Blue Bird Eyebrows

oldog12 · 02-24-2007, 10:53 AM

For everyone that have Blue Birds with those eyebrows over the passenger windows... Anyone have any ideas how to remove/modify those eyebrows either before or after you re-skin or cover-up passenger windows... You know, to give it a more aesthetically pleasing look...

Elliot Naess · 02-24-2007, 09:47 PM

:P
Hey! I resemble that remark!

oldog12 · 02-24-2007, 09:58 PM

Hey Elliot...

Old man winter is letting out his last gasp here and we're getting pounded with a snow storm....

Anyhow... You planning on doing anything with those eyebrows? Got any ideas? I was contemplating covering them up with a rubrail or some such thing...

Elliot Naess · 02-24-2007, 10:04 PM

Aha, a rub rail just might work! And it would help that unbalanced look, top to bottom,
that was discussed somewhere around here earlier. But let me get it all skinned and
painted first, and then we'll see how it looks.

I put the front cap center panel on today.

A rub rail -- why didn't I think of that!

oldog12 · 02-24-2007, 10:15 PM

Yeah... rubrail... that's the ticket.... Yeah rubrail....

Well I'm still planning, and I just can't leap into it all without one (a plan)....

I imagine that the edges of the eyebrows might have to get cut and then the body of the eyebrow get bent down... I don't know... Like I said, I'm still planning... They just bother me sticking out like that....

Elliot Naess · 02-24-2007, 10:56 PM

The question is where to obtain the rub rail material. I really don't feel like scavenging it.
Anybody price that stuff new?

I know. I should have kept my first bus for parts. But I just couldn't do that to my neighbors.

oldog12 · 02-25-2007, 01:49 AM

I'd Try a bone yard first.... But if you want new...
http://commerce1.cera.net/tacbusparts/s ... cat_id=398

Elliot Naess · 02-25-2007, 09:15 AM

Right. Ten bucks PER FOOT.

I'm just getting a bit tired of drilling rivets!

oldog12 · 02-25-2007, 11:08 AM

Once upon a time, oh say about a year or so ago, I happened upon an episode of TRUCKS!, the ones hosted by Stacey David... Well anyway, in this episode he was working on "SGT Rock" and was using, I can't remember the specific tool's name, but he was rolling beads into some sheet metal. Maybe one of your kinetic sculpture pals has such a tool? Then you could run some custom rubrails yourself.... Otherwise... To the bone yard...

oldog12 · 02-25-2007, 01:54 PM

The tool is called a beadroller.... Who knew....

Les Lampman · 02-27-2007, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldog12

For everyone that have Blue Birds with those eyebrows over the passenger windows... Anyone have any ideas how to remove/modify those eyebrows either before or after you re-skin or cover-up passenger windows... You know, to give it a more aesthetically pleasing look...

Before you go through all that work you might have a look at the photo of the bus below. Yep, a Blue Bird with the eyebrows which have not been removed and I think this is one of the better looking conversions I've seen. If you gotta get rid of them, you gotta...but just maybe they'll be fine when you finish.

There's a larger image here and their web site is http://centre.telemanage.ca/service.nsf/web/bus.

sportyrick · 02-27-2007, 09:02 AM

I thought of this after I closed in my windows, but how about having a sheetmetal shop bend you a strip that matches the angle of your BB eyebrows and spot weld it right on top of your existing ones. This would hide the origional ones and present a pleasant looking strip. I have seen where some other bus manufacturers do this instead of the single eyebrows over every window? It would be easy and faster than any other way I think. I guess you could also remove the eyebrows and put a strip or rub rail right over the mess left over but that means removing the origional ones, A LOT OF WORK. The local SnapOn guy did that to his BlueBird and I don't think it's worth the work. He had to do lots of detail work to get rid of the "look" and it looks like to me that his continuous window cover sheet flexes as the bus moves and could let water in between each window as I saw a gap or 2. sportyrick

oldog12 · 02-27-2007, 10:38 AM

Well, my old Thomas has a regular gutter edge where the roof transitions to the top of the windows and side walls, so no matter where you remove or cover a window there is nothing that draws your eye to it and screams"HEY THERE USED TO BE A WINDOW HERE", like on the Blue Bird. That's not a bad idea about bending up a strip to match the angle of the eyebrows... Thanks for the suggestion... Yeah... Good idea...

GoneCamping · 02-27-2007, 09:52 PM

Mine has one long eyebrow....kind of like a couple of girls I dated in younger days.... At least with mine the way it is, it doesn't look bad at all, and I tucked the top of the RV windows up under them and they make for a great drip rail...

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