, it got peeled off prior to the
paint underneath drying and resulted in large areas of the paint underneath
also being stripped off. Time did not permit re-spray.

Anyhow, the interior was very nicely done in light gray or white, as I
recall. I particularly recall the Bose sound system they installed.
Somebody thee commented at the time that interior's are their specialty.
They also replaced the ventilation system with later model GM components and
had a host of other upgrades vs. original.

I called the number listed in the GMCMM magazine to inquire about the Guide,
but had to leave a message. I'll be looking forward to your evaluation of
it.

Paul Bartz

From: Mark Grady [mailto:mgrady]
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 1999 12:43 AM

Did anyone else see the ad that Bill Howard ran on GMC MM this month?

Since he's almost my neighbor, I called him. (Left the magazine at work so I
don't have his phone number). Anyway, the Howard family owns Explorer Vans.
They were doing a complete re-furb job (costing some major $$$) on GMC's a
year or so ago. I think they did about 30~60 coaches or so (just guessing).

This project supposedly details the parts/components they used in updating
these coaches. As I recall, they had one at the Titusville GMC MHI rally. If
anyone saw it, perhaps they'd care to comment.

I got an impromptu tour of their re-build line a couple of years ago, and I
was impressed, but then I'm just an ol' farm boy. I don't know why they
curtailed this line of business, but I suspect that the cost of the raw
materials (they bought up every loose GMC known in the tri-state area) had
to be a part of the equation.

I took the money I would have normally spent on lottery tickets (yeah,
right) and ordered a copy of the Howard Enterprises book. While I have no
intention of violating his copyrights, I do look forward to reporting on the
relative value of this publication, as we have done on the Mondello book,
the Cinnabar publications, GMC MM, etc.

Personally, I'm somewhat skeptical that this publication has value beyond
the 300 strong brain trust / think tank that we know as the GMC Net. I shall
report my findings at a later date.

Mark