My new 1999 Bluebird P30

Hearse Driver · 02-24-2009, 11:29 AM

I guess it's time to stop lurking since I now have a bus!

It's a 1999 Bluebird P30 with a gas Chevy motor.

I've been talking with a guy down in New Mexico about a bus for the last week or so, and this last weekend I drove down to look at it. I ended up doing more than looking!

I saw this bus advertised as being for sale from a guy who helps manage the fleet for a school on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico. There were a few problems with the bus that he told me about right away, but for the asking price, I thought it might still be worth checking out. The biggest problem was the cracked exhaust manifold. He told me that it had an exhaust leak but when I got there and looked it was more than just a leak. But since I do a lot of mechanic work, I didn't see that as being too hard to fix. Among the other things wrong with it were a cracked windshield on the passenger side, a cracked panel in the glass on the door, and a non-functioning defrost.

It made the 850 mile trip back to Idaho without a hiccup. At first the gas Chevy V8 seemed a little underpowered but it seemed to clear out little by little. By the time I crossed into Idaho I could climb all but the steepest and longest hills at nearly full speed. I'm guessing that the engine was full of junk from all the low speed stop and go driving of the bus route plus the cracked manifold didn't help. On the freeways I was able to stay at about 70 mph. It would have done more, but I didn't want to push it too hard until I got it back and fixed the exhaust problem. I averaged about 10 to 11 mpg on the trip back even with the exhaust not working properly.

So here is my new baby! For $1000 I think I got a good deal!

Yesterday I spent the day working on a few things that were wrong with the bus. Had to do some rewiring for the defroster blower motors and got them working. I removed the wiring for the upper flashers and strobe so that I don't accidently turn them on. I also removed the big fish-eye mirrors on the front. I started on removing the seats but quickly realized that it's going to take 2 people to do unless I want to keep running back and forth from inside the bus to under it. I'll probably end up having to do that anyway.

Time to go out and get some more done on the little monster.

Ray_WA · 02-24-2009, 11:40 AM

It's a BEAUTIFUL bus!!! Of course... I'm prejudiced. I have a similar bus. 93 BlueBird on the same P30 chassis. Mine is diesel.

I removed the heater/defrost assembly from mine in order to make room for a passenger seat up front. If you need any of those components let me know. If you want a home for those fish eye's you removed, I'll take them!! I have them on mine, love them, wouldn't mind spares.

I'd love to hear more about your plans for your new bus!

-Ray

Hearse Driver · 02-24-2009, 02:29 PM

Hi Ray! Yes, it's a beautiful bus! Truth be told, your bus was the inspiration for me getting this one. I like the mid-size of the P30 and having a full-height ceiling was mandatory.

This is actually my 2nd bus. I also have a 1951 Chevy bus with a Wayne body. Most likely I'm going to be selling the Chevy bus to help finance the buildup on the new P30.

As far as the fish-eye mirrors, if you want them they are all yours! I'll take the brackets off the body too so you can have a complete parts set. We'll just have to figure out getting them to you.

Right now I'm sitting out in the bus taking a break from removing seats. What a nightmare...

The bolts aren't terribly rusty, but having to do this myself is a pain. Put two breaker bars on seat bolts, crawl under the bus and take the nuts off, repeat process... I don't know why Bluebird didn't weld the nuts to the underside of the body. It would make installing and removing the seats SO much easier!

Ray_WA · 02-24-2009, 03:17 PM

That 51 is AWESOME!!! When I was a kid our church had one very much like it. It broke down one time on a very bad stretch of road. No shoulder, just cliff. The police came along and because the bus was in such a bad place they insisted it be towed right away... and to get us all off it they called in several more police cars so we could all get out of there safely. Passers by were honking and shouting... they thought our "hippie" group was getting busted. I have fond memories of that bus and would love to have yours! Wish I had the time, energy, and money!

As for the mirrors... Box them up. I'll paypal/western union/send a money order for postage.

Post more pics of that old bus!

