GM Futurliner 2002 Progress Reports |
|
HOME |
The following are Don Mayton's progress reports from the work sessions held in his pole barn. To read it in chronological order, start from the bottom and read up the page. 2002
Progress/Work
Reports |
| Dec. 10 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Del Carpenter, Fred Carpenter, Marge Carpenter,
Conrad DeJong, Ed DeVries, Bud Dinger, Jeff Dornbush, Ron Elzinga, Wayne
Jackson, Lois Jackson, Don Mayton, Art Meidema, Wilma Meidema, Martin
Reed, Dick Saddler, Wally Snow and John Wiltjer. GUESTS: Laurie
Wilson (Marge Carpenter, who has already buffed a lot of our aluminum trim
parts brought along her friend to show off the Futurliner.) John Atsma and
Sue Weiss (Kettering University Representative). Lunch was provided by Lois Jackson. Wayne delivered everything and had to plug in the two crock-pots and then serve. Sue our guest brought two banana loafs of bread, Wilma provided salad and Mike made and brought along deviled eggs. Howard and Al provided donuts for coffee. INSTRUMENT PANEL COMPONENTS Brad Boyajian, out in California, shipped some instrument trim pieces that we needed for our Futurliner. We appreciate this help. Brad has supported our project even though he is at the other end of the country. Thanks Brad. Last week Bruce Berghoff dropped off the Futurliner that he had cast from a steel core that we presented him. It is a beautiful job and it looks brand new. We thank Bruce for taking on this project. ELECTRICAL Jeff started the process to install the brackets for the limit switches that will turn off the side door motors once the doors are closed. Wally worked on the electrical panel that houses the Autronic Eye controls as well as other engine electrical control components such as the voltage regulator. Wally also gathered up a lot of electrical components so he can work on the Futurliner until our next work session in January. MECHANICAL Del along with Dick and Marty installed the wheel/tire assemblies so the Futurliner could be moved. BODY The entire focus today was to due the final sheet metal work to prepare the body so the final metal finishing and priming can be done at a local body shop over the next few weeks. Our welders, Howard, Connie, and Art spent all day welding on various fabricated metal sections from the roof down to the inner wheel houses. Right behind them were those with grinders (Ron, Bud, Fred, Don) dressing off the welds to a smooth finish. Howard was a construction welder, welding together high water towers that every community has. He welds as if everything can't ever leak. I know because I was grinding behind his welding. All of our welders do an outstanding job. Dick and Marty completed the inner wheel well supports and Howard and Connie welded them in place. REAR DOOR LATCH Jim continues to build a latch system for the two rear doors. ARCHIVES Mike continues to archive our material. Al, our photographer was busy with his job today. FUTURE FUTURLINER and PARADE OF PROGRESS BOOK Bruce Berghoff has picked up some of our archive material and is putting together a book that spans the dream of a Parade of Progress (1933 Century of Progress in Chicago), the actual creation of the Parade (1936) using Streamliners, the 2nd Parade using the Futurliners (1940), and then the 3rd Parade that spanned from 1953 through 1956. BODY SHOP At the end of the day, a large wrecker showed up and the Futurliner was moved from our work location to a body shop about five miles away. While at the body shop the final metal work will be done with the goal that the Futurliner will be returned fully primed. In addition to the owner performing work (paid), we have unpaid volunteers that will be helping. Our volunteers that will be doing most of the body work will be Connie and Art. Fred and Bud will finish up on the grinding the balance of this week. Al will continue the photo taking and others will be called if necessary. WORK SESSION Although a lot of work will be performed over the next few weeks the work sessions here will begin again on January 14, 2003. I will be on vacation for the next 30 days. CHRISTMAS Carol and I are so blessed by all that we share in Christ our Lord. May joy and love fill your hearts and home as you celebrate His birth. The Futurliner Volunteers all send their greetings this Christmas season and we all thank you for your support and interest in this project. |
| Dec. 3 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Stan Bowers, Del Carpenter, Fred
Carpenter, Conrad DeJong, Ed DeVries, Bud Dinger, Ron Elzinga, Wayne
Jackson, Carol Mayton, Don Mayton, Art Meidema, Martin Reed, Dick Saddler,
Wally Snow, Howard Sullivan, Deana Vuyst (Carol's daughter) and John
Wiltjer. GUESTS: Paul Bartz (GMC Motor Coach owner and member of
the GMC Club), Dennis Simpson (GMC Motor Coach owner and member of the GMC
Club). Carol made and served the food with her daughter Deana helping. Howard provided the donuts for our coffee breaks. Carol and Deana also made a 150 Futurliner pins that we passed out. PARADE OF PROGRESS POSTERS and FUTURLINER HATS Don't forget to order your posters and hats for friends and family. A great conversation piece and it helps support the project. SPARE ENGINE RESTORATION Although Bill Bicknell does not come on Tuesdays to work, (he lives near Dayton, Ohio --- a five hour drive) he is busy working at restoring a spare engine for the Futurliner. Early on we decided to have a spare engine for two purposes; 1) To have as a display because once the Futurliner is restored it is impossible to see the engine as it is buried in between the frame rails and behind the radiator and 2) To simply have a spare. The display we plan to set up will ride on a trailer in which the axle will be our spare front dual wheeled axle. In addition, we also will have the spare Hydramatic transmission mounted along with the extra rear transmission. All of these items are buried in the Futurliner and cannot be seen unless we expose our spares as a display. Bill has removed the oil pan and oil pump and found that the oil pump checks well within factory specs for backlash. No rebuilding of this will be necessary. The parts cylinder head has been disassembled. Exhaust seats will be installed due to wear in the head but the valves look good. The NOS short block has been disassembled down to the bare block and cleaned. Bill has a hobby engine restoration business and does an excellent job. MONTANA PAINTS and WYRICK CO. In preparation for the body shop work that will begin next week, I spent some time with Ray and Cal at Wyrick Products in Zeeland, Michigan. We ended up loading my vehicle with the necessary primer, black color coat, red color coat, white color coat and other supplies necessary for finishing the body work on the Futurliner. We again want to thank Montana and Wyrick for this donation. Without their continued donation of these paint products and supplies this project would have stopped long ago. COLD We started the day with the outside temperature officially at -1 degree F. STEERING WHEEL Bruce Berghoff up in Arcadia, Michigan has completed the restoration of the Futurliner steering wheel. It was his intention to deliver it today but living right on the coast of Lake Michigan he got snowed in today. We get that famous lake effect snow with the forecasters have a hard time of predicting. He plans to drop it off when the roads clear up in his area. In the mean time, Wally took our old steering wheel that we cut off of the Futurliner and clamped it together. Then Howard welded it back together. We need a steering wheel when we move the Futurliner to the body shop next week. Wally was only here a few hours as he is on Jury Duty. BODY Jim has sorted out the linkage for the door latching mechanism for the rear doors. He discovered the door handles operated a cam that pulled the latch so the rear doors could be opened. It appears this system wore out and some one later cobbled up a system. Jim will construct a new cam type latch so we can restore it to original. Howard spent the day welding the rear bumper covers and welding for others. Bud completed the lower rear side covers that are positioned in front of the rear wheel openings. Howard did the welding for Bud. There are 40 running lights on the Futurliner. Don spent today drilling 7/8" holes for these lights. Art did welding for others. In addition, he located the holes for the manual side door locks and drilled holes for these on the left side of the Futurliner. He also metal finished welds. Dick and Marty fabricated and with Howard welding installed the inner supports for the wheel well rubber. They completed about 1/2 of the Futurliner. FRONT DOORS Fred in working to fit the doors discovered that the right front door did not have enough contour at the very bottom causing it not to fit properly. This door we had completely rebuilt the bottom so it was our repairs that needed corrected. By the end of the day Fred had the door fitting properly. ROOF AROUND LIGHTING FIN Ed, Ron and Connie worked at fabricating and installing the sheet metal on the Futurliner roof in front of the lighting fin and along the right side of the Futurliner roof. This is a large area and they got it installed and weld tacked in. Next week they will have to complete the welding as there is a lot of welding to do here. BRAKES Del and Stan after sending Al to the hardware for more fittings completed the installation of the braking system. They powered (air) up the system today, fixed a few air leaks and were checking out various systems at the end of the day. The brake light lens for the Futurliner was originally red plastic. John was given a sample and he intends to find a source. In the past John has been able to obtain all our plastic needs. John always shows up at the right time. In addition John delivered our spare radiator that will be part of the display mentioned above. Weller Truck donated the restoration of this radiator. We thank Weller for this. ARCHIVES Mike continues to store and research information for the volunteers. He and Al are starting to put together the display that we will be having at the Kalamazoo annual February 2003 automotive swap meet. We have been donated a space for our display. We will have Futurliner hats and Parade of Progress posters for sale at the meet. Look us up there in February. Mike is also putting together a presentation for a potential sponsor for transporting the Futurliner once it is done. Although the Futurliner will be driveable and driven, however if a show in many miles away we will want it transported. |
| Nov. 26 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Bruce Beimers, Carol Bowers, Stan Bowers,
Del Carpenter, Fred Carpenter, Sue Carpenter, Steve Cordes, Conrad DeJong,
Ed DeVries, Bud Dinger, Jeff Dornbush, Ron Elzinga, Wayne Jackson, Carol
Mayton, Don Mayton, Art Meidema, Wilma Meidema, Martin Reed, Dick Saddler,
Wally Snow, Howard Sullivan and John Wiltjer. GUESTS: Kent Vander
Laan, Jim Kemp, Steve Groothuis, Craig Kemp, Jim Buick, John Bult, Rich
