Sandy and Mike Creations Unlimited
Michelle, Lisa, Lori, Alisha, Taylor, Logan, Johnathan Michael, Jordy,
Ricky, Nicholas Michael, the next generation.

 The most artistic thing I ever created and I had a lot of help with this project,
is our three daughters, Michelle, Lisa and Lori.
Then there was.......

Fiberglass Design and Fabrication, prototype design and construction, mold making and production
is what I know and what I did as a youngster. It was my profession and I became very
knowledgeable of the field along with all the skills that were necessary to understand
what it was all about. I did a lot of things before I got into fiberglass design and
manufacturing and along the way during the ups and downs I had to learn other skills,
which just enhanced my experience in the field.

(I posed the kids on one of those coffee tables we made)

As I look back and knowing what I now know and have experienced I was one of the great ones, (in the field of fiberglass) darn good at my craft but a lousy business person, or at least I didn’t put money away, or plan for the future, the money was always great and we just enjoyed it, wasted it but enjoyed it while we had it. Always invested it back into the business bought newer and better tools and equipment, and all kinds of toys that I wanted and or the kids and wife wanted. At the time there was a  lot of money to be made in just about anything ‘fiberglass’, and I have manufactured or produced so many products I can’t even remember them all. Several of my projects are still floating around town, tanks I manufactured, cars, boats, statues, fountains, swimming pools, whirlpools, marine products, fish boxes, dock boxes, refrigerators, pickup beds, motor homes, Van parts and accessories, even replica cars just about anything that could be made out of fiberglass I (we) even produced Florida Souvenirs, Gifts and Decorative accessories, table tops, coating bar tops and embedding things in resin or epoxy. anything I could make out of polyester resin. (still in the field of Fiberglass Reinforced Plastics)

The few times that I was employed it did not take long for me to know more then the owner or the foreman or manager of the company, I almost always ended up taking away their jobs, or moving up the ladder until I knew I should get into business on my own. (several times in fact, never successfully)

(Sandy’s bird just had to get into the picture. Our table was one of those wire spools which were everywhere at one time. If you looked down into the deepest part of the table, I imbedded a little tiny dried shrimp)

A friend in Florida got me my first major job making fiberglass irrigation storage tanks. It didn’t take me long to get good at what I was doing and I soon had his job. That’s just about how it happened each time I was required to be employed because I had screwed up another attempt at being self employed. That happened a couple of times. I have been a total failure business wise and the only real success I have in life is my family, that’s it and that’s all it should ever have been.

(I would make these during demonstrations for the chopper gun)

Along the way as I learned what fiberglass was all about, and back then we did everything by hand, from prototypes, to molds, to product manufacturing. All the construction materials were laid out by hand, and rolled out (to get rid of the air bubbles) with brushes and rollers. At the time a device came along called the ‘chopper gun’ a method to apply resin and chopped glass all out of a spray gun looking apparatus being fed by hoses and chopping the roving in short lengths, mixing with the resin and the catalyst and spraying onto a prepped molded surface, much like spraying paint except you had to be concerned with the pattern of spray, and the thickness of each pass, then rolling out the air bubbles. Applying more layers to achieve the proper thickness for the strength you needed for that particular part.

I had to learn all about this new gadget and went to work for the inventor of the chopper gun, Dick Bradley and of course moved my way up the ladder to managing the fiberglass portion of the company. I think Sandy and I were in our first year of marriage. The above Model T replica car was one of our projects that we used to demonstrate the chopper gun. I met a lot of people while demonstrating and instructing the people that purchased the Glass-Mate Chopper Gun. Lots of job offers came my way.

