...BLUNDERBUS...

cheezypsnookle · 10-25-2009, 07:46 AM

Well it is finally going to come to fruition , im going to go get our bus on Tuesday the 27th of October 2009. For anyone that doesn't yet know we (my troupe) are getting a skoolie to use as a home/tour bus for our fire spinning troupe called skeletoncrew (cuz there is only a couple of us). We plan on being short term- full timers... if that's not a misnomer ,that is we will live on the bus full time until it is time for my son to start going to school .... in about four years.

OK bus details, Blunderbus is what i named our bus , and i hope the blunder part doesnt come to bite me on the ass. Blunderbus is a 1991 ,bluebird, flat nose puller, 72 pass full size, with a cummins engine ,and an allison transmission not yet sure of the chassis or if it is an all american or not.

It has been partial converted twice

the first converter gave up the ghost before the project was finished , and its next life was to be a temporary home for a guy who was rebuilding after his home was taken by the hurricane in aug 05 known as Katrina since it was more of a house than an rv there are a lot of non rv appliances. I saw a house stove and mini fridge along with window unit ac so instead of removing seats i will be taking out fridges and house stuff and replacing with rvish stuffs.

We will fly into New Orleans on tues 27th and stay the night in a hotel then on the 28th rent a car and drive to Gulfport Mississippi where will will pick up the bus and return the rented car . Our trip back is from New Orleans Louisiana to Amarillo Texas a 882 mile trip so if you are in between the two places i would love to hear from you in case it is a blunder

TygerCub · 10-25-2009, 07:49 AM

Awesome adventure. Congratulations and Good Luck!

timbuk · 10-25-2009, 12:31 PM

right on! should be a great experience hope all goes well with the trip and ou guys dont light the bus on fire practicing the flaming tricks in the back!Welcome to the madness,timbuk

ezbme · 10-25-2009, 01:51 PM

Hey Congrats! Too bad we didn't time the trips better! Good luck & hopefully the only blunder is the name!

cheezypsnookle · 10-25-2009, 09:07 PM

thanks for the well wishes
any tips on driving a full size bus for the first time

yeah ezbme our travels would have been parallel for quite awhile

"Welcome to the madness,timbuk" MADNESS MADNESS THIS IS BLUNDERBUS...... err i mean SPARTA

ezbme · 10-26-2009, 06:14 PM

One tip is you cannot check the fluids too many times... always walk around the bus when stopping just to be sure nothing funky is going on... AND TAKE PICTURES!!!

OH & take your time with everything you do when driving... will make for a much more fun experience! Watch those low trees too...

cheezypsnookle · 10-26-2009, 09:13 PM

well i(errr my wife did the calling...edit) got insurance through gmac already, the agent was real interested in skoolies and our police is just liability and about 400 and sum change a year

yeah i plan on photo documenting the whole trip i will post when i get to nola then as soon as there is time after we get blunderbus ...thanks for the tips ezbme i plan on buying the big jugs of brake fluid coolant and oil...maybe sum rear diff/trans oil to

but since this is the first time we will be away from our son it will be a rush to get back to him
oh man iam equal parts nervous and stoked

madpsalmer · 10-26-2009, 10:39 PM

Hey bro no worries on the first time out. Just keep her straight down the road. Nod at the truckers, and try not to squish the idiots who drive around in front and in back of you. Truly I enjoyed my first time out the only really scary thing for me is being sure I'll make it under the gas station over hangs, and low bridges. Best of luck

cheezypsnookle · 10-29-2009, 09:21 PM

i have the bus it was a 23 hour drive and we had a blast... my wife can drive the bus very well and it just seemed natural for me ...i only hit two curbs and one was in a congested airport side road with no clearance on either side of me
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z176 ... 1256868842
this photo is at a napa in gulfpost mississippi

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z176 ... 1256869104
and the first drive down I-10

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z176 ... 1256869167
after i hit the trees
i have learned alot in a little time one lesson i learned is trim your trees BEFORE you pull up our mirrors and windows may be sacrificed i need sleep

the interior of the bus is just nasty but the engine is great
there are alot of house appliances ..... including a very foul toilet
tomorrow i will do a before and after tear down of the kludges in the bus

cheezypsnookle · 10-30-2009, 10:21 AM

Thanks smitty i was to tired to learn how to post anything but how to post links i will research that today

I will try to explain the trip a little better.... On saturday the 24th we dropped our best friend/crew member off outside of town to hitchhike to new orleans .. so that he could meet up with us after our flight ..... all seemed fine got a call from him monday from Shreveport Louisiana. then on tuesday after having to leave our son for the first time in his life (just awful) .we got on the plane and flew to dallas then neworleans nothing really to say about the flight... we got our rental car then our hotelroom ...a holiday inn in the french quarter which was nice... and we bummed around town did the whole french quarter thing had some beers ate food ,and spent money went to bed early at about midnight... woke up at 5:00 in the morning to excited to sleep and just laid in bed thinking about the bus,the trip, and our hitchhiking friend who we havnt heard from yet.... got up at nine and drove over to mississippi we were there by noon and we talked to the seller for a couple hours them telling us some history on the bus (the most interesting part was the fact they had 13 ppl living in the bus for 4 months 6 adluts and 7 kids)
...at about 2 we left miss to head back to nola to return the rental car my wife driving the rental and me in the bus... got in to nola right at 3 oclock traffic and we got separated from each other