-Ray

Hearse Driver · 02-24-2009, 04:04 PM

Here's a picture of the front of the 51. I have an album of various pics right here at Skoolie.

LMAO about the "hippie bus" thing! The 51 used to belong to a church too. In fact, my older brother used to ride it to church when he was a kid!

As for the mirrors, Paypal sounds good to cover the postage. Check your PM for some info.

Castro · 02-24-2009, 05:27 PM

Im not sure if you've tried this, but many have used an angle grinder on the bolts to get them out. It might save you the trips in and out of the bus.

Hearse Driver · 02-24-2009, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fireguy9993

Im not sure if you've tried this, but many have used an angle grinder on the bolts to get them out. It might save you the trips in and out of the bus.

I would much rather do that, but I can't right now. I'm at my sister's house for the next few days and all my power tools are about 150 miles away.

I'll be heading out of here soon so if I can't get them out while I'm here, I'll get out the grinder when I get home.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck Webb

I really like the black old school bus too!

Ya, it's a cool bus. I really like it, but it just won't work for what I want. If I didn't have so many project vehicles I would keep it and do some work on it. But with this new bus I now have 5 vehicles and a travel trailer. And of those 5 vehicles, 3 are big. I have the two buses and a 2 1/2 ton '52 Studebaker military truck. I really need to thin down the herd a little.

I got 7 of the seats out in a few hours. Over half way there...

I also got the stop sign and all it's hardware removed from the driver's side. Looks much cleaner. Now I just have to weld up those holes for the mounts and for the sign's air hose.

The bus has an air tank mounted to the frame for the operation of the stop sign. I don't have air brakes so it serves no other use. I haven't really looked to find out what kind of compressor runs the system, but if it can keep up with the demand, I have an idea for it. I'm going to run lines to both the front and rear of the bus ending in NPT air fittings so that I can connect an air hose for filling up tires etc. Assuming the compressor can keep up, that is. If it can't, I still have some ideas to make it work.

My entertainment system while working on the bus...

What was really funny was all the kids getting off the bus from school and coming over to see MY bus! I even had a couple of friends of my sister's kids hang around for nearly 2 hours while I was working on it.

Hearse Driver · 02-25-2009, 12:26 PM

Probably not going to get much done on the bus today so I'm going over to my storage and taking the Class IV hitch off my military truck to put on the bus. The nice thing about these bigger commercial vehicles is that the frames are almost always 34 inches across the outside of the frame. My bus frame happens to be 1/2 inch wider so this hitch will work fine. The only snag is that the bumper hangs down quite a bit lower than the frame so that means I'm going to have to cut a small square out of the bumper for the receiver to protrude through. Not a big deal though - it just means that the install will look cleaner since nothing will hang beneath the bumper. Clean is good!

My boss at work gave me an older 27 foot travel trailer that isn't in very good condition externally. What I'm planning is to gut the trailer and take all the useable appliances and other components and use them in the bus. After I get through gutting it, I'm going to tear apart the shell and dispose of it so I can use the frame and axles. The axles are rated at about 2400 lbs each. I plan on shortening up the frame to about 14 feet, moving the axles forward, and welding in new crossmembers to strengthen it. Then I'll have to make a new deck for it. If all goes well, it will be strong enough to transport my PT Cruiser or whatever else.

On a side note, here are a few crazy bus pictures for your entertainment. Just random stuff I've found on the net.

Jarlaxle · 02-27-2009, 08:58 PM

You probably know this, but it's not a Chevy...a 1999 will be a Workhorse chassis.

Is it a 350 (5.7) or a 454 (7.4) engine? ALso, what are the axle gears? Is there a tachometer?

Hearse Driver · 03-10-2009, 06:27 PM

Just got back from the Vegas area a couple of days ago, so not a whole lot has gotten done. Over the last couple of days I've managed to get some of my tools collected up and have gotten the seats out, pulled up the plywood and rubber floor, installed my Class V receiver, removed the AC unit in the rear of the bus,

Here's the mandatory pic of a pile of removed seats!

