September 1999

Sept. 2

Dean, as you and I have discovered the Futurliner in Dana, Indiana and one of the two in the junk yard in Arizona have been purchased and shipped to Brad Boyajian in California. I called him the other night and his intentions is to restore one of the vehicles and then later decide what to do to the other. He only intends to restore the outside to look like the original. He is not sure what he is going to do with the inside. He is not sure what type of drive line to put in it yet. We will keep in contact to see what ultimately his plans will be.

Sept. 6

Steve, I will be home most of this week so I will make arrangements with Len and get the hubcap. Again thanks for picking it up.

A week from this Saturday Carol and I are headed to Montreal to pick up parts from the Canadians that own the Futurliner that we are purchasing from them. We are getting the following parts:

The wide lower aluminum siding (new-remanufactured by the Canadians).
The narrow lower aluminum siding (new-remanufactured by the Canadians).
The rubber bumper strips (new-remanufactured by the Canadians).
A new windshield (new-remanufactured by the Canadians).
The rear PTO gear box (they did not use it in their restoration). It will be an extra for us and will plan to use it as a working power train display.

Another wheel cover. Since there were two styles used (an early 1953 model and a later 1955 or 1956 model) we do not know which one they have an extra.

John, I have been in contact with Brad and Mike in California that have purchased the two and one Futurliners respectfully. Both parties intend to modernize the Futurliners to some extent and I am not sure if they ultimately know what they are going to do with them. At this time, I have found no one that is going to restore any to the original configuration. However I am keeping a dialog up with whoever has one of these unique vehicles. Again thanks for the info.

Sept 9

I joined the Parade of Progress in April 1953. We left Detroit following a ceremony in front of the General Motors Building in Detroit on April 18th. I was hired as a lecturer trainee, and later served as an administrative assistant to the Director, John E. Ryan. doing logistics planning and convoy planning, etc. I traveled with the Parade to 110 cities in the USA and Canada, and then transferred to the GM Financial Staff in Detroit in October 1955. I compiled a record of cities visited showing dates, show sites and hotel accommodations covering my entire itinerary and distributed it to every member at my farewell party. I also distributed copies to attendees of the reunion we held in Orlando several years ago. I have a considerable amount of material, including brochures, news clippings, photos, and stuff collected throughout my tour. I am quite sure that the only person who traveled with the caravan from beginning to end is James Morris of Savannah, Georgia.

I held numerous positions in the Corporate staffs including payroll administration, benefit plan development, collective bargaining with UAW, -and a six-year stint with EDS beginning when GM bought the company in 1984. I retired in May 1991 after 38 years of service. We have lived in our present home for 38 years where we raised two children. We have been spending the winters in Florida - Panama City Beach and Naples - since we retired. You are involved in a very interesting project and I wish you success. I look forward to your progress bulletins. I don't recognize any of the names of partners mentioned in the bulletin and letter. I hope to see the Futurliner sometime during its reconstruction.

James I. Gentzel
2739 Teynham Place
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301

Sept. 15

Dean, just a report on the Futurliner work session of yesterday. Had five people working on the Futurliner:
Don Mayton, Wes Myrick, Jim Baker, Bruce Biemers and John Homeniuk

We had an excellent turnout considering a lot of the regulars were on vacation and some preparing their cars for next weeks Glidden Tour.

Jim Baker tackled the inside rear removing three of the seven sheet metal panels that make up the inner wall. We were pleasantly surprised to find a minimum amount of rust damage in this area. There are still four large inner sheet metal panels to remove and hopefully we will again find a minimum amount of rust damage. There still will have to be patches welded in where there is some rust through. A couple of inner braces in this area will have to be replaced.

Wes and John removed the air valve and piping to the air powered step. Then they removed the step and air cylinder that controls the step. Next out came the power steering pump. It appears that it is ok other than needing the surface rust removed and painted. Wes and John continued and removed the remote engine air cleaner. It is mounted to the rear left area of the engine compartment. Next they took out the air pressure tank that is mounted up against the front bumper. The associated plumbing was removed also. Sketches were made of everything prior to removal as well as photographs.

After lunch, Wes had to leave because he had to pack for Glidden as he was leaving the next morning. John then started to diagram the electrical panel above the left front door, which is the engine access door. Next work session we will tackle that.

Bruce and Don worked up in the driver’s cockpit removing the trim around where the windshield is located. Most screws were rusted in place so the usual; heat, drilling, chiseling, lots of WD-40 was applied to remove these trim pieces.

In the process of removing the trim pieces in the cockpit it was found a #10 stamped on several of the trim pieces. This could indicate that our Futurliner was #10. Up to this point we have not be able to identify which one of the Futurliners that we were working on. Even if our Futurliner is #10 I do not have a list that ties each Futurliner with each of the 12 displays of the 1953 through 1956 Parade of Progress. I do have such a list for the prewar Futurliners.

A large sound-audio control board was removed from the rear of the Futurliner.

We received a wheel cover from Conrad Vaughn via Steve Brock and Len Dorne. Steve and Len did a relay to get it to Zeeland. This gives us two wheel covers from the 1956 style and one from the 1953 style.

We have documentation that states the color of the vehicles were Target Red and White. Wayne Jackson did some research and found that a Chevrolet commercial color in 1953 was Target Red. He even went so far to get the paint numbers in both enamel and lacquer.

Again, the volunteers are what makes this project so exciting. Their contributions of time, talents, money and physical work is the fire that keeps this project on track.