Tweet
George Brazil bankrolled Gary Grey into business. Gary was employed by TommyGate, the liftgate manufacturer. Gary opened up his shop in Santa Fe Springs and started fabricating shelving and interiors for the vans George was using for his Santa Ana plumbing practice. George quickly changed to Grumman boxes on a van chassis, then Grumman made boxes on Isuzu NPR chassis. Initially the box shelving was made from erector set style steel perforated channels and shelving, but George switched to stamped aluminum sheet metal and welded structures.
I remember showing up at Gary's Santa Fe Springs facility and seeing half a dozen Brazil Isuzu trucks lined up in various stages of build. Loyd Paxton handled graphic sticker signage and Sonic Excellence did the alarms, side turn indicators, rear door and alarm wiring, etc. Kal Plastics handled vacuum forming the gray trays and dividers.
Eventually, Gary moved his fabrication facility to a larger commercial facility in Corona as George was selling a lot to his franchisees. When franchising sales slowed considerably, Gary started to struggle, and eventually closed up shop. George took his design to Vahe and AAA Truck Catering in SoCal.
I once asked George if the picture of the guy in the truck was a real person. He said told me he commissioned a graphic artist to create a generic photo fof a guy who was good looking enough that housewives would want a guy like that to show up, but not so good looking her husband would not want him to show up. haha.
George was a REALLY sharp guy, and the only one I have ever spent time with who could talk shop as long as I could.
I remember showing up at Gary's Santa Fe Springs facility and seeing half a dozen Brazil Isuzu trucks lined up in various stages of build. Loyd Paxton handled graphic sticker signage and Sonic Excellence did the alarms, side turn indicators, rear door and alarm wiring, etc. Kal Plastics handled vacuum forming the gray trays and dividers.
Eventually, Gary moved his fabrication facility to a larger commercial facility in Corona as George was selling a lot to his franchisees. When franchising sales slowed considerably, Gary started to struggle, and eventually closed up shop. George took his design to Vahe and AAA Truck Catering in SoCal.
I once asked George if the picture of the guy in the truck was a real person. He said told me he commissioned a graphic artist to create a generic photo fof a guy who was good looking enough that housewives would want a guy like that to show up, but not so good looking her husband would not want him to show up. haha.
George was a REALLY sharp guy, and the only one I have ever spent time with who could talk shop as long as I could.