Saddler, Al and Ethel Walters. Many of our guests purchased Futurliner hats and Parade of Progress posters and left financial donations. We want to thank them for this. However, our weekly expenses of just nut and bolt type supplies exceeded the gifts by 4 to 1. Carol provided lunch with help from Sue Carpenter and Carol Bowers with desert and Wilma with salad. Howard and Al again provided donuts for the coffee breaks. The food is always great. BODY Jim started working on the latching mechanism for the right rear door. He had discovered over time there were several modifications made on the latching and lock system. He will have to design and build everything from scratch. Art continued to cut the skin of the right rear door for the turn signal and brake lights. He also did welding for others needing it, at the rear of the Futurliner. Bud finished the fabrication of the left rear side access panel and moved to the right rear to work at that access panel. Howard completed the welding of the bumper cover at the right front of the Futurliner. Don finished the fabrication of the right rear bumper cover and then completed the same on the left rear. Howard welded these panels in place. Don also started drilling the holes for the running lights at the bumper level area. Dick and Marty continued to fabricate the splash pans for the door gear motors. Next, they started to fabricate a support for the rubber flap that is installed at each wheel well. BRAKES Steve delivered more supplies for the brake system. I might mention that his family business, Cordes Tires, has been supplying these fittings to complete the brakes. Del and Stan continued to install these final parts. They believe that next week will be check out time for the system as far as air leaks. DOORS, FRONT RIGHT AND LEFT Wayne and Fred worked at installing the inner door skins. Next, they installed the aluminum frames that will have the rubber weather strip installed later. They also are working on the door latch and lock system. They are bringing all the door systems together to make sure that they fit properly. ROOF @ LIGHTING FIN AREA With the lighting fin installed and working Ed, Ron, and Connie have been concentrating on building the metal skin around the lighting fin on the roof of the Futurliner. Ed had Sparta Sheet Metal form 8' sections of the roof adjacent to the lighting fin. We do not have the capability of roll forming metal nor can we form anything 8' long. With these long sections they filled in the roof on the left side of the lighting fin. In the process they had to tie into the original skin at the cab and at the rear of the Futurliner. At one location at the rear they ran into over 1" of lead that had been used when the Futurliner was originally built. This lead had to be melted out in order to complete this section. Jeff Dornbush has designed the system that will allow the electrical cord to travel without getting entangled with the lifting arms of the lighting fin as the lighting fin is raised. He has purchased the materials and is now in the process of building the brackets for this system. Previously John Wiltjer supplied the plastic lens that will be installed in the lighting fin. With the donation of the California Futurliner we received many parts, one of which was a portion of the original plastic lens. This gave us the pattern to have the letters "PARADE OF PROGRESS" added to our plastic lens. Bud's son has a business of making signs and displays. Bud's son then took our new plastic lens and had the "PARADE OF PROGRESS" lettering applied. We again appreciate this donation. TRIM There is an aluminum grill at the window level at the rear of the cab at each side of the Futurliner. Fred had disassembled this grill and his wife, Marge, had polished it to a beautiful finish. Wally took this grill home and has completely assembled it. AUTRONIC EYE Wally is now working on the panel in which the Autronic Eye control module will be installed. Last week we received the Autronic Eye that John Oldenburg had restored. ARCHIVES Mike continues to archive material and has become our resource in digging out the old photos when we have a question as we put the vehicle together. He is also working on a presentation that we will be making in January to obtain a sponsor to provide resources when the Futurliner goes on the road. More about this later. Al has been helping with creating our archives by video taping and photographing each of our work sessions. He also is now our runner to the local hardware. DISPLAY Bruce has taken over the job of creating a display. We have found photos that identify Futurliner #10 (this is the Futurliner we are restoring) with a Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild display on one side. We have not come across what display was on the other side of #10. If we go with this display we will again need the help of you folks out there. The Fisher Body Craftsman Guild encouraged high school young people to build scale model cars to certain specifications. The winners were based on innovation, creativity, and skill. The top award would be a full college education. Bruce already has one of these original scale automobiles. We would like to find more of these original scale model cars so that we can put this display together. |
| Nov. 20 |
In the near future we have some specific needs for the restoration of the
Futurliner. FINANCIAL $ We will have the Futurliner with a new skin done by the middle of December. Then in the middle of December (2002) we plan to move the Futurliner to a local body shop (B & M Customs) for the final metal finishing work. At the body shop we will have two of our volunteers, Connie and Art, working with the owner (Ron Sall). Our goal is to have it come back with all the metal work done, the Futurliner completely in primer, and the lower portion in its final black. Assuming we get all this work done we can start the process of trimming the lower portion, the seven horizontal aluminum ribs that go around the entire Futurliner, and the rubber bumpers that also go around the entire Futurliner. We only have $4,000 available to spend for this work. The only person requiring wages is the owner of the body shop at $45/hour, which is a bargain. We do not think this will cover our total wages for this work. Remember this vehicle is almost 12' tall X 33' long. I know financial times are not the best but if anyone needs to contribute or relieve themselves of some money it would help the cause. If you cannot spare a contribution, we have a great Parade of Progress poster available and a Futurliner hat. Check the web site for this. Thanking you in advance. AIR CONDITIONER The local firm that has volunteered to restore our air conditioner unit has discovered that our unit is not repairable. They have committed, however, to build us a new unit. Since we want this to still appear to be the original we need the sheet metal box that encloses the air conditioner. These were standard GM air conditioners that fit in the trunk of the 1952 - 1953 GM cars. Does anyone out there have a unit, even if not restorable that we could have. We could use just the "Frigidaire" emblem and fabricate a box to house an air conditioner with all new components. Let us know. |
| Nov. 19 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Bruce Beimers, Carol Bowers, Stan Bowers, Del
Carpenter, Fred Carpenter, Steve Cordes, Conrad DeJong, Ed DeVries, Bud
Dinger, Jeff Dornbush, Ron Elzinga, Wayne Jackson, Carol Mayton, Don
Mayton, Art Meidema, Martin Reed, Dick Saddler, Wally Snow and Howard
Sullivan. GUESTS: Richard Chambers, AACA Western Michigan
President; Dick Humpreys, AACA Saginaw; Ted Metiva, AACA Saginaw; Bob
Hadley, AACA Saginaw; Dale Frahm, AACA Saginaw and; Bob Duchaime, AACA
Saginaw Carol made and served lunch. Our guests from the AACA Saginaw Region provided the salads as well as coffee rolls. Howard and Al also provided donuts for coffee. GUESTS VISIT Dick Humphreys previously had provided the bronze that was used to make the carriage that drives the lighting fin to its vertical position. He has been a great supporter of this project. He brought along members of the AACA Saginaw Region club. We thank Dick for his support and interest in this project. BODY At the rear of the Futurliner Jim, Don, and Art worked at fabricating metal and welding it in place at the right rear of the vehicle. Art also started cutting the skin of the lower door for the tail, brake and backup lights. Dick had previously laid out the door. Previously these doors had to have a new skin welded on and the cutouts were laid out by Dick. At the left rear, Bud continued to work on making the panel in front of the rear wheel opening removable. At the right front, Howard completed welding in the panel that is over the bumper frame. He then proceeded to grind away all the weld high spots. Dick and Martin worked at fabricating the left side stone and mud shield for the left door motor and gearbox. BRAKES With a new supply of brake parts Del and Stan proceeded to hook up the brake lines. Steve arrived later and worked with them. At one point, they had to send Al to the local truck supply company to pick up brake line fittings and again later to fetch brake air hose lines. FRONT PASSENGER AND ENGINE ACCESS DOORS Fred and Wayne worked at fitting the inner doors skins. They also worked repairing the door latch and lock mechanism that is in poor shape. LIGHTING FIN Jeff provided some engineering expertise in sorting out how to track the electrical lines as the lighting fin raises and lowers. He had to order materials to accomplish this. Ed and Ron had previously installed springs to aid the motor when the lighting fin starts from the bottom position. They felt however, it needed stronger springs. Ed picked up some American LaFrance engine valve springs at his son's (Ryan) shop. They added these four springs over the existing springs and now the lighting fin even works smoother when it starts to rise. Jeff checked the ampere of the lighting fin motor and now it operates well within its design range. Ed, Ron, fabricated and with Connie welding installed the sealing metal frame work the runs front to back along each side of the lighting fin. They now have an almost perfect fit along each side of the lighting fin. INSTRUMENT PANEL Wally continued to work on the instrument panel. ARCHIVES Mike continues to work on the archives. Recently he gathered up a lot of material for an Italian publisher that is working on a book. Bruce and Al have been helping him with all this material. VIDEO AND PHOTOS About a month ago, Al started video taping our work sessions as well as taking digital photos. These will also be added to the archives. |
| Nov. 12 | VOLUNTEERS:Jim
Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Bruce Beimers, Delores Beimers, Stan Bowers,
Del Carpenter, Fred Carpenter, Marge Carpenter *, Conrad DeJong, Ed
DeVries, Ryan DeVries*, Bud Dinger, Jeff Dornbush, Ron Elzinga, Wayne
Jackson, Don Mayton, Art Meidema, Martin Reed, Dick Saddler, Wally Snow
and Howard Sullivan. GUESTS: Scott Hultman - Fluid Connections,
Inc., Tim Lynch - Fluid Connections, Inc., Rocky Rockwell, Duke Kroff, T.
