Chapter 64

Day Sixty-four - Monday

I woke Sue by softly sucking on her distended nipples. She opened her eyes while she was deep in an orgasm. She shivered and said, "Fill me up, lover, but I'm already carrying our son. I know it in my heart that he's in there right now growing, getting bigger by the minute. You're going to be a dad. Make love to me."

Our lovemaking was full of intimate touching and kissing, holding me deep within her as both of us were shaking and shivering through our release. This is the way lovemaking is supposed to be.

We were ready for the crew when they started to show up. Phil and Judy brought breakfast sandwiches and a lot of good cheer, saying it was going to be a great week. Phil felt like he had a great chance to get several government bids, as well as a huge Saudi bid. The Saudi bid was for equipment spanning five years. Each year was enough to make our nut, making everything else we did for the year pure profit.

Phil was excited to be interviewing some Spanish-speaking salesmen to send off to South America to sell more equipment. We had special permission to sell new equipment in several countries without paying a duty fee. Phil was going to focus on those.

Sue was excited that her website would be online today with her new fashions, meaning she should get a slug of new orders. Her company was really booming. She said she was going to be topping a million a month in new orders. She had told me privately how proud she was of both of us, as she didn't need the money that her mom and uncle prized so much. We had made enough on our own to live the rest of our lives without going hungry.

Actually at this point, we could sell out and be very comfortable forever.

At the shop there was a freshness that had invaded the building. Everyone was excited to begin the new week, to produce for themselves and for the company. The excitement seemed to include everyone.

Our race day truck returned to park in our lot. Our two men said that they had been busier than they could ever have expected. They felt as if it would take a four-person crew to work the truck, as the little sales took away from the time they could be spending with a crew chief getting the right part.

They especially wanted a couple of Ford engines, along with at least two Dodge engines. They felt like our reputation was important, but the idea that a team could buy one of our engines, install it, and immediately go racing was a big plus. They said the NASCAR officials all said that there was no reason to tear down an engine, as they knew it was going to be right.

The guys didn't have to leave until Wednesday afternoon so I told them to think about working with their wives. The ladies could sell all the trinkets and pick up items, while the guys could concentrate on taking care of the team buyers. They liked the idea and said they would discuss it with their wives. They collected their pay, doubled, and double commission, heading home with big grins.

Phil said he would have one of his girls inventory the truck and begin re-ordering product, along with the new list the guys had given him. Phil was looking at the truck as an advertising avenue that he wanted to keep in people's minds.

With Gene's help, I was able to buy four Ford crate engines and get the NASCAR specs for the motor. My two militant feminists said they knew Ford motors and wanted to build them. The two gay guys said they wanted to build them too, so that the girls would have someone for checks and balances. If both teams built two motors a piece, it was fine with me.

Debbie said the phone was ringing off the hook from teams that had been at the race this weekend. There were several inquiries as to whether we had less expensive motors and if we do our own financing. I told her I thought our website should be up, so we could put an entire area for race car or motor sports support.

I went upstairs to see Phil about the website. He said he was ready to put other products in it now. He had the Onan line, the various welding supply lines, and the new Truck line, complete with our video, ready to go. I asked whether we could get the race car support group up to include the motors, frames, and sheet metal, and to also feature the truck for Winston cup on site support.

Phil thought that would be good and said he would get the site builder to work on it today. He next told me confidentially, he felt that this week could be one of the highest volume weeks to date as he had already heard from two of his major bids that the folks awarding the contracts were thoroughly investigating us. Phil said Tiny was all over it, making sure our bankers and the county folks lauded us.

Ruth introduced me to her new assistant, Marsha, building her up to me as someone who had extensive experience in human relations. While I was talking to Ruth about whether we should split up faxes, one for race car support and one for everything else, Marsha got up and hopped to the closet, got something out, then hopped back.

Marsha saw me looking and said, "My leg is sore today, so I took my prosthetic leg off for a while. I hope that doesn't upset you."

I smiled at her saying, "One of my best sheet metal men has a fake leg too, so don't be concerned, I was just surprised. You do hop pretty good," I joked.

Going back to the shop through the lunchroom, I thought that we had a pretty diverse group of folks working here. The one group we did not have anyone of was a black. I wondered why none had applied. I was guessing that, since almost all of our employees were the result of a direct referral, we had not advertised for people as yet. We did have a Mexican, a couple of Germans in rebuild, an Oriental of whatever nationality, and a Venezuelan in Phil's customer service area, but no blacks. We weren't against women as we had four of them in motors with a female supervisor there. We weren't against the rainbow crowd as we had three avowed gay couples. We even had a deaf guy.

