'99 Blue Bird Retirement Project - Bus #1

[JackE]

Originally Posted by WIbluebird

Thanks, I found it now. None of them are labeled though

Check out post #13 in this thread, That is where mine was located. It's at least a good place to start.

During my investigating process, I quickly found the horn relay...…
Can I just say, it's extremely loud when you are standing directly in front of it!!!

[WIbluebird]

Originally Posted by JackE

Check out post #13 in this thread, That is where mine was located. It's at least a good place to start.

During my investigating process, I quickly found the horn relay...…
Can I just say, it's extremely loud when you are standing directly in front of it!!!

Found it a few hours ago. Seems like it did work but I also had 3 blown fuses in the engine bay box that I also had to replace before mine started


I shut the bus off after my check ride and opened both emergency doors. Started right up again!! Thanks for the pic it saved me a ton of time.

[JackE]

After taking a hiatus from building to address the damaged Escalade, the possibility of buying a business and selling my bus, I am back on track with building. It's kinda too bad because I recently had 2 weeks off that I had planned to spend heavily working on the bus, but instead I spent them rebuilding the front end of the Escalade and doing honey-do's around the house and at my moms.

So last night I decided to buy a generator that can run the whole house during a power outage. I have been looking for quite some time to get exactly what I want. I made sure it will be something I can incorporate into the bus build if the current mounted generator ever gives up. The one I got should still fit underneath where the current one is. It also is a 240V 50 amp genny so I won't ever have any problems running whatever I want, including another RV plugged in to mine if needed. I'm thinking family reunion camping. It also shouldn't be too hard to wire in a remote start button to the dash like my current one has. If and when I need to power the house, I'll just park by the main panel and run the power cord right into the side of the bus. Now the wheels are turning on how to set up a single shore type connection to run the generator through rather than having a transfer switch. I also ordered a pile of LED's to replace all the upper marker lights, and enough of the brake/tail light set up I'm planning to keep it legal if I decide to take it for a ride.

[JackE]

I went out a couple days ago to see if there would be any problems starting after sitting for a while. I flipped the battery disconnect switch and pushed the start button. It cranked slightly slower at first, but then spun right up to a good solid start. One barely noticeable puff of black smoke from the tail pipe. I looked back at the calendar and realized it had been about 40 days since I last started it. I recorded it to catch any possible problems I might miss and it was running with less than 10 seconds of cranking time. Not bad at all, and hearing it run sure made me miss working on it!

[Native]

They are like that ... once they purrrrr you just gotta play with them.

[JackE]

I finally found some time to get back to the bus. Not nearly as much as I hoped, but at least the pile of ordered parts is a little bit smaller now.

I did learn while adding my lights that the rear engine door is a full sheet of aluminum about 1/4" thick. That'll make filling the holes and licence plate indents a bit more difficult.

The top and bottom lights on each side are brake lights, as well as the high and mid mount center lights. The two center on each side are blinker. I decided to leave the backup lights where they were because of the size of the hole, but did change them to LED.

I got the two large front arrow blinkers removed and wired the small marker next to the headlight with marker and blinker.

As much as we are suppose to hate on China, gotta love the cheap LED light market!

[Native]

Were your original tail lights slanted rows of lights like that? They do look good.

[Bus'n it]

Looks great! Yeah, my engine lid is steel and weighs a ton. Thankfully thugs struts work fine but I am wondering if a lighter door would help shave some weight off.

[JackE]

Originally Posted by Native

Were your original tail lights slanted rows of lights like that? They do look good.

No, the circles above the new lights were the original. Not a fan of the gigantic blinking arrow or the boring original circle lights. I was following a charter coach once that had slanted lights like this and really liked how it looked.

Originally Posted by Bus'n it

Looks great! Yeah, my engine lid is steel and weighs a ton. Thankfully thugs struts work fine but I am wondering if a lighter door would help shave some weight off.

My end plan is to have my daughter paint a mural on the back wall. I was going to fill in the holes and license plate indents for a smooth surface, being aluminum makes that a bit more difficult. My end cap has a little damage from being backed into something and I'm going to remove the back windows, so I'll replace the whole back wall when I do the raise. I think I'll make a frame work for the engine door and skin over that as well. That'll give me a completely flat, dent free canvas for the mural.