Crandall, Rich and Judy Walkotten. Delores Beimers made the entire lunch, main, salad, and desert and had husband Bruce bring it and he then served lunch. Howard supplied the coffee break donuts. Thanks to Dee, Bruce and Howard. BODY Don with Connie welding fabricated and installed the skin around the outside of the bumper frame, on the left front of the Futurliner. There are panels that closes off both the rear bottom of both the right and left of the Futurliner in front of the rear wheels. We have decided to make this a bolt-on panel as it gives access to the motor that opens and closes the side doors. Bud is doing the work to make this conversion. SIDE 16' DOORS The right and left doors now have their metal skin. Howard, Connie and Art have been doing the final fitting, welding and grinding to achieve as good of a fit that is possible on four doors that are 16' long. BRAKES To start the day Del, Stan and Jeff jacked up the Futurliner and removed the front wheel/tire assemblies in order to work on the brakes. Remember, last Thursday we had to roll the Futurliner outside to install the lighting fin. Steve Cordes, yesterday, dropped off more supplies to complete the restoration of the brakes. Today Del and Stan completed the left front brake and at the end of the day put air to it and its works. FRONT DOORS Fred and Wayne worked on both of the two front doors, the driver's door and the engine access door. Fred had taken home the doors latch/lock mechanism cleaned it and generally overhauled it. Today they installed the left door inner-panel. Next they fabricated and installed the right door inner-panel. They along with Wally managed to find most of the components for these two front door latches. REAR DOORS Jim has reworked the fit of the rear doors so that we now have a nice straight line. Dick and Marty continue to work these doors in preparation to cut the skin for the taillights, turn signals, and license plate housings. Due to Jim also working in this area, they started another job of building a shield for the left door gear motor. LIGHTING FIN As mentioned in last Thursdays special report the lighting fin was installed and hooked up. Although it worked great the motor would stall when trying to raise the fin when it was 3" from bottom. Today we had representatives from Fluid Connections Inc., Scott and Tim, for the purpose of figuring out how to add air cylinders to aid starting the lighting fin when going up. After a lot of measuring and discussion with Ed and Ron they suggested pushing the light bar carriage horizontally with two cylinders from each end. They left and were going to try to come up with a design. Meanwhile Ron suggested that instead of cylinders why not install springs at the ends of the carriages just as the lighting fin gets to the bottom of its travel. After Ed and Ron did some measuring they were off to the local hardware. They returned with four springs and by the end of the day the springs were installed and working. Now the lighting fin travels its entire stroke without any problems. POLISHING* While we have a great group of volunteers working here on Tuesday, we also have volunteers working at home. Marge took on the job of polishing the aluminum grill trim that is located at the rear of the cab at the window level. First, these two (right and left) assemblies had to be disassembled. Next each piece had to be sanded. Then Marge went over to Ryan's shop and with his guidance spent hours and hours buffing each individual piece. Fred brought the pieces back today and they looked like jewelry. AUTRONIC EYE Yesterday the Autronic Eye that John Oldenburg restored arrived. When we opened the box it looked like a new unit that you would purchase at a GM dealership. John is a real professional. In addition, John sent us a financial donation. John we thank you for your donation of the restoration of this eye as well as the financial donation. (Click here to read more about the Autronic Eye). INSTRUMENT PANEL Due to the fact that we had to use a pipe wrench to steer the Futurliner last Thursday we scratched the newly painted instrument panel Wally had painted. Today Wally wet sanded the instrument panel and he and Art applied a new coat of paint. Wally and Bruce (from Don Bratt) brought running light samples that could possibility be used. |
| Nov. 7 | VOLUNTEERS:
Mike Ball, Al Batts, Del Carpenter, Ed DeVries, Bud Dinger, Don Mayton,
Ron Elzinga and Wayne Jackson. LIGHTING FIN INSTALLATION Three weeks ago, although we still had a lot of detail work to complete, we chose this week to install the lighting fin. While showing my son-in-law Brett the job we had to do and the fact that we were planning to use Ed's fork lift truck to raise the lighting fin for the installation he suggested we use his father's Sky Tract. Brett's father, Paul Altman, is a contractor building storage buildings as well as houses. Brett said the Sky Tract would be a lot more maneuverable, lift higher, and be able to reach further than a fork truck. In this area most building contractors have this type of machinery. It is simply a large four wheel steering vehicle that has a telescoping hydraulic boom with forks attached that can lift up to 6,000 pounds and raise its load over 40' in the air. We also worked with Gray Bar electric in obtaining the last materials that we needed to complete the restoration of the lighting fin. This was mentioned in the November 5, 2002 report. What I failed to mention was the fact that Jerry at Gray Bar worked with COOPER LIGHTING as well as GE LIGHTING to not only obtain all the materials as a donation to the project but rushed them to us to get this job done on time. Since winter weather is fast closing in on us here in Michigan, it was imperative that we do this job as soon as possible. The job had to be done outside because of limited ceiling height inside the building in which we are restoring the Futurliner. Based on all the local weather forecasts we picked Thursday, November 7, 2002 as the day for installation. I informed Brett of the day and he in turn contacted his father, Paul, to obtain the Sky Tract. Although I did not know it, Paul's Sky Tract was tied up on a job in the county south of here. Paul, however contacted the lumber warehouse where he purchases all his lumber (Kenowa Lumber) and convinced the owner, Dennis Fuller, to loan us their Sky Tract. At 7:30 AM the Kenowa Lumber truck arrived towing on a construction trailer their Sky Tract. Shortly our volunteers showed up. Due to the nature of this job we had to restrict the number of volunteers. If we would have asked everyone, everyone would have showed up. First, we attached a special bracket from the trailer hitch on my Chevrolet pickup plow truck to the front axle on the Futurliner. Del installed the hub of the original steering wheel and using a large pipe wrench did the steering. We slowly pulled the Futurliner out of the building. Next, the lighting fin on its cradle was positioned parallel to the Futurliner. Previously lifting hooks were installed onto the lighting fin. The Sky Tract was positioned, a chain was attached to the lifting hooks and to the forks of the Sky Tract. The lighting fin was raised above the Futurliner with its aluminum arms hanging vertical under the lighting fin. In preparation for this job one track section had been removed in the roof, as well as the two acme worm shafts. The front carriage was lowered, slipped into its track. This was a long and tedious job as the clearances are very tight and the lighting fin had to be perfectly inline in three directions, up and down, north and south, and east and west. Next the front acme threaded shaft was slowly turned into the carriage nut. When we started to perform the same operation for the rear acme worm shaft we discovered the motor and gearbox had to be moved out of the way. Once the second carriage was in place, then the one track that had been removed was inserted. At this point, the weight of the lighting fin was on the Futurliner. However, we kept tension on the forks of the Sky Tract for safety reasons. Next, the acme worm screws had to be timed so that the lighting fin would be positioned in the center of the roof opening when closed. The motor was hooked up and we first lowered the lighting fin, using the motor, about 1/2 way down. Then we tried it in the up direction. Everything worked perfectly. Next we lowered it to within six inches and again ran it up and everything worked smoothly. We finally ran it to the bottom but this time the motor stalled when trying to lift the fin again. When GM designed the roof for us two years ago they told us that we should add lifting assist cylinders to lift the lighting fin for the first few inches of travel as there was too much torque being applied to the lifting mechanical system. Ed had already designed this assist lift system but we needed to find out exactly the distance the lift cylinders had to assist the drive mechanism. We determined with the assist of the Sky Tract that once the lighting fin was 3" from bottom the lifting drive train easily raised the lighting fin. Ed plans to install 4" lift cylinders. We also aligned the lighting fin front to back by disconnecting the coupling and turning the front acme worm shaft. We had to do this two times to get the lighting fin to drop into the roof opening. We completed the day by lowering the fin into the roof. Next, using the pickup truck, we tried to push the Futurliner back into the building. However, even in 4 wheel drive it just sat there and buried itself in mud. Along with the truck and help using the Sky Tract we got the Futurliner back into the building. A very successful day putting a major piece of the Futurliner back together. Thanks go to all the volunteers as well as Dennis Fuller at Kenowa Lumber, Paul and Brett Altman. |
| Nov. 6 | VOLUNTEERS:
Bud Dinger and Don Mayton. LIGHTING FIN As a result of receiving the last six fluorescence light fixtures late Tuesday Bud did not get them completely installed. On Wednesday Bud and Don worked for about two hours to complete this installation as the next day it was planned to install the lighting fin on the top of the Futurliner. These fixtures were installed and checked by powering them up. However one fixture did not work. After checking this one out it was discovered that internally in the fixture one wire was not hooked up. Once repaired all the lights functioned. In addition the lifting bars were installed on the top of the lighting fin. |
| Nov. 5 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Bruce Beimers, Stan Bowers, Del Carpenter, Fred
Carpenter, Sue Carpenter, Steve Cordes, Conrad DeJong, Ed DeVries, Lynda
DeVries (Ed's daughter-in-law), Bud Dinger, Jeff Dornbush, Ron Elzinga,
Wayne Jackson, Carol Mayton, Don Mayton, Wes Myrick, Martin Reed, Dick
Saddler, Wally Snow, Howard Sullivan, and John Wiltjer. GUESTS:
Mike and Julie Lamb (Wes's daughter and son-in-law), Brenden Pellton
