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This was a previous restoration project at
Auto Fashions Together Customs
(A.F.T.C. 110 Dreamscapes, Pittsboro, NC)
and for our new business
Carolina Auto Restorers, Inc that I was freezed out of.
Daniel had been working hard on progress reports, moving equipment, recycle waste, picking up parts to be used on everyone's jobs, accounting and help set up both business locations, worked on smaller jobs while others worked on the major paint jobs until we could get settled at the new location.
This presentation is currently been used as an example of a written detailed progress reports and the auto restoration work that Daniel will provide you at AutoFashions.com now and in the future.
Ungratefully at the time of this particular restoration project the stubborn auto restorer working on this vehicle in the organization kept making it hard to take pictures by moving vehicle in hard to reach places, in the dark after work, messing with camera settings and rarely taking the time to finish providing a full report to me so that a full presentation could be shown to you to completion for Carolina Auto Restorer, Inc.
I found someone on you tube that is currently selling their 1973 Pontiac Grand prix so you can get an idea on how the restoration process would have gone if a proper report was made by a respectful team player!
If efforts go in the right direction Daniel or Future employee's will provided you a much better report on a our restoration services in the future at AutoFashions.com.
01-20-2008-We started up the original 73 Grand prix-J model (red) vehicle to get ready to move into position to start working on project. 4 qts of engine oil had to be added. The vehicle is running, but because of the cold weather conditions we had to stop. 01-22-2008-Daniel jacks up the front of vehicle and finds an oil leak on the J model . 01-22-2008- Ben (not his real name) finally gets the car running on its own power and drove it to the shop. Ben had to change both tires so that it could be moved because they were flat, then worked on making a list. The oil leak was found on engine pan. 01-23-2008-Daniel temporally patch the engine oil pan with a screw & rubber washer, then applied an epoxy so that oil can be installed in engine. The oil pan will need to be repaired or replaced in the future. Newman and I removed all the rotting carpet and seats from vehicle. We found the floor extremely rusted out. We called owner and are waiting for a return call. 4 more qts of oil were added and we started the car and moved it to another location on the property. Alot more photos were taken. We also found that the roof under the vinyl top is rusted and leaking water into the interior on top of the rear seats. Under the rear seats more rot was present to the carpet and seat bottom in rear 01-24-2008-Ben scouting out another possible donor vehicle to use instead of the one owner has because of the extent of the rotted sheet metal damage will be Intensive labor to repair. 01-25-2008 -We are waiting for the owner to return calls- 01-28-2008-The owner returns call and we gave him his options for restoration. 01-30-2008-Ben is currently scouting out a donor vehicle and found one . 02-07-2008-Daniel returns all the seats back into vehicle, but they are only there for storage. Ben later sends owner a link to view another donor vehicle, so we are waiting for a responds from him. 02-18-2008-Owner having trouble viewing link. 02-21-2008-We fax over copy of the donor vehicle. 02-23-2008-Daniel observed Ben doing more research on the donor vehicle by calling him and finding out about flight information. Then later finds this one way to expensive. 02-27-2008-Daniel finishes up writing Invoice #2 and mailing to customer. 03-05-2008-Ben research another Donor car and found one. Ben is planning a trip to see the car and possibly buy it with owners funds and have it transported to our shop. 03-06-2008-Ben talked with the owner of the donor vehicle and just purchased using "Richards" deposit funds for the donor vehicle in Colorado. Its another 1973 Pontiac Grand Prix, but this one is the SJ version. Ben & I just wired a deposit for the Donor car that we are going to used along with the original 73 Grand Prix that "Richard" brought to us. Photos will be mailed to the owner of the restoration project. 03-11-2008-Ben talks on the phone with the transporting business that "Richard." recommended. later with the Auto Body shop owner near by to inspect the vehicle. Ben & Daniel talk to the transporting company . Daniel photo copies the charges and writes letters along with checks to the transporting and Auto Body shop. All this was mailed mails the out today. Copies were also mailed today to "Richard". 03-12-2008-Obtaining the cash and making the last wire transfer took place today to pay off the vehicle. Daniel wrote another Invoice #4 and mailed today along with the copy of the money transfer. The transporting company said the SJ Car will be picked up later today or Thursday of this week. He said he will call us when he be arriving in North Carolina 03-17-2008-The transporting Company arrived this morning in the parking lot of Lowes Hardware on 15-501. Ben is seen in photo driving off the 73 SJ Grand Prix of the big rig. Daniel escorts vehicle up to the shop where Daniel takes more pictures. 