Nine of the original 12 Futurliners have been accounted for according to this page on the Futurliner site. It sounds like FIDO was the one that was "restored" and sold at B-J for $4mil.
I saw this restored one (not the 4.1 million one from BJ auction) years ago unrestored at Bortz's north of Chigago in the early 90's. Didn't know what it was at the time, but tried to contact the owner (Bortz) to buy it to use for a mobile orthodontic office. Got someone at his office and they said he was collecting them and going to restore them. Realized later that Bortz is the guy that has collected and restored several of the 50's GM Motorama cars. A year or two later I learned what the thing was and about the whole Futurliner caravan. Fast forward a few more years and stumbled across the website of the guys restoring the one I had tried to buy years previous and that Bortz had donated it to them. Got to see it finished at Iola last year and actually sit in it....quite a thrill, to say the least!
the resto website listed above is great, i have spent MANY hours checking it out... cool little fact, those things are so heavy, they have dual (duallie) front wheels with a differential between them so the beasts will turn! I have a coouple of pics ill try to upload later. great thread!
FIDO was the Futurliner that was refurbed and sold at B-J Peter Pan is the Futurliner that the Peter Pan Bus Co in Ma has
Must not have been too long after you spotted it that I saw it parked outside of the ACD Museum, mid 90's sounds about right. I didn't have a camera with me and I always kicked myself for not going back to get some pics. The above video shows a short clip of it as I remember it looking with the Cadillac logo on the side. It was pretty rough looking but it was still easy to imagine it being worth the effort and expense of restoration. I got to sit in the cockpit too, but this time I had my camera! I bet the drivers had to get used to driving under elevations without ducking.
Ahh memories...I had one of those steering wheels. Big heavy thing from a GM bus. Had it hung on my garage wall when it came loose and stuck me a glancing blow to the head and knocked me to my knees. Probably would have killed me if it caught me square. I was so mad I threw it away and of course now regret doing so.
Here's a last couple shots of #10, plus a couple of other unusual trucks on display that day. If you squint just right you can see the dual front wheels in this shot.
There is a futureliner out here in Pomona that is partially there, it's not listed on the main site. I have seen it, it's missing a lot of peices and the entire chassis is being refabbed to accomodate modern running gear.
There was one near me in Van Nuys, a guy was restoring it on a shoestring budget. The story I heard was that the guy is a hair dresser I think, not a automotive restorer and when he bought it as a bad motorhome convertion. It was in sorry shape and the new owner didnt know it had any history at all. The roof and the rear had been recovered due to a small fire inside. The interior was gutted and the GM were missing off the front also, as I said sorry shape. Well during a slight redo he discovered what was left of the artdeco roof ridge and started to do more research to discover what he really had. He did infact find out it was a Futureliner and then the real work started. It was pretty neat, I use to drive by were he parked just to see progress. He started to hit up all the local automotive shops to try to get services donated. The last time I saw it over 10 years ago the wheel's were restored ( painted 2 tone ) and the roof was reconstructed and in primer, and he had just put in an later V8 engine. I heard he had gotten someone to donate all the paint material and it was going to be painted. Then one day I drove by were it was always parked but alas no more, I never saw it there again I wonder were it ended up? I believe it was the Bob Valdez Futureliner. That is my little Futureliner story as I heard the rumors, CBB
I dated a women in my early twenties, who's father worked for GM for 35 years. He's 82 now and his job was touring around the counrty, going to all the small fairs and festivials and showing he lastest GM cars. Beings I was big into cars he would pull out all these old black and white photos of his displays. I remember seeing photos of the 58 chevy cut in half, and he told me they had electric motors that would turn all the rotating assembalies. Some pretty cool stuff. I should get ahold of him and see if he ever drove one of the Futureliners, because if anyone did he most likely was one of them. Plus maybe he would let me scan some of those cool old phots to share with the HAMB.
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