Cheese Wagon also has me thinking about how to get the exhaust coming out the top, instead of out the back. I will be pulling my Charger on a trailer and I'm not crazy about the exhaust blowing all over the nice paint job. Coming out the top would eliminate that as well as get the smell up away from us. My wife has asthma and I have had CO poisoning which has made me lass tolerant of CO, so getting that up away from us sounds like a great idea. Rebuilding the back end should make that easier.

[Oscar1]

Looking great Jack
Glad to see you back on the bus
Stay safe and bus on.

[WIbluebird]

Love the looks of those. I ended up getting replacement 7" round LED turn/brake signals for my BB.

Relatively straightforward install but I'm sure your setup is cheaper (mine is around $15 per tail light assembly with 6 total). I already had one leak during the last rain storm and Amazon support told me i'm sol on a refund

[JackE]

Originally Posted by Oscar1

Looking great Jack
Glad to see you back on the bus
Stay safe and bus on.

Thanks Curtis! Over 3 months with zero progress and I was going crazy! Enough of that, I'm going back to my plan of the bus getting some time at least one day each weekend.

Originally Posted by WIbluebird

Love the looks of those. I ended up getting replacement 7" round LED turn/brake signals for my BB.

Relatively straightforward install but I'm sure your setup is cheaper (mine is around $15 per tail light assembly with 6 total). I already had one leak during the last rain storm and Amazon support told me i'm sol on a refund

The lights were $10 each, so I'm into those for $100, the backup lights were $25. Not too bad for lighting up the back side. I have 10 red marker lights to adorn the back few feet and 30 amber for the forward length. I should be well lit by the time I get done. I want to make dang sure I'm easy to see in the dark!

[Honeydipped]

Really like what you’ve done with the lights in the back! Just curious, how were your planning on filling in spots on the aluminum engine access door. I’ll have to cross that bridge eventually... nice work so far!

[JackE]

Originally Posted by Honeydipped

Really like what you’ve done with the lights in the back! Just curious, how were your planning on filling in spots on the aluminum engine access door. I’ll have to cross that bridge eventually... nice work so far!

Thanks! I have never done aluminum work and don't have a tig welder. I think when I do the roof raise, I'm going to skin over the whole back. I'll make a frame work for the access door out of square tubing and skin it with the same metal as the rest of the bus. If I had known the door was aluminum and made plans to replace it, I probably would not have bought the round backup lights. I found some the same style as the brake lights that would have looked better. I will probably do that anyway and use these round ones inside the engine bay, or cargo bays, for better lighting in there.

[Native]

Using the backup lights as engine/cargo lights is a "bright" idea!

[CHEESE_WAGON]

Originally Posted by JackE

Cheese Wagon also has me thinking about how to get the exhaust coming out the top, instead of out the back. I will be pulling my Charger on a trailer and I'm not crazy about the exhaust blowing all over the nice paint job. Coming out the top would eliminate that as well as get the smell up away from us. My wife has asthma and I have had CO poisoning which has made me lass tolerant of CO, so getting that up away from us sounds like a great idea. Rebuilding the back end should make that easier.

A wise decision, especially as your wife has asthma. I have real-world experience with this that I think would help you. Granted, I think there were slight oil and fuel injector leaks as well, but on my recent adventure transporting Mandinee1's Blue Bird (sister to your bus, I believe) from IA to the NorthEast, with my car in tow, my poor Toyota was getting a bath in carbon and oil -- literally.

The oil (and possibly fuel) wasn't that bad, but the Blue Bird's exhaust exited straight out the rear through a hole in the bumper, and every bit of smoke, oil or carbon that blew out that exhaust pipe was coating my hood, grille, front bumper, and headlights -- all plastic / polyeurethane except for the hood.

Fortunately, there was no permanent damage, as a quick trip to a high-pressure automated car wash took care of it. Though the car still slightly smelled of carbon for a few days after -- not good for my asthma, but it did go away after a few days. Something I think should be taken into consideration if pulling a toad.

