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Old 04-30-2016, 02:10 PM   #1
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1975 Wonderlodge (Blue bird) - $3500 (Rickreall) again!

Once again; same one previously listed. Apparently the sale fell through.
1975 Wonderlodge (Blue bird) - $3500 (Rickreall)


Posted: 18 days ago 30/04/16


1975 Wonderlodge (Blue bird)


I just emailed him to get confirmation. 11:59 am Sat

If somebody wants this I'll step down, otherwise I think it's just to good of a deal to pass up.













1975 Blue Bird Wonderlodge 534 Industrial big block runs when it wants to needs a tune up Allison tranny Onan generator runs great new tires and brakes 97,727 miles

I don't know the deal with this Wanderlodge being for sale again, but it's only 20 miles away. Accidentally stumbled on this new add and recognized the pics from the previous add.

Somebody buy this, so I don't.



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Old 04-30-2016, 02:41 PM   #2
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The owner emailed me back and confirmed that it is indeed for sale again. It's my opinion that the 534 Industrial big block is scaring the buyers away. It probably doesn't want to start, and you know it's a push button world now that we live in. Nobody has a piece of sandpaper to drag through the points anymore.

I told him again that I'd buy it, in my current email to him. Someone is currently looking at it and if they turn it down for whatever reason it will come my way. Or maybe not, because I did this guy the same thing last time and the sale did fall through and he apparently chose not to contact me based on my offer at his asking price. Who knows, but that's a fun way to blow my budget for the summer.
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Old 04-30-2016, 03:12 PM   #3
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It really looks like a great little gem. I've spent that amount on stuff not near as useful or good looking.
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Old 04-30-2016, 03:12 PM   #4
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CB, you wanted this bus. It's 20 miles away from me. The sale apparently keeps falling through with his buyers and it's for sale again. A bus is basically just a truck, but a Wanderlodge would have its own specialized problems more than likely. Would looking at it be as simple as looking at a bus, but with tanks and plumbing hung basically? I thought these were worth a lot of money. I'll just have to go look at it but I don't know what the dangers are to look for in a '75 Wanderlodge bus/RV unless it's just regular truck stuff.
It would sure be nice to get an 8.3 drive train for this old bird. It sounds like you've been looking for an investment. I'm not wanting another project. I think the bird is worth saving, but it's 40 years old. Yeah young from my perspective, and my seals may have let go as well as eventually all the old dried out rubber seals and stuff that start leaking when you start operating an old vehicle.

So, I have AAA Plus. I had it because of my bike but at that level it includes RVs, but does not include owner converted school buses. Basically now that I have a bus I can not get towed if I break down so I figured the membership is wasted, but if I buy that Wanderlodge 20 miles away from me the towing is free isn't it? Because it's a real RV on the title, towing is free withing 50 miles, and they will tow it to my home.

Just thinking, if I get free towing I'd still consider that Wanderlodge for sale at cost for anybody that wants or needs it. Someone was just talking to me about buying a Wanderlodge affordably recently. I used this same sale as an example, then found the add active again.

I can't figure out why people are looking at it but not buying it. Gotta look at it myself to see what other people are afraid of. Just waiting for word from the seller. He said someone was looking at it today and if they didn't buy it that he'd sell it to me. Of course that is what he said last time, too. The seller's a very nice guy and probably has some emotional ties to the Lodge.

You know what's going to happen? I'm gone to move my TV into the Lodge and end up selling my bus is what's probably going to happen. Cause you know I'm going to try it out, and it looks plush in the photos like someone updated it. There must be a reason people are walking away. Water damage or something. Can't be much worse to repair than a bus, can it?
I don't need another project, and that's why I'm willing to pass on the deal. It would clean up well over the summer, but you know elbow grease is expensive.
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Old 04-30-2016, 03:19 PM   #5
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What we've spent on our buses? I've basically spent double the cost of that Wanderlodge on this bus, but then now I have a high level of confidence in my bus. The big gasser in the WanderLodge shouldn't be a problem, I hope. Knock on wood. I'd like to see somebody deserving get the Wanderlodge, and if it's really plush it's going to be me. Seriously, I do not need another project.
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Old 04-30-2016, 04:28 PM   #6
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What we've spent on our buses? I've basically spent double the cost of that Wanderlodge on this bus, but then now I have a high level of confidence in my bus. The big gasser in the WanderLodge shouldn't be a problem, I hope. Knock on wood. I'd like to see somebody deserving get the Wanderlodge, and if it's really plush it's going to be me. Seriously, I do not need another project.
Post up a thread about your bus, bro.

