MY 1940 GM FUTURLINER BUS, BUICK INSPIRED HOT ROD VERSION.

First I need to tell you a bit about myself.

I'm 76, raised in a Buick dealership in Bloomington, Il. Dad worked for Buick for over 60 years, beginning in the 20's.

Dad was 110% loyal to Buick, so I came by my Buick love naturally.

This FuturLiner bus build took over 400 hours, it is mostly wood, finished with all DuPont automotive finishes. It was a super duper fun project, the thought process was extensive. I had NO plans, instructions, drawings, and certainly it wasn't a kit. I had three pictures to work with, and feel the proportions are very close to the actual bus. It is 30" long, 7-1/2" wide, and 11" tall.

I will be posting build pictures over the next few days, it is finished, but since I just learned tonight how to post pictures I ask that you bear with me, please.

As I post pic's you will see/learn how it is Buick inspired.

Thank You,

Dale in Indy

P.S. More pic's may come yet tonight.

Ok, moving along, didn't want to do this build in one swipe, so will post in rapid order since the piece is finished.

Here you can see the progress.

Dale in Indy

Ok, moving along.

Here you get a hint of the Buick inspiration.

Dale in Indy

Way cool Dale. You can be proud....................Bob

I love it. I never was much good at wood working, so love to see this kind of work. Mud

Well done!

Moving along, this will be my last post tonight.

Here as I progressed I was testing the spacing of the 1/4" 3M chrome trim, also the flame layout. You need to understand, I love PURIST, but not one of them, so change to my arty likings OFTEN. Don't be offended.

You can see my Modified 41 Limited, it doesn't drive in snow, but does get moved out of my shop now and then for space to paint, etc.

Buick straight eights as you all know had 8 exhaust head ports, and 4 intake, so see that my header collector has 8 pipes, and since I modify things a lot, I have added 4 injector stacks.

DuPont loaned me their paint booth to spray, actually the manager wanted to spray the Creme color on, so I let him at it. The finished bus is CREME, BLACK, and SILVER. Being a tad arty, I normally add a touch of red. So behind the tip of the straight pipe, I will hand letter in RED, approx. 1/2" tall, " BUICK FIREBALL EIGHT.

Thanks for viewing,

Dale in Indy

This will wrap up the build of this Buick inspired model.

I changed my model of the FuturLiner to be Buick inspired. I had this vision that HAD a Buick designer with HOT ROD feelings felt the need to design the bus into a Buick piece, well this MIGHT have been his vision, MAYBE........hehehe.

The original GM bus was terribly UNDER POWERED. The straight Buick engine could/would have corrected this issue. You can see mine has 8 exhaust ports, and I took the four intake ports that the straight eight had and mounted 4 injector stacks.

As kids we talked of STRAIGHT PIPES, they weren't actually STRAIGHT, but I envisioned that a Buick designer might have done as I did, make it STRAIGHT.

The last few pictures were taken this morning, with windshield frames in place, and workable mirrors mounted. Still need the RED Buick script "BUICK FIREBALL EIGHT" painted on behind the straight tail pipe.

Note I have included a picture of some of my creations, and one of the model I am now working on. It's the GOOGLE LOCOMOTIVE. Looking at the wheels, and the tail it spells out GOOGLE. It to is approx. 30" long, and will be a gift to our computer employed son, he is a great son/friend.

Thanks for hearing me out,

Dale in Indy

That is AWESOME! Great work Dale!

Really nice Dale. Been waiting to see the pictures. Job well done!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is so impressive Dale! Top quality finish and fit! Very nice!

Wow.. that is an amazing build !!

Thank You for the nice comments.

I'm a Buick lover first, but do stray off course a bit just to mix my interests up a tad.

The bride of 53+ years and I are flying to Fl. Tuesday for a week, then pulling the manufactured Vette spring out of the front of my 41 Limited, and switching to coil over shocks. Since the car is much heavier than a 96 Vette, well the spring is in a loaded position, thus rough ride.

I will photo/post the steps it will take to make the switch. I will need to weld in beefier upper shock mounts/towers, and fab a heavier lower mounting plate.

My Limited weighs 4120 without driver. I am taking it back to the scales to get just the front weighed. I am working with a major shock mfg. so need that plus a few other measurements before a spring rate can be recommended.

Thanks for viewing my model build.

Dale in Indy

AWESOME!!!

That is a true piece of art Smitty. You have some great skills. Would you consider this you greatest. If not, which would be? THANKS for sharing!!!!!

MrEarl my friend, Actually a church pulpit I designed and built, and the two matching communion tables are what I call my best.

The 1945 Buick float was a labor of love, but bride and family think of all the other stuff I built, the BUS gets the most attention.

To be fair to the piece, in real life it does present itself better than my photo skills. IMO

I'm a Buick guy, but will finish the GOOGLE locomotive, then back to the 41 Buick, and around spring start a 48" long build of the Raymond Loewy S1 train engine. Longest engine ever built in the world. The engine alone was 80-4" long, with tender car, 140'-2-1/2" long. nearly 700,000 pounds.

Maybe someday I will post the pulpit/communion table build pic's. Just one or two finished shots.

Thanks for nice note,

Dale in Indy

Dan, besides congratulate you for the great craftmanship, you showed me the existence of this rare vehicle (take into account that those vehicle never arrived here). I imagine driving it, up there in that 1st floor cokpit. Awesome! Now I will google that Raymond Loewy engine and read about it.

Congratulations again!

Nahuelsan, Dale here, Thank You for nice post.

Since I started this thread I will take the liberty to stray a bit, and trust such does NOT offend a soul.

On 11-05-2013 Google saluted Raymond Loewy's 120th. BD with a rendering of a locomotive that had he been alive MIGHT have been an engine he would have designed with Google in mind. Note the wheels, and tail spell GOOGLE. My build has just begun, and is 30" long.

Now the S1 engine was designed in the mid to late 30's, built in 1939, scrapped in 1949. The engine without tender car was 80 feet long. The 8 driver wheels were 84" tall. At a scale of 1/2" = 1 foot my model will be 40" long, approx. 6" wide, and 9"+ tall. That will mean a scale of 24:1. I will probably build this piece starting in the spring.

I am NOT a train person, but these two designs caught my attention, I like strange builds.

Google (S1 locomotives), and HAPPY READING.

Dale in Indy

Dale.

Great work as always. Congrats on posting also.

You all don't know this, but I introduced myself to xp-300 AKA Dave, months ago, and have kept him in the loop so to speak on my builds.

He was so kind as to post the 1945 Buick float model for me some time back.

A SPECIAL 'THANK YOU' to Dave.

Dale in Indy

...and here's the link to the post on the Buick float if you haven't seen it yet.

http://forums.aaca.org/f163/you-dont-want-miss-1946-buick-344859.html

and here's a photo. A great job in my opinion.

Dale.....you ROCK !

Very nice model !!!!!!

Peace WildBill

Hello, today a retired GM engineer called me from Michigan, said HEY DALE, YOUR BUICK BUS IS IN THE NEW HOT ROD MAG I RECEIVED TODAY.

Note short story is #8, must be my lucky number, because last year late Hot Rod posted a picture and story on the Buick float model I built. Two friends listed are my DuPont sales friends, they aided in paint process.

Here is a picture of the mag article.

Dale in Indy