The original designers of the fiberglass helmet (Bell) came for a demonstration and bought some of the first systems, even bowling ball manufacturers who originally made their molds out of fiberglass came to see this ‘wonder gun. Many of the first major boat companies purchased the equipment from Glas-Mate and I demonstrated and taught them how to use the equipment. Giving a three day course if they bought, that’s when I got more job offers.
(about a year or two after I left the company, Dick Bradley was bought out by Glas-Craft a competitor. Something around $2,500,000, he died two weeks after the purchase)

The company also produced many of the chemicals used in fiberglass construction at the time, specialty resins, gel-coats, putty, and other products. I got a good feel of how to make and use all the chemicals and got to see and memorize all of Dick Bradleys secret formulas. That knowledge became a tremendous asset. Many companies bought their original spray equipment from Dick Bradleys, PECCO, Plastic Engineering and Chemical Company. Firms like Chaparral(sp), Thunderbird, Cigarette. Atlantic, North American, American 415, Chris Craft, Bathroom World, Corinthian Marble, so many companies many of the names escape me....

(the above chopper gun was made by Glas-Craft. When I was in business I could not afford a Glas-Mate so had to do with a cheaper chopper gun) As you can imagine I made a lot of contacts and received loads of job offers, a few too many. Many of the offers consisted of partnerships and more money then I dreamed I could ever make. I wrote them down for future reference, until one day I took one of them up on their offer to pay me more money in a week then I made in three months of working for Mr. Dick Bradley. Along with a partnership, bunches of money up front, and they would move us to San Antonio paying all the moving company costs. I told him my plans, and he invited me to lunch to educate me and make a counter offer and like I always did, I made the wrong decision, I took the other offer against Mr. Bradley’s advice since he hinted I could go far with him in his business and these types of offers would always be there.
The original fiberglass dune buggies got off the ground when the Meyers Manx became popular in California. Then everybody including myself ripped off their product. Everybody ripped off everybody and there was nothing that could be done about it.

We started out manufacturing Dune Buggies, and back then it was a very common practice to purchase another fiberglass product, make a mold off of it and start producing them on your own. Once you pulled the first one out of the mold, you would be in the process of making changes to the original design, making a new plug, a new mold, and someone would rip off your design.

(we sold hundreds of these during the craze)

I learned how to make these things from the ground up, popping the bodies off Volkswagens, shortening the frames, mounting the fiberglass body, wiring, making a running vehicle. Selling the complete product and then too, just supplying dune buggy bodies to other small business operators who wanted the bigger profit from assembling the entire kit car themselves. I learned how to weld at this time, and that was one more skill that I acquired.

(We took time out to let the kids see Circus World, which didn’t last long and I always had my camera ready for those special moments).

While in San Antonio, Texas, I discovered that my partner was the former district attorney of San Antonio, and was a very unsavory fellow and the money people were the “Williams” who ran all the gambling in San Antonio at the time. They just wanted a business they could get their son interested in, to keep him out of the ‘business’. This was not good...

(we parked our bikes in front of the old shop to draw attention to the business. I did not like to advertise because we could not keep the production up based on the advertising. We learned that the hard way by getting behind after two ads ran in one of the motorcycle magazines of the day.)

I called Sandy from the plant, told her to have a garage sale, and sell or give away everything. Get a small trailer packit  with what we needed to get out of there fast. When I went to lunch I cashed my check, took out the money we had in the bank, made a few phone calls, and never looked back. I took another one of those ‘job offers’ I had written down in New Smyrna Beach at Chimera Enterprises, a small fiberglass company right behind the Drive In theater in New Smyrna, making dune buggies of course.

(This was one of my favorite projects, from the prototype, to the plug, master mold to production mold, the company folded after we got three of them made and I never got paid)

The owner of Chimera Enterprises was a guy that owned the local junk yard and a very successful junk yard at that. Strange though. Of all things he had his very beautiful three bedroom home built right in the middle of the auto junk yard. Weeks into the job and I discovered he made a pass at my wife. I nearly ‘laminated him’. I made a few calls and was on my way back to Fort Lauderdale. This time to look for a job until I would get the bug again to go back into business. None of the offers sounded very good by this time,

(another one of my bikes ready to make a delivery. I had two Kowi’s both 1100’s, and Sandy went through about four different bikes before she settled on a Suzuki 1000).

I was hired by a company called Travel Coach, the first ‘all fiberglass’ motor home built on a Dodge truck chassis. Had to use all my skills to hndle this job, mold designing, mold making, gel coating, operating and training others how to use the chopper gun, managing a department. I was just a foreman of that part of the company and ironically my boss was another fellow that worked with Dick Bradley and got this ‘cushy’ job offer while he worked at PECCO...