The Wanderlodge sold today. I thought it was in Georgia, if it was only 20 miles from ya, then shame on you for not running to that kinda deal!
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Old 04-30-2016, 05:25 PM   #7
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You must feel this sometimes? How many projects can a guy have? I agree it's a sweet deal and I'm hoping someone got it that will restore it. I've got a looooot of projects and I'm slowing down remarkably fast. That was a nice RV, and he did return my email quickly in response this morning to say someone was looking at it today, and that if they didn't take it I would be next. Haven't heard from him yet, either way. I didn't miss the chance, I just found it again hours ago. He must not have wanted to sell it to me, but as a last resort... I almost passed it up because I thought it was the old add.
It still might happen if the new buyer doesn't come up with the money, or maybe he won't sell it to me again like last time. I have no idea what might happen, but yes if I get the chance this time I'll actually buy it unless there is something grossly wrong with it. Even damaged it's probably still worth restoration more than my bus.
I don't need another vehicle sitting around here. I was buying federal surplus for a while to get a few of the multifuel engines and ended with a few surplus vehicles. I no longer have a code enforcement problem and vehicle purchasing may have gone overboard for a while while government vehicles were real cheap.

I'm trying to find out if anyone wants the Wanderlodge at cost? No, I haven't actually looked at it yet. Yeah, it's a long drive to FL from the NW corner of OR. I've been planning on making that trip sometime (bucket list). For driving cross country I'd be hesitant in a '75 without having spent some time to... probably buy a few seals and belts, oil, hoses and whatnot that keeps us from getting stuck.

I have more projects than I can finish. That's why I put the Wanderlodge on here. As I said if I can get free towing I'll still sell the Lodge at cost. I haven't physically looked at the Lodge yet because he hasn't invited me over. So far I'm always waiting on someone else to look at it before me.
I'm guessing that he had it fixed up last year at a significant expense and didn't want to go through that again this year when it wouldn't start. Selling as is, but should run from what I know about it so far. I'll have to find out when/if he lets me come and see it, and I'll be ready to buy it if that happens.
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Old 04-30-2016, 05:31 PM   #8
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Anybody want to see pictures of the 3 1/2 rows of rivets I've chiseled off the interior roof panels so far? Or the, repeated, forehead injuries for walking into a hanging panel. Finally screwed them back up for now. You now how you have to stop doing work once in a while to get food. Well, most of you seem very married. Congratulations. Will you get 50%? Sorry, bad joke at the expense of women everywhere.
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Old 04-30-2016, 06:50 PM   #9
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The main problem with the Wanderlodges is that they have a TON of obsolete & complex wiring/climate/plumbing setups that makes fixing stuff a very challenging.

Plus you have ones like these with the outdated big block gas motors that get 4 mpg. Converting to diesel takes huge amounts of time and money and most people don't want to drive an RV that gets 4 mpg
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Old 04-30-2016, 08:25 PM   #10
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Me either, and I don't want to put a good diesel engine in that old frame. What I'd like to do is a body lift, off of the '75 gasser frame and onto the '97 BB FE frame. It always seems simple in your head.
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Old 04-30-2016, 09:59 PM   #11
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Anybody want to see pictures of the 3 1/2 rows of rivets I've chiseled off the interior roof panels so far? Or the, repeated, forehead injuries for walking into a hanging panel. Finally screwed them back up for now. You now how you have to stop doing work once in a while to get food. Well, most of you seem very married. Congratulations. Will you get 50%? Sorry, bad joke at the expense of women everywhere.
I actually love rivet removal pics, Robin!
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Old 05-01-2016, 10:20 AM   #12
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Well, as soon as I find my camera charger I'll get with it. I move into this bus in December and haven't been able to find the chargers for the phone or the camera since. I'm sure they're someplace safe.
I didn't get any pics while I was getting tires either. What is the world coming to?

