The trim was all removed from the body, and the body itself was smoothed before giving it a multi-hued paint job with a mural of a sailing ship on the side. The interior featured wood palnking throughout and a figurehead on the wall just aft of the driver seat.
A white fur rug covered the floor just in front off the bunk, which had a harpoon attached to the face of it. The rear doors were walled over from the inside, and a view out a window showing another sea mural too their place. Flying Eagle went on to win many awards at truck-in's though the late 70's.
If one is good, 2 must be better right? Flying Eagle 2 was later built, again by Greg's of Akron, and this time they got a little more complex. This time the interior wasn't quite as barren, but a lot of the same idea carried through, like wood interior, and the rear window with sea mural in the distance. Also the rear bumper was replaced by harpoons. Included this time were also stained glass panels set into the roof. During the 80's Flying Eagle 2 underwent a series of changes, the most dramatic being a major change to the exterior. The marine flavored mural was now replaced with one that was more sci-fi in origin, and the colors were a bit brighter. At some point in all this, I am sorry to say that Flying Eagle 1 met the crusher. Never to be seen again.
The van changed hands a few times via Ebay, (for dirt cheap I gotta say!) until it ended up in the hands of Coop, who has restored it and then some! Flying Eagle 2 lives again thanks to a lot of hard work, love and determination.
To finish off this little shindig, we'll go back the insane asylum for "Human Fly"
I love this clip. One of the female patient actually gets the mic away from Lux, and adds her own little bit to the song.
"96 tears in 96 eyes"
Slow night. This oughter liven things up a bit. First is from the now infamous show The Cramps did at the Napa State Mental Institution. No shit. That really happend. I have to wonder who had the bright idea to let this occur, but it made for an interesting show. I can see the call now..."Hi my name is Lux Interior, my wife Poison Ivy and I head up a little rock combo we call "The Cramps". Ok if we play your place?"
"um....."
"well..."
"er....."
"what the hell."
The rest is history
Harolds murals typically were full wraparounds and often times extended up on to the roof. One of the unique things about this particular van/trailer combo is the mural continues from the end of the van onto the trailer, but on both pieces they also do a wrap.
The amount of detail put into the paint is amazing. The whale above is on the rear corner of the trailer, and the dolphins below are on the front driver side fender of the van.
The shipwreck is on the trailer in front of the wheel arch on the driver side.
The portrait on the back of the van is Bob, the former owner of Bob's Van Shop. I believe this van was originally built for him in his shop to use as a promotional tool at shows and truck-ins in the late 70's. A lot of the award winning vans came from his shop, thanks in part to the incredible talents of Harold Harnish and the crew at the shop who did the mods on the bodies, and finished off the interiors. The van itself has many modifications, some subtle, some not so much. They include custom taillights, solid rear end (no doors) tube bumpers, quad headlight setup, Charger side marker lights on the front, tube grille, full flare/spoiler kit w/ aluminum running boards, and a rear wing to name a few!
The trailer also has a few mods done to it including solid rear, custom tail lights, and a gullwing side door. Also one of my personal favorite touches, in the mural on the trailer, what appears to be clouds are actually maps of the different continents of the world. Nice touch!
The streetlights there were pretty cool to start with. Even cooler than the 'Kisses' ones in Hershey Pa. in my opinion. The museum itself was really cool. It was built in an old movie theater which made it even cooler. It was the most detailed and extensive collection of the 1947 incident I have ever seen. There was some really amazing stuff there. One thing I really dug was the two models they had of the Nazi "Foo Fighter's" I really dug the model building aspect of them aside from the 'WTF' factor. 
