After almost 2 years of research (mostly reading through threads here), viewing hundreds of auctions and other various buses for sale on line and a few in person, several heart wrenching auctions not won and a few almost as heart wrenching conversations with my wife, I am finally a proud bus owner!
I made a few compromises on this one and I'm sure it won't be the last bus I convert, but I think it's going to be a great starter bus. This one will mainly be used for camping and trips to the beach and will hopefully lead to another bus that we'll full time in for at least a few months out of the year. I am a homebrewer and plan to have a kegorator on board with at least two taps. I have a pipe dream of bringing good beer down to the beach in Rocky Point, Mexico (not to sell, just to share with others as the craft beer scene in Mexico leaves a bit to be desired). Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow is the working name of my home brewery.
The bus is a 2001 Chevy Midbus with 140k miles on a GM 6.5 Turbo Diesel. It's got 6 windows and came with a pretty slapshod conversion already done (that I have since completely gutted). The previous owner deleted a majority of the school lights, switches and the stop sign and installed rear air bags and a hitch. Registration and insurance was a breeze (I guess being a van conversion bus makes it much easier).
I got the bus about 2 months ago and have been working on it as much as time allows. Gutting the previous conversion didn't take long, and I'm currently working on patching and insulating the floor. Very excited to get this sucker ready for it's maiden voyage (shooting for July this year but that might be unrealistic).
Can anyone tell me how to identify the type of transmission on my bus? Since Midbus is no longer in business I'm assuming I'm going to have to get underneath and find a data plate rather than call a dealer. I've been under there a few times and didn't see anything obvious. All of the dataplates inside the bus were removed before I got it.