Page 411 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong
P. 411

 It brought back good memories of
working on those old conventional dozers back in my younger days.
– Ron Spencer, main shop foreman, Peterson-Cat, San Leandro, now retired (1986–2016)
  (L-R) Bill Doyle, Jack Ravazza, Ed Akin, Ron Spencer, Glen Ghilotti and Duane Doyle Sr. in the San Leandro main shop in April 2015
He was on it for months at a time. And he was go- ing crazy, just like I was,” says Spencer. “He hadn’t really seen any of these old machines before, so I helped him a lot. It brought back good memories of working on those old conventional dozers back in my younger days.”
ORIGINAL SHOP BAY
At the beginning of the project, Duane Sr. took Ghilotti out into the San Leandro shop to show him where the Twins would be built. “See that downpipe for the roof leader?” he said, pointing upward. “That was the outside of the original shop. And this end bay here is where they built the orig- inal Twin tractors.” Duane went on to point out telltale landmarks of the old shop, the differences in the walls and beams in the roof. “This section was all added after the original Siamese Twins were built, so this end bay is where the original tractor was built. And that’s where we’re going to build the new Twin. To be historical.”
ORIGINAL CAT LOGO
Another salute to historical authenticity was a cos- metic fix on the Twin’s two hardnoses, which greatly
pleased Ghilotti. “Duane’s crew got the radiators sandblasted and all cleaned up, but the lettering on the hardnoses was all messed up,” said Ghilot- ti, back in September 2017. “The Caterpillar logos had been destroyed by previous owners working on them. Some letters were missing; some were all cut up. It just didn’t look clean. It was upsetting.”
Out in the shop, Duane saw Glen’s face fall and asked what was wrong.
“You can’t read the word Caterpillar,” Ghilotti said. “The letters are all messed up.”
“Okay,” said Duane. And that was it.
But the next time Ghilotti came down to San Le- andro to see the progress, Duane showed him the hardnoses. “They were absolutely perfect. He’d had one of his guys weld up the Caterpillar logos and then grind them down. You couldn’t tell that they’d ever been damaged,” said Ghilotti. “I was just so excited about the quality of workmanship Peterson did. It was absolutely amazing.”
When the two D8s were finally joined together, a lift truck pulled them out of the shop and they were shipped up to Peterson’s Santa Rosa store. “I was never so happy as when we got our part done,”
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