Speaking of Bob, Sandy was over in the frame area signing to him. Does everyone know how to sign but me? Come to think of it, Sandy has been talking to Bob during most all her breaks and at lunch. Wonder if there is something there? Bob was a nice, good looking, guy, that was respectful and a hard worker. Those two could be a good couple.

I checked with Al and Dan saying that if they were any good, we needed the people that they interviewed Saturday to work with them in utility bed/body building. We would probably need to find a couple more guys to work in sheet metal.

Al asked if I thought that we would really sell that many trucks. I answered him honestly, "I don't know how long the orders will keep up but right now we are only marketing them in the southeast, mostly Florida. All the trucks sold so far are for Florida because we haven't marketed them anywhere else yet. We are about to put the truck on the web and Phil is going to do a mass mailing in the Carolinas, Virginias, Georgia, and Maryland. If there is a big interest, he wants to take a truck to some commercial shows to show off. We have a potential to sell a lot of them, so I think we should be proactive about hiring."

"If we don't sell enough to keep four guys busy, then both you and Dan are good welders. We have several other products I'd like to get out, so I think we'll have enough work for four more guys."

Tiny paged me to call him, so I went to the phone in the sheet metal area to call him. As I did, I looked up toward his window to see him answer the phone turning to look at me.

"The real estate agent for the property next door and the owner are here, do you have time to go look at the property?"

"I do, but before we get into numbers, have you been able to do any research on the property yet? We better know everything about the property we can before we commit to anything."

"I did the title search, county tax collector search, and talked to the building commissioner department who condemned the property. I'm ready for them."

"Good, I'll meet you in the showroom."

The agent was like a puppy dog with his tongue hanging out. The owner was a very old guy named Ernie, he was still sharp as a tack. We walked over the grounds that were grown up in weeds, except the areas that were concrete. He opened the building and showed us a fairly nice building. It had a very small office area and a large open warehouse. The building had been used to repair and store construction equipment, such as expensive cranes, specialized graders, paving, and other equipment.

He showed me the six large rear doors that were nearly forty feet high. Two of the doors were partially off the track. As heavy as they were, the doors could be really dangerous. That was why the building was condemned. The owner said that the tracks that the doors rolled on needed to be replaced as they had let go where joining welds had broken. He said he didn't know whether the motors for the doors would still work or not. The reason he had never repaired the doors was he had trouble finding a company with a crane strong enough to handle the doors. He said he figured that whoever bought the property would probably just tear the building down so he had not pursued repairing the doors for the last couple of years. The building had been empty and for sale now for three years.

The salesman began jabbering about what the owner wanted and how it could be financed and on and on and on. I looked at the owner and winked, then told the salesman that it was a little early for us to discuss money yet. We needed to do some investigating first.

Turning to the owner I asked him if he were hungry. He smiled and asked, "You buying?"

"Sure, let me call my wife and see if she wants to feed us or if she wants to eat over at the little Greek restaurant."

Sue said she would be at the shop in ten minutes, as she would love to eat at the restaurant. By the time we had locked the building and the gate to the fenced property, Sue was pulling up to the shop. She got out of her topless Mustang and gave me a smokin' kiss and hug. Sue was especially bouncy and radiant today. But she is that way every day. The salesman sprouted a boner at the sight of her and the old guy building owner fell in love at first sight. Instead of a bunch of cars, we all got in Tiny's big new Expedition for the short ride to restaurant.

The restaurant owner was happy to see us, Sue mainly, and sat us in what we now considered our special place, close to the kitchen, so he could visit with us. Ernie sat on the other side of Sue, who was displaying some delicious cleavage, as usual. He was cool though, as he was able to keep his eyes up most of the time. The salesman only spoke to her chest whenever he said anything to anyone.

Sue asked the old guy all about the property. When he had bought it, who had used it, and why he had not sold it yet. She told him that we only wanted it for storage right now, but the way we were growing, that could change. Ernie was extremely talkative to Sue, but then who wouldn't be.

By the time we finished lunch I think Ernie was ready to adopt Sue and I. He was very interested in our quick growth, and almost had a fit when he found out that Sue had her own business, as well. He asked us a couple of times if we were in need of a backer, as that's what he did best, investing in growing businesses. Tiny assured him that we didn't need financing at this time. Since Tiny took care of Sue's books too, he told Ernie that Sue's company was in good shape too.

When we went back to the shop, Sue told Ernie that we had a gathering at our home every evening and if he wanted to stop by about five thirty this evening, he would be welcome. She gave him a little map on the back of her business card. We all watched as she got in her Mustang, and there was a collective sigh as she drove off.

