Buses I've Had/Do Have

[Glennman]

Sorry for reposting this, but I accidentally posted it on the "bus Projects" board. This is the board I intended to post it on.

I thought it would be interesting to know what buses people have had in their lifetime, and what bus/buses they have now.

True Bus Nuts (in my opinion) can never have enough buses, are intrigued with the buses they see (even if they already have a bus) and are always looking for that perfect bus.

I have had 6 buses in my lifetime.

My first bus was a '68 GMC 40'x102" Fishbowl. It was a project on wheels, but ran good, and my family and I drove it thousands of miles around the Pacific NW, the Oregon Coast, Utah (once), and it was a lot of fun camping in it with the kids growing up, and they have fond memories of all that. I eventually sold the bus due to lack of use, and a major career change that didn't justify it sitting around.

In my quest for the perfect bus (mainly a bus with storage bays), I bought 2 buses from a gentleman in Oregon. I was still driving the '68 around at this time. One was a '53 4104, fully converted with mechanical issues (I wish I still had it. I never did pick it up from the storage yard, and with it being 500 miles away and not running, I eventually sold it to the owner of the yard), and an early '50s Kassbohrer (pre Eagle). The Kassbohrer was gutted down to the shell and sat parked for 10+ years before I bought it. After digging it out of the holes it was in (tires sunk into the ground), I drove it 500 miles home. It took all night, it had no license plates at all, half the floor was gone so you could see the engine at the rear, and the driver's seat was ready to fall through. The drive took me over Crater Lake (OR) over a 5800 foot pass, and it was in November (very cold). The bus was actually in pretty rough shape. On the way through Bend OR, the "love Joy" connector that drove the radiator fans (etc.) broke. I found a 24 hour welder out of the phone book at 3:00 in the morning, and paid him $200 to get out of bed and weld it for me. I sold it about 5 years later.

Then I picked up a '63 Eagle, it was gutted, had a lot of rust, and had engine issues (I never really looked into it much, but it smoked on one side). This one I bought locally and sold locally about 2 years later. That was about 20 years ago, and it still sits in a field about 20 miles from my house.

Then I picked up a 1974 MCI, which I still have. It is fully converted, and we use it from time to time. It has (if I recall) a 12" raised roof, is reskinned, and is a lot of fun. It's an MC-8 with MC-9 windshields. My plan was to remodel it, and I might still do that.

Then my latest bus, the 2002 MCI D4500. I wasn't looking for a bus when I bought this one, but I couldn't pass it up (you know how it is). This would be the first one I would convert from the ground up. I'm having a lot of fun with it, and it gets my creative juices flowing. I'm enjoying making videos of the work, even with the troubles I am having with it electrically (that I caused!). If I put $5000 dollars getting the electrical stuff fixed, it would still be a great deal.

Happy New Year everyone.
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