03-18-2008-The owner came by to look at the SJ series Grand Prix that he bought and talked about what he like to do with both vehicle later we started taking apart the carpet trim, Some plastic trim along the headliner, both rear quarter interior trim and the rear seats out of vehicle. 03-19-2008-Newman & Ben removed both inner door trim panels, stripped out the rotted carpet and removed the headliner along with other trim accessories attached on the ceiling out of the SJ. 03-20-2008-Newman & Ben removed the front bumper and the rear bumper along with the tail lights and the front turn signal lens. Later the partial front & rear valance panel was removed. 03-25-2008-Newman-We remove the front Header panel that holds the headlamps, Fan Stroud, smaller parts too much to detail here and later we all removed the hood. 03-26-2008-Newman & Ben removed the right & left front fenders. Removed both right & left fender wheel housings. We will continue removing parts for media blasting. 03-27-2008-Newman & Ben starting to take the dashboard apart and remove it from vehicle. Both driver and Passenger doors windows, regulators, latches and handles have been completely remove. No photos were taken, but will update photos tomorrow. 03-31-2008-Ben & Daniel worked on Invoice #5 and mailed it. 04-10-2008-Newman-We removed both driver and passenger doors along with the deck lid. Next we took out the front bench seat. In the engine compartment shown with a red arrow the brake master cylinder & booster were removed. The plan is now to strip the fire wall of hoses & attached parts so the body can be unbolted and lift off the frame. 05-06-2008-Newman & Ben removed the complete dash panel with attaching instruments, controls and wiring harness. 05-08-2008-We removed all the stationary glass and finished removing the parts we needed to remove from the inside of the body. Next we removed the body bolts from the chassis and then later with the help of Dan we installed the body on the body stand and rolled the entire body in position away from the chassis. Take note on how much grease & grime build up on the transmission and the engine. These areas will be cleaned at a later day along with the chassis. 05-09-2008-Newman &-Ben removed more parts off the cowl and up under where the dash panel used to be. 05-12-2008-Newman&-Ben finish removing parts off of the body. The body is now ready to go to the media blaster shop. 05-13-2008 -We all load up the body of the SJ onto the trailer and Newman & Ben prepare to drive to the media shop 05-21-2008 -Dan works on removing the grease & grime that has been collecting on transmission, engine and suspension parts, to limit mess and so that the steam jenny can get down into the smaller areas. Later Dan removes the radiator and loosens the front radiator support & more wiring harness. Ben helps me remove the support and steam clean the left side of the vehicle, while I did the right. 05-27-2008-Newman & Ben installs a battery temporally and performs a compress test to all the cylinders on the vehicle. The compression is good and its not necessary to take the heads off. Newman-Ben then removes the transmission driveshaft, more electrical connections, transmission steel lines, distributor assembly, drain transmission fluid,remove engine & transmission hold down bolts, cut old rusty exhaust pipes out of the way. Newman &-Daniel set up engine stand over transmission and engine and remove it from the vehicle, then Newman &-Dan separate the engine from the transmission. Ben then sets up the engine and places it on the engine stand securing it in place for seal replacement and detailing. Dan sets up the transmission and places it on the engine stand for the same reason 05-28-2008-Newman-Ben move the engine stand inside the shop and carefully start taking the carburetor, intake manifold and valley pan parts of the motor apart. When we looked inside all of us were really surprised of the condition of the no sludge built up within the motor compared to what the motor looked from the outside. The previous owner of this SJ definitely kept up with changing the oil on a regular basis. Ben & Dan inspected the timing chain through the fuel pump hole opening and found a lot of end play on the timing chain, so a new timing chain & gear set will be on order for this engine along with some exterior oils seals, for instance: Rear main crankshaft seal, front transmission seal, front crankshaft main seal, valve cover seals, oil gallery seal,distributor seal, timing cover & fuel pump seal. 05-30-2008-Newman-Ben temporally installs the valley pan on engine and rotates the engine on the engine stand while continuing the steam cleaning process after parts were removed from engine & transmission so they can be detailed & painted. 