(Wes's great grandson), Clyde Poll, Earl Bultema and Robert Mulder. Carol made lunch with Sue providing salad and Lynda providing the desert. Howard and Al brought donuts for the coffee breaks. BODY Jim continued to work the door opening area for the two rear doors. Marty fabricated and had Howard weld in metal at the right rear wheelhouse. He is enclosing the gear mechanism for the doors to build a stone and dirt shield. At the left front Wes, Don with Howard welding finished the body skin up to the door that enters the engine compartment. Next they moved to the right side and completed the body skin up to the door that leads up to the driver's compartment. On the top Ed, Ron, with Connie welding, installed two sections of the skin for the roof that is adjacent to where the lighting fin will be housed. RIGHT UPPER DOOR Ed, Ron and Connie completed applying the metal skin to the right upper door. Howard, between welding jobs continued to grind the welds level. GRAY BAR ELECTRIC-DONATION Jerry at Gray Bar has really worked hard to obtain donations from various companies for the lighting fin. We have received over $2,000 worth of fluorescence light fixtures and today we received the bulbs for these fixtures as well as the 110 volt sealed beam flood lights. Then Jerry called at 2 PM and stated that the last six fixtures arrived. Bud got in his truck and picked them up. Jerry had to pull some strings to get these here today as we are wrapping up the lighting fin construction. We plan to install the lighting fin in the roof in the near future. Since we have to do this out doors, we have made a plan around a weather window. We sure hope that the weatherman is right. Today the weatherman said no rain until tonight. It snowed all day today, go figure! We want to thank Jerry for all his help. Now if the weatherman is right we will be putting up the lighting fin shortly. LIGHTING FIN Last week we told you about the original lighting fin plastic lens with "PARADE OF PROGRESS" had arrived with the shipment from the California Futurliner that Brad Boyajian had sent. With this original plastic lens and with new material supplied by John Wiltjer, Bud has spent time this past week with his son's company finding a way to print onto the new plastic "PARADE OF PROGRESS" using a font almost identical to the original. Ed had ordered new aluminum strips to insert this lens into once the printing is completed. With all the material that arrived today Bud, Jeff, Ed and Ron had lots to do. First, they installed the aluminum strips that will contain the lens. Next, they installed all the new fluorescence bulbs. Then the four 110 volt sealed beam spots were installed. Once this was all done everything was tried out and the lighting fin (even though it is on its back on a cart) lit up the whole Futurliner barn. We also tripped a breaker as drills and other lights were on at the same time. There was a rumor that Zeeland had a brownout. As mentioned above the balance of the fixtures arrived late in the day. The crew got them partially installed but will finish them tomorrow. Jeff also designed, purchased the material, and installed the electrical wiring for the lighting fin motor which sits up inside the rear of the Futurliner. Next he tried out the motor without it being hooked up mechanically to the gearing and it works fine. BRAKES Del, Stan and Steve worked on the braking system. Steve also delivered the spare front wheel/tire assemblies mounted. This crew then installed wheel/tire assemblies on each of the four corners. We are preparing the Futurliner to roll it outside to install the lighting fin. HEAD LIGHTS AND TAILLIGHTS Wayne's order of new components for the head lights arrived. He worked at putting together all the components to build the rear tail, brake and turn signal lights. He will have to make all this from scratch as we do not have any of the inside of these assemblies. FRONT DOORS Fred is working to install the brackets and housing to install the front and rear door latching assemblies. He has to repair the old metal housing, clean and repair the latching mechanism and also locate two outside door handles. We have the inside door handle for one door. For the rear doors we have to start from scratch. REAR DOOR Dick worked at straightening or should I say putting the arch back in the rear aluminum casting that housed the tail lights, brake lights, and turn signals. This aluminum housing is about 18" X 18". He had it fitting to the contour of the rear door by the end of the day. INSTRUMENT PANEL Wally continued to work on the instrument panel as well as the wiring for the instrument panel. He also spent time reading through the instructions that was sent by John Oldenburg (see below). RADIATOR John returned a radiator that Weller Truck had restored for the project. The radiator had to be recored as well has having extensive repairs to the tank. We thank John and Weller truck for this donation. AUTRONIC EYE We received from John Oldenburg a detailed report of the work he had to do to put together a working Autronic Eye for the Futurliner. He has restored everything to original so that it will work as it did in 1953. John has spent considerable time doing this as a donation to the project and we really thank him for all his work. It is obvious he is an expert on Autronic Eyes so all you GM antique car nuts if you want to get that Autronic Eye working you need to contact John at olden@galenalink.net ARCHIVES Mike, Al and Bruce continues to file material and catalog the material in our archives. Mike is also working with an Italian publisher that has requested information. They have downloaded our web site and asking for copies of specific photos. In addition we are still filing material that we acquired from the Paraders this past September. Al also had to make a run to the welding supply store as both our welders ran out of Argon within 10 minutes of each other. We always have a full spare tank but we need both welders running as we keep these guys busy. POSTER AND HAT Look for an announcement shortly as to how to purchase our new PARADE OF PROGRESS poster and Futurliner hat. |
| Oct. 26 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Bruce Beimers, Carol Bowers, Stan Bowers,
Del Carpenter, Steve Cordes, Conrad DeJong, Ed DeVries, Bud Dinger, Jeff
Dornbush, Ron Elzinga, Wayne Jackson, Carol Mayton, Don Mayton, Art
Meidema, Wilma Meidema, Wes Myrick, Martin Reed, Dick Saddler, Jerry
Sigler, Audrey Snow, Wally Snow, Howard Sullivan, Wendy (Howard's daughter
and grand daughter Kristin) and John Wiltjer. Carol made and served lunch with salads being provided by Wilma, Audrey, and Wendy. Carol Bowers provided desert. Howard again provided donuts for our coffee break. We eat good. DONATIONS - AUTRONIC EYE John Oldenburg out in Galena, Illinois is an Autronic Eye expert. He originally sent us a comprehensive manual on the Autronic Eye that he had written. He recently volunteered to restore the Autronic Eye that was part of the Futurliner. Unfortunately, this Futurliner's Autronic Eye was missing. The control box was still mounted on the Futurliner electrical panel. Over the past several years, the volunteers had gathered up several Autronic Eyes at swap meets. We packaged everything up and sent them off to John. John sorted through all this "stuff" and found out that we had components for both 6 volt Autronic Eyes as well as 12 volts systems (the Futurliner is 12 volt) and different year's components through out the 1950s. Out of it all he said he will be able to give us a working unit. Thanks to John out in Galena. For those of you out there wondering what an Autronic Eye is, it is an automatic headlight dimming system that GM brought out in the early 1950s. It was an option on many of their cars. It was mounted on the dash, to the left of the driver, and it did look like a large eye. When the Futurliner's were updated in 1952, GM added the Autronic Eyes to each vehicle. DONATIONS - FUTURLINER Through the efforts of Dave Mikol (Royal Oak, Michigan), John Martin Smith (NATMUS), City Loan, Brad Boyajian (California), Dean Tryon our editor, Ron at GM's Power Train Division, and many others, the parts of the donated Futurliner arrived today by semi-truck. Ed brought his fork truck on a trailer and did the unloading. The parts will really aid us in completing the restoration as some missing parts we had no examples of. For example, all the rear door hardware was missing as a result of our Futurliner being rear ended sometime in its life. Also we had only one piece of the rubber bumper that goes on the center front and rear. Now we have all pieces expect one. However, these are in very bad shape. Our first attempt will be to restore what we have. If that does not work, they will make excellent patterns. Already Ed took the two rubber bumper front sections home to see if he can put the arch back in them with his hydraulic press at home. Dick took home the aluminum casting that was mounted on the door to see if a pattern can be made to cast two new ones. The one we received is badly bent. But, at least we have a pattern. Also included was one rear door handle. We had none to go by. The small front, side and rear marker lights that from day one I thought were lights are in fact not lights but reflectors. They are about 3/4" in diameter and are yellow in the front and red in the rear. In this shipment there were five of the forty we will need to complete the restoration. DONATIONS - 1957 BUICK CENTURY (four door) We have been donated an original running 22,000 mile Buick. Although this car needs restored it is rust free and just last week was driven by Wes and Ron VerHey from Detroit (4 hour trip). This donation came from Gary Cunningham, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He asked us to make it one of the "Parade" vehicles to travel with the Futurliner when it goes on tour. Of course it will have to be restored but that will come later. I will digress here about Wes and Ron's adventure to bring the car back from Detroit. They were assured the car was ready to travel by one of Gary's employees. When they arrived the battery was dead. After jump starting the vehicle Wes noticed the gas gage said zero. They were assured it was full of gasoline. After traveling about twenty miles it quit running right on busy I-75 near Pontiac, Michigan. After purchasing a new battery they then discovered it had no gasoline. Once they had gasoline in the car it drove fine abet the lights and the wipers (it was raining and getting dark) and made it back to Western Michigan under its own power. Today Wes drove it to our work site. Jerry then drove it home to store at his house for the winter. We want to thank Gary for his generous donation. DONATIONS - WYRICK PRODUCTS Last week I mentioned that Wally painted the instrument panel its final color. However, after looking at the paint color we all decided that the color was incorrect. Since I picked the color based on the upholstery material I guess I do not have a good color eye. The color was way off. Wally took an original sample to Wyricks with the balance of the paint and they were able to change the color to the correct shade of