At least mine is a short bus and I didn't have 400 seats to remove!

I was doing most of this work at my brother's house since he lives out in the country and there's no one to whine about me working on a bus. But my camera battery went dead after only a couple of pics and not being at home, no way to charge it. Maybe I'll get pics of the completed stuff a little later today.

I've also decided that I'm going to sell my 1951 Chevy Wayne bus. Planning on putting it up on Craigslist and Ebay.

Ray, I haven't forgotten about your mirrors either.

Been out of state and very busy the last couple of days.

Tone · 03-10-2009, 11:13 PM

Sweet Shorty!

Hearse Driver · 03-24-2009, 01:08 PM

I sold my 51 Chevy bus to a guy who lives here in Idaho. He sent me a picture of an old Ford that he has built up, and if that old truck is any indication of what he has in store for the bus, then I know she will be in good hands!

Here's a picture of his old Ford. Please try not to drool on your keyboards!

Hearse Driver · 03-24-2009, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jarlaxle

You probably know this, but it's not a Chevy...a 1999 will be a Workhorse chassis.

Is it a 350 (5.7) or a 454 (7.4) engine? ALso, what are the axle gears? Is there a tachometer?

Not quite sure how I missed this... It's a 350. Not sure what the gear ratio is. There is a tach so I guess I could probably find out. The bus runs at about 3000 rpm in 3rd gear at 65 mph. In overdrive, it runs about 2500 or so rpm at 70 (if I remember right). Must be fairly tall gears at that rpm in 3rd. Honestly, I wish I could lower the gear ratio just a bit so it wouldn't want to downshift so often. But I'm not sure what gear ratios are available and whether I could get a set that wouldn't reduce the ratio down so far that the benefit of better hill climbing wouldn't be negated by a screaming engine and significantly lower top speed. Might be something to look into later...

Jarlaxle · 03-25-2009, 07:39 PM

Hmm, 3000RPM at 65 in direct seems to be about a 4.30 or 4.56 ratio...pretty typical, I figure.

That has the "5700 Vortec" multi-point injected 350, right?

Hearse Driver · 03-26-2009, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jarlaxle

Hmm, 3000RPM at 65 in direct seems to be about a 4.30 or 4.56 ratio...pretty typical, I figure.

That has the "5700 Vortec" multi-point injected 350, right?

No multi-point. It's the older throttle body injection. Like Ford, Chevy was probably using up it's older stock on the bigger commercial vehicles.

I used to do mechanic work for a fish hatchery, and they had a 1995 Ford F700 which used lots of components off the late 80's light trucks such as steering columns, door panels, dash etc. Guess they have to use up that older stuff somewhere...

Jarlaxle · 03-26-2009, 04:41 PM

Forgt late 80's...the MDT's used the 1980-86 F-series interior until the body change in 1998. My wife works for a towing company, one truck they have is a 1994 F-700--other than the stereo (Ford's common square-button single-DIN as used from the late 80's until 1996 in vans & 1998 in pickups), everything is 1980-86 F-series. The only difference is an air pressure gauge, a parking brake knob, and the big MDT steering wheel. IIRC, it even has the hi-beam button on the floor.

the_experience03 · 03-26-2009, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hearse Driver

Not quite sure how I missed this... It's a 350. Not sure what the gear ratio is. There is a tach so I guess I could probably find out. The bus runs at about 3000 rpm in 3rd gear at 65 mph. In overdrive, it runs about 2500 or so rpm at 70 (if I remember right). Must be fairly tall gears at that rpm in 3rd. Honestly, I wish I could lower the gear ratio just a bit so it wouldn't want to downshift so often. But I'm not sure what gear ratios are available and whether I could get a set that wouldn't reduce the ratio down so far that the benefit of better hill climbing wouldn't be negated by a screaming engine and significantly lower top speed. Might be something to look into later...

I'm surprised it is TBI.

I have a bit of a passion for TBI, but 210 horsepower versus 255 for the Vortec is a big difference.

