The Project Continues...

[tomaustin]

a true labor of love.............

[awalker1829]

It’ll be another week or so before I will be back at the garage-I’ll be in Flagstaff this weekend taking a short vacation.

[awalker1829]

Now the seats are being reinstalled. Got all of the seats in the bus in their correct positions and got half of them bolted in place Saturday. Bolting takes two people to do-the inside person drops the bolts in place and keeps them from turning while the person under the bus installs the washers and torques the nuts down.


This is the last bit of painting that needs to be done. All of the lettering is painted on, as vinyl lettering won’t stand up to the sun very long.

[ffuries]

Looking good, look forward to seeing it done, and yall start your next project!

[awalker1829]

This is one of the other buses that is being worked on:

1947 Ford Transit Bus delivered new to the Tucson Rapid Transit Company.


Interior shot. Right now we’re installing the interior roof and side panels. We have the seat frames removed and stored pending restoration.

[ffuries]

OK, so how many buses do yall have? And is there a web page that I can go to, so I peruse the exhibits?

[awalker1829]

Unfortunately we do not have a website currently set up. At the moment, we have at least twenty buses in the permanent collection.

[awalker1829]

More progress on the 1960 GM-driver's seat has been reupholstered and will be reinstalled this week before we send the bus to the Tucson Classic Car Show Saturday. I will be at the show with the bus and will drive it back to the shop. This will be the first car show we've gone to since the whole Covid thing started. Pics to follow.

[tomaustin]

I hope the attendees enjoy seeing "the way it was"......

[awalker1829]

It brings back memories for some of the attendees-it is an original Tucson bus and ran in service here from 1960 through 1974. Old timers here can remember when public transit was provided by two private bus companies. 135 was operated by Old Pueblo Transit Company which served the south and west sides of Tucson. Tucson Rapid Transit Company served the north and east sides. The City of Tucson did not provide transit services until 1974 when it bought both companies and merged them into a single organization (Sun Tran).

Myself, I enjoy taking the bus out to public events. Seeing people enjoying the restored vehicle makes the long hours of labor worth it.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I recently toured the AACA museum in Hershey Pennsylvania and had a look at the bus collection they have there. The Bus from the movie Speed, and the Forrest Gump bus are there along with others.

[awalker1829]

I recently toured the AACA museum in Hershey Pennsylvania and had a look at the bus collection they have there. The Bus from the movie Speed, and the Forrest Gump bus are there along with others.

That place is on my list of places to see. Interestingly, a lot of transit agencies are taking interest in preserving historic buses from their fleets for public relations purposes now. One thing that I actually like about NYC is that they take transit history seriously. The New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn displays some of their historic subway cars and they have a fantastic collection of historic NYC transit buses, which they periodically display and (on special occasions) put in service. They also run the subway cars on special occasions and have one bay at the Coney Island yard that is designated for maintenance of the historic subway car fleet.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I recently toured the AACA museum in Hershey Pennsylvania and had a look at the bus collection they have there. The Bus from the movie Speed, and the Forrest Gump bus are there along with others.

That place is on my list of places to see. Interestingly, a lot of transit agencies are taking interest in preserving historic buses from their fleets for public relations purposes now. One thing that I actually like about NYC is that they take transit history seriously. The New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn displays some of their historic subway cars and they have a fantastic collection of historic NYC transit buses, which they periodically display and (on special occasions) put in service. They also run the subway cars on special occasions and have one bay at the Coney Island yard that is designated for maintenance of the historic subway car fleet.

They are always rotating things in and out, but some are permanent displays. They have three original 1948 Tucker cars there along with a mockup car from the Tucker movie, and a huge number of Tucker prototype engines and other parts that exist no other place in the world. The cars are not thirty feet away under glass either, I was standing inches away from millions of dollars worth of one of a kind Tuckers, and I was able to go on the Gump bus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBdw-7dHu6c&t=24s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTMsasM-Ux0&t=49s

[tomaustin]

Junk, the grandson of Mr. Tucker is a good friend of mine. He lives in AZ and is involved in many activities involving cars and military vehicles. He and his Mom attended the Pebble Beach car show last season where one of the original Tuckers was featured...It happened to be the car his mom had traveled in when she was married....I get to see him about once a year...

[Junk Yard Dog]

Junk, the grandson of Mr. Tucker is a good friend of mine. He lives in AZ and is involved in many activities involving cars and military vehicles. He and his Mom attended the Pebble Beach car show last season where one of the original Tuckers was featured...It happened to be the car his mom had traveled in when she was married....I get to see him about once a year...

They also have a mockup of a Tucker dealership office, the door to Preston Tuckers workshed, and more small items than I could count, an amazing collection for a car that would have been something if it had been given the chance. They were working out the bugs right up to the end.

[Longcolt44]

I remember my parents took me to see The Car of the Future when I was 5 or 6. The big surprise was there was no motor in it where it should have been, but there was a spare one in the rear trunk. The crowd was very surprised at that feature.