Our speaker for this evening will be Brian Reed
Flushing Area Museum (The Depot)
431 W. Main St. at the R.R. track
Monday, October 16, 2017 at 7PM
Our speaker for this evening will be Brian Reed, who will talk on the purchase of Flushing’s 1927 fire truck Included will be several power point slides documenting the total restoration project.
Brian’s son, Eric Reed was maintaining the Flushing Firefighters Association’s Facebook page in November of 2013, when Doug Pratt , fireman /collector from Memphis MI contacted him. He sent pictures and Boyer serial numbers confirming that he had found a Flushing truck at an estate sale. He didn’t want to sell at that time but he contacted Eric in 2014 and was willing to see it go back to its original home.
The bare chassis truck from the cowl back was originally purchased by Flushing from a REO dealer in Owosso. It was then sent to Boyer in Logansport, Indiana where they added all the fire equipment. One of the old pictures in front of the Flushing fire hall, shows Flushing’s first truck, a 1921 REO in the foreground and the 1927 truck in the background. Another picture, shows the 1927 in a D-Day parade, in 1944.
Probably in the thirties, chemical tanks were replaced with a 300 gallon water tank. Brian was able to find a donor truck, with a pair of Boyer chemical tanks. The original T6 engine was rebuilt by Bill Mackey. Another friend, Tony Salem, reupholstered the seat. Brian completely disassembled and sandblasted the entire truck. He also managed to do all of the painting and gold leafing. Fellow collector and restorer, Bill Rausch, was invaluable in finding parts and information. Weather permitting, Brian will have the truck on display for the meeting.
