Seeing as the old Allison transmission was meant for the 705, different flexplates were obtained from Allison to mate the new engine with the original transmission. Both are pictured above.

And below is John Stopa, standing in front of the 707 turbine that now powers Big Red during his visit to the shop to check on its progress. With him standing there, one can get an idea of how truly massive it is. The flat floor of the truck's cab is well above his head.

AnonymousJohn Stopa inspecting the newly-installed 707 turbine during Big Red's restoration.
The owner painstakingly replicated all of the colors on the truck and stripped off the old paint. Over the course of six months, the truck's jet-age lines were restored with the help of "top-notch body men."

"I spent a lot of time and money getting the right color and paint process to match the original Ford color," he told us. "The color is a dark red candied metallic. The silver is candied metallic, also."

In our first article, we spoke to one of the workers involved in this long restoration. He claims that much of the truck was clearly not designed to be disassembled which made the process considerably slower. He also stated that the bodywork was extremely heavy, made of several layers of fiberglass and covered in thick coats of paint. You'll notice in the image below that at least one of the truck's Jetsons-style badges also put up a fight, and had to be masked off instead of removed during painting.