Finally, last night when David came over, he brought with him the custom 700R4 transmission that Greg Ducato and his team at Phoenix Transmission had built for me, and shipped to David’s shop. It had been sitting at David’s shop until we got a break in the weather, and he could actually pick up Red’s parts for bodywork and paint.

Wow! Talk about high quality and classy execution.

Here’s how the packaging is done by Phoenix, for safe shipment:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Valueofexpertiseandexperience008tra.jpg

Notice how everything is secured, and how the accessory items are even taped to the side of the box. You cannot see the interior wood “pallet” inside the box (in addition to the one OUTSIDE the box), but it is very much there.

And here is a view of the accessories that I ordered, sight unseen and brand / model unknown, trusting Greg’s judgment to provide the right stuff:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Valueofexpertiseandexperience009tra.jpg

Note the use of brand names, especially Lokar, where Greg’s judgment is that these are the best for the application. Each of these items is beautiful and attention-getting, and add immensely to the overall appeal of the package.

Here is a photo of the correct flexplate for our application:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Valueofexpertiseandexperience011fle.jpg

And finally, the piece de resistance: the incredible “polished” transmission casing that Phoenix proudly provides on its transmissions:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/Valueofexpertiseandexperience010tra.jpg

How’s THAT for visual chassis appeal?

All this stuff happening last evening made me realize how blessed I am to have this kind of talent, expertise, and experience keeping me on the road and out of the ditch as we continue this amazing transformation of a 53 year old truck into a reborn life. I have to tell you guys and gals that I am totally in awe of what people like Randy, David, and Greg can accomplish while making it look and sound so deceptively easy.

There is immense value in expertise and experience, that you sometimes don’t realize you have benefited from, unless you actually ask a few questions, and start to see what you would surely have missed trying to do it “on your own” instead of with a great team. I suspect that a lot of the folks who benefit daily from the expertise of these 3 men have no idea how much they are benefiting from it.

Jim G

http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh16/JimGnitecki/?special_track=nav_tab_album