Tiny told the real estate guy and Ernie to come in and he would talk to them a little to see where they were on selling the building. I excused myself, saying I needed to check on projects in the shop. Tiny would do a good job setting the folks up for us to get the place for a fair price.

Al and Dan had a stainless steel body almost complete. It was bright, very bright, but looked really neat. I could see a company wanting one, if for nothing else but to show off.

Debbie paged me to the showroom and when I arrived she introduced me to two new owners of our trucks. Both of these men were from Miami and had planned on driving back together. Debbie had two packets made up for them, each containing an itemized list of the accessories and the state paperwork. The new trucks already had temporary tags on them.

Debbie and I took the men through our shop, showing them our various operations. One of the guys said he really liked the stainless steel model. I told him it was an experiment, as we had thought we might see what it looked like and to see if the customers would pay the extra for the metal.

Out back, the two trucks were ready to roll, polished and full of fuel. They looked good, better than our original truck. The guys went over the truck, checking the equipment, opening doors and drawers, until their excitement waned enough for them to say they needed to get on the road. Debbie said that all the paperwork and funds had been taken care of, so I shook their hands and thanked them for their business. We watched as the two trucks left the back lot.

Debbie and I now knew what a car salesman felt when a car they sold was 'over the curb.'

The noises of the shops were addicting. Abe's had enough people, that at least once or twice a day, they were firing up big diesel motors to test the work they had done. The motor shop had their testing noises after an engine was built, doing the run ups and static testing. The welders made some big buzzing noises, along with banging and cutting. The sheet metal area was actually the quietest, as all you heard was the almost melodic bending and forming of panels, after the high pitched cutting. It was a nice working environment.

Debbie said I needed to spend some time answering phone calls, so I went back to our office and worked my way down the list. A couple of calls were from small teams or individuals that wanted to know if we built the entire car. I had to tell them no, as we didn't need to be in the whole car business. I referred them to the guy who was always trying to get me to build something for him for nothing. Perhaps he would see the value of paying a fair price for something.

There were a couple of frame orders and a Ford motor order in the calls, but the nice part was that the calls from various owners, crew chiefs, and track officials complimenting the company for our product and for the trailer store. Some had product suggestions, but most were just praise and hoped we would continue to come to the races.

I called Gene to get his opinion on a truck for the truck event and possibly a separate truck for the Busch series races. He said that one for the truck event would possibly be good, but those owners were pretty cliquish. The suggestion was to have some sheet metal, a couple of motors, and some suspension parts. He thought that a display of one of our frames would be good. We ended the call with him saying, "If you want their attention, you have to show that you are one hundred percent in the truck business and paint up a tractor and trailer with just the trucks."

I went to ask Tiny what he thought, and if he could come to any conclusion as to how much the actual investment was to put the truck at a race. Tiny was still in his office with the real estate salesman and the property owner. The discussion must have been going in our favor or else Tiny would have shown them out a while ago.

I asked Phil if he had any numbers on what the truck cost to go to the races. He gave me a copy of what Tiny had figured, along with the additional cost of the re-supply we sent. It would be fair to think there wouldn't be a re-supply for our intro into the truck races, so I used that figure and about half of the revenue we did for our first exposure. It made sense to try as, with very low volume, we should break even within three races.

I called the Lakeland team owner as he had trucks and had bought two truck frames and a motor already. He thought we would do all right, but he warned me that a lot of the guys racing trucks didn't have a lot of money and were operating on a shoestring. He felt as if everything should be cash and credit card only. While he had me on the phone, he gave me his findings on what I had asked him for as to what panels were replaced the most. This was valuable as we could carry extra of these on the truck, along with a full set.

I made a note to Tiny to lease another truck from Penske and to see if we could get another trailer just like we had purchased before. I made out the order for the sheet metal to sell on the truck, along with the three motors that I wanted to carry. The general parts order that we had made, plus the add-on items the two driver/salesmen brought back, was put in a formal order to all the parts houses we dealt with.

Al and Dan had started two additional guys and Drew was watching them closely, at the expense of slowing down on the utility bodies. He seemed to be happy with their productivity and the observance of our quality standards. I asked that the truck sheet metal order I put in be moved to the front, so we could put it on the new race day sales truck for this weekend.

I called Gary and told him what I was planning. I told him that I needed another ex-crew chief and possible another ex-crew member for a team like he and Sam. He said he would call me back in a few minutes and hung up.

While still musing over the inventory list of the new truck, Gary called back and said he had just the pair. They were a little older, but were dying to get back to being a part of race days. He said he had them coming right in and they could be at my front door any minute.