green. Wally wet sanded the instrument panel, gave it another good coat and it now has its final color coat. DONATIONS - THE FILLING STATION Wayne today called Steve Kassis at "The Filling Station" to order some headlight trim rings and other head light components. While talking, Steve asked Wayne what we were working on. Wayne had him bring up our web site and as a result of the conversation Steve donated to the project all the parts Wayne had intended to order. Thanks to Wayne and Steve at "The Filling Station" www.fillingstation.com DONATIONS - WHEELS Steve Cordes this summer picked up all four of the Futurliner wheel/tire assemblies. He had the tires dismounted at his family business (truck tire business), then took the wheels to a company in Kalamazoo, Michigan that sand blasts and paints using the powder coat method. He brought back today the completed products. We now have four beautiful wheels painted in their final red color. Although this operation sounds rather simple in order to prepare the wheels to go through their system Steve had to tack weld the rings on the wheels so they could travel through their automatic system. In addition, Steve brought back two mounted used wheel/tire assemblies so we can put these on the Futurliner temporary. We want to do this so as not to mar the new painted wheels. This way we can mount new tires on newly painted wheels later on. Thanks Steve for taking care of this. BODY Jim continues to fit the rear doors with welding and metal finish. Don and Wes with Howard welding started adding skin to the left front lower corner of the cab. Marty continued to work at the rear wheel openings to make space guards. BRAKES Del, Stan, and Steve spent considerable time reviewing the brake system and providing a long list of further components that are required to complete the brake system. Del and Stan also retrieved the air operated windshield wiper motor and got it operating. They then got the windshield wiper air valve that Benedix supplied and hooked it up to the windshield wiper to check out its operation. FRONT RUBBER BUMPER Ron and Ed, after unloading the semi, uncrated the boxes. They then mounted the rubber bumper to the front of the Futurliner finding it badly bent. This rubber bumper is a thick rubber casting with steel inserts and is very heavy, so heavy I cannot pick it up. Ed took one of these sections home at the end of the day to try to straighten it on his press. LIGHTING FIN Jeff temporary hooked up the lighting fin motor and got it running in both directions. He also worked on the lighting fin itself making the connections for the 110 volt flood lights. Bud and Jerry installed four lifting hooks. These will be used to raise the lighting fin to the top of the Futurliner at a later date. Bud also sandblasted the four swivel mounting brackets, gave them a coat of primer and later in the afternoon gave them their final coat of white paint. In the box of items from California were the original plastic lens that go in the side of the lighting fin that spell out "PARADE OF PROGRESS". John Wiltjer has supplied us new lens however we did not have good information as to the letter spacing and font. Now with the originals we can duplicate exactly what was originally in place. John's son is helping us with these graphics. REAR DOOR With the aluminum casting trim piece that came with today's shipment, Dick now can make an accurate drawing of the door-cutouts that are needed as well as the hardware required at the rear, including the door latching system. On our Futurliner as received there was nothing there to even guess what was needed. LEFT AND RIGHT 16' SIDE DOORS Connie and Art continued to cut metal, fabricate, and weld on the outside skin of these large 16' upper and lower side doors. Although most of the large sheets are on, there is a lot of small pieces that must be formed and added. FUTURLINER DISPLAY - FISHER BODY CRAFTSMAN'S GUILD Ideally, it would be great to reunite the only original display that still exists "THE AMERICAN CROSSROADS" and the Futurliner when it is completed. Although that is always a possibility Mike, along with Al, and Bruce continue to look at other options. They are beginning to conclude based on photos that we have that on one side of our Futurliner was the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild display. So to start the process of preparing a display we are asking anyone out there if they have any literature or actual models that were a part of the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild. |
| Oct. 22 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Bruce Beimers, Stan Bowers, Del Carpenter,
Sue Carpenter, Fred Carpenter, Marge Carpenter*, Conrad DeJong, Ed DeVries,
Ryan DeVries*, Bud Dinger, Jeff Dornbush*, Ron Elzinga, Wayne Jackson,
Carol Mayton, Don Mayton, Art Meidema, Wes Myrick, Martin Reed, Dick
Saddler, Jerry Sigler, Audrey Snow, Wally Snow, Howard Sullivan and John
Wiltjer. GUESTS: Jay and Mary Lou Huffman (Howard's sister and brother in
law.), Don Bratt, John Vander Heide, Fred Ryskamp (Jerry's brother in
law.) We started the day with donuts provided by Howard. Carol provided the veggie dish, Audrey provided the salad and then Mike ran out and brought in pizza. We finished up lunch with apple crisp that Sue had made. HOME PROJECTS As we have mentioned before we have a lot of people do work at home for us. Ryan machined two new link arms that tie the two arms that raise the lighting fin. The old ones were badly worn. He also made new special shoulder bolts that are required to fasten these to the upper ends of the two cast aluminum arms that raise the lighting fin. Marge is working at polishing parts at home. Jeff gathered up more electrical supplies so that the wiring can be finished on the lighting fin. FRONT DRIVER AND ENGINE ACCESS DOORS These two doors contain the turn signals. Fred started the process of restoring the inside housing for these lights that fit into these doors. Wayne, after spending 1/2 the day repairing our cabinet sand blaster, sand blasted these housings for both doors. REAR DOORS Jim continued to work fitting the two rear doors. He has got them fitting very good. He will be starting the metal finish work shortly. When this Futurliner arrived it had been hit in the rear left corner destroying the bottom frame work of the left door and most of the outer skin. Also the bottom of the right door had to be extensively replaced. Originally these doors had aluminum frames that housed the license plates, the turn signals, the running lights, and the brake lights. These frames were completely missing. Dick has started the process to measure and design the a new frame that will have to be fabricated. Along the front doors there are housings that contain the lights. Fred has discovered that these housings no longer exist and he will have to fabricate new ones. BODY Don fabricated metal for the left rear 1/4 and had Howard weld these sections in place. Once that was done they started on the right rear 1/4. LIGHTING FIN Bud and Jerry installed the link arms that Ryan had made. They then repaired a section of the lighting fin that had not been noticed before. The four 110 volt sealed beam flood lights on the ends of the light bar fit into swivel housings that can direct these flood lights in any direction. Bud cleaned and then sand blasted these housings. At the end of the day he took these home to prime and paint them. Don, during the previous week, had primed and then color painted the tray that the lighting fin sits in while retracted on top of the roof of the Futurliner. Ron and Ed with Howard welding installed additional braces under this tray. When the lighting fin is all the way up in its raised position, the two aluminum arms are vertical and centered in the center of the roof. All the weight of the lighting fin and the aluminum arms are resting in the center of the roof. Ron then proceeded to drill holes to attach the guides for the track that is in the center of the roof. John Wiltjer procured for the lighting fin the side plastic panels that will have spelled out "PARADE OF PROGRESS" just below the roof of the lighting fin. We thank John for this donation. LEFT 16' DOORS Ed had Sparta Sheet metal fabricate the last two panels required to finish the skinning of the left and right doors. Art and Wes with Connie welding finished the installation of the skin for these left doors. They tried a final fit and found out that they had to make further modifications to get these two doors to fit properly. Wes also proceeded to chalk the brace to skin areas on the inside of both the top and bottom doors. RIGHT 16' DOORS This same crew worked at applying the skin to the right side also. In addition, when waiting for the next weld job, Howard proceeded to grind welds smooth. The 110 volt gear motor on both of these doors are exposed to road spray and water. Dick and Marty are fabricating and installing splash shields to protect these drive systems. BRAKES Del and Stan continued to work on installation of the brake pedal components. Del had also taken home parts to sand blast and paint and brought them back done. When he went home today he carted off more parts for the brake system. INSTRUMENT PANEL Wally prepared and painted the instrument panel its first color coat. He will wet sand and apply another coat next week. PAINT PRODUCT Montana Paints through Wyrick Products continues to supply technical advice as well as paint products for this project. With out this support this project would have ground to a halt a long time ago. FUTURLINER DISPLAY Although we are a long way from finishing up this project Mike decided it was time to get some heads together to plan on what display we will carry in the Futurliner. Unfortunately we have not found out what display this Futurliner originally carried. So Mike sat down with Al, Bruce and two of our guests Don Bratt (a retired advertising executive) and John Vander Heide to draw up a list of possibilities. They reviewed our archives looking at all the displays the Futurliners carried. We welcome your suggestions. Mike and Al also assembled some of our new posters into frames as we have discovered some people prefer buying them already framed. Mike will be taking a supply of posters and hats to the National Automotive and Trunk Museum of the United States this weekend. So if you are in the area of Auburn stop in and pickup a "PARADE OF PROGRESS" poster and a FUTURLINER hat. KALAMAZOO SWAP MEET - 2003 Every year at the Kalamazoo Fair Grounds there is a car hobby swap meet. Fred suggested that we check out about offering the posters and hats there. Although all booths are sold out we already received two offers of using a part of a booth to sell both our new Poster and well as our new Futurliner hat. This swap meet is well attended and we will get great exposure for the project. |
| Oct. 15 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Stan Bowers, Del Carpenter, Fred
Carpenter, Conrad DeJong, Ed DeVries, Bud Dinger, Ron Elzinga, Wayne
