Don Schisler, one of the original builders of the Georgia General Lee's and transportation coordinator for the Dukes of Hazzard has died of a heart attack. Don suffered a major heart attack on March 13th and was admitted to St. Joseph's hospital in Atlanta. He died april 1st 2009.

Just to give you an idea of who he was and what he did, here's the foreword of John Holland's book "The Roads Back to Early Hazzard " written by Don Schisler himself.

The phone rang: "Hi. This is John Merandi. Could we meet to discuss picture cars? I need your help with a show I've got coming up."

The next day in Conyers, Georgia, I met John Merandi of Warner Brothers Studios. He had just been assigned the position of Transportation Coordinator for a short series called The Dukes of Hazzard. John gave me a copy of the script and asked that I do a take-off list of all the cars needed for the thirteen episodes. For the hero car, I listed that a late '60s model Camaro or Mustang or a '69 Charger be used. Also listed were a Cadillac and a wrecker as nondescipt background cars.
At our second meeting, John informed me that the Charger had been selected as the hero. At that time, Warner Brothers had purchased three Chargers and two Dodge Monacos (police cars). All five cars were being prepped in Burbank and would be shipped to Georgia for the filming. My job was to find the remaining cars and get to work prepping those. When the General Lees finally arrived, nothing had been done to the cars mechanically. Hours before shooting, I found myself working on the brakes, transmissions and nearly everything else. This work started a twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week effort that continued until the day we wrapped the show.

There was also a macho, under-the-radar competition going on between Stunts Unlimited and the Stunt Man Association. Paul and Craig Baxley were the kingpins in Stunts Unlimited. In their effort to succeed and take car stunts to the next level, the General Lee had to become a star. It was a magical element, and with great casting and non-stop excitement, they produced an enormous succes.
Each morning we would gather all of the available cars that were ready for film and send them to the set. We'd take a break, which for the body shop meant tending to the regular customers and for me, meant trying to find more cars for the series. Then around 3 PM, wreckers would start arriving with the devastation of the day's shoot. Due to this quick turnaround, the car budget was blown by the time the pilot wrapped. For the remainder of the filming, we scraped to purchase and prep replacement vehicles.

I would like to thank H&H Body Shop, Charles Martin, my son, John, mechanics from Lennox Dodge, and all the others who made it all happen. Their enthusiasm and the gung-ho assistance that I received were beyond all imagination.

Don Schisler