CB, just for you; I got pics of about 2 1/2 rows of the rivets with my PC cam. I'll have to owe you a photo of the third row of rivets.





I keep busting off the tip of my air chisel while I'm pushing out the mandrels. I'm trying to do half the bus at a time until I get down to the empty shell. This is taking a terribly long time to show any progress on interior work. I'd much prefer to be putting a hitch on the bus so I can haul my trailer again. Every thing is a trade off.
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Old 05-01-2016, 05:51 PM   #13
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Old 05-01-2016, 10:03 PM   #14
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Make sure the chuck is on tight, and the tool gets a few drops of oil per day.
How's your compressor, can it keep up with the air chisel?
Awesome to finally see who I'm talking to, man!

Your bus looks like the one I just de-riveted. The bluebirds have maybe half the rivets my Ward had. The Ward was ridiculous!
getting all that paneling and moldy insulation out felt great then I realized there was the tar, rust, and leaks to deal with.
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Old 05-01-2016, 11:21 PM   #15
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It finally dawned on me that I could take pics with the laptop, but the laptop is on a wired internet link so it's got a short leash. Yeah, it would be interesting to do a little conference calling sometimes and put faces to the threads, but with this many time zones it gets difficult.

That tar on the inside of the exterior skin must have been their effort toward rust prevention or maybe an effort to control condensation. Mine has it. Now that I've seen them use tar I don't feel so bad about using blackjack on the floor of my first bus before putting ply back down.

This bus stuff is pretty cool because we don't have building codes and there's so many ways to skin a cat.
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Old 05-04-2016, 09:11 PM   #16
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It finally dawned on me that I could take pics with the laptop, but the laptop is on a wired internet link so it's got a short leash. Yeah, it would be interesting to do a little conference calling sometimes and put faces to the threads, but with this many time zones it gets difficult. .
Hmmmmmm a Skoolie video chat room, Hmmmmmmmmm.
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Old 05-04-2016, 09:30 PM   #17
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Yeah, that would eat up my download allowance in about 10 minutes.
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Old 05-04-2016, 10:02 PM   #18
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Make sure the chuck is on tight, and the tool gets a few drops of oil per day.
How's your compressor, can it keep up with the air chisel?
Awesome to finally see who I'm talking to, man!

Your bus looks like the one I just de-riveted. The bluebirds have maybe half the rivets my Ward had. The Ward was ridiculous!
getting all that paneling and moldy insulation out felt great then I realized there was the tar, rust, and leaks to deal with.
So far I've been very lucky with this bus. Not a bad buy at 2.6k, and the new rubber all around did double that. Didn't know about the 545 when I bought this but it's doing ok. These rivets are made from some really good quality steel. I'm impressed, but my air chisel set is tougher even though I have to sharpen them up now and then. The punch to get the mandrels pushed out is what I keep breaking off. I've ground off at least an inch by putting a tip back on the punch a number of times. I think I've got some method now but I haven't gotten back to working on the bus for a number of days. At this rate I'll need about 10 years to get this bus done but there are so many distractions. If I'm still driving this bus in ten years I'll be very happy regardless of its completeness.
I think that's the ticket. I just need drive more and go south during the winters.
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Old 05-04-2016, 10:40 PM   #19
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Are you using a bit on the air hammer or a hammer and punch?
The second one in this set is what I've taken out the mandrels with on at least a couple thousand rivets with and it could easily do a couple thousand more.
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Old 05-05-2016, 06:13 AM   #20
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I still really dont understand the Hate for the AT545.. when i was driving busses all across the country as a teenager in the mid 80s.. wouldnt those have likely been 545s? at least the brand new Bluebirds?

my last bus was a 545 with a 454 engine that I beefed up and never exploded the transmission...

I think after seeing all the ceiling downing pics and tales of rivets.. I believe I have made the decision to leave my ceiling UP in my bus.. lolol

-Christopher
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