06-02-2008 --Ben washes the motor by hand scrubbing as much grime off as possible that was missed by steam jenny. He then rolls engine stand into shop and removes the engine oil pan, valve covers, timing chain cover, timing chain and gears, valley pan again, & the intake manifold. Newman took these parts and removed the baked on grime in crevasses by washing parts in the parts washer and using smaller scraping tools to get the grit out. The intake manifold was media blasted along with the front harmonic balancer. After all this was finished the above parts had all their old gaskets removed and new ones installed. A new timing chain & gear was also installed. Once again the engine was washed to remove any oil residue and the entire engine was spray painted Pontiac blue. Photos will be developed later this morning. Later Ben focus his attention on the transmission. He drained the remaining fluid out and rotated the transmission upside down to cleaned the transmission pan of old gasket material. He then replaced the front pump seal and the rear extension housing seal along with installing a new transmission filter & pan gasket. Newman cleaned and painted the starter brackets & starter the color black. 06-03-2008-Newman & Ben continue to clean & paint engine accessories and ad them to engine, Later Ben & Newman flip the entire chassis with a back hoe, so that the cleaning process is easier to do. 06-04-2008- Ben gave the options to the owner about the levels of restoration to the chassis. owner requested that he save money by not taking the chassis to be media blasted or powder coated). All of us took part in moving the chassis into the body shop. Ben & Newman remove old patches of old under coating, then cleaned the entire frame with scotch pad, followed by acid etching the frame and epoxy paint seal with black. 06-05-2008-We all moved the upside down chassis out of the body shop, than flipped it over again using our back hoe. We all then rolled the chassis back into the paint booth. Ben & Newman basically repeated the process that was done yesterday. Later in the day Ben painted the top side of the chassis. 06-09-2008-Newman-Ben rolls the chassis out so that engine stand & engine hoist can be rolled into the paint boot, later the chassis is moved back in. Ben removes the engine off engine stand and places engine on the chassis with engine hoist, followed by the transmission. He installs the front & rear shocks. They can be seen in yellow. He starts installing the power steering pump and later starts installing some of the wiring harness on the engine. 06-10-2008 -Around Noon Ben & Newman drove off to pick-up the newly media blasted body parts, while Dan stayed doing the necessary tedious paper work and making business phone calls to set up for the new our new location. When Ben arrived we all took part in unloading the body parts off the trailer, took photos of the under side of body and parts that were blasted. We rolled out the chassis out of body shop, then set up the body stand to snuggle fit the main body of the vehicle. We than pushed the main into the paint booth to do body work. I had to leave get information at the planning department, permits and register the new business for our new location, while Ben & Newman move the remainder of parts and set them up in the body shop. Ben started doing body work with metal bond on the left rear quarter panel end. Well once again it was a very hot day, hopefully the weather will be cooler tomorrow . 06-11-2008-Newman-Ben sanded down the body work that was done to left rear quarter panel end than used up a whole gallon of epoxy primer to prime all parts that were blasted. 06-12-2008- 06-14-2008 -I'm sorry Ben is stobborn with the progress reports. Ben & I have been pulled away to transferring new business to new checking account, setting up the new business by visiting the sign maker, the bank, code manager & the planning department . From what I remember on Thursday Ben moved all the body parts out of the way, so he could roll out the main body out of the shop so we could get the back hoe to lift the body. I hooked up the straps to the back hoe bucket as Ben lifted the main body up off the body stand. He than sanded the areas to be painted starting with the wheel well. I took some pictures of him as he was painting. He then started in painting the underside of the car the original color called Honduras Maroon as you can see in the pictures. Later in the afternoon when the paint dried to some degree we got Newman to clean the rubber mounting pads and place them in the proper places on the chassis. Then Ben & I lined up the main body and lowered it on the chassis. 06-18-2008-Dan replaces the front and rear "U"-joints on the driveshaft. These were the original to the vehicle because they still had the original plastic security ring that requires heat to remove them. 06-20-2008 -Dan starts in on the Grand Prix-J model vehicle that was originally brought to us in the beginning. Three out of four tires and wheels on vehicle had to be swapped out from a another vehicle that we have stored in the back. Because the battery was low Ben & I towed vehicle up to the shop. The owner requested that the new SJ model have the same look as the J model interior, so the dashboard and center console will be removed along with moving the bucket seats out to be upholstered from vinyl to leather to a maroon color. The SJ bench front and rear seats will be taken to storage. 06-24-2008-Dan does research on obtaining new leather seat covers for the J-model interior to have them installed here at the shop. E-mails were written and send out for qoutes. The seats from the J-model were placed in the van to take to an upholstery local shop to get a few more estimates on doing the seat covers or to repair the entire seats, cushions & springs that are damaged. 