By Guest writer on 2004-11-11
Written by: Colin Clark
Colin Clark plays in the ‘Live & Let Die’ goon boat while everyone else works (
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During this past Labor Day weekend, the focus was to spend most of our efforts bringing back to life the tri-haul goon chase boat from the 1973 film Live and Let Die. The black over white Glastrun can easily be seen in several shots of the Bayou boat chase sequence — the very boat which ends up in the Louisiana estate home swimming pool.
Early this summer the Foundation’s Vice President and Co-Founder Doug Redenius and one of the Foundations Directors, Dave Reinhardt, headed down to a small town in the heart of Texas to retrieve the aging tri-haul. Before hand they had tracked down the vehicle and confirmed it’s authenticity, as does the IFF with most or all it’s vehicles through thorough research and use identification numbers.
A few weeks before the Labor Day weekend, Mr. Redenius had the faded and tired looking upper black paint professionally re-painted, and lower white buffed and polished. The sleek exterior now shines like new as it did in 1973.
That Labor Day Thursday, IFF members Perrin and Shane arrived from the St. Cloud, Minnisoda area. During most every IFF Fix-Up weekend, these two guys come down to the Chicago area a few days before the rest of the weekend gang so that they can get an early start on the agenda. So that sunny Friday morning they gave Doug and Dave a hand on the Foundation’s latest acquisition gutting the worn out interior.
These four members started out by removing the ageing leather seats so that they could be cleaned and treated. Then they carefully pealed the indoor/outdoor carpet from the floorboards and lower sidewalls; the carpets would be shampooed later. They removed the upper leather sidewall panels and then started on the floorboards.
The plywood floorboards were in horrific condition due to obvious years of neglect. They had been waterlogged and decaying over the decades. After tearing out the plywood with serious concern as to not to damage the haul, the four-man team discovered a disgusting sight. Layers of rotted thick foam insulation used for buoyancy and noise reduction lying in a bead of dirt, mud and debris. A haven where micro-critters and creepy crawlers could be seen moving about.
They realised the daunting task ahead of them. The team completely cleaned out the boat bottom by removing the insulation, scooping and washing out the debris and wiping the whole area down. This great work load took a full day to complete.
Early Saturday Whitney from the Bloomington, Illinois area and myself showed up to dive into the workload. The six of us began by shampooing the carpets, cleaning and treating the leather seats and upper sidewall panels. Shortly after, Dennis and his son Ken arrived from the Buffalo Grove, Illinois area. They both helped me disconnect and remove the cable-controlled outboard motor. The boat is now waiting for an original type Evinrude motor to be searched for and located by the Foundation and friends.
In the early afternoon the rest of the gang had shown up and jumped in where ever they could lend a hand. These IFF buddies included: Tom, Joe, and James from the north Chicago suburbs and Dan from the Kankakee Illinois.
Doug and Ken where skill-fully manufacturing new floorboards while some of us where cutting and ripping new wood cross braces for the floorboards and Dan, Joe, and Whitney were carefully trying to make and fit the stubborn aft floorboard. When the new floor was in place, Whitney and myself meticulously re-glued all the carpets in place, reinstalled the upper leather sidewall panels and mounted the seats. We all were so proud and delighted at how sharp the IFF’s latest addition looked and how much we accomplished in such little time.
During the weekend our group also had plans to work on the Diamonds are Forever Bath-O-Sub, one of the The World is Not Enough Parahwaks and prepare the rest of the Bond vehicles for winter storage. So while much of the Live And Let Die goon boat was being worked on, Perrin and Shane were concentrating with the great amount of interior work need on the Diamonds Are Forever Bath-O-Sub.
This get together would be the first time the newer members would see with great excitement the Bath-O-Sub as well as one of the few remaining Thunderball underwater Tow Sleds. These two restored Foundation vehicles had just returned home a few weeks ago from their two-year stint in South England’s Beaulieu museum. They had been on display there in a special Ian Fleming Foundation exhibit along with several other of the IFF’s collection. And just recently the Foundation’s collection exhibit at Beaulieu recieved a contract extension to be on display there for a few more years.
The other vehicles which had been on display included: the Wet Nellie submarine Lotus Esprit and the very first wet bike ever from Spy Who Loved Me, the street version of the Q Boat and one of the Parahawks from The World is Not Enough, the Russian motorcycle Bond escapes with in the opening scene of Goldeneye, the actual AMC Hornet that 007 crashes through the auto dealership windows chasing Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun and finally the Glastrun speed boat Bond tries to elude other goon boats in Live and Let Die — the very boat that makes the uncontested boat land jump record. Both Live and Let Die boat will be displayed alongside eachother once we finish resporing the goon chase boat.
Back at the shop, Perrin and Shane were making considerable fiberglass repairs to the Bath-O-Sub’s cockpit centre monitor counsel and re-securing the side control panels. I never realised that cockpit needed any repairs when I first had seen the Sub at the IFF warehouse back in 2001. It looked just fine to me. These guys disguised the needed repairs very well back then. Shane and Perrin also needed to make some adjustments to the forward and aft cockpit hatch latches.
Some of us had been working on the “flyable” Parahawk. Not much was needed this time since most of the work on it was accomplished at the previous get-together. Back then we installing the proper engine and propeller, remounting the false underbody fiberglass snowmobile track, making and placing a new cover on the parachute pack, mounting four caster wheels on the skis for ease of manoeuvring and placing accessory controls around the engine area. This time we just needed add a few more engine accessory controls.
We also needed to prepare many of the other vehicles for winter storage. Tom, James, and Dan lead the crew in firing up the engines on one of the two Die Another Day Ski Doos and the Octopussy Tuk Tuk goon motorcycle taxi in order to clear their throats. And to properly stretch it’s legs, Doug took the Tuk Tuk for a little spin around the property.
The whole crew washed down the Moonraker Boat, the two Parahawks and the Ski Doos. Then placed covers and tarps on all the vehicles so that the collection can sleep safely until spring for the next Fix-Up, show display or exhibit.
At the end of the day the entire gang had a feeling of great accomplishment as we do at every Fix-Up get-together. We all cleaned up our work areas, put the tools away and packed up our belongings to get ready for the evenings of BONDing.
Doug and the Foundation usually treat the group for a nice dinner out. But for convenience and because of the lack of motivation to get dressed up after a long hard weekend, Doug and his lovely and supportive wife Paula opted this time for a specially catered meal to be set up at their charming home. They had arranged for a wonderful several course menu.
At every get together, we all really enjoy capping off the day by lounging around the Redenius’ front deck sharing personal and general James Bond stories and laughs while sipping a few cocktails, smoking cigars and listening to a plethora of 007 tunes.
Until next time… [The IFF Group signs off](https://commanderbond.net/gallery/iff/iffgroup): Whitney, Doug, Shane, Perrin, Ken, Dan, Dennis, James, Tom, Joe and Colin.