I soon got the bug to get back in business so started to look for one I could buy on terms. I came across an ad for a partner with my background. It was called FiberGlass Design and Engineering and the two owners Don O’Malley and Scotty Scudder did not know one thing about fiberglass so that was a shoe-in. I was made a partner up front, and all we were manufacturing was a pool pump cover and special tanks for fire engines that were the beginning of the foam dispensing units. Don was the salesman, Scotty was the money man and me, little ole me, just designed, made the molds, and the product for what ever they came up with. I was the entire crew although they would come in and help now and again
(boy do I have the memories and stories from this time in my life)

The Golden Chariot Restaurant came to us with an idea and I put together the above, from scratch, well nearly. I did take a mold off one horse to be able to make the second, but I did hand sculpture and fiberglass the rest of the Chariot Racer, Chariot and all. Scotty saw to the installation on the corner of their parking lot on Commercial Blvd. near the ocean, here in Fort Lauderdale. The restaurant eventually failed of course, and the statue ended up as a full size lawn ornament on some rich dudes home.

(Michelle was scared to death of the Gladiator, since I had to stand him in the corner of my office while I constructed the rest of the statue).

One day while at work I had nothing better to do then tinker with some clear casting resin. To make a long story short I made a dog dish by taking some clear casting resin adding in some coloring, some metal flake and pouring into the back side of a small plastic dog dish. (you remember them, the plastic, red, yellow, blue small, medium and large dog dishes everyone could pick up at the grocery store for about a dollar). Well Don took the first one  down to a local pet supply company in Miami and came back with an order for 1440 dog dishes. 1440 dog dishes of each size, small, medium and large. We were now in the casting business manufacturing dog dishes. Small, medium and large, and they were everywhere. The orders were so big we had to order special shrink wrap equipment. It doubled as our mold making machine

(Sandy’s graduation with the family proud as ever)

Which I eventually built up into a Gift and Decorative Accessory business since I continued into experimenting with casting ‘stuff’ We manufactured all those dumb looking Florida looking souvenirs, like napkin holders/letter holders, wall plaques, trivets, dolphin this and sea horse that. We sold to all the Federated Departments stores in the north, Grey Drug chain, Eckerd Drug store chain, all the local gift shops, and many all over the state. Including just about every major ‘attraction’ in Florida.

 We named that part of the company Unique Industries and I ran into my first partner problems and bought them out changing the name to Glass-Like Incorporated aka Unique Decorative Castings.
(the buy out was easy, Don went to the refrigerator one day and was so thirsty took a swig out of a one gallon jug that he thought was water. It was the catalyst we used with the resin, he just about died. He should  have known better since we had two refrigerators, one for chemicals and one for our lunches and water)

  (Dolphins and Sea Horses were the two most popular wall plaques, with abalone shell. Our most popular napkin/letter holder were the Dolphins, Poinsetta, and a Daisy, with the Mushroom and Owl running right behind them. We also made trivets, toilet seats, remember those little ‘happy face’ flowers and odds and ends, well we manufactured those too).

From there I went onto doing other projects revolving around casting resin, imbedding, etc. Remember the toilet seats with coins, razor blades, flowers, nuts and bolts. Well in the beginning you might have seen the ones we manufactured. We also manufactured table tops, bar tops, imbedding just about anything and everything that the resin would not dissolve or damage. We did all the table tops at a local McDonalds, a fancy version of the McDonalds! the Ambry, Drydock, The Wine Cellar in Dania, Tonys Runway Italian Restaurant or Runway 84 as it was known. We did the entire bar top imbedded with baggage tickets. Once the table tops took off as a fad we manufactured molds for those too. We nearly had a whole block of warehouses, under the Glass-Like Incorporated adventures with the newest business called ‘The Table Factory’.
(we as in Sandy and I)
(the molds we used for casting the napkin holders, wall plaques, etc., , were all available for the home craftsman and we eventually vacuum formed and designed our own)

We used to find these wire cable spools abandoned around town by the local Florida Power and Light. Some times they would store them in their fenced in areas and we had to buy them, as little as $50.00 for a spool about 15 feet across. (we got two for one, top and bottom) We had hundreds stacked up behind the plant, and even more inside that we had taken apart just to retrieve the tops and bottoms which eventually became table tops, end tables, coffee tables even chandeliers.