06-25-2008-Around noon when we head out to obtain the additional air conditioning for your vehicle, we will swing by to show the upholstery guy the seats. At the present time Ben is moving the J-model closer to the shop doors to start removing more parts off of it to be moved to the SJ-model at a later date. 06-27-2008-Dan removes the radio and other instruments from the dash board that was removed from the SJ model earlier on in this progress report. After SJ-dash board was gutted of parts I compared the dash board with the one that was still in the J-model vehicle. The board is the same except for a room temperature sensor mounted through the top of dash. Later I delivered it to the upholstery guy for further estimate to repair the dash board form and fabricate new leather to the dash instead of having a dash cap installed. Newman removes from storage the large evaporator housing for the air conditioning, few more additional related parts and gave them a bath so it will look good in engine compartment when it is reassembled. 07-9-2008-Dan picks-up all the seats and the dash board to get a second estimate at another auto upholstery shop. We are waiting for the trim person to call us with an amount for a down deposit for ordering the Leather material 07-11-2008- The trim guy John told me what we needed and a payment was made. I asked him if he would start working on the dash pad first in leather, so we could finished installing the dash panel & instruments, then he would take on the seats. When I was there John had already dissembled all the seats. John & I loaded up my van with the old rusty seat frames & springs. I took a picture of the spring frames for the rear, they will need to be media blasted. The front bucket seat frames are still in the trunk of the shop car, which Newman borrowed for the weekend, so when he comes back I will take a before picture of these parts before they are blasted and painted for John to reassemble the seats. 07-14-2008-I moved both the prime doors, both front fenders, deck lid and Ben helped me move the hood out of the body shop close by in the dry holding shed so Ben can have space to work indoors-There is no charge for this as our space is limited. 07-16-2008-From what I have seen, Newman sands & prepares the floor of the Grand Prix SJ for the Hush mat material to stick to the floor. 07-17-2008-When I arrived back at the shop I took some Pictures where Ben has installed Hush mat on the floor of the SJ. I was at the upholstery shop today obtaining a piece of the Leather so we know what color to match the plastic seat parts with. At this time I'm not sure what else the other guys did on the vehicle for today. 07-18-2008-All of us took a drive up to the media blasting site and dropped off all the seat frames & springs to be blasted and we all went out to lunch while the guys at the blasting site did their jobs. We picked up the frames & springs back and now they are ready to be primed & painted for the upholstery guy. 07-23-2008-Dan loaded a lot of SJ parts and the rolling stand into his mini van from shop AutoFashions and transport them to the our new Shop where the SJ will be reassembled. 07-25-2008 -The upholstery guy call and reported the he finished repairing the dashboard form and covering it with leather-Photo's will be updated in the next few days when we visit the upholster. 07-28-2008-B en Newman & Dan loaded up the SJ on a car trailer at AutoFashions and hauled it to the other shop. Later in the afternoon- Dan sets up the blasted seat frames and springs on the parts rack, then coats the parts with rust prevention agent. One front seat bottom frame is cracked and needs to be welded. Some areas of the rear springs attaching plates are rusted through and needs to reinforced with new metal so that the new hog rings that hold the leather seat covers will have a secure fitting. 08-04-2008-Photos have been updated with the dash board and one of the seat panels. Dan will be working on the seat frames today. We still don't have communications between shop AutoFashions and other shop with internet or Fax, but hopefully by the end of the week that will finally be established. I plan on going over to our new Shop to see what is going on. Later this evening I welded the crack that was on the J-model seat bottom frame and grinded down the area smooth for painting. It was determine later that the J-model rear seat bottom spring was just too rusted out. I tried to drill additional holes for the new hog rings to bite, but this area is just too weak, so I didn't charge for the drilling instead I removed the rear seat bottom that came out of the SJ-model and removed the foam and seat cover. This spring is in much better shape as shown next to the J-model spring. The replacement spring was scuffed, coated with rust prevention and painted. Tomorrow the seat frames will be taken to the upholster. All that remains to work with are both front seat adjusters for the bucket seat. 08-05-2008-The Seat frames were loaded up and taken to the upholster. He did say that he may have the seats completed by this Friday. 