Jackson, Carol Mayton, Don Mayton, Art Meidema, Wes Myrick, Dick Saddler,
Jerry Sigler, Wally Snow and Howard Sullivan. GUESTS: Wendy and Kristina Schultz (Howard's daughter and grand daughter); Mark Fischer and his father and; Rod and Skip Hudson. Carol made and served lunch. Wendy, Howard's daughter brought birthday cake and we celebrated Howard's 62nd birthday. BRAKES and STEERING Del, Stan and Wayne continued to work on air lines to the braking system. They also installed hydraulic hoses to the steering cylinder. Next, they worked at fitting the headlight module into its opening. Then they proceeded to remove the old left foot rest for restoration. Under it they found the old air operated clutch pedal. When GM retrofitted the Futurliners in 1952 they disconnected the air to the clutch pedal and fabricated a plate to rest the left foot on and installed it over the original clutch pedal. Today the Bob Hart took the original material that was on the floor of the driver's feet to find material like the original. It is ribbed and looks similar to running board material. We only need a 3' X 3' piece. BODY Jim continued to work at fitting the doors on the rear of the Futurliner. Don, with Howard, welding worked at fitting rear lower side panels in place. RIGHT AND LEFT SIDE 16' DOORS Dick, Art, and Wes, with Connie and Howard welding, fitted sheet metal to the upper and lower 16' doors. Howard also spent a lot of time grinding smooth the many welds that were made. LIGHTING FIN On top of the Futurliner, Ed and Ron continued to mount the running gear of the lighting fin. They also installed the carriages to each end of the large lighting fin arms that lift the lighting fin. At the end of the day, they removed all the components of the lighting fin that they had mounted in preparation to paint this area. Meanwhile, at the floor level, Bud, Al and Jerry continued to work to complete the lighting fin. In the process of installing arms that keep the lighting fin straight, as it goes up, they found that one arm was bent and a hole was oblong. Today we took this small arm to Ryan DeVries to have him fabricate a new one. MISCELLANEOUS PARTS In the process of looking for some other parts that needed to be found in our inventory, Fred decided it was time to clean house. So he and Don sorted through all the remaining parts, identified, and stored them so that they could be more easily located. It's one of those jobs you hate to do but sooner or later must be done. Thanks Fred. Fred also boxed up the Autronic Eye and their controls in a box. We have a volunteer who has offered their services to restore these components. ARCHIVES Mike put together a slide show for our coffee break of another set of slides that the Paraders donated. In addition he continued to work at storing and documenting material. Bruce also is helping Mike with this work. POSTERS AND CAPS Look for details shortly of how to order your Parade of Progress poster and a Futurliner ball cap. |
| Sep. 24 | VOLUNTEERS:
Mike Ball, Al Batts, Bruce Beimers, Stan Bowers (worked at home), Del
Carpenter, Sue Carpenter, Conrad DeJong, Ed DeVries, Phil DeVries (worked
at home), Ryan DeVries (worked at home), Bud Dinger, Jeff Dornbush, Ron
Elzinga, Wayne Jackson, Carol Mayton, Don Mayton, Dick Saddler, Jerry
Sigler, Audrey Snow, Wally Snow and Howard Sullivan. Howard provided our
coffee break donuts. Carol made and she and her daughter served lunch with
Audrey providing the salad, and Sue providing the desert. We will never
starve on this project. WOOD TV-8 We informed everyone that the local TV was here last Tuesday and a "Positively Michigan" feature would appear last Wednesday or Thursday between 5:30 - 6:00 PM. Well we have been put aside from everything from the Red Wings Hockey Team (they probably have a few more fans) to a opera singing hot dog vendor at the ball games in Detroit. Maybe it will show up this week? AACA HERSHEY 2002 For those going to Hershey will be our first opportunity to present the PARADE OF PROGRESS poster. This poster, illustrated by John Falter, pictures an historic event called the Parade of progress. GM asked artist John Falter to visit the Parade of Progress and put on canvas what he saw there for the cover of GM's Annual Report (1953) in order to capture the spirit of the show. John Falter (1910 - 1982) was an American artist and illustrator second only to Norman Rockwell. Falter did illustrations for Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, McCall's, Life , Look, and commercial work for many companies. He also did 300 recruiting posters and he painted portraits of famous subjects - Clark Gable, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, Olivia deHaviland and James Cagney. When Falter attended the 1953 Parade of Progress he took many photographs of the Futurliners, the displays, the demonstrations, the Aer-O-Dome tent and the crowds. Then using his artistic license he rearranged the standard Parade of Progress setup into a tabletop mosaic from which he worked to create his illustration. Falter like to "bring out some of the homeliness and humor of mid-western town life and home life, I used humor wherever possible". I think that explains the young boy "Set to Dreaming" in his Taylor Tot stroller. We are fortunate that Mike, Bruce, Fred Carpenter, Bobbie (NATMUS), Ron, Al, Stan Bowers, Connie, Wayne, Del, and others have worked hard over a years time getting this poster printed and now transported to Hershey to make it available. It will sell for $10.00 and will include a tube with ends to safely transport it back to your home as well as an insert describing the restoration project and facts about the artist John Falter. Also due to Al's efforts we will have Futurliner hats to sell at Hershey. These also will sell at $10.00 each. Once the AACA Hershey show is over the poster will be available through NATMUS for the $10.00 (US funds) + $3.00 shipping and handling. However do not send your money to NATMUS until we have everything setup. We will let you know. The hat will be available at the NATMUS museum but not available for shipping. For those attending the show the poster can be purchased at the following sites (until we run out as we have only a limited amount for Hershey): * Bruce and Dee Beimers Spot RNG 1-4 * Del and Sue Carpenter Spot RNH - 5-6 * Fred and Marge Carpenter Spot CV -34 - 36 * Conrad DeJong Spot RCG - 29 * Wayne and Lois Jackson Spot 57 - 60 (Note, Wayne will be also selling at Carlisle.) Since this is an all volunteer effort, 100% of the poster and hat sales goes towards the Futurliner project. Those selling the posters from their regular booths will not be making any money and are simply doing it to support this project. We thank everyone that has volunteered. BODY Al and Don with Howard welding worked at the rear of the Futurliner adding sections to the skin. GRILL Del and Wayne worked at the grill completing the installation of the hinges. In order for better accessibility to the engine compartment they installed hinges on the frame that the grill is attached to. This will enable better servicing of the engine and its accessories. BRAKES Del and Wayne once they completed the grill continued the installation of the brakes. INSTRUMENT PANEL Wally completed the final metal finishing of the instrument panel and has the final coat of primer applied. He also has the last instrument ordered, the speedometer. UPPER and LOWER 16' DOORS Dick, Howard and Connie completed the installation of the skin on the upper left 16' door. They also have about 1/2 of the lower door with the skin attached. Howard and Connie did the welding with Howard smoothing out the welds with hours of metal finishing. At the end of the day they got started on the right upper 16' door. LIGHTING FIN Bud, Jerry and Jeff installed 3/4 of the fluorescence light fixtures into the lighting fin. We are waiting for the balance of the fixtures to arrive. They also wired in these fixtures and installed the power cable in the lifting arms. Jeff also worked at designing the limit switches required for the upper and lower 16' doors. During the week Ed spent time with his son Phil and managed to find in Phil's stock all the necessary chain, sprockets, bearings and steel to finish the installation of the fin motor, gear box and drive system. Next Ed had his son Ryan due the necessary machining on the sprockets and the keyway for the acme threaded drive shaft. Ed and Ron today constructed the mounting plate for the motor and gear box that operates the lighting fin. They then built the frame work to support this drive system in the rear roof of the Futurliner. They finished up the installation with everything in place. We we meet again it will be Jeff's turn to wire up this motor. DONATION Art Lewis, Wes Myrick's son-in-law donated a 23 cubic foot refrigerator to house our soda. We had been using Wayne's small refrigerator but had out grown it. Thanks to both Wayne and Art. SCHEDULE The crew will not work the next two weeks as many will be at Carlisle and the Hershery car shows. |
| Sep. 17 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Stan Bowers, Del Carpenter, Fred
Carpenter, Conrad DeJong, Ed DeVries, Bud Dinger, Jeff Dornbush, Ron
Elzinga, Wayne Jackson, Carol Mayton, Don Mayton, Art Meidema, Wilma
Meidema, Wes Myrick, Dick Saddler, Louis Smiley (Lives in NY state in the
summer and California in the winter. He is a Tin Can Tourist member.),
Wally Snow, Howard Sullivan and John Wissink OFF-SITE VOLUNTEERS: Bill Bicknell, Steve Cordess, Dean Tryon. GUESTS: Dan Salas (Local TV 8 reporter), Mr., and Mrs.. Larry Figuirski, Maynard Juell, Betty Juell and Ada Busby, Wendy Schultz and daughter (Howard Sullivan's daughter and grand daughter). Carol made and served lunch with Wilma providing salad. ENGINE As mentioned previously Bill Bicknell picked up the donated military engine and transmission (from Tom Kuhlman) and took it back to Ohio. He started the disassembly of the inline 6 cylinder OHV 302 engine. Bill states that it appears from the minimal wear on the valve stems and rockers and also the small carbon build up on the cylinder walls that this was a low mileage engine. He feels that we should have a good head and other parts to go with the second NOS block. He also stated that because of the spark plugs missing, all the cylinders are rusted. After getting four pistons loose two of the pistons were stuck so bad he had to give up and cut the connecting rods with a Sawsall. They will not be needed anyway as Bill will use the NOS rods from the NOS short block. Once the engine was able to turn he was able to turn the crank and disconnect the transmission from the engine. The transmission is now in the wooden shipping crate and he will take it to NATMUS. From there we will have the transmission picked up to be taken for rebuilding. For you INLINERS out there that have been such great contributors to this project Bill still needs the following to complete this restoration: + Two Delco 1112300 distributors + From a commercial 302 engine an oil pump. + Oil pump discharge tube. + Oil pan and dip stick. Bill