Gotta look closely here, a spool table in the background to the left, the nail keg stools with the cushion top. Another nail keg with an abalone top, and if you look in the corner a custom coffee table top. Hatch covers! We sold those in the hundreds, at that time we could buy old hatch covers from just about any boat yard, until they caught on to what the demand was and raised their prices to match what we got for selling the coated, or imbedded hatch covers. That’s Michelle doing an invoice.

The wooden wire spools (from the electric company) that were scattered all over the place at the time was another item we used to make a product. I dismantled them, prepped them, torched and sanded for an effect and coated with clear resin to make table tops, from 24 inch to ones as big as 15 feet across. Those I turned into complete personal indoor or out door bars, cut out the centers so a person or two could stand and act as a bar tender. Shelves and other storage area, even a couple of those little refrigerators

(Sandy’s favorite bike, a Susuki 1000. We both pulled trailers when we made delivers. We sold them all over the states but would only deliver as far as Atlanta)

I would use nail kegs that I would also burn with a blow torch for effect and coat with resin,  with and without imbedments. Cushion the top of the nail kegs which we used as seats around these giant spools. At times if someone got really drunk they would try and dig out what was imbedded in the resin, especially if it was money. The most expensive table top/bar top I ever made, although I did not supply the imbedment which was $100 bills. I believe there was a total of $30,000 in imbedded $100 bills scattered throughout the table top. Doesn’t sound like a big deal since it was not my money but, you have to have been in my shoes, I had to make sure that when I placed the $100 bills in the resin there could not be any air bubbles or I would have to ‘eat’ the project. It took several pourings or layers to fully cover the $100 bills. Then hours and hours of  sanding and many more hours of buffing to make these table tops/bar tops, Glass Like. With a good half inch of clear casting resin over the entire exposed surface. And no flaws or air bubbles, not one single air bubble.

I liked Monopoly and I encapsulated an entire game and made it into a wall plaque/picture. It got a lot of comments! What you can’t see is the depth of the resin, which covered the tallest houses, deck of properties and the tokens.

I also converted part of the plant into living quarters. Building everything, give or take a chair or two. Two floors, tiled, air conditioned, carpeting, full kitchen, and the entire upstairs was the kids bed room. When we camped out at the plant. I did this since I would some times work straight through for several days and I wanted the comforts of home and I wanted the kids and wife close by incase of any emergency and for their safety. Even had a full size sauna/whirlpool/bathtub since a good relaxing whirlpool was all I needed to relax and get the energy to work another 36 to 48 hours. The kids liked it so much we spent more time at the plant then we did at home.

I used the burnt wood look all through the apartment/offices and a when we were making table tops and bars for customers, Just used a blow torch, wire brush and sand paper to get just the right look, then coated it with resin, layer after layer until it was generally under 1/2 inch of clear resin. Either Epoxy or Polyester depending on the job.

My businesses failed because I was not good with moneys and I did not like partners. The recessions put me out of business a couple of times too, especially when it came to petroleum based products. I remember once when resin was $95.00 a barrel, and the very next day when a ‘recession’ was first announced it went up to $400 a barrel. I regularly  bought 40 - 55 gallon drums a month. Not any more.... Here I went down the tubes again...

(This was the easiest business to get into at the time. We bought our first molds at Tandy’s then made our own. We poured nearly 2000 a day. Rarely did we ever have any rejects or broken items during manufacture).

