The Original Family Dog Collective Panel Truck

Hello to all of San Francisco’s countless friends worldwide.

Welcome to the family dog Psychedelic Panel trucks go fund me page.

This Page, is dedicated to fund the ground up restoration of this  iconic piece of San Francisco History, The Family Dog 53 GMC panel truck.

The truck was owned by Family dog Collective member: David Homicz, and was a fixture around the Bay Area between 1965 and 1970.

It was used to haul musicians, Equipment and Instruments, to the various Free concerts staged all over San Francisco, including 55 years ago this last Tuesday, when it was used to help bring the music to the opening Salvo of the Summer of Love:

The Summer Solstice Party in Golden Gate Park’s

Polo field.

We are preserving this iconic piece of 

San Francisco history and are seeking out the best possible museum where It can become a permanent part of one of the remarkable mid 60s San Francisco exhibit out there.

This restoration would not be possible without all of your gracious and ongoing donations as your donations or what will be making this happen conversely it wouldn’t be possible either without the help of our good friend Professor Poster Rusty Goldman who is putting the word out for us, amongst his many followers.

Rescue will be hosting this page and will be giving you periodic updates about the ongoing progress of the restoration effort, which is being carried out here in Denver Colorado, the home of the second Family Dog Concert Hall, during 1967 & 1968.

His pages will be my exclusive conduit to you for posting photos and information about the truck and it’s ongoing restoration.

We occasionally will be asking questions of you to see if any of you have any photographs or firsthand experiences with the truck that we can document and used to assist us in this restoration.

Of particular importance will be trying to locate photos of the interior of the truck so we can replicate it with the earliest FamilyDog posters and we would like to find out who painted the full length Mandala on the roof.

Your stories and photos will be immensely helpful in the research to uncover as much about this truck history as we possibly can about this iconic piece of mid 60s psychedelic San Francisco history.

The restoration will be conducted in phases starting with totally rebuilding the engine and engine accessory‘s then moving onto the next system down the checklist.

Each system will be a milestone and reported on when completed.

Among other things we will be replacing the missing transmission starter generator and radiator and exhaust system then completely rebuilding the entire front axle and related steering components.

The next phase will be removing and rebuilding the differential and replacing all of the necessary items as needed.

Once that’s done we’ll be moving on to the springs and shock absorbers we will reuse any parts that we can and replace those that we can’t.

Again as you can see this is an extensive restoration and it will consume many hours of time in a great deal of funding.

Next up will be the brake system it will be completely replaced including the brake lines and master cylinder the drums and every other component.

Various parts on the entire truck will have to be replaced as they’ve gone missing over the last 52 years when the truck was lost in a deep forest.

Once the mechanical restoration is completed we will be bringing the truck back to San Francisco for a joyous homecoming.

This will likely happen, before we start on the rust repair and dealing with the interior, As we would like to show it to everyone.

Next will be the Myriad of body work details that we will need to address,  from rust,  to some of the dents,  to missing trim & lighting parts on the exterior. 

When we’re done with all the welding and grinding and all undoubtedly occur will start by replacing the broken and missing glass and the rubber that supports it.

Once the truck is water tight again will move on to the interior replacing the sheets and the floor mats and the wooden bed in the back of the truck

Along with the interior coverings of the panel body.

Once everything else is done,  we will start conserving the paint job, While leaving as much of the original paint work on the truck as is possible and only lightly touching up places where we would like it to read better.

Of course we will be touching up the Stanley Mouse is very cool family dog logo with a Portrait Sancho this aspect will be done using a sympathetic

Restoration process, to Enhance the remaining paint work on the logo and the full length mandala on the trucks Roof.

Remembering that this will be both expensive and time consuming, we appreciate every dollar we receive.

We will be setting ongoing goals, in the amount of

$10,000.00 for each phase to purchase services and materials for its ongoing restoration.

And $ left over will be rolled forward in to the nest phase of its restoration.

The entire project’s cost at this point is still speculation given we are at the very beginning, and haven’t dissembled the truck yet.

The restoration could easily top $150,000.00, or it could run less, only the time and actual parts involved can tell

Us exactly, once we are at the end of the project.

We appreciate every Donation made from$1.00 on up, And would like to Thank you in advance, for your generosity in funding this iconic trucks Restoration.

Respectfully Yours

Chris Stames