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Old 03-28-2019, 02:19 PM   #1
Skoolie
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Norfolk, VA
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Year: 2003
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Engine: DT466
Bus down by the river

Alright, here goes.

We live in Norfolk, VA, and have won the bid on a bus in WV. We're planning to take next Friday off and drive on over to pick it up, so the pieces are falling in to place. Insurance is bought and paid for (thanks to Ricky!) and we will have temp tags from the DMV for the trip.

My wife and I will be driving out in our car and she'll be driving the car back and hopefully I'll be leading the way with the bus!

If the gentleman I spoke to about the bus from the education department is to be trusted (I feel like he is), it'll be a DT466 engine with an Allison 3000 transmission (hope it's MD3060) in a 2003 International Integrated CE S Bus.

First order of business will be to get it back, paint it so my neighbor *hopefully* doesn't call the cops on me, and then start the demo and roof raise.

Stay tuned for pics and progress!

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Old 03-28-2019, 10:45 PM   #2
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Congratulations and welcome to the madness!
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Old 04-01-2019, 11:29 AM   #3
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Hope ya made it home safe and bus is sound. Pulling into our driveway after the journey home was such a good feeling. I bet you've already got the seats out!
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Old 04-01-2019, 01:32 PM   #4
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Tug,

When I said "next Friday", I actually meant this upcoming Friday. I wish we could have gotten it last weekend; the weather on Saturday would have been perfect for painting! As it stands, we are planning on rolling in to the driveway Friday evening with a fully finding bus! This upcoming Saturday doesn't look terrible for painting.
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Old 04-01-2019, 01:53 PM   #5
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Chassis: International 3800
Engine: DT466E (195hp, 520tq)
Sounds like a good combination. Good luck on the return trip and the build!

BTW, our bus came from the Chesapeake City School District. We drove it back to NH from there back in October.
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Old 04-05-2019, 09:25 PM   #6
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Update: We now have a school bus in our driveway! It was a pain filled day, but everything went surprisingly well! Tomorrow we register the vehicle and paint it, then we begin the demo.

Side note, I don't love it being in the driveway. Who would have thought that buses are big? So strange...

Pics to follow tomorrow! Need sleep tonight.
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Old 04-05-2019, 11:18 PM   #7
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Congratulations!


Now the real fun begins.
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Old 04-06-2019, 06:52 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by inhof009 View Post
Update: We now have a school bus in our driveway! It was a pain filled day, but everything went surprisingly well! Tomorrow we register the vehicle and paint it, then we begin the demo.

Side note, I don't love it being in the driveway. Who would have thought that buses are big? So strange...

Pics to follow tomorrow! Need sleep tonight.
Congrats!

maybe take more than a day to paint it, though.
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Old 04-06-2019, 02:49 PM   #9
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The drive:

We left Norfolk at the (as my wife calls it) ridiculous time of 0600 and starting hauling ass. We had a 6-hour drive ahead of us, and we left the dogs at home. They had a yard and a doggie door, so apart from being upset at us for being gone so long, we weren't worried about them.

We took the route that Google Maps suggested, which we later found out was THE WORST way to enter the small town in West Virginia. See here for a portion of the road. One lane road, no posted signs, and 30 miles. Took us more than an hour to go those 30 miles, but we made it! My wife was holding a puke bag the whole time but never used it.

We got to our destination and asked around. We arrived at about 12:50, and we had originally said 1400, so he wasn't there. We talked to his secretary, who was a lovely old lady, who laughed endlessly when we told her about the route we took into town. We signed the papers and headed off to the yard.

All of the mechanics came out to chat with us about the bus and our plans for it. They were all on board with the conversion idea and said that we had bought the best bus of the lot. To their credit, the bus is well maintained and has the Allison 3000 transmission that they said it would!


