"Rustless Money Pit" update, Many before / after photo's posted on www.

[Gary LaBombard]

Hello everyone again,
well I am back off vacation from the North, (Upper NY State) and what an eye opener it was as far as fuel prices.  The weather was not as good as I would of wanted either, cold, wet the entire time we were there.  Anyhow after seeing the price of fuel when we were up there I will definitely keep my two fuel tanks.  I may even use my Radiator mist tank for a spare 30 gallon supply as suggested by some on this board. When we arrive up north regular gas was ($3.09 - $3.19) per gallon and Diesel was ($3.39 per gallon) Good grief.  I promised no political stuff this post, darn it!!

Well what my post is about what I saw just before we left for our trip north as we came from church, we passed a little Baptist church on the way back home and there was a 1973 Model 05 Eagle parked there.  I just had to go look at it, no one around and all in church I think.  Anyhow as I pulled up next to it I figured what to expect to see as I drove closer to it,  but I did not expect to see it this bad.  There is a group of Gospel singers traveling in that thing from SC and my god it was rusted out real bad and no way was my bus that bad.  I have no idea what else to do except to do as I am now and post photo's from my CD that I hope will make newbies more alert what to look for and again some of the present owners inspect their bus as I so often mention, most importantly Gospel traveling groups which I have seen many and everyone very, very unsafe to me. 

I will not dwell on this bus but it made up my mind to take the time I just have to post more important photo's  of my bus that I hope everyone will look at.

Before you look at these photo's I want you to realize I am including a (Disclaimer) here on this post that in no way am I saying what I have done is what any professional would do, my project is done the way I wanted to do it but in no way should be thought of as the only way to fix your bus if needed and I do not accept any responsibility for personal accidents to persons or property that may happen if you choose to do exactly as I have done.  If your bus is as bad as mine was consult a professional converter that can help you make professional judgment decisions about your conversion. With that said I will now tell you where my site is again, it took me 16 solid hours to arrange this site for you, and post comments on nearly every photo.  I am tired but if I prevent anyone from making a serious purchase decision it will be well worth it.   I only wish with all my heart I had this information available to me 4 years ago.  Anyhow here goes. 

My web site to view the latest albums I have made on Webshots is:
http://community.webshots.com/user/converter101
So that you do not  waste time looking at things you may have already the two latest albums are:

#17 Album – 1973 Model 05 Eagle when first bought, April 2002, (File "A" of CD).
There is 15 photo's to view.[/color]

(2) #18 Album – Before / After photo's of 1973 05 Eagle, (File "Aa" of CD) There is 144 photo's in that album.
I have chosen to post these photo's as I feel it very important to pass on this information even If do not get paid, as long as I may prevent a serious accident one day.  I do not want those that paid for my CD to think they wasted their money as they got 1200 photo's that shows how I did everything and over 200 typed pages of text that took many months to complete.
This is not intended as a sales pitch but anyone wishing to go to my CD web site to purchase my inspection procedure for undercarriages of buses please go to:
www.busconverter101.com
but again this is not to convince you to do this to make a sale.  My photo posted web site on Webshots  just touches on the importance of my information I am giving you now for FREE.

Good luck on your conversions, Safety doing you hobby can not be compromised, ever!!

Gary LaBombard

[Gary LaBombard]

Good Morning again

I am not sure this is important to mention but when you look at any of my albums, particularly album numbers 17 & #18 the photo's will all be numbered and then a letter after the number on some photo's.  These two albums do not have the photo's in complet order as taken so you have to remember that 1, 1a, 1b, 1c  goes together then 2, 2a, 2b, 2c etc all go together.  This was probably evident to all but newbies might not associate they are the same area of my bus when numbered and lettered the same then change to another number.  the #26 set of photo's has about 12 other associated photo's that all relate to the same #26 photo.   The veryHope this is all clearer than mud. 

Note: This is how I will always present my albums also in the future and any additions I may make to the existing albums I will note the particular new number & letter  of photo's to start with so you do not have to look at all the others you already did.

Hope this information on my web site has helped some other bus nuts.  Just ask for any more "Undercarriage" information if I can help with email or through this great MAK board.
Gary

[Barn Owl]

I'm not getting the link to work. Anyone else?

[Gary LaBombard]

Barn Owl,
I am sorry that the above link is not working when colored in blue to my web site.  I will contact Moderator and have fixed.  Thanks for the heads up.  Until it gets fixed, please copy & Paste in your web server and you should be able to go there.  I will post when this is fixed.  Again I am sorry for the inconvenience, believe me all the photo's are there.
Gary LaBombard

[Dallas]

Gary,
It's fixed

[wvanative]

Gary,

I woke up Sunday morning with a real bad case of vertigo, dang I hate when that happens. But I didn't let that stop me from getting on the MAK and checking to see if I could get in and see your pictures. I had tried 5 or 6 times but no go. To my delight Sunday I got in and boy was I rewarded for checking back. It took all Sunday morning and afternoon and after church Sunday night till 11PM to get through all of them. 

Gary I must say I am very impressed by what you have done so far, the quality of your work is second to none. I am only 50 and the thought of doing what you have so far would be a daunting task, my hats off to you. Thanks for documenting in pictures every step so the rest of us can see what it really takes to do a top notch job. Even though I felt bad yesterday and had to lay down a couple of times, I had to keep coming back until I looked at all of your pictures and read your description of each. 

When you are finished with your bus you will have a real show stopper. I get a kick out of seeing someone do something I am not sure I could do, so keep going, keep taking pictures, and keep updating us because I for one love to see a master at work.

Dean 

[Gary LaBombard]

Thank you Wanative for the praise, that is what keeps me posting what I am doing so that perhaps it is useful to others.  Again, what I do does not mean this is the way professionals do it but this is my (Gary Lee) way and as FF always did say, "Do it your way" and I usually do.  I am glad you enjoyed my web site and I appologize for any inconvenience you may have had trying to get on my site.  That has been corrected  thanks to (Dallas) but watch this board for any updates I may have, I will always let you know where exactly in what album the updates will be posted.

It is better for anyone to do a project like mine in particular if you are younger, being 61 now is kicking my butt at times and my knees, but very rewarding when I look forward  by thnking to the day I can pull her off her wooden blocks and get that DD running again.  God I hope I have good luck with that engine, gotta stay focused, one problem at a time and this is how everyone should attack their project.  The rest can wait.
Thanks again and God's speed where ever you go.
Gary

[wvanative]

Gary,

If you lived in my neck of the woods I would enjoy giving you a hand working on your bus. It would give me a chance to learn and I find learning fun. I know I will enjoy it very much when all of your hard work pays off and you take her on that first drive out on the open road. And I am sure the roar will be deafening through the land as one busnut after another cheers as you pass by. I just hope I'm still around when you do it.

Dean   

[rayshound]

Gary, my hat off to you. A great job, good quality work something to be proud of. I thought that I was going through alot of work on my mci8, I hardly had any rust but I redesigned alot of it and sand blasted and por-15 everything that wasn't stainless. I appreciate the trouble you went through to make it aval. to the rest of us, I to hope to offer the same thing maybe to give people a few ideas anys.
Ray