However, given the high temperature of exhaust gases in general, especially diesel / LPG and CNG exhaust, combined with the excessive use of plastics in vehicle body parts since the late 1980s, I think it's a wise notion to keep your exhaust from blowing directly on your toad. Either that or fabricate a shield for use with a dolly or trailer to block the exhaust gases from blowing directly on the toad. But that doesn't address the issue of your wife's asthma.

My original idea would have been to cut and rotate the curved left or right rear body corner 180 degrees, welding it back in place. This would create a concave channel for an exhaust stack to fit neatly into. I would suggest making this area about 6" x 6" or even 8" x 8", for proper clearance of the pipe. The idea here, quite simply, is to basically shrink / invert the body on one corner to allow the exhaust to run up the corner without being inside the body.

However, upon looking at pictures of the shape of this area in such buses, some appear to have an inward rear slant from the window line up. So perhaps a better idea would be to cut a 6 – 8 inch section out of the side of the body just ahead of this slant, then cut a length of pipe in half length-wise (creating a C-shaped / U-shaped channel), welding this channel in to replace the removed section.

This would do the same thing and be able to run all the way to the top without a lot of fuss and muss, as well as keeping the exhaust from running inside the body, and helping to keep the pipe from hanging up on its surroundings. I'll try to put this into some kind of illustration later on in my original thread.

I would also suggest enclosing the exhaust pipe in heat wrap (Summit Performance sells this for the purpose of wrapping headers on drag race cars) to minimize heat transfer through the body and insulation. And should you take this suggestion, I would advise heavy investigation and eyeballing things in choosing which corner (left or right) you use, as you don't want to cut into radiator mounts, power steering lines, etc.

There is also proper routing of turbo plumbing to consider as well, which may well dictate which corner would be best for this method. I think it would work well, but I would also suggest replacing the rear emergency exit weatherstripping (possibly window weatherstripping as well) to be absolutely sure there is no opportunity for fumes to come in through those areas.

I think it goes without saying, but an exhaust flap like the one pictured would be a very good idea for this, to prevent rain from entering the pipe and backing up into the turbo and engine... You don't see them factory-installed on a lot of equipment much anymore, but that doesn't mean it's not a good idea.

[JackE]

I have come to the sad conclusion that work days on the bus are coming to a quick close due to the inclement weather. 12 degrees on my way to work the other day signals winter is closing in. I'm a fair weather kinda guy, so I guess it's time to hang it up for the winter and spend time working on the house.

I did manage to dump some 911 in the tank and take a ride up to the local truck stop to full up the tank for winter. I even convinced the wife to go with me so she can get a good perspective of the raw bus to compare to the finished bus. I also got the tach readings I have been wondering about for a while. 60=1800, 65=2000, 70=2200. That was enough to know I definitely want to get 6th unlocked. I will be doing plenty of freeway driving, so 70-75 will not be out of the question. But steady running at 2500 rpm's is out of the question for my comfort.

Also with as many holes as there are in the body, with missing lights and rusty floor, there was a significant amount of diesel fumes coming into the cabin. This solidifies my decision to move the exhaust up high enough that it'll get carried away in the slipstream. Of course all the holes will be sealed up, but it just shows the potential for exhaust seepage with it dumping out low to the ground.

[Native]

Man, you need a big ol' bus barn! I'd like one myself.

[JackE]

Originally Posted by Native

Man, you need a big ol' bus barn! I'd like one myself.

Sad thing is I kinda have one. My son bought the old high school property in our town. The old gym is about 7000 sq ft and he is planning on turning it into a shop. He just hasn't gotten that far yet. He'll probably have it ready about the time I'm done building!

[Native]

Originally Posted by JackE

Sad thing is I kinda have one. My son bought the old high school property in our town. The old gym is about 7000 sq ft and he is planning on turning it into a shop. He just hasn't gotten that far yet. He'll probably have it ready about the time I'm done building!

Oh well, that would work great!


<snicker> Tell him you need to make sure it will function as a proper workshop!