What’s
Happening! |
- With the invitation from General Motors to have the
Futurliner on display at their June 22 "Eyes on
Design" event at the GM Tech Center, the crew has been
re-energized and volunteered to work sessions on a 2 days per week
basis to get it ready. These extra sessions started the end of April
and continued into June.
- April 11, 2003
was a milestone in the restoration process as the
exterior painting was finished and the vehicle moved back to the pole
barn for trim work. Forty plus gallons of bondo needed to finish the job
at Valley Truck apparently had a bonding (no pun intended) effect
on the Valley Truck people. They said they felt bad seeing the
Futurliner leave but were happy to have been a part of the project. They
did a super job on the finish and painting.
- Progress has been breathtaking these last few months. Major
accomplishments include areas such as:
- Engine, transmission, power steering & air compressor are
installed and operating. The unique Hydramatic gear selector and
controls in the cab have also been rebuilt.
- The new air braking system has been completed and tested
successfully.
- All lettering installed on the front and sides.
- The ribbed aluminum side panels installed and the rest of the trim
is virtually compete.
- Door and light bar actuators and electronic controls completed.
- Rubber bumpers have been repaired, one section fabricated and
installed.
- Instrument panel completed with all new gages.
- Final touch-up painting has been completed.
- New hatch in the driver’s compartment has been built and
installed.
- New whitewall tires were installed that were fabricated by Bill
Ginman. He was able to add whitewall material to new standard
blackwall 10x20" truck tires.
- A temporary Plexiglas windshield has being fabricated to protect the
interior until the vehicle is done. The final windshield will not be
installed until everything is completed.
- Upper and lower running lights are installed but not yet wired.
- Two volunteers have come from a good distance away just to help. Walt
Davenport flew in from Brighton, Michigan for a days work. Chuck
Ballard rode his motorcycle for 2 days from his home in Syracuse,
NY (thru heavy rain and winds) to spend a full day working. He then
packed up his tent and drove 2 days home.
- New volunteers include Ken Bogardus from Wyoming, Michigan, Phil
Prinzing and John Wissock both from the Muskegon, Michigan
area.
- The first test drive was taken on Monday, June 9,
2003. The route was out of the barn, down Don’s short street and
around a large country block one mile in each direction. Although the
vehicle ran well, we discovered that the left outer wheel bearing was
improperly secured resulting in this wheel completely coming off.
Fortunately, with dual wheels on each corner no serious damage
resulted. The wheel rolled approximately a 1/4 of a mile before making
its way into a muddy ditch. This was all recorded on video as Al
Batts was riding in the rear of Ryan DeVries pickup truck which
was the lead vehicle. The next day, the problem was diagnosed by
removing the opposite wheel. Del Carpenter and Ron Elzinga
spent the day making repairs and insured that both front wheel
bearings were properly secured." See the photos on the web
site for more details.
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| GM
"Eyes on Design" Show
|
- To prepare for the 5 day event, the vehicle was towed from Zeeland
to the GM Tech Center in Detroit on Tuesday June 17. The plan had
been to trailer it over but the carrier showed up without the right
type of low-boy trailer. After lining up a tow truck (fortunately
the one used before with an experienced driver) and removing the
rear axles (to avoid any damage to the driveline), the trip was
uneventful but resulted in a 12 hour day.
- The Futurliner was certainly a big hit the whole week at GM
starting with an employee car show on Wednesday the 18th.
Most of the employees there had never heard of the Parade of
Progress which resulted in a lot of history being shared by the
crew.
- It was driven around the grounds for various activities each day
accompanied by several members of the work crew at all times and
operated extremely well. On Friday, GM had arranged for many of
their concept cars to be available for the local TV stations and the
History Channel along with Wayne Cherry, head of the GM Design
Staff. They all visited and photographed the Futurliner also of
course. The History Channel planned a 3 hour interview that
ran to 7 hours including all the interviews and shots of the vehicle
driving up and down Tech Center Roads.
- Friday evening was a reception for automobile design engineers and
designers. About 700 people were in attendance including many of our
crew.
