got a bus in TX how do I drive it away?

[johnbloem1974]

Excellent, Christopher!!! That turned out great!

John

[WanderWoman]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

wanderwoman - its $3600 out the door... they removed all the school lights, lettering, reflecive tape, etc.. then blocked the body removed lights and hardware, primed, painted, cleared, cut and buffed.
-Christopher

Not as bad as I though it would be. I figured around $4K for my 65 pax bus. Going to have to save a lot of pennies, LOL

Sandi

[Gazolba]

That's a really neat color. I think I would also have put some white on the side of the bus, maybe the rub strips. What is the actual color?

[cadillackid]

I thought about the rail colors, however a friend and I talked about it.. my DEV bus needs its rails painted.. so I'll be painting those black.. on this one, the tinted windows make a good contrast as does the white top... I think once the chrome wheel simulators are on it, the contrast it needs will be there.. LED headlights are in its future as well, and of course multiple interior upgrades like a new dash panel to integrate to the computer and such.. exterior-wise I'll probably keep it like it is now for awhile.

I'll get the color name here today or tomorrow.. I cant remember what its actual name is.. I simply pointed at a bus they were working on and said "that color"..

wanderwoman: I think the price is reasonable.. it can be lowered, as they will do different types of paints and paint jobs per the customer request. a Local church has them paint single stage with much less prep work, they will paint fancy designs, do labelling, etc...

the place itself is fascinating as I mentioend to go to.. the guy's sister has a 1977 (??) Wanderlodge there she is getting ready to work on, his son is building out his own prevost Conversion for his car racing Business.. they had a 1978 GMC bubble-front Motorhome in there that they painted.. one of those front-drive ones with the eldorado drive-train.. the Local county schools bring their busses to them when the drivers bang them up or scrape them (sounds like it happens often)... they had a skoolie in there a couple weeks ago... not anyone I recognize on the forum, I didnt see how their bus turned out as I was in florida.
-Christopher

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Kubla

Wish I could afford to do that with mine. Does that mean you are back in the land of cold?

Yeppers im in ohio for the week, Likely saturday I'll be passing back through south to florida.. we still need to program your bus!

Im working on Getting NavKAL which is the REAL software to have... I wont have that one for a while though, my dealer is still working to figure all the stuff out i need to get in on it.

-Christopher

[Kubla]

I wonder what they would charge just to paint the lower part of my bus under the windows

[cadillackid]

I'm not sure , give them a call or bring it up, they are starjet motor sports in Columbus Ohio. They just got a skoolie in , a big amtran they are gonna paint similar to mine, they do all kinds of different kinds of paint too , cost depends a lot on type of paint and prep needed and such.
Christopher

[DoubleO7]

Does look mighty sharp!

Maybe you should lower it too.

[cadillackid]

I have been busy travelling and working alot.. BUT a group of us did take a little road trip to wheeling WV to OgleBay to see the drive through Christmas display.. we took RedByrd out.. there were 7 of us... originally there was 10 and 3 cancelled because "oh its gonna be too cold!, we'll freeze on the bus".. the reports coming up to me from the back of the bus were "Dude! turn down the heat!".. alas I love it after we got back and posted pics of us on social media.. then suddenly everyone who had the chance was "oh i wish we wouldve went..."...

the trip was about 140 miles each way from columbus ohio.. it was cold outside.. about 18.. the bus ran perfectly and stayed quite warm.. and I can thank the internet gods interrupted the internet signal when my friends started to play mariah carey!

when we got to the entrance of the Light show, the lady asked "what church are you with? 'None', Ok what Limo or Tour bus company? 'we arent commercial', Who's bus is this? 'its my own'. this isnt your work bus? 'nope, I got groceries in it earlier today'. Wow.. in all the years ive been doing this ive never had just a group of guys in a pretty bus come through here... ' we all cheered and clapped..'.







-Christopher

[Tango]

Very excellent adventure! And glad to hear everyone stayed warm.

Ride on Red Bird!

[cadillackid]

one of the most interesting things.. as kids it was like this..

'awww Mom come on, do I really have to ride the bus to school???'

and now its like this

'Hey chris are you bringing the bus to pick us up for dinner? we want to ride the bus'..
-Christopher

[WanderWoman]

Looks like a fun road trip! Glad y'all had a good time!
Sandi

[Phatman]

Way to go CK. Sounds like it was a great adventure.

[FlyboyHPD]

Glad to know everyone had fun. Thanks for representing the Skoolie life in such a great way.

[Kubla]

do not think they would be so enthusiastic for a ride in mine, does not ride near as good with springs instead of air ride

[cadillackid]

Poor Texas bus doesn't like Ohio cold.. starts right up and runs but my whole air system froze .. the air ride and my seat were flat today.. it just has an auto drain valve and no air dryer .. the other bus has a heated air dryer .. I may need to add that to this one even though I've no air brakes.. talk about a log wagon till the thing thawed enough to pump my air ride up lol.. I had plenty of pressure I'm guessing the protection valves froze ..

And the Florida windshield fluid that was put in it ruined its little washer bottle.. froze and cracked..
I ordered a new one from blue bird.

Christopher.

[Tango]

...personally...I HATE cold weather. Forget the bus issues, it makes my old bones ache!

I'll take palm trees and 100 degrees any day.

[Carytowncat]

Christopher if you come through Richmond, bring the guys and we'll all go for dinner.

Once i got a taste of driving the bus i was in heaven, however now it is so much more risky since it has all my belongings, but my dream is to buy a 80s GMC dump truck and drive that as a daily. I have been test driving 'em for months now. I got to drive a Topkick (one of my favorites, even made a friend named John Cash The topkick has a 454 bbc gas motor. Alloy wheels. Black...mmm the only thing missing were yellow flames. Out of my price range though.

The i test drove a 80s international with a dt466 and turbo. Holy cow what a motor that is, wow! And wow what a truck. I'll need to chop the bed, and prefer a short dump; 9 ft or so. The longer beds would make it tricky to make a daily driver out of.

Learning what i want is fun, definitely need a clam shell hood. Climbing down into the caverns of a regular hood on a medium duty truck, a guys liable to get lost in there lol.

Gosh don't get me started about how fun these are to drive. Males the kid inside happy.

Thanks for sharing the story and pics Chris, very fun.

[cadillackid]

my First bus was basically a TopKick school bus.. it was a little bluebird and had a 454 in it.. Dont get me wrong I love cruising around in a diesel.. but having a 454 that I made some mods to was a blast.. first thing was let it breathe with 4 barrels and intake..Cam, ignition.. and real dual exhaust.. yeah. im really surprised I never trashed the AT545 in it..

a TopKick dump truck would be a Blast to drive as a daily!. eso if you play wrenchie wrenchie on the 454!!!

-Christopher

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Tango

...personally...I HATE cold weather. Forget the bus issues, it makes my old bones ache!

I'll take palm trees and 100 degrees any day.

Yes! Im wondering WTF am I doing in Ohio when my apartment in st pete is just waiting on me.. lol.. friends, christmastime.. hmmm yeah Soon I'll be back where i just checked and it is going to e in the 70s and 80s the next 7 days while sleet, snow, rain, and more cold move into Ohio...

Maybe redbyrd and I need to rethink this christmas thing lolol
-Christopher