new here...

[bbkid]

Hey y'all, i've been lurking around here for far too long. My name is chase and i couldn't help but join in. i grew up with skoolies (as you probably guessed by the username, lol). Unfortunately i am busless at this time but i hope to cure that ASAP (i'd like a flatnose transit to play with). In fact i just have to start things off here by pointing out all the buses in the galleries that i know and have known for about the last 10 years or more in some cases. i am omitting the names so i don't offend. i haven't seen most of these folks in atleast 6 years.
(please excuse the blatant plagiarism from the galleries)

we'll start off with this fine example of workmanship:

azalea actually bought this bus off of my dad in 1999. i lived in this bus on more than a few occasions growing up. my dad built it in 1989 when we lived in maryland. it's maiden voyage was 1990 summer tour with the dead (great childhood memories BTW, lol). any in depth questions about it you ever had, feel free to ask! if i can't answer them, i can always ask my dad. he also raised another roof for a friend in about 1998 but not with wood like ours. and for years there was another bus like ours around that was a thomas but looked almost the same, but a little more of a green color. that was my god-father.


then we'll go with this one (one of my favorites). i love how he put the apache panel truck on top. it is alot more original than all the vw's most of my freinds had. very homie feel how he built the interior too. a word of warning though. he does have a very large dog (he's my buddy, or atleast he was last i saw him, it's been about 8-9 years)



I spent alot of time on or around this bus. he was almost always nearby the block where my dad's house is. i'm not sure if he still has his bus though. or even what happened to him. if anybody knows him i would be interested to know if what my friends told me is true or not.



this guy i only met once, he stayed for a while on a friends property where we parked when we first moved to oregon (eugene area) but his bus was actually used in a scene of independence day (the movie with will smith) as an "extra" but the movie was filmed before he painted it the cool green scheme he's got in this pic.



here's another great one. i'm not sure if he still does, but this guy used to use the mast on that sailboat as an antenna to broadcast pirate radio. he also has loudspeakers that he usually plays music on at the festivals i've hung out with him at.





so far these are the only ones i have found that i know. but i'm sure there will be more. and a question for gallery owner steve: alot of these appear to have been taken at the '97 nationals in prineville. out of curiosity, did you take them?? we were there in the bus azalea now has.

[Elliot Naess]

Welcome, my child.

Wow, born with skoolie oil in your veins, eh! We'll promote you to Senior Oracle right away.

Maybe I ought to take another look thru the Gallery -- I had not seen the boat.

The boat reminds me of an old idea of mine: An air plane. Not perched on the roof like the boat and the various vans, but an airplane AS the roof. The top half of the fuselage, that is. It would require an airplane that is exactly the width of the bus. If the bus is a conventional, the cockpit of the plane could stick out over the hood, like on the Azelea bus.
I've even tried to find some airplane measurements, without much luck. Oh well; don't have time nor money to do it anyway.

[bbkid]

thanks for the warm welcome elliot. to let you know, the guy who built the sailbus, as we used to call it said it was a serious b!__h to mount it, i can't remember all of the process, but he told me all about it once during a little "hang out session in the old girl. I seriously love the toy hauler thing you got going on with millicent. i was reading through you conversion story the other day. one question i have for you though. did you have any trouble with the sides trying to bow out on your when you cut the roof on yours? my dad used gigantoid clamp things to keep the sides together on the two he cut up.

[Elliot Naess]

No, I didn't notice any bowing of the sides. The guides may have helped in this regard, as they were about 1/4 of the way in from each end -- enough, I'm guesstimating, to help hold it straight.

When were your dad's buses manufactured? Perhaps they were older models, less sturdily built than my 1992 and thereabouts that most of us convert today?

If Millicent's sides had sprung outward, I think I would have tried to pull it back with a com-along.

Now, what airplane is exactly 8 feet wide?

[bbkid]

lol, not sure on the airplane, but the bus azalea bought is a 72 bluebird, but my dad did take the whole roof totally off in sections. the other bus was a 76?? bluebird but it was only an 8 or 9 window, if memory serves correct our '72 was 11 window.

[Elliot Naess]

Leaving the roof off for a long time might alow a gust of wind to apply quite a lot of force on the sides. Or moving the bus with the roof off? Millicent's roof was loose for only a few minutes.

[Roasting8]

Welcome to the forum SkoolieChild, Your experience and knowledge is enthusiastically welcomed here.

So, when are you going to pull up a bus and join us in our madness?

Dead Head, I'm impressed

[bbkid]

it looks like i'll atleast have to finish school first before i can buy myself a bus. but the nice thing is, with my degree and certifications i'm working on i should be able to not only raise the money fast, but maybe have something to make cash while on the road (gotta love remote administration!!). but i think i have a good "excuse" to use when explaining to my girlfriend why i need a bus: it would be the easiest thing for us to pack our shtuff into for my eventual move back to oregon (i wanna go back to eugene, lol).

also, elliot, i know it wouldn't have been a wind gust both conversions were done totally indoors in a warehouse. i'm hoping that when i can finally get my own bus i'll have access to one too. i have alot of really great ideas to make what one of my friends at work consistently calls the mega-pimp-mobile (i just want to call it home, lol). now, where to find either a tc2000 or all american for free or close to it and where can i keep it while i scrape together pennies.....

