GM Futurliner Progress
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| By Paul Prinzing -- South Bend was the site of the ATHS (American Truck Historical Society) convention and show. This was another event for people to witness a rare occurrence as there were two Futurliners at the same place. Right across the room from Futurliner #10 was the unrestored Futurliner #3. It was quite a head-turner for many and a great opportunity to compare the two vehicles. We shared a large exhibition building with many of the oldest trucks on display. Luckily, this provided a dry viewing area away from the heavy rains experienced during the show. | |||||||||||
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While at the ATHS show in South Bend, we had
another donation to our project made by an interested individual. Chris
Thornton of South Bend, IN is the sound/audio man that manages all the
sound equipment used at the fairgrounds. While talking to us about the
Futurliner he noticed the large speakers being used during the
presentations shown in our vintage photos. He could tell by the photos the
specific model and maker of those speakers. They were Elector-Voice 848
made in Buchanan, Michigan. He said that he had such a speaker available
and he would like to donate it to the project. I spoke to him about
possibly hooking it up to our existing TV and he said he'd send me the
proper driver that could be hooked up to do so. He said the speaker is
made of fiberglass and may need a bit of smoothing out and painting before
we use it. We may need to make a bracket of some kind that would allow us
to hang it from the overhead door.
Pictured: Paul Prinzing, left shaking hands with Chris Thornton, right.
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 As we've had happen many times before, we had
a visitor to the Futurliner with very distinct memories of them from their
past. Bracky West, of Stockbridge, Michigan, was visiting the ATHS show in
South Bend with some of her children. As they were walking through the
antique trucks on the grounds, Bracky began to tell her children of some
interesting old GM "buses" that used to show up at the "family picnic"
held by the hydramatic plant in Willow Run, Michigan. At the time Bracky
didn't realize that the Futurliner was on site. When they entered the
Hoosier Building she was stopped dead in her tracks as not only was there
one Futurliner on site but there were two of them. You could tell by the
look in her eyes that she had traveled back to some time in the past. Then
she started to relate to us the story of her father, William Chambers,
working at the hydramatic plant and of her seeing the Futurliners as a
very young child. She spent a great deal of time looking over the
Futurliner and was finally convinced she should climb up in the cab of
#10. The smile on her face was priceless when she climbed down out of the
cab. She made several trips back inside the building that day and bought a
number of Futurliner souvenirs to take home with her.
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One of the most interesting things about being at a truck show like this is watching how they check out the Futurliner. Bodies often disappear under the vehicle as they check out the drive train and other under chassis items. If a ladder were nearby they'd probably be up on top of it checking out things up there too. |
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