completely restored the primary engine for the Futurliner. He is now restoring a second backup engine for the Futurliner. Hopefully we will never have to use it. However we are planning to put together a small trailer with the unique front axle assembly (dual front wheels), the 302 engine coupled to the military Hydramatic for display. When the engine is in the Futurliner it is impossible to see it since it is buried down between the frame rails behind a large radiator. DRIVER'S SEAT and CARBURETOR Along with the engine it will need a carburetor. We also received with Tom's donated Army Truck a box of parts. Inside the box was more carburetor parts as well as a carburetor repair kit. Dean Tryon, when he came for the Parader's reunion removed the carburetor from this engine. He also removed the back of the driver's seat as one of our volunteers decided it would make a great step to get to the top of the Futurliner and as a result it broke. Dean has already sand blasted the next carburetor he will rebuild and has already repaired the seat. If you recall he is our newsletter editor and lives in North Carolina. WHEELS Steve Cordess has taken the wheels to Dave's sand blasting. From there he will be taking them to a powder coating company for painting. BODY Jim continues to repair the frame around the two rear doors. Don and AL with Howard welding worked at the left and right rear wheel house fitting the area next to the lower rear doors. LARGE 16' DOORS Conrad, Howard and Art continued adding sheet metal to install the skin on the left upper door. Dick started the skinning process for the lower left door. TIRES GM in China has contacted us with the possibility of working with a tire manufacturer that builds truck tires. In order to communicate the exact requirements for the raised lettering on the tire they requested a full size tracing. Dick took on the task to do this. He laid paper on the tire and using the old fashioned method of pencil rubbing he was able to produce an exact copy of the raised letters on the white side wall of the Futurliner tire. This was then mailed to the GM contact in China today. To finally build these tires the side wall might have to be electronically scanned. Kevin Strebe from Johnson Controls stated that their company might be able to provide the scanning services as a donation if this is required. We have gone down a lot of dead end roads trying to get these special tires built. Hopefully this one will bring fruit. LIGHTING FIN Jeff dropped off all the electrical components necessary to wire in the fluorescence lighting fixtures. However, prior to doing this the bottom of the lighting fin had to be painted. Connie, Art, Bud, Ron and Al spent time doing the final preparations for painting. By lunch the bottom of the lighting fin was finished as far as its final coat of white paint. With the hot sun it was dry enough in the afternoon so that Ron and Bud installed the large aluminum legs. They had some fit problems but corrected the alignment of the shafts and had the arms where they moved freely. Meanwhile on top of the Futurliner; Ed, Wes and John were engineering the placement and necessary hardware to adapt the new motor and gear box to the lighting fins mechanics. Going back to the start of this project in order to remove the fin, due to the fact everything was frozen, one end of the acme threaded shaft had to be cut. The first job was to measure and weld this shaft back together. They make a jig to align the shaft and Howard did the welding. INSTRUMENT PANEL Wally continues to work in the cab on the instrument panel. He has all the instruments positioned and fitted in their correct location except the speedometer. He has now located a speedometer and it is being shipped. DONATIONS John Conroy, a retired 3M employee, heard about the project and called 3M. Mark Algie, 3M OEM manager, shipped a box of grinding disks that we are constantly in need of. We thank both Mark and John for making this donation possible. John Wissink took a 1930 Dodge Housecar (today we would call it a motor home) to NATMUS and donated it to them with the understanding that if it was sold the the proceeds would go to the Futurliner Project. We want to thank John for the NATMUS donation. POSTER and HATS In order to provide some revenue for the project Mike continues to work to put all the details together to sell POSTERS. He also hosts all of our visitors, including the TV people this time, and tries to keep up with Futurliner research and cataloging everything. Also Al is working hard to get a second batch of Futurliner hats produced in order to sell at Hershey. HEAD LIGHT BUCKETS Wayne continued to sand blast head light buckets and rims and then painted them the final black. ENGINE COMPARTMENT Del, Stan and Louis worked at the front engine compartment so that the grill section can be swung out on hinges for better access for installation and service. PARADER'S REUNION DISPLAYS Fred loaned us tables, stands and other equipment so that we could set up the Parader's displays. He came to break these down and load up his van as he will need these at Hershey. TV 8 On Monday, the day before the work session, Carol received a call that TV 8 wanted to come out to do a story on the Futurliner Restoration project. When they heard that we would be working the next day they said they would be there when we started at 9 AM. Sure enough at 9 AM Dan Salas arrived with all the necessary equipment. He interviewed several people. He stated that it should air on TV 8 (Grand Rapids, Michigan) sometime between 5:30 - 6:00PM, Thursday 9-19-02. This is their prime news time and this segment is called "Positively Michigan". Although Dan spent 3 hours taking photos and interviewing he stated the TV segment is only 2 to 2-1/2 minutes long. So watch closely or you won't see it. |
| Sep. 10 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Conrad DeJong, Bud Dinger, Ron Elzinga,
Wayne Jackson, Don Mayton, Art Meidema, Jeff Miller, Dick Saddler, Wally
Snow, Howard Sullivan and John Wiltjer. VISITORS: Kevin Strebe and his son Curtis. Kevin is a project engineer at Johnson Controls. INSTRUMENT PANEL |
| Sep. 3-4 | Following
is the Futurliner work session report for September 3 & 4, 2002. This
is our first work session for the fall of 2002 and it was a bit unusual as
we were getting ready for the Parader's Reunion taking place on September
4, 2002. For the Parader's reunion most of the men's wives also came. The
Parader's Reunion report will follow.
VOLUNTEERS (Names for both days, most volunteers were present both Tuesday and Wednesday) Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Bruce Beimers, Bill Bicknell, Stan Bower and wife Carol, Jim Buick and wife Betty, Del Carpenter and wife Sue, Dick Chambers (Western Michigan Region Antique Club of America President) and wife Carolyn, Conrad and wife Judy, Jeff Dornbush, Bud Dinger and wife Bea, Ron Elzinga and wife, Wayne Jackson and wife Lois, Tom Kuhlman, Carol Mayton, Don Mayton, Art Meidema and wife Wilma, Wes Myrick, Dick Saddler and wife Janet, Arnie Seeger (Arnie and his wife Shirley came up from North Carolina), Jerry Sigler and wife Deloris, Wally Snow, Audrey Snow (Local Buick Club of America President), Howard Sullivan and wife, Dean Tryon (Our newspaper editor and his wife Les hail from North Carolina), and John Wiltjer. PARADER'S REUNION PREPARATION One display that bears mentioning is the Parader uniforms that Raffee Johns loaned us. If you recall Raffee still had his original lecturer uniform as well as his work uniform. In order to display these uniforms properly Bud (used to be a manager at Roger's Department Store - a local clothing store) went there to borrow two mannequins. In the mean time Stan (used to be a manager at Sears) also started looking for mannequins. Rogers suggested to Bud to bring the clothes to their store so that they could size the mannequins properly. Bud managed to get the two mannequins dressed minus shoes. Then he managed to find some size 12 shoes at a Good Will store. So Bud started our work session by polishing two sets of shoes and putting them on the mannequins. In the meantime, Stan got Sears to donate two mannequins. The final display ended up with three mannequins, one dressed as a Parader lecturer, one as a Parader worker, and one with the donated rubber rain coat and hat that has been donated by a Parader. (As a side line, the fully clothed mannequins were delivered to the Futurliner barn while I was on vacation. When I got home I walked in a corner of my darkened barn and was scared out of my wits when I confronted these characters.) Although most of Tuesday was spent setting up displays as well as memorabilia there was some work performed. I will not detail the displays other than to say that the Paraders have supplied us a treasure house of memorabilia that we show cased. We also put out all the mechanical and electrical components restored. The volunteers worked all day putting all the displays together. ELECTRICAL Jeff Dornbush delivered the newly purchased 120-volt motor and gear box required for the light fin. He picked it up at Holland Electric. In addition, Wayne and Connie traveled to Wayne's house to move an engine off of a rolling heavy duty stand. Bringing along this rolling stand they then went to River City Electronics and picked up the restored generator, completely rebuilt control panel and the tested and pronounced "OK" three transformers. We want to thank River City Electronics for their work and agreeing to do this work at cost (actually it cost them more than their cost) and the local GM plant for paying for this restoration. Bud and Ron started the installation of the fluorescence light fixtures in the lighting fin. EXTRA ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION As mentioned earlier the donated military drive train, a OHV 302 six cylinder gasoline with a four speed Hydramatic transmission, had been previously dropped off by Tom. Bill Bicknell was scheduled to pick it up Wednesday. However, while it was there Del discovered that the plumbing on the engine indicated that the air compressor was water cooled. Our NOS block does not have the block ports to properly plumb this. However, by the end of Wednesday Del along with others had figured what changes must be made to properly cool the air compressor. Bill, Tom, Del and others loaded the engine and transmission on Bill's truck. The reason Bill must take both the engine and transmission is the fact that the engine is stuck and to separate the engine from the transmission the engine must be free. Tom also included the radiator from the Army Truck donation. Although we already have the original radiator restored we will need a radiator for the for the spare drive line display. John Wiltjer just stopped and picked up this radiator already receiving John Weller's (Weller Truck) approval to have it rebuilt at his shop. |
| Aug. 28 | A
brief update of the Futurliner Restoration Progress as of 8-28-02. Even
though the volunteers have been off this summer work progresses.