[Elliot Naess]

First Student has some nice TC2000s for sale in northern Oregon. But not free, no.
Google First Student and you'll find them listed by state.

[dentarthurdent]

There are a whole bunch of non-running but pretty new and cheap BlueBirds listed on GovDeals right. The auctions end tomorrow...

http://www.govdeals.com/eas/advSearc...c=bus&inv_nbr=

[bbkid]

thanks for the link, only a few hitches:
1 they don't run (or so say the descriptions)
2 i don't have the $$$ (damn bills!!)
3 no place to put them


i kind of like the amtran genesis buses they have for sale in VA on there, couple of those only claim to have oil leaks. they're dt466's though so it would definitely be worth fixing one. those genesis buses always seemed decent enough too.

i like this one, even has good tires on it
http://www.govdeals.com/eas/itmDisplay. ... acctID=863

[Elliot Naess]

""Bus will need to be towed from the facility.""

That might be one heck of an oil leak!

I would not buy any vehicle sight unseen. And in the case of a very expensive automatic transmission, undriven.

[timbuk]

what a unbievable website,the gov deals one on page 5 there is a 39 buses going for 1050! some are missing a few parts thuogh..... good prices on all the other busses also thats cheap!

[bbkid]

Originally Posted by Elliot Naess

""Bus will need to be towed from the facility.""

That might be one heck of an oil leak!

I would not buy any vehicle sight unseen. And in the case of a very expensive automatic transmission, undriven.

i understand exactly what you mean, but if it was something that could atleast be fixed enough to drive on one trip it would be worth it. also, i think they have to say "must be towed from facility" for insurance purposes. there is the other one on their who's only problem listed is that the air compressor will not build pressure. if that was just a line or a valve that needed to be replaced you might have a good deal there, even if it was the compressor itself it would still be worth it. but i agree entirely about not buying one sight unseen. all of the things i just mentioned as possibilities could only be proven on inspection. oh well, i'm just daydreaming anyways. gotta have a place to park it before i can even think about getting one. i live in an apartment, and i don't think mgmt. would like me to have it parked in fromt of our building, lol.

[Roasting8]

Originally Posted by skooliechild

i understand exactly what you mean, but if it was something that could atleast be fixed enough to drive on one trip it would be worth it. also, i think they have to say "must be towed from facility" for insurance purposes. there is the other one on their who's only problem listed is that the air compressor will not build pressure. if that was just a line or a valve that needed to be replaced you might have a good deal there, even if it was the compressor itself it would still be worth it. but i agree entirely about not buying one sight unseen. all of the things i just mentioned as possibilities could only be proven on inspection. oh well, i'm just daydreaming anyways. gotta have a place to park it before i can even think about getting one. i live in an apartment, and i don't think mgmt. would like me to have it parked in fromt of our building, lol.

To tell you the truth, it took my apartment manager about a week, before he found out it was my bus that was parked in the parking lot, lol. After that, it took me a few days before I found a storage place, to store the bus. That was back in Arizona.

when I got here, I asked the landlord, if I can keep my motorhome at the house. He was okay with it, but the housing association got upset. It took me about two months before I moved it into storage. I kept calling the housing association for an extension, before I could move my bus. After two months, they told me I had to move it or get a fine.

Yes, I'm one of those pain in the butt neighbors, that don't follow the rules.

[KC10Chief]

I'm not allowed to have my bus at my house for more than 72 hours. I have a storage lot that I pay $15 a month for. After 72 hours, I just take it for a drive and come back! My 72 hours starts over best I can figure! Usually though, after three days of working on the bus, I'm ready for a break. I work pathetically slow anyways.

[bbkid]

there is one possibility for a parking spot for me, only problem is the fact that it's 2.05 hours south from here (that's doin atleast 70 in the mountains in the car though). i could possibly talk my girlfriends family into letting me park one on their property. only thing is i can never make it down there for more than a day or two, and that's only every few months or so. plus the only level spots are on the grass. i have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with what that does to a chassis. oh well, guess i need to either try harder or quit daydreaming. sucks being a broke a$$ college student!

[Elliot Naess]

...a broke a$$ college student...

Beats the heck out of not going to college at all, if you ask me.

Hang in there. Work and learn and don't do anything stupid -- until you can afford it.

[bbkid]

believe me, i'm stayin in school. i waited 4 extra years to even go. but i'm just hoping buses aren't totally obsolete by the time i can afford one! lol!

[KC10Chief]

Some of the best times of my life were when I was totally broke.