The Gifts and Decorative Accessories business would not recover so I went back to working for someone until I had enough money to finance a new start. During this part of my life, a down time, I sold all my assets from the casting companies to a man in Jamaica naming the new company (Creative Products International). I was paid very well at the time and really should have paid him for the opportunity. What a beautiful country it was. At that time the government always had a piece of the action. So you actually were setting up the business for the Jamaican Government. Not so good..
(lots of memories and stories there too, lived down the street from Bob Marley and got to see and meet him a couple of times although I was not impressed with him at the time, as popular and wealthy as he was, he stunk, smelled big time)

(we imported the abalone shell from California, and did it ever stink. We had to convert an old drier to tumble the shells and chunks of shells to make them smooth. And of course wash them thoroughly to get rid of that smell)

I took on a job at a local company manufacturing synthetic marble products, counter tops, sinks, bathtubs whirlpools. I moved up the ladder too fast and the partner of the partner was concerned and one day I was asked to come in for a meeting with the two partner/owners. The ‘threatened’ partner who was then plant manager and the money man, told his partner, that he had a choice, either I go or he goes. This was the day before Christmas of all times and I had no idea this type of problem was festering. Of course I was not chosen over the ‘money man. This company was called Corinthian Marble.

The company failed, dragged down and destroyed by the ‘not so smart manager’ and a year or two later the one surviving partner, the one that decided the money man was a better choice came to me to make him molds for his new company, which I agreed to do  and stuck it to him big time cost wise. I was then making ‘skins’ and molds for several firms, you might recognize a few of these products.

The above was created and assembled from a Mustang, I made many of the molds and the skins as we called them (exterior parts that you see) to change the look of the original Mustang. This was put out by Zimmer Homes, a mobile home manufacturer at the time. They eventually put in their own fiberglass facilities.

I had a hard time finding an old photo of this one so had to steal one off the Internet but making the skins for this ‘replicar’ was more fun since this was on a Corvette body. Of course I got to use one often for special occasions. (Sammy Davis had a couple of these and that other famous plastic car)

This was a project that took advantage of what I knew about making and assembling dune buggies. The Gazelle. I was also making whirlpools and swimming pools, the full size pools that took a semi-truck to deliver. I was advised it would be better off to close the business down and sell of my assets to to the owner of the company that made the original version of the kit car. I was making a product that I had ripped off from one I bought for just that purpose, to make and produce the same car, a replica of a vintage 1929 Mercedes Benz. (even the company that I sold out to also ripped off the first Gazelle from a fiberglass company in the north, ripping off product was very common) It wasn’t so bad since I ended up running their fiberglass operation for awhile until I encountered a problem with one of their employee’s and was nearly blinded, I still experience eye problems from that incident but they had to pay me off, and I went my separate way to recuperate. I started a new company called CRT, for Corrosion Resistant Trucks. I then made replacement pick up beds out of fiberglass for the people that had pool cleaning services. The chemicals would destroy a metal truck bed in no time. Also started making trailers.

(I have no idea why I started the mustache and then the beard but I have had one almost all our married life. This is my dads wife who came down to visit).

After my sight recovery I went back into business making all the fiberglass product for Pompanette, a local marine manufacturer of fighting chairs, and other marine product, dock boxes, bait wells, storage tanks. We also made fiberglass fender flares and other fiberglass parts for vans. I subcontracted out to a company called Craft Manufacturing and ended up teaching their clients how to make the complete sets and start their own small business. I traveled extensively during this time, since I would go out on the road and troubleshoot the manufacture of the products. Craft Manufacturing ended up being one heck of a scam, and there were a lot of investors, along with Mohammed Ali and I can’t remember all the other famous names. Folks that had so much money they could throw it away on this deal and that deal. I was contracted to do the all the designing, manufacture of the molds and the training so I wasn’t one of the crooks. (loads of memories and stories there too)

I was also making the Travelier at the time which was a motorcycle trailer, the last major fiberglass product we manufactured before  my daughter who just turned 16 had a stroke. This changed our priorities and I finally realized that I was not meant to be a millionaire although we started out spending like one.
(I took this picture of Lisa to get ready to celebrate her 16th birthday, she had her stroke 4 days after her 16th birthday)

( in the back ground was the International Gold Bullion Building that got into the news as one of Fort Lauderdale’s biggest scams. No gold in the vaults just 2x4’s shaped and spray painted to look like gold bars).