As far as the rearend I'd probably assume it is one of three, a 14 bolt full floater, a Dana 70, or a Dana 80. No matter which axle it is there are gears widely available for them if you really wanted to change things up. Is the transmission a 4L80E?

Jarlaxle · 03-27-2009, 10:23 PM

Yes--GM used nothing else until the Allison 1000 came out for, IIRC, 2001. A 1999 P-chassis will have the 4L80E.

Hearse Driver · 04-01-2009, 11:07 PM

Got quite a bit done the last couple of days. This first picture is from last week but it shows all the reflective stickers I took off. Took forever to get them off then to get all the adhesive residue off the body.

Now that all those stickers are removed, I have to figure out a name for the bus and what to put in that area between the flashers!

While waiting for some other stuff to get done, I laid out my floorplan on the floor with masking tape to make sure everything was going to work. After all was said and done, I had to revise a couple of sections a number of times to get everything working right. This is after about the second revision and not the final plan I ended up using.

Yesterday, I got the galvanized panels from the fabricator. They looked really nice, but when I got home to start putting them in, come to find out they had bent the metal on one side about 1/8 inch too long, and so I had to cut one of the flanges off all 13 panels to get them to fit.

So here are a couple of pics of the installation. The first one shows the c-clamps in place keeping the sheetmetal pushed to the outside to flush it up with the pillar trim pieces. The second pic shows the outside with some of the panels installed. I also primed one of the panels just to see what it was going to look like.

So after fitting a few of the panels in place, we took out the rest of the windows. Looks rather lame without the windows in it.

So here's what the interior looks like with all the panels installed and the resulting mess.

Here are the views down the sides of the bus with all the panels installed. I still need to get the panels primed.

About half of the windows that were removed.

So tomorrow I'm going to get all the panels primed and hopefully get the rest of the interior ceiling sheet metal removed. If I get that done (which is a little unlikely) I'll start removing the galvanized wall panels. I'm really not looking forward to all that sheet metal removal because of the 7000 rivets that I have to remove.

Hearse Driver · 04-12-2009, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHEESE_WAGON

As to removing seats, I had a friend underneath using an air ratchet while I held a box-end wrench on the bolts. Had mine out in 45 minutes. Of course, several bolts broke. The only issue I had was not being able to get to the bolts for the two front seats because the fuel tank blocked access on the passenger side and the battery box blocked it on the driver's side. I wasn't really going to need that space anyway for what I use mine for, so I just left them alone.

That's about the same problem I had in a section from the front of the wheel wells to about 3 feet behind them. There is a boxed in area under the body between the wheels wells and right behind that is the fuel tank. Couldn't get to the nuts on the bottom for that whole section so the only thing I could do is cut the bolt heads off. You would think that the bus companies would make it easier on themselves and tack weld some nuts to the bottom of the body.

Over the last couple of days I've been cleaning out the bus and getting the floor prepped for coating. I’ve removed the galvanized sheet metal on the sides, and also the interior metal for the ceiling and front and rear. So now I can get the foam board into place when I get to that point. Looks a little bare in there now.

Got the floor coated yesterday. I decided to go ahead and coat the steps too, and getting those screws out of the rubber flooring was a nightmare. Once I got the flooring off I found a couple of problems. The second step up had quite a bit of rust on it. Luckily there was nothing all the way through. The bottom step had no rust on it, but there is a section about 3 inches long where it attaches on one side that is cracked, so the whole step flexes about 1/4 inch when you step on it. I'm probably going to have to take that piece out and weld in a whole new piece across there. Looks like a design flaw to me. It's not really connected to anything solid on either side.

So here is the floor after the coating. It was starting to get a little dark so the pictures aren’t all that great.

I also got the window metal primered so it looks much better until the real paint goes on.

Sinced it's still morning, I'm going to try to get a little bodywork done today. I've only got a couple of small dents in the bus to mess with so that shouldn't be too hard. One I had to take out with a slide hammer so I've got a couple of holes to weld back closed. This small dent is on the lower rear of the body right above the bumper.

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