MC-9 in northern NJ - ex-Crossmen Drum & Bugle Corps #831

[bkelly1011]

Hello -

Similarly to the MC-102A3 I'd posted a few weeks ago, this MC-9 has been purchased from Youth Education in the Arts, cleaned up and is now being "flipped" in northern NJ.  This was last used as a summer tour bus with the Crossmen drum corps when they were HQ'd in Allentown.  I don't know its prior history, the seller is noting it has Hawaii locations on its destination sign.  I was always told this was an ex-Academy bus, not sure if those two facts are compatible with each other.

Buyer definitely did a little engine work before driving it from Allentown, PA to Closter, NJ where it now is.  Probably has decent parts, the sides are straight, windows OK.  Not sure about long-term mechanically - this bus did not run from September 2006 until sometime this past February, and I"m not sure what the issue was that prevented it from running.  I must say current seller must be a Detroit Diesel black belt of some kind, he can get anything running - and running well enough to make the trip to NJ on I-78 without issues (which is true).  Feedback from YEA staff involved in the transaction to him is that is a very good guy to deal with.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1983-MCI-MC-9-COACH-BUS-CONVERSION-RV-/260993045955?pt=Buses&hash=item3cc465d5c3

Take care,
Brad

[belfert]

Would the salt air corrode a bus used in Hawaii?  I suppose that vehicles not regularly used along the island coast might be okay.  I know that vehicles routinely operated or parked near an ocean coast will rust pretty baadly.

[bkelly1011]

That's a good question, I have no idea where it was domiciled if/when it lived there.  I never did much with this bus, it wasn't running and YEA tended to use it for storing trophies when I was a volunteer.

It has been on the East Coast for some time now, YEA owned it at least since the early '00s, maybe before that.  And since they purchased it from Academy, chances are it was in the CONUS before even that. 

Of course, living on the East Coast presents many corrosion opportunities in itself, I'd think that would be at least as hard on a bus as being in the tropics!

[belfert]

I have no interest in another bus.  I was just curious because the Ebay listing sorta infers that being in Hawaii means less rust.  I thought it might be just the opposite.

[Ed Hackenbruch]

It would definitely depend on where it was on the island. We lived on Maui for almost 11 years. We had friends that lived 2 blocks off of the beach on the dry side of the island that had a 14 year old Datsun pickup that had never been garaged and had very little rust on it. Knew people on the other side that lived 2 miles from the beach and their 3-4 year old car was just about rotted out.