Today I went to the local school district and the guy was nice enough to let me look at some buses. Although he doesn't have any for sale right now, he might in June/July. Said they only go through Publicsurplus.com and couldn't sell through private party.
Anyway, All the buses were flatfaced bluebirds with the 5.9 cummins. Except for one dognose with the international chasis, with was a dt466e. All buses were amazingly rust free for the most part. He told me all the floors were wood, no metal. I couldn't believe how close to the ground the flatface radiators and tubes were. He said after a few years they have to shim up the springs so that the radiator tubes don't keep getting cut in half when they hit a dip or bump in the road.
I thought that a 66 passenger would be the one I wanted to try and get, because for some reason I figured it would have about 26 feet of liveable space, but it only had 22 feet. All the other buses were 30 feet inside or more!
He also said one of the drivers hit a black cow one night when it was dark, and he was driving a flatface and wasn't hurt at all. Doubt the same can be said for the poor cow
By the way he also asked why I wanted a bus as they were always having to fix electrical stuff on them. The engines were fine, but the lights and stuff seem to have a lot of problems.
So not that this really matters but I just thought I would share my first experience looking at buses.
Jackie