Chapter 60

Day Sixty - Thursday

I woke with my face against Sue's lovely chest. The softness of her breast was just the surface of how firm she was.

As soon as I shifted, she opened her eyes and kissed me saying, "I love you."

We slid from between our bedmates and began our morning routine. In the shower, I made sure Sue had a full donation of my half of the mixture needed to make the new life she wanted so much.

As we were drying, the sleepyheads came into the bathroom, peed, and got into the shower. I was dressed when they both came out of the bathroom naked, saying that I couldn't leave till I had thoroughly kissed both of them.

I kissed both of them until I was tented with the anticipation of more playtime.

The morning crew showed up a little droopy this morning. It always seems that if one was sleepy in the morning, everyone was dragging. Tiny called Phil and asked him to bring lots of sugary donuts, as everyone needed a sugar rush.

Phil and Judy were sleepy as well, so they welcomed the strong coffee and the sweet donuts and pastries.

Phil and Judy had a standing order for thirty breakfast sandwiches, so I had one of those too, filling up for the day ahead.

Dan and I took off for the utility body/bed company before eight. When we showed up without a truck to mount the bed on, I had to explain to the foreman why. He was perturbed that we would doubt their work, but showed us the completed bodies and left to call the owner.

The first thing we saw was the sloppy paint job. Dan thought that the steel for the whole box was thinner than the one we had. I had my note pad and took notes. The latches and locks were not the same as the ones we had received before, and were obviously inferior. This was very disturbing. I went into the showroom they had and picked up one of their brochures that had specifications on it as to size and thickness of steel.

I found the foreman and said we had to get something from our shop and would be right back. We went back to the shop and picked up some tape measures and a couple of micrometers to check the steel's thickness.

When we returned the owner was there with the foreman. He was equally put off that we doubted their work. I pointed out the bad paint, several sloppy welds of the diamond plate, and the inferior handles and locks on the compartments. Dan was taking measurements of the thickness of the various partitions and the body itself, finding they were made with fifteen to thirty percent thinner sheet metal. When I showed the owner his specs and what we had found, he turned red in the face, becoming belligerent, saying I ordered the beds and I would accept them as they were.

I told him that I would accept work that was comparable to the body that I had on my truck and the four bodies that he had delivered previously to us. He kept making up reasons why he couldn't do that, continuously threatening me with a lawsuit and a fat lip. Dan and I left after I advised the owner my attorney would be in contact with him.

On the way back to the shop, Dan said, perhaps I should build them myself as we had all the equipment. He thought we could improve on the beds in a couple of areas and make the compartment doors a little different in order to have them open and close easier.

I asked him if he had ever used drafting software. He had learned how to use it in his schools, so I suggested he design a utility body that would be right for what we were doing. He needed to design one with a boom as well.

I put him in Sue's chair and let him play with the drawing and design program. During the day, I saw him make trip after trip out to our truck to measure something, and come back to work on the design.

Abe's group was putting out the product. Now that he had fourteen stations he was turning out close to fourteen units every second or third day. The amount of painting and additional sheet metal work was keeping Al and Hank busy. Building our trucks was going to stagnate until we could correct the body problem.

I had Debbie send out a note to all of the truck-buying customers that the bed bodies are temporarily back-ordered, but that their orders should be delivered before the promised six week delivery time.

Near five, Dan came to me saying he wanted to show me what he had come up with. For outward appearances the design didn't look that much different than the original, but then Dan began showing me the differences. He had some larger compartments, and some sectioned into smaller compartments to fit each of the various items, but still leaving a few of each size compartment for the customer to use as he needed. The raw material area was larger and easier to get at. Dan had built in racks for the standard gas rig, a wire feed gas rig, two regular arcs, a mig, and a tig. It was amazingly compact for six pieces of equipment. His built-in areas for the portable generator and compressor set them out of sight, but easy to reach for repair, replacement, and maintenance. A big difference was the boom truck. Dan had beefed up the steel used to mount the boom allowing it to set a little higher on the bed, so there was raw material storage underneath the base of the boom. Now this utility bed had as much storage room as the standard body.

Dan showed me the design for the pull out worktable. He showed me the catches that released the legs as the table was pulled out so the operator didn't have to take time to set the legs in place. Dan showed me how it should work to retract the legs into position when the table was pushed back in. If that modification worked, we needed a new video.

He then showed me how the software exploded the drawing, separating each piece and panel, to give a manufacturer sizes of metal. Dan had a separate list of miscellaneous parts, such as locks and drawer guides that we would buy rather than try to manufacture.

He wanted to go over the sheet metal with Al to see if he was correct on the gauge that should be used. He also said he wanted to use more diamond plate so the deck and steps of the bed would not be slick.

While he and Al were working on the specifications, I looked at the sheet metal area and decided that we could manufacture the beds in the added on area. This was going to take at least two more guys who were capable of heavy-duty metal work, as well as being good welders. That was Tom and Al, but who would take their place for the manufacturing we were already doing?

Dan and Al said they wanted to have a talk with me, including Drew, after hours, and Al suggested Dan and Drew come out to the house for a beer with us. I agreed and said it looked like beer time to me so for them to get their area ready and let's hit the road.

At the house I drew us a beer and we sat at the bar so they could tell me what they thought.

Dan said, "I want to build the body at our shop. Al wants to do it with me. We talked about it and believe we can build one a day or at the most in ten hours. We might be a little slow when we begin, but we will pick up speed.

"You can save a little if you were to use all stainless steel for the bed. I haven't compared prices yet, but there seems to be a backup in the paint shop lately, with all the frames and the re-build department sheet metal.

"After looking at the junk we looked at this morning, I believe we could produce a great product. It might only be for us, but there are modifications we could make to build a bed for smaller trucks for electricians, plumbers, or even carpenters. If we build a body, it would be top of the line and that's what you want to sell, right?"