08-06-2008-John the upholster came by (AutoFashions) for some needed seat springs and I happen to have some he could used to finish the seats with. I ordered New Formed Carpet to match the interior today for the SJ-See Parts Report for arrive status. 08-11-2008-From what I have seen when I visited shop B, Newman was preparing the radiator support to be painted. 08-12-2008-From what I observed Newman was removing rust & scale from a lot of nuts, bolts and washers to reassemble vehicle. 08-13-2008-Photos where taken of the seats. 08-16-2008-John dropped off the dash board and one of the front seats and Dan brought them to the other shop to be stored for viewing, but owner want to see more progress on vehicle before making out a trip. 08-18-2008 -Ben & Dan load up the J-model vehicle and haul it over to shop B. 08-25-2008--Dan picks up the remaining seats at the leather upholstery shop and brings them to New shop B. 09-16-2008-From what I can see and ask Ben when he brought some parts over to AutoFashions be painted if one of the particular parts was for the SJ. He replied yes. I notice Ben took the time to mask of the identification stickers on the radiator support panel before he paint the entire panel Black this morning. 09-22-2008-Newman worked on Installing the Radiator support panel and Ben took a picture the following day. 09-23-2008-Ben said that 73 sj the heater and a/c is starting to be installed and parts were cleaned and painted . 09-24-2008-Than said SJ a/c box was installed . and the wire harnesses are starting to go bac in the car. 09-25-2008-When Dan came by to pick up some parts, Ben & Newman were repairing, applying electrical tape and cleaning the engine compartment wiring harnesses. Some harnesses have already been installed to vehicle. 09-26-2008-When Dan arrived later in the afternoon,Ben had already swapped over to the new A/C compressor all the brackets. He then installed the compressor and belts. I also notice that relays have been installed on the firewall along with some additional wiring harness. Dan finds that the Distributor needed to either be rebuilt or have a replacement. 09-29-2008-Ben frees up the cam on the distributor on the SJ while Newman removes the hood, the steering wheel & column from the other J model vehicle. 09-30-2008 -When I came up to the new shop this morning, Ben shows me what he and Newman has done on the vehicle. The radiator was cleaned and painted black again, later it was installed in vehicle along with a very clean Fan shroud. Ben was showing Newman what parts of the steering column needed to be cleaned for painting. Later in the day Ben goes to Auto Fashions and paints the inside inner wheel wells with black paint. 10-01-2008-Ben painted the air breather assembly and the exterior wheel wells. 10-02-2008 -Dan moved all the parts that were painted in to the van to be shipped to the new shop. 10-06-2008-Ben Clean and polished one batch of rusty nuts and bolts in the tumbler cleaning machine. 10-13-2008-Ben's Report- dash work. installing the wiring harnesses. 10-14-2008-Newman works on preparing the gas tank to be painted on both sides, He obtains the cruise control box that was removed from the SJ model and polishes the aluminum. (photo taken from 73-J model ). 10-15-2008-Ben installs the dash board assembly to the vehicle and continues installing the wiring. Ben's report : sj dash installed wiring continues. 10-20-2008-Ben works on vehicle today with the wiring harness and steering column from the J model vehicle the new parts that arrived by FEDEX today. Photo of the new exhaust & fuel system. Ben Installs both Headers left and right, installs the carburetor adaptor plate along with the Carburetor and Air Breather Housing. 10-22-2008-Ben brings the gas tank to Auto Fashions and hangs the tank from the parts rack to be painted. 10-22-2008-Ben paints & clear coats both sides of the gas tank with silver paint. 10-23-2008-Ben works on doing all the plumbing work with all the heater hoses, fuel hoses, Hose clamps fuel steel lines, vacuum lines, customizing EGR valve, Installing the cruise control, Throttle Springs & linkage. Some additional electrical lines and both front Inner fender wells. 10-24-2008-Ben works on installing gas tank and fuel hoses in the area. Dan brings out of storage to new shop the drive shaft and the steering shaft below the steering column. Newman works on battery tray. Ben installs the battery tray in along with a new plastic reinforcement. He also installs a new blower motor. The coolant reserve tank out of the J model is used because the SJ model is crack and leaking. 10-27-2008-BC*-There was a leak in the radiator. Also the SJ vehicle radiator was extremely dirty with a lot of deposits on coolant passage tubes shown in photo below, so a new radiator was purchased. Later Newman removes the old radiator, transmission cooler line connections and installs a new radiator. Ben starts up and runs the vehicle and adjusts the fuel mixture and idle screws. Ben starts to assemble the remaining exhaust pipes. Couple of the pipes had to be modified and welded at AutoFashions. The charging system showed a slight negative charge, which showed up on the charging light in the vehicle. The alternator isn't putting out the correct amperage for the vehicle. Newman removes the alternator from the J model and places it on the bench.