- Saturday was for the International Media Day with all the
concept cars in place again plus new model GM vehicles.
- Sunday was the main event – "Eyes on Design".
It was held on the Tech Center grounds near the lake and the Design
Staff Building. John Martin Smith (NATMUS) and his wife
Bobbie came up from Indiana for the event plus many of the
restoration crew and their wives. We’ll list them in the next
newsletter but Ray Borowiak must be the Paraders getting the
"long distance" award - Ray lives out in Washington state.
- At the end of the day, the Futurliner was towed back to Zeeland,
parked in Don’s garage where the restoration will be continued in
September when the crew gets back to work. They did an outstanding
job of getting it ready for this show and deserve all the credit
under Don’s unique leadership.
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Paraders
& Archives
|
- GM
sent invitation letters
to all the Paraders and volunteer workers for the June 22 event
mentioned above. Many were able to attend.
- The request to locate one of the Paraders traveling trunks was
fulfilled two-fold this spring when both Connie Vaughan and Bill
Mitchell donated their original trunks to the project and the
museum. Connie was on the Parade in the 50’s and Bill in the 40’s.
Thanks to Dick Humphries also for picking them up and
delivering them to Zeeland.
- Connie Vaughan
also donated one of the "bologna"
glass bottles that were used to demonstrate compressive and residual
tension. It could pound a nail into a board but if a small object was
dropped into it, it would shatter. He also had other memorabilia that
was donated.
- We heard from John Ryan’s sons (Jack and Pat Ryan)
who indicted they have a lot of material from their Dad’s
collection. They are sorting thru it and will send items of
historical interest. John was the Parade Director for the Parade of
Progress starting in 1941 on through the 1950’s.
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Project
Needs |
- Although the project had it’s first official
"showing", much work remains. Major items include interior
finishing (cab upholstery, trim, install sheet metal and/or aluminum
trim on all the display area walls and doors, interior lights, and
much more), electrical wiring (only the engine is done so far),
install an air conditioning system, weather seal tracks and seals
for all the doors, route the engine exhaust up to the top as
originally done, install the large 110 V generator with controls,
make white wall tires with raised lettering, build a new hatch over
the cab and install, insulate the engine compartment, make and
install new rear door handles.
- Our need for a full set of hubcaps was partially filled by Peter
Pan Bus (Peter Picknelly) after Don called to follow up on a
note from Jim Stacy. Seems like Jim had seen one hanging on the wall
when he visited the bus company. Peter donated their only spare to
the project so we now have a set of four for our vehicle. We now
have one hubcap that was the style used in 1941 into the early 1950’s
and three hub caps that were the style in the late 50’s.
- A trailer is needed to haul the Futurliner between events.
It must be a "low-boy" type capable of well over 27,000#
and handle the 33’ length.
- Bill Bicknell is working on the second engine and needs a few
parts such as the starter motor, heavy-duty generator and
pulleys. We now have 3 carburetors ready to go for the 2 engines
plus many spare carburetor parts.
- We would like to obtain or build a suitable display for the
vehicle based on one of the original designs.
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| Financial
status - Poster & Hats: |
- Posters and hats
are still
available thru NATMUS for $10 each plus $3 shipping. Quantity orders
will have a break on shipping and will be approximately 20% above the
single item shipping charge. Contact Bobbie Smith at NATMUS for
specifics for your quantity. A good number were sold at Hershey and
NATMUS is beginning to receive orders. An order form and additional info
is on the web site. The mailing address is below on the Donation Form
– please use the street address and not the PO box. Credit cards are
accepted at the museum.
- You can also see the poster (along with it’s history) and the hat
on the web site.
- As you can see from the list of items still to be done, financial
support is still required from the large group of loyal supporters.
Your continued help is appreciated.
|
Misc.
Notes |
- Gerald Perschbacher who writes
for the Old Cars Weekly magazine has had several articles about the
project in his "Club Clips" column. His most recent note on
our project was in the 5/15/03 issue where he mentioned the June 22
event at GM, the project summary and the web site. Gerald has also
offered to review the book when it is completed with a summary in a
future Old Cars Weekly.
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