which was bad cuz my passenger blind spot mirror was slipping down and she was telling me when i was clear to change lanes... in the heat of traffic i get a clollect call from our friend/crew member and have to accept charge via debit card number which was difficult at best talked to him over the engine noise and learned he had been stuck in Shreveport for 3 days and now was in natchitoches ..
in the mess of that i hit a curb and heard a horrible noise that i thought was me crashing into a car...in reality it was the full sized hot water heater that had ripped out of its enclosure and was spewing water all over the back of the bus

after returning the rental we drove to natchitoches LA to pickup our friend and then we took turns sleeping and driving all they way to amarillo texas it was fun but uneventful ....thats my story and im sticking to it

ezbme · 10-30-2009, 09:06 PM

Fantastic! NICE BUS DUDE! I love it... Broncos? Good to hear it was almost event-less... can't wait to see more photos all around & The inside. Bet you are toasted from the drive but glad to hear you made it home!

Jonathan

Seeria · 10-31-2009, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madpsalmer

Hey bro no worries on the first time out. Just keep her straight down the road. Nod at the truckers, and try not to squish the idiots who drive around in front and in back of you. Truly I enjoyed my first time out the only really scary thing for me is being sure I'll make it under the gas station over hangs, and low bridges. Best of luck

hahah Reminds me of my first time driving a class A motorhome. Damn near ran over an old lady.

That reminds me, where can I get bus driving instruction in book form!

cheezypsnookle · 11-02-2009, 11:58 AM

Did alot of work this weekend on the deconstruction of the kludges... im totally beat and it feels great.......... the bus was sort of converted like i said before mostly just weekend warrior stuff, toenail screwing, and to much caulk.....

so this is a before of the back with the nasty carpet and hot water heater that escaped its enclosure

and this is the back after i had a little alone time with the beast the smell was awful

i felt very satisfied

this is the bathroom about the middle of the bus there were bunks on each side of the wheel wells that i didnt get to photograph before i tore them out and more nasty carpet

notice the weird accordion cut they did on the top of the wall stud so it would bend

here is a close up of that stud

i couldnt decide if that was the worst idea or the best but it fell apart when trying to remove it

after ripping through that wall we got to the potty...another bad smell factory bleach was used in excess

and the potty mostly gone

and an after we swept pic

the carpet is out but the rubber bus floor is still under it and there is going to be rust to deal with i am certain
we are about half done with the tear down and by tuesday night it should be ready to start on the floor

bikeforthelight · 11-02-2009, 09:53 PM

wow...porcelain? can you go jiggle the handle?

your getting all that crap out....good job man. fun stuff is on the way.

cheezypsnookle · 11-02-2009, 10:08 PM

yeah that was a house toilet he only drove it twice the PO used it as a trailer home... the toilet went right into a cleanout , that is until the city fined him
headed out there now

bikeforthelight · 11-02-2009, 10:35 PM

have fun out there man. and go by the big texan for me. i got two bites of a roll away from a free 72 oz'er there this year. haha.

C00LR · 11-07-2009, 10:56 PM

WOW! Sounds like a great trip. Its a little late for advice on driving the bus but I will throw my 2 pennies in as well. Someone already said to watch your blind spots. I have found that the dual axles at the rear of my dumptruck are a favorite place for folks to LOOOVE to drive next to. Same with the rear tires on the bus. Some people like to drive next to you because I guess they like the shade?? I don't know. In town they like to drive next to me but on the highway everybody is just in a hurry to get around my 45 mph bus and be on down the road. I put a bug eye mirror on each side of my bus and my stress level went WAAAY down so now I can actually see down each side to see if there are any idiots next to me.

cheezypsnookle · 11-08-2009, 10:32 PM

time is passing by so quickly that posting has takin a back seat to the conversion which is just bad form on my part. All of the previous conversion has been removed and now we are DEEP cleaning and moving on to removing the rubber floor then the plywood sub floor after that we will treat the rust and holes that are there.
i tried sifting back through the posts that i have read for the name of the rust stop paint mix i think it is called ospar but im not sure, anyone know what is best to seal and stop the floor rust and how should i go about repairing the holes in the floor i plan on cutting away the rust and treating the smaller holes but how should i go about replacing the holes

these are some shots of the cleaning process

alot of nicotine and southern cooking grease

well that is it for now

ezbme · 11-09-2009, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smitty

Ospho I think is what you mean, some others here used & seemd to like.

How big are the holes you're patching in the floor?

Smity

Ditto! Ospho works wonders! Have used it many times working in a street rod shop.

cheezypsnookle · 11-09-2009, 04:48 PM

oh man thanx pied typer that was well written and informative

and smitty i will post pics of the rust holes i will be covering but one im certain i will cover is the old shower drain hole and it is about 3x3 inches approx

im looking for a cheap easy way like maybe some pop rivets/low profile metal screws and scrap sheet metal
would that effect my plywood subfloor?
im used to working on houses not vehicles so idk......

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