10-28-2008-From what I can see Ben finished installing the remaining exhaust pipes and then I found him removing the old console from the J model vehicle. 10-31-2008-Ben dissasembles the alternator and has the pieces power coated with silver paint by Joe. Later Ben received the parts that were power coated and assembles the alternator, then installs it on the vehicle. 11-14-2008-Ben removes the brake assembly parts off the SJ vehicle and bring both brake rotors & rear drums to AutoFashions to have them resurfaced using our brake lathe. Afterward Ben drives back up to new shop and installs new rear brake cylinders and all the brake hardware for the rear of vehicle. Later he installs the brake cables and adjust the parking brake. The front brakes & the wheel bearings haven't been assembled yet, but a photo shows the old brake shoes and pads. The front brake calipers will be inspected and may be overhaul depending on their condition. 11-17-2008-Newman removes the old bearings from the SJ and Ben inspects them for wear. I assume that the bearings were good as I see Ben has just sent me a photo report-Finally :). The wheel bearings were repacked with grease and wheel bearings adjusted. New brake pads were install. The brake calipers did not need overhauling, so they were reinstalled . Both sides were completed. 11-22-2008-We had a car club meeting and the owner wanted to started up his new Red Dragon up to hear it run. 01-08-2009-Ben & John start doing body work on the vehicle today. Ben cuts out some rusted metal out from the quarter panel and welds new metal in, followed by doing filler work. 01-09-2009-From what Dan has seen the body work was being worked on. 01-11-2009-Dan updated photos to website 01-20-2009-Dan drove by later in the evening to capture some pictures. Johns reports said Ben & John installed Driver & Passenger doors along with the deck lid. 01-21-2009-Dan carefully mounts in the morning the primed hood for the SJ from AutoFashions on to his van and delivers it in the evening to the new busines CAR inc. 01-22-2009-John & Ben prepared both inner fenders & paints them along with the hood panel. 01-23-2009-Ben mounts the left front fender, but is having trouble lining up the bolt holes, so Ben may have to remove it and install the fender & wheel well as an assembly. Ben works on doing this operation on the right side and will install it soon with the help of John 01-26-2009 -John report-Ben & John add the fender & assembly for the right side as a unit onto the vehicle, Later the headlamp header panel was mocked up to make sure pieces were adjusted correctly, but it will have to come down again to do more body work. John continues doing body work on the fenders & doors 01-29-2009-More body work is done to deck lid. Doors and fenders were finished out, than primed and ready for blocking out for final painted. John the Upholstery guy came by to give an estimate to do the vinyl top. The car was towed to his shop in Pittsboro to have this done. 01-30-2009-One of the guys prepared & painted both hood hinges
*>**Hood and hinges were installed. Not sure of the date since no progress was given to Dan.............. 02-06-09- For selfish reasons there has been some interior competiton and I was not awared that I been locked out of my own business at the new Carolina Auto Restorers Inc shop. 02-20-2009- I am very sorry to report, but there will be no more future written reports, since other co-worker doesn't want me to participate at theshop where the car was moved to. I will at least try to obtain photo updates as long and as best he can while visiting over there dispite selfish childish behavior. 02-23-2009-I updated the Photo while I was there 05-14-2009-Last I seen the Car is still not completed at our other shop and has been placed in HOLD status. At this point I have to stop all my hard work on this progress presentation because of matters beyond my control and that I have to rebuild the original business at Auto Fashions! 08-30-2009-I added in the video found on youtube so there could be a patch in the presentation that I did try to present to future customers.
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