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

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Lighting Fin Installation

    Since winter weather was fast closing in on us here in Michigan, it was imperative that we do this job as soon as possible. The job had to be done outside because of limited ceiling height inside the building in which we are restoring the Futurliner. 
    We used Paul Altman's Sky Tract to facilitate the lift. The telescoping hydraulic boom with forks attached could  lift up to 6,000 pounds and raise its load over 40' in the air. We also worked with Gray Bar electric in obtaining the last materials that we needed to complete the restoration of the lighting fin. Jerry at Gray Bar worked with COOPER LIGHTING as well as GE LIGHTING to not only obtain all the materials as a donation to the project but rushed them to us to get this job done on time.
    First, we attached a special bracket from the trailer hitch on my Chevrolet pickup plow truck to the front axle on the Futurliner. Del installed the hub of the original steering wheel and using a large pipe wrench did the steering. We slowly pulled the Futurliner out of the building. Next, the lighting fin on its cradle was positioned parallel to the Futurliner. Previously lifting hooks were installed onto the lighting fin. The Sky Tract was positioned, a chain was attached to the lifting hooks and to the forks of the Sky Tract. The lighting fin was raised above the Futurliner with its aluminum arms hanging vertical under the lighting fin.


    In preparation for this job one track section had been removed in the roof, as well as the two acme worm shafts. The front carriage was lowered, slipped into its track. This was a long and tedious job as the clearances are very tight and the lighting fin had to be perfectly inline in three directions, up and down, north and south, and east and west. Next the front acme threaded shaft was slowly turned into the carriage nut. When we started to perform the same operation for the rear acme worm shaft we discovered the motor and gearbox had to be moved out of the way. Once the second carriage was in place, then the one track that had been removed was inserted. At this point, the weight of the lighting fin was on the Futurliner. However, we kept tension on the forks of the Sky Tract for safety reasons.

    Next, the acme worm screws had to be timed so that the lighting fin would be positioned in the center of the roof opening when closed. The motor was hooked up and we first lowered the lighting fin, using the motor, about 1/2 way down. Then we tried it in the up direction. Everything worked perfectly. Next we lowered it to within six inches and again ran it up and everything worked smoothly. We finally ran it to the bottom but this time the motor stalled when trying to lift the fin again. When GM designed the roof for us two years ago they told us that we should add lifting assist cylinders to lift the lighting fin for the first few inches of travel as there was too much torque being applied to the lifting mechanical system. Ed had already designed this assist lift system but we needed to find out exactly the distance the lift cylinders had to assist the drive mechanism. We determined with the assist of the Sky Tract that once the lighting fin was 3" from bottom the lifting drive train easily raised the lighting fin. Ed plans to install 4" lift cylinders. We also aligned the lighting fin front to back by disconnecting the coupling and turning the front acme worm shaft. We had to do this two times to get the lighting fin to drop into the roof opening. 

    We completed the day by lowering the fin into the roof. Next, using the pickup truck, we tried to push the Futurliner back into the building. However, even in 4 wheel drive it just sat there and buried itself in mud. Along with the truck and help using the Sky Tract we got the Futurliner back into the building.

    A very successful day putting a major piece of the Futurliner back together. Thanks go to all the volunteers as well as Dennis Fuller at Kenowa Lumber, Paul and Brett Altman.

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