ELECTRICAL The lighting fin electrical components cannot be installed until the lighting fin itself is installed. Thanks Jeff for taking a day of vacation to do this work. Jeff is an electrician at a local manufacturing plant and lives in Fennville, Michigan. GENERATOR River City Electronics continues to work on the generator and control box. We should be picking these components up in the next few weeks. We thank River City Electronics for getting this work done during a busy work schedule that they already have. SPARE ENGINE AND TRANSMISSION As previously mentioned Tom Kuhlman has donated an old GMC Army truck that has the same drivetrain as the Futurliner. Tom just recently pulled both the transmission as well as the engine from this truck. He plans on delivering the engine and transmission today. Thanks Tom for doing this work all by yourself. |
| July 22 | Although
the volunteer Futurliner crew is busy with other summer and family
activities things are still preceding as outlined below. Following is a
brief July update:
NEEDS -TIRES We are seeking someone in the tire manufacturing business that can find us a used truck tire mold for a 10:00 X 20 tire. We have a commitment from a GM Die Build plant that they will machine into the mold the letters for our Futurliner tires. We have an original tire in which the side wall raised letters are in excellent shape (the tread is cracked and worn). Just as a reminder the original tires were white walls, with the raised letters "GENERAL MOTORS", "PARADE OF PROGRESS", "US ROYAL", and "FLEETWAY". In addition, we have a commitment from Coker Tire that they will make the tires. NEEDS - PARADER'S UNIFORMS We have been loaned both the "dress" and "work" uniforms that the Paraders used. We have priced out the cost of reproducing 20 sets and it is about $5,000. These will be used to once the Futurliner goes on the road. We need a sponsor that would like to benefit by picking up the cost of these uniforms. GM WORLD GM World was a monthly publication of the GM overseas operations from the 1930's up into the 1960's. This publication covered all of GM's worldwide business and had articles covering many countries that GM did business in from Java to Russia. It is a treasure of the automobile business activity in the world in this era. GM Operations had these monthly editions put into yearly hard bound editions. If you are a automobile historian these GM World editions cover much of the automobile world. After reviewing these issues it appears in addition to the GM overseas automobile and truck makes (Holden, Opel, Bedford, Vauxhall, etc) that the vehicles GM exported and assembled overseas were Chevrolet cars and truck and Buicks. For you old car enthusiast they would be a treasure to find. Victor Garske, Parader, has taken the time to go through these and identify those issues containing Previews of Progress, Caravans, Parade of Progress, Streamliners, Futurliners and related information. In addition he located the original hard bound year sets of the editions that contained the above information and borrowed them and sent them to us so that our web site manager, Jim Crame, can add them to the web site. After the specific articles are scanned and added to the web site we will return them to Vic so he in turn can return them to the owner. We want to thank Victor Garske for the effort to obtain these articles so others may enjoy them. GENERATOR Our large industrial generator is at a local company River City Electronics. I stopped there this past week and the generator is complete and was on their test setup. It has already been run up to 900 rpm and everything checks out ok. The control panel is nearly finished and River City Electronics has been able to obtain instruments and controls that match the original. They also have wired it with period looking wire. They have already spent a lot more than what their cost estimate but are going to finish it with the money that the local GM plant supplied. There were no drawings or information for River City Electronics to go on but their skillful engineers, technicians and electricians have figured out all the wiring diagrams. We want to thank the folks at River City Electronics as well as GM for making all this possible. PARTS We received from Dave's Sandblasting and his brother's paint shop (The Refinisher) several sandblasted and painted parts including the door that is on the inside rear of the Futurliner and the metal guard for the pulley system that drives the above generator. Thanks to Dave and his brother |
| June 12 | UNIFORMS This September we are hosting the "PARADERS" reunion. We have borrowed Parader uniforms, both the work uniform and the lecturer uniform as well as been given the heavy rubber rain coat used by the Paraders. In order to display these at the reunion Bud Dinger has worked with his old employer Rogers Department Store and obtained the use of a couple of manikins on which to display these uniforms. Thanks to Bud and to Rogers Department Store. LIGHTING FIN Bud had also taken home the brackets to mount the fluorescence lighting fixtures in order to complete their fabrication. These are now done and in primer. Jeff Dornbush has been working with Holland Electric Motor to get the lighting fin motor repaired. It appears it is not repairable and Holland Electric is now getting us a quote on a new gear motor. ....NOW THE REST OF THE STORY ... as Paul Harvey would phrase it. This sequence of events goes back to many weeks when several of you that are following the Futurliner project alerted me to the fact that there was a Futurliner for sale on E-Bay. This Futurliner like all the other Futurliners that have not been restored is in terrible shape due to rust, neglect and many parts missing. Dave Mikol one of our faithful supporters that lives in eastern Michigan not only e-mailed me about the Futurliner but called me several times. Dave asked me if we could use the Futurliner. I stated that we did not need the Futurliner but we really need some parts from it and that we could save a lot of money by having those parts and not having to remanufacture them. Dave suggested that he bid on it. I told him that it could go for any price and do not waste your money on it. After further discussion Dave suggested that we see if the folks that had it on E-Bay would give it to the museum (NATMUS). Dave spent the next week with many phone calls and e-mail messages talking with the folks at City Loan (Ross Tesser) about the possibility of a donation to The National Automotive and Truck Museum of the United States. Finally, working with John Martin Smith, the President of NATMUS, an agreement was made for a donation. While the above was going on I talked with Brad Boyajian in California who also has two Futurliners and like us at NATMUS needs parts for his restoration. He of course is in the same predicament as we are needing specific parts. Brad working with us agreed to move the E-Bay Futurliner to his place and we would share the parts that each of us needed so that both restoration projects would benefit. Not only that but Brad found a friend that as a donation is willing to remove the parts. Of course parts in California does not do us any good for a restoration in Michigan. Again volunteers have come to the rescue. Dean Tryon, our Futurliner newsletter editor, called a Vice President of GM that he used to work with. This division will ship the parts on the back of one of their trucks that do not have a full load. Although I described this in a few short paragraphs you cannot believe the communication efforts that went on to make this happen. Calls were made to some California Car Clubs to help in removing part and we were even discussing at one time to send a crew out to California to remove the parts until Brad came through. This is truly a work of volunteers and I cannot thank enough all the people that contributed to this effort. I just hope I did not leave out any names of those that deserve thanks: Dave Mikol, John Martin Smith and his son Thomm Smith, Brad Boyajian, Dean Tryon, Ned, Ron, Ross Tesser, and others that we contacted and those that actually volunteered to go to California but did not have to. |
| May 22 | NOTE:
This is our last work session until September. There will be updates as
other things are completed. Even though we will not be meeting officially
things will still be happening.
VOLUNTEERS: Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Carol Bowers, Stan
Bowers, Del Carpenter, Fred Carpenter, Sue Carpenter, Conrad DeJong, Ed
DeVries, Ryan DeVries*, Bud Dinger, Jeff Dornbush*, Ron Elzinga, Bob Hart,
Wayne Jackson, Tom Kuhlman, Carol Mayton, Don Mayton, Wes Myrick, Martin
Reed, Dick Saddler, Jerry Sigler, Lou Smiley**, Wally Snow, Howard
Sullivan and John Wiltjer. Lou Smiley makes his winter home in California and his summer home in Troy, New York. He yearly attends the TCT (Tin Can Tourist) get together at Dearborn Park near Milford, Michigan (the east side of Michigan). This past weekend was the annual TCT event with over 50 antique trailers and motor homes participating. Lou travels and lives in a blue 1940 Yellow Coach. If you recall the Futurliner chassis were built at the GM - Yellow Coach facility in Pontiac, Michigan in 1940. Lou discovered while here, working on the Futurliner, that the front steering arms were the same as on his Yellow Coach. We told him he better not leave it or we might have to borrow some parts off of the front of his coach. (Carol and I attend the same event with our 1936 Buick Roadmaster pulling our 1936 Bowlus Road Chief Travel Trailer.) UPPER and LOWER 16' DOORS Jeff stopped prior to us starting in the morning and dropped off the right side motor that Holland Electric repaired for us. We want to thank Holland Electric for their service. Wayne and Lou then installed it. Ron had to fabricate spacers to raise the motor to get proper chain adjustment. Later it was run and performed fine. As mentioned last week the crew working on the timing of the doors were frustrated in their attempt to get the doors timed to close properly. Ed and Ryan, at home, constructed two new upper arms that were adjustable. Then, this crew, consisting of Ed, Bob, Ron, and Wes, proceeded to install these upper arms on the left side of the Futurliner where the doors were greatly out of time. In the process they discovered that the original upper arms were of different lengths. In fact after further investigation they discovered that there were three different lengths of these upper arms. These upper arms are a little less that 2' in length with a bored 3/4" hole in each end for a pin. Although each arm was different in length of less than an inch it made a big difference in the timing of the doors. The left doors were timed using the adjustable arms. They were tried out and closed perfectly. The arm lengths were recorded. Next the adjustable arms were taken to the right side and the same process was followed. We will end us with four upper door arms each a different length specific to that corner of the Futurliner. Probably for these doors to close properly every Futurliner was different. Next the left door had a fit problem at the center of the 16' length. This was also repaired. Connie did the welding. BRAKES Del, Stan with Lou helping next started to work on installing the grill section to add hinges to make the engine compartment more accessible. They designed and started the fabrication of the hinges. BODY Jim and Art worked at the rear fabricating and installing sheet metal around the rear door openings. This is another area that requires a lot of work since the Futurliner had been hit and damaged in this area. LIGHTING FIN Wes brought the donated Lighting Fin fluorescence fixtures that we received as a result of Jerry's efforts at Gray Bar Electric. Bud and Al then started the process to make mounting brackets in order to install the 24 two bulb light fixtures. In the afternoon Connie applied another coat of primer on both the inside and outside of the light bar. Bud took the brackets he was working on in order to finish them at home. PAINTING Mike made several runs to keep everyone working today. First he had to go to Wyrick Products to pick up some special mixed "green" for the instrument panel and the gray in order to paint the electrical control cabinet and all its parts. Next he has a run to the local hardware. We again want to thank Wyrick Products and Montana Paints for their donations. GENERATOR Last week Bud had taken the control box for the generator to Dave's Sandblasting. Dave got the sandblasting done and had his brother ("THE REFINISHER") then apply a coat of primer. Bud picked up the primed control box and all its parts. Next, Connie and Art prepared the components for a final coat of paint and did the painting. We want to again thank Dave and his brother for the fine service that they give us. CARGO DOORS Jerry and Fred worked on the lower cargo doors. They had to correct some alignment at the right rear of the Futurliner where the door motor sits. At the right front and the left front Jerry fabricated and had Howard weld in metal that will have the rubber bumper material attached later. FLOOR Dick and Marty continued to drill holes and tap them for the floor. INSTRUMENT PANEL Wally completed the preparation of the instrument panel for primer. Connie then painted it with primer. Later when the paint was dry Wally inserted the instruments to see how they looked. DRILL BITS Between helping others on their projects Wayne continued to sharpen drill bits. I think he is caught up now. |
| May 14 | VOLUNTEERS:
Jim Baker, Mike Ball, Al Batts, Nancy Batts, Bruce Beimers, Stan Bowers,
Del Carpenter, Fred Carpenter, Marge Carpenter*, Conrad DeJong, Ed DeVries,
Bud Dinger, Wayne Jackson, Carol Mayton, Don Mayton, Wes Myrick, Martin
Reed, Dick Saddler, Jerry Sigler and Wally Snow. GUESTS: Rose Boldt
(Rose is the retired executive secretary to the plant manager of the local
GM plant.), Larry Boldt (Husband Larry, is the retired purchasing manager
of the local GM plant.), Vern Palmos, Ronald VanFarowe, Robert VanFarowe
and Richard Meyer. Carol prepared lunch with daughter Daena helping. Nancy provided cookies for our coffee breaks. Rose brought quite a variety of "Dutch" deserts. DOORS (16' upper and lower) Jeff left us a message that the side door motor and the lighting fin motor are still at Holland electric and will be done this Thursday. He will pick them up and deliver them next Tuesday. Ed brought from Sparta Sheet Metal the door metal skin sections that had been flanged and hemmed really to install. However the first business was to hook up the left doors and open then to check for clearances. The motor that operates the doors had to be moved from the right side to the left side. The crew working here included Ed, Wes, and Don. Several interference points were discovered and corrected. The motor opened and closed the doors smoothly but did not close so that they were in time. After much discussion, several trial and error tries without success it was decided to think about it for a week and work at it next week. BODY Jim worked at fabricating and welding in metal around the rear left access doorframe. BRAKES Del and Stan continued to install valves and tubing for the air brake system. GRILL* |