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

Volunteers: Paul and Marjo Prinzing, Fred Hoffman, Art and Wilma Miedema, Howard Sullivan, Jerry and Carolyn Bush.

Thank you to all the volunteers who put in some very long hours and a great deal of effort to have another successful showing of the Futurliner.

This event essentially ended up being four separate events over two and a-half days. Friday afternoon the Futurliner arrived at the GM Proving Grounds. After going through security, we off loaded the Futurliner and then were escorted to the building where the Futurliner was to be stored. From about 3PM until 5PM the Prinzings and Fred displayed the Futurliner to the employees of the Proving Grounds. Many, many thanks were offered to us by the employees as well as congratulations for doing such a fine restoration.

Saturday morning, we were escorted through the Proving Grounds to the exit gate. We drove the five miles to the show site at Baker's of Milford. The hills in the area were challenging for the Futurliner to climb at times. We found out from a later tour of the Proving Grounds that that area was chosen as the Proving Grounds because of the hills. We parked the Futurliner around 8AM and began the set up for the show put on by the Motor City Chapter of the Pontiac Oakland Club International. This was a show for vehicles made by Oakland, Pontiac and GMC only. They were very pleased with the turn out of about 150 cars at this new venue. The show ended at 3PM and we drove the Futurliner back to the Proving Grounds after a short fuel stop at the local Speedway gas station which caused quite a bit of commotion among the patrons there.

One of the riders on the return trip was Jeff Sawruk who is an automotive engineer. He noticed how the Futurliner labored to get up the hills and started to question us about the exhaust system and the by-pass valve. He said that a short exhaust run is good for power but that a long exhaust run is better for torque. So with his suggestion, I ran the exhaust through the whole pipe and indeed the Futurliner climbed the hills to the storage site with more ease than the day before. Lesson learned!

Sunday morning, we arrived at the Proving Grounds for the third event of the weekend. This was a 50/50 event where half of the crew went on a guided tour of the Proving Grounds while the other half went with the Futurliner for a photo tour on the oldest portion of track at the grounds. We were escorted to the high-bank curved area which was built in 1924. Then the crew switched places for tours and a few more photos were taken of the Futurliner at the main entrance.

Again the Futurliner was driven the five miles to the same show site as the day before. With the exhaust going through the whole stack the drive was less labored for the Futurliner. (As I said, lesson learned) We arrived at the show site at 11AM for a show that officially didn't start until 3PM and there were already cars on site. This turned out to be a regularly held Cruise-In that is frequented more by those that have more hot-rod type cars. We were again well received and had many praises and thanks said to us. We were able to load up the Futurliner shortly after 6PM and we were on our way back to Grand Rapids by 7PM.

We had two special guests arrive that spent some time under our tent and allowed us to pick their brains. One was Don Meyers the GMC Historian and the other was former Parader Merlin Fiegley. Also I spoke for a time with Steve DeGroote whose friend Scott VanAvery had a Futurliner that they used as a motorcycle storage shed in the 1980s. This Futurliner had traces of displays associated with Allison/Detroit diesel inside. This Futurliner was supposedly sent to Milford Salvage which is owned by Ronnie Miller. We may need to do some research on this.