GM Futurliner Progress Photos
GM Futurliner Restoration Project
National Automotive and Truck Museum of the United States

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Manufacturing the right and left internal ACME threads on the two carriages that operate the top lighting fin.
    Dick Humphreys from Saginaw, Michigan drove the 2-1/2 hours down to Zeeland to donate the AMCO bronze for the two nuts that must be machined for the top lighting fin drive system. We thank Dick for this expensive donation. There is an interesting story to this donation. He went to a scrap dealer to purchase the bronze. At the time neither he nor I had no idea as to what type of bronze to purchase. The dealer ask him if 330 would be ok, and Dick not knowing one type from another said ok. The dealer then discovered he did not have any 330 in the size we needed. Next the dealer asked him if 660 would be ok and again Dick said fine. Again the dealer did not have the right size. In the meantime I had found that we should be using AMCO bronze. The dealer did have AMCO bronze in the right size and sold it to Dick at the same price as the 330 material, a real bargain. Thanks Dick for the donation.
    Phil DeVries took the AMCO bronze home. He will be developing a computer program, designing and building a tool to cut this material on his CNC milling machine in order to make the right and left internal ACME threads on the two carriages that operate the top lighting fin. The threads were badly stripped and this will save us quite a bit of money. 


Phil has a CNC milling machine at home. Phil first developed a program for the mill, then he constructed tooling, and then he started the process of machining. I believe he said he could only take a cut of .006" at a pass due to the hardness and toughness of the material. The nuts are complete and look like jewelry. This nut consists of a complete assembly and some other steel parts must be machined but are much simpler. Thanks Phil.
    (Note to others that have Futurliners. Phil has all the data to make more of these nuts. Just contact us and I will pass on your e-mail to him.)

Completed pieces are shown above.
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