December 1999

Dec. 2

Connie DeJong brought over Gordon DeBaar (Transmission Specialist) to look over the 3rd transmission (3-speed/PTO) that he has volunteered to restore for the project. He looked over what we had disassembled and stated that all the gearing looked good and with a new set of bearings we should be in good shape. He stated although this was special for our Futurliner it was common to see this type of transmission in large dump and over the road tractor trailer trucks of this era. He also stated, if there are any additional parts needed for this transmission that we should be able to find them. He loaded the disassembled transmission and the new bearings, that we had acquired, into Connie's van to take back to his place to restore.

While looking at the Futurliner he inspected the differential (rear end) and told us how to inspect it to determine if we needed to disassemble it for new bearings. He also outlined the procedure for its disassembly.

It is remarkable in this restoration of how many people who have come forward and offered their services. It is really enjoyable working with all these volunteers.

Dec. 14

Had a great turnout. Del Carpenter, Ed DeVries, Jerry Sigler, Jim Baker, Wayne Jackson, Connie DeJong, Don Mayton, Jeffery Miller, Bud Dinger, Lois Jackson (Sent lunch with Wayne), Carol Mayton (Served lunch)

Without the Futurliner we concentrated on smaller items that needed taken care of.

Del and Wayne worked at building a set of rolling horses so the doors can be mounted on and worked on. Then they worked on making a cover plate for the shifter mechanism.

Ed and Jerry constructed a shipping box to ship the drivers seat to Dean in North Carolina since he volunteered to restore this item. In the process they discovered one of the seats' aluminum castings was cracked so Ed took that home to get it welded. Ed also brought (he paid for) lots of structural angle iron and flat stock for Connie to weld.

Jim and Bud disassembled the gasoline tank holding straps so that they could be taken to the sandblaster. They then removed 40 years of debris off of them. Jerry and Bud scraped and wire brushed the two 45 gallon gasoline tanks. Next they will go to the gasoline tank repair shop as they are full of debris and one has a large hole in it.

Jeffery spent time recording all of the items he needs to do the instrument panel and the brake system. He has not only volunteered to do the instrument panel but also the air brake system from compressor to the final braking system. This would include a modern emergency brake system for safety reasons. Since he is an electrical engineer he will be in charge of all the electrical. We will have to find a local industrial electrical contractor for him to work with on the large generator and the industrial side of the Futurliner.

About 4:30 PM the tow truck showed up with our primed Futurliner. Everyone helped getting it in the barn again.

Dec. 13

The day started very unusual. Woke up to everything glistening in pure white. It was below freezing and a heavy fog had rolled in from Lake Michigan over night and froze on everything. Every branch, twig, blade of grass, the houses, and cars were covered with 1/8" of frozen fog. We had a brilliant white winter wonderland with out any snow. This condition occurs rarely but it is absolutely beautiful. Sorry for the digression.

Del showed up at 8:30 AM and we headed to the sandblasting place. We had to remove the tarps that we had placed on the Futurliner the Friday before. Good thing we had covered the Futurliner due to the frozen fog. The sandblaster got a late start due to the fog not starting to lift until late AM.

The weather forecast was predicting rain and snow for Tuesday and temperatures not exceeding 40 degrees for the balance of the week. Since we needed good weather and temperatures above 50 degrees to prime the vehicle we had to make different plans. Our original plan was to prime the Futurliner out in my driveway. I had heard that Dave's brother Steve had a truck painting business and I asked Dave about the possibly of shooting the primer on the Futurliner. He stated that his brother was very busy but I could check myself.

Off I went to see Steve. He stated he was booked the entire week and had no openings. I reviewed that we had no way to get it painted without a heated building. Finally he stated if I could get the Futurliner there as soon as Dave finished it he would prime it the next day (Tuesday).

Dave finished the sandblasting by 5 PM and I had a commercial tow truck scheduled to show up at 5 PM. In the meantime the police called the tow truck service because a semi truck lost its load on US 131. The tow truck showed up at 6 PM.

Here's where things got exciting. To move the Futurliner from the sandblaster to the paint shop was only a mile. However the route crosses a very busy railroad crossing where trains pass every 1/2 hour to every 1-1/2 hours. This crossing is also a large hump and as the tow truck crossed the tracks the Futurliner became disconnected from the tow truck. So now we have a 38 ton tow truck sitting across two lanes of a four lane highway and a Futurliner sitting across the railroad tracks. There were a few anxious moments but the driver did a lot a scrambling and managed to avoid an accident.

Dec. 9

Due to forecasted rain and snow Del and I went to Dave's and covered the Futurliner. The plan is to have the 75% sand blasting done by the end of next week. Stay tuned.

Dec. 8

Del and I spent about two hours getting the Futurliner ready for a commercial tow truck to take the Futurliner the 3 miles to Dave's for sandblasting. For this first sand blasting we will get about 75% of it done. We do not want to remove additional upper skin until we have replaced some structural members. We do not want to lose dimensional integrity. About 4:30 PM a 38-ton tow truck showed up. The driver only spent about 30 minutes winching the Futurliner out of the barn and hooking it up to the tow truck. We then drove the three miles to Dave's place.

Dec. 7

Again we had a good turnout and a lot of work got done. Following are the volunteers that contributed their time and talents: Ed DeVries, Del Carpenter, Jim Baker, Connie DeJong, Wayne Jackson, Jerry Sigler, Carol Mayton

Del and Wayne spent the entire day cleaning years of debris, grease and rust off of the cases of both the 3rd transmission and the differential. It was a very nasty manual job with putty knives, wire brushes and rags.

Jim continued to remove the sheet metal from the inside of the rear of the Futurliner. This is a slow and tedious job since every screw must be drilled out or ground off with the grinder. These panels are in good shape and they have compound shapes so we plan to reuse them.

Ed and Jerry spent time in the cockpit finishing removing inner sheet metal sections, accelerator and brake pedal assemblies, much old insulation that was hidden from all the sheet metal panels that were removed, the remaining instruments, windshield washer bottle and its bracket, and the remaining trim and upholstery.

Jerry also made a wood contour template of the curvature of the outside cab at the belt line. The cab horizontal bracing is so rusted that as we repair this we must be able to go back to a fixed dimension.

Connie worked at grinding away rust and welded in new replacement angle iron.

He then removed the rusted battery box. The right wheel house was completely removed as it was badly rusted. The other three are in good enough shape to repair in place.

Ed, Jerry and Connie spent time making lots of measurements to obtain replacement structural metal.

While working on the Futurliner, Dave Flokstra the person that we are hiring for sand blasting came to look over the job. Because of the size of the Futurliner, the fact that the weather here in Michigan is shortly going to be not conducive to sand blast outdoors it was decided to have the sandblasting done as soon as possible. Plans were then made to have the Futurliner taken to Dave's place to have that done.