 When Lisa had her stroke, we gave up our plans to be zillionaires We realized that there were more important things in life then money. We gave up the businesses, after Lisa’s stroke and literally put an ad in the newspaper for one weekend and what ever we sold we sold, other wise it just stayed in the plant. We even left the over head doors open, hoping everything would be stolen and carted off. We just didn’t want to deal with anything other then hoping and praying that Lisa would live, we lived at the hospital for 30 days, sleeping in the waiting room. It was touch and go all that time..
Getting rid of the lingerie stores wasn’t so easy, and we really didn’t want to spend any time away from Lisa and work out the best deal to sell or unload the inventory. We had well over
$250,000 in inventory. We closed the doors and just stored the inventory. (later I would use the inventory to get into a mail order business) That too is another story....

This was our business card (when we had the fiberglass businesses) folded it looked just like a $100 bill and it fooled everyone, it was not wise to make them back then. Ran into a little problem with the Treasury Department but got it all straightened out, it sure did get the attention.

I forgot to mention that we also owned two lingerie stores during this time. Sheer Fantasy and Della’s Exotic Lingerie. My wife had pretty much gotten sick and tired of so many ups and downs and wanted to have something to do on her own. So I bought her a lingerie store. When Lisa had her stroke, it pretty much made us both realize that what we really wanted out of life was a tight knit loving and caring family.

Later on when Lisa was home and we were taking care of her I went into the mail order business, publishing my own magazine and newsletter via the computer and photography, photo lab work, one hour lab management and operation. Writing for photography magazines as am amateur photographer. Printing and processing and computers which I have tinkered with since 1982 or the days of the Commodore. As a writer I was the Photobug.

Sandy wanted to learn a skill so took up upholstery.

 Both cats used to get involved in my camera work, and checked things out before I could start shooting. Baby the white cat we lost a few weeks after we moved into our new house, that was about 9 years ago. Beemer the cat you can hardly see, was put to sleep just a few months back, she was almost 18.

  It doesn’t sound like I have given much credit to my partner Sandy who worked with me in just about everyone of my failed business adventures. She has stood by me through them all. My one and only successful business investment was in our kids, Michelle, 1968, Lisa 1969 and Lori 1971. Sandy can be given all the credit for making that project turn out so well. Sandy and I married in 1966 and will be celebrating our 39th in just a few months.

  (Sandy with our first, Michelle born in San Antonio, Texas during one of my business adventures. The name of that adventure was ‘Plasticators’)

(Sandy now a Nanna, she does not like to be called Grandma, here with Jordy and Johnathan, just two of the seven grade kids).

Our oldest daughter is married and has two sons, Johnathan and Jordy. Lisa is married and has one daughter Taylor. Lori, the baby is not married and has three kids, Alisha, Ricky and Nicky. All live within the city limits and of course we hear and see them nearly daily. The one very successful adventure I have had is in keeping the family traditions, keeping the family together and enjoying all the benefits you acquire from a long and happy marriage..
Mike Dolliver Waterford Kettering Class of 1963
Sandy is the Upholstery Lady and her web site tells her story. http://www.upholsterylady.com she is the bread winner now.

Three daughters, seven grand kids later.

Then they grow up and they bring a bunch of little critters into the world and we have to start all over, teaching them what we have learned but do they listen?

The work is never done....when it comes to raising kids...

Fiberglass tanks, boats, dingies, replicars, dune buggies, race car cowlings, motorcycle cowlings, side saddles, seats, gas tanks, fenders, fender flares for vans, statues, synthetic marble sinks, bath tubs, whirl pools, pool panels, pools, table tops, dock boxes, refrigerator housings, bait wells, trailers, automobile replacement fiberglass parts, hoods, fenders bodies. Airplane parts, marine products all types. Molds, prototypes, master molds, latex molds, boat plugs, casted clear resin products, sailboat keels, sailboat decks, floating docks, water slides, amusement park fiberglass products, shower stalls, bath tubs, and the list could go on and on and on....I was a busy little guy...