Loading in the BEAST!

Well, no one said that it would be easy...  

We pre-loaded one trailer on Friday with all of the small truck parts, the platform legs, the parking lot lights and part of the bill board.  I quickly realized that this was a two-trailer job.  The bed and cab pieces were nearly a foot wider than Larry's trailer and longer than his trailer.  So, we rented a 6x12 U-haul trailer and towed it with Gary's RAV4.

Melanie, Larry, Gary, Brian Scheppler and Patrick showed up at the shop and we got the bed and cab on the U-haul trailer. Turns out that once we put the bed and cab pieces in the U-haul, it was "full" too.  Oh, we could have crammed a lot more in. For other shows we would have.  Pieces made of wood and painted with latex are easy to touch up if they rub together and scuff.  The finish on the truck is a different story. Even with the second trailer, we couldn't fit the wooden frame on the first load. :/



We pulled out of the shop at 10AM. When we got to the theater at 10:30, Todd, Ray, Marshall and Allison were waiting for us.  We quickly unloaded the two trailers and hauled the small stuff upstairs.  Then Larry too Brian, and Allison back to the shop to load up the frame and bring it in a second load.  What a pain in the ass...

Meanwhile, the rest of us stayed at the theater, drug out platforms and supplies and put the band platform together. Still waiting for the second trip to return, we wrestled the cab in the building, thru the halls, up the stairs, and into the theater.  It wasn't terrible.  So, after a rest, the gang decided to try and tackle the bed as well.  Got it to the bottom of the steps, tried to get it on the elevator and it was ONE freaking inch to big to fit! Son of a Bitch!  So, we waited for the rest of the muscle to return

On their return, the bed was brought up the steps and into the theater.  The wooden frame, on the other hand, it was decided to bring up the fire escape an thru the stage door.  That was quite the adventure.  I am still not convinced that it was easier than bringing it in the front door, thru the halls, up the stairs, and in. But, whatever... I just wanted it IN.

While they fought with the bed and frame, I quickly put the billboard framework together and Patrick and I got it hung so that it was out of the way for the truck parts in the middle of the stage.

With the billboard up and the truck parts on stage, Marshall, Todd and Ray bid us adieu.  Allison began to tackle getting the scrim on to the billboard frame while Brian, Patrick and I began putting the truck back together.

The wheels went on first.  Because we took the casters off, the wheels would touch the floor and I wanted to make sure that they were on before we began to really add the weight to the frame.  Next we set the cab in place, followed by the bed.  It seemed as though it would go right back together the same as it had come apart.  Yea, so much for that.


The doors were the next thing that had to be tackled and they have always given us problems.  When we put it together in the shop, it too us two evenings to get them on right.  Now, you have to understand that, in order to be able to get the cab thru a single 3' door, I had to sacrifice somewhere.  To keep the cab intact, it would have been the equivilent of a 4'x4'x6' cube...not going thru the door and heavy as hell to move.  So, we had cut it at the floor behind the seat and at the top of the firewall.  This meant that we no longer had the front door post with the factory-tapped screw positions defined.  So, we had to make that up out of wood.  Wood flexs, shifts, splits and generally is just not as reliable as steel. And that wood door post was supporting the weight of the door when it is open. But, I digress...

We finally figured out that we had set the cab 1/4" to the right off from where it needed to be, which thru the door posts out of square and the doors wouldn't close!  Frustration mounted and I got pretty testy.  I apologize to Melanie, Patrick, Brian and Allison for venting my frustration. I have FOUGHT with this damn thing for weeks and again it is giving me problems...

Once the doors were fixed, the rest of it went together pretty smoothly. The holes all aligned and it fit right back together.







While all of this cursing is going on, Melanie and Allison were having frustrations of their own.  Scrim is a bitch to work with if you are painting something on it that needs to be recognizable.  You see, it stretches...A LOT!  Compounding that, I bought loose cut bulk scrim from Rose brand. Two edges were factory and two edges were cut.  If you have ever had fabric cut, you know it is never perfectly square and even.  Then, of course we didn't paint the graphic on square with an edge.  The only thing that I knew was that the graphic had a horizontal edge that formed the field of blue on the bottom. That line had to be parallel to the bottom of the billboard frame. After two false starts, the ladies figured out a system, got the thing roughly tacked in place and then began the painstaking process of pulling and stapling on small area at a time so that the letters didn't deform, bow or run uphill or downhill.

We wrapped up all of that an sat down in the seats for a short admiration of our work at 6:15PM. It had been a long day. We turned off the lights, locked up and headed back to IL for a drink and BBQ on me!  Long-ass day!!!


Today, Melanie and I will go back in a few minutes, finish skirting the billboard, hang the other parking lot light and then thoroughly clean the truck.  It needs to look like a new truck and right now it is GRIMY!

More later... In the mean time, I'm off to LA for the week. I need to get away from this project. It has been a grueling 5 weeks of work and I need a break. The cast can get in there this week and put their hands on it and get used to their new space.
R

See you at the theater.