Without much further ado, we got directions on a better route and the nearest gas station, and headed out. The 6-hour drive back was more like 8 hours, thanks to limiter (75mph) and me not driving like a lunatic, while my wife followed behind in our car. Overall, nothing too out of the ordinary, except for the rain. It had rained all day, but around Richmond, at 8:30pm, after sunset, it started raining on the inside of the windshield. Directly in my face. That was a problem, and we will definitely need to fix that in the future.

We got it home safe and parked it in the driveway! This was it this morning, and you can see my hesitation:
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Old 04-06-2019, 03:16 PM   #10
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So this morning our adventure started at the local DMV at 0800, prepped to register the bus so we can keep it in the driveway without issue. Except the DMV line was extending out the doors and around the corner of the building. Just another reason to put it in the back yard!

We grabbed a few pallets and some painting supplies from Home Depot and headed home to move the bus into the backyard. With some careful driving and directing from my wife, we were able to get it into the back without issue. The issues came about when we tried to drive up onto the pallets. This involved me spinning the tires until we put down some planks. We eventually got it working, but not without damage to the yard:

Here it is getting ready to be worked on, featuring the wife and the two inspector generals:


Our original first order of business was to paint, but the weather had different ideas. It was a bit rainy, so we decided to demo the interior first. Started out trying to drive the nut and bolt from inside and out, but that took too long so we decided to go the power tools route and use the grinder. Final result:

Used quite a few grinder discs:

Me grinding:

My wife used two sets of 1/2" sockets to remove the seats from the side rails. After that, we worked on the outside. I used a handheld heat gun and a plastic putty knife to remove all of the vinyl lettering, which went really well, and she washed it. We are both aching and in pain, so we're calling it for the day. Tomorrow's weather looks great for painting!

It will rest here tonight:

Soon (also note how it doesn't say "School Bus" anymore):
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Old 04-06-2019, 03:28 PM   #11
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BTW, we found $0.30 while demoing the seats, so I am saying that this will be a professionally built RV because we got paid to do it.
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Old 04-06-2019, 03:30 PM   #12
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BTW, we found $0.30 while demoing the seats, so I am saying that this will be a professionally built RV because we got paid to do it.
And all the ABC gum you could ever wish for.
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Old 04-06-2019, 09:35 PM   #13
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Great progress!


I wonder ho long those pallets will hold up, not that it really matters.
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Old 04-06-2019, 09:41 PM   #14
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Note: You will (most likely) go through a lot of those cut-off disks before you are done.
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Old 04-07-2019, 07:13 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Native;318[CENTER
[/CENTER]399]Great progress!


I wonder ho long those pallets will hold up, not that it really matters.
Oh God, the pallets. Advice to future readers, don't trust one pallet to hold each wheel. The front ones are alright, but the rear pallets have already been completely crushed. I wanted to save the ground from too much damage, but looks like that's not working out well.
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Old 04-07-2019, 07:31 AM   #16
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Careful parking on pallets. I've worked at a pallet yard before and the nails will RUIN tires.
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Old 04-07-2019, 07:37 AM   #17
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Careful parking on pallets. I've worked at a pallet yard before and the nails will RUIN tires.
Yes, I did my best to position it so that the nails aren't close to the tires. That's no guarantee, but the tires haven't been poked yet.
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Old 04-07-2019, 07:41 AM   #18
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Yes, I did my best to position it so that the nails aren't close to the tires. That's no guarantee, but the tires haven't been poked yet.
As the pallets are crushed or just break down from the elements the nails fall out and you find them later.
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Old 04-07-2019, 07:45 AM   #19
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As the pallets are crushed or just break down from the elements the nails fall out and you find them later.
Very true. I'm planning on this being a short term solution until the demo and roof raise is done, then we will put it in RV storage.

However, best laid plans of mice and men and all that. What would you use to keep the tires from sinking into the ground?
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Old 04-07-2019, 08:06 AM   #20
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Very true. I'm planning on this being a short term solution until the demo and roof raise is done, then we will put it in RV storage.

However, best laid plans of mice and men and all that. What would you use to keep the tires from sinking into the ground?
I've used some wide solid boards to park on sugar sand.
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