Linus the 1992 Ward Senator

Westward · 06-27-2013, 08:08 PM

Perhaps it is coincidence that I chose the username Westward before I even knew that Ward was a bus manufaturer. As fate would have it, a Ward is the bus that we bought......We bought our BUS!! We bought our bus via the Lexington, KY craigslist. 1992 Ward Senator on a International 3900FC chassis, has a DT466, 14 window, 84 passenger capacity. The owner said that it was a TN bus, but from what I have read it seems that these Ward's were well known in KY. Regardless, it has minimal rust on it that we could find. A previous owner had already taken out all but 2 passenger seats, so that's a little less work we have to do......here are some of the pics:

Wanted to make sure to have as few reasons to be bothered on the drive back from KY to NC.

Finishing duct tape touchs.....

My nephew in the front helping clean windows....no that isn't a beer can by the gear selector...its a rubber kooziew that has been attached to the dash to hold a can....

Looking back through the bus....the owner had 3 bridgestone recaps that he included on the deal....

Its a looooonggg bus....

It was a fun drive back from KY, nearly 500 miles and drove it all in one day (Friday). She drove nice and didn't have any significant issues other than the running lights didn't want to light up, so once it became dark I was driving down the interstate with the interior lights on so I could read the gauge cluster (my wife who was following, said it looked like UFO going down the road). Once We got it home and parked it, I went to turn the lights off and then the running lights came on and I haven't gotten them to come on since.....have to look into it...loose wire or switch perhaps.....but we've got it and now the real fun can begin!!

bansil · 06-28-2013, 06:20 AM

Welcome

And if it was my bus...that would be a beer can

(disclaimer: not while operating bus...only when parked)
Let the fun begin

JakeC · 06-28-2013, 08:27 AM

Awesome bus!! Let the madness begin!

Diesel Dan · 06-28-2013, 11:07 AM

A stately bus for sure! Welcome.

somjuan · 06-28-2013, 02:27 PM

Nice that you get out of removing most of the seats. Though I think the rust on my bus was what made that job so miserable/memorable.

LuckyChow · 06-28-2013, 11:01 PM

That's a good looking bus, and should be a lot of fun for ya! Welcome to all us crazies. It's always nice to know you have good company.

Tell us about your plans for the bus.

Westward · 06-30-2013, 02:34 PM

The bus is 32'9" from behind the seat to the back wall. The front 22' will be the RV conversion space and the rear 10'+ will be the pottery studio (wheel, kiln, clay, glazes, etc...) for my wife. Our plans for the living area is for it to be simple and functional. We have multiple layouts drawn up and are going to measure and tape it out on the floor to see what might actually work. Our long term goal for the bus it for it to be fully self-contained, but that will be a work in progress as our primary goal is to be livable so we can begin full timing next May/June. To expand the pottery workshop area, I have been floating around the idea of a deck that hinges off the back of the bus and can be lowered down (draw bridge style) with legs that go under the far end for loading bearing. Before I can start working on the bus, it needs to stop raining so I can finish grading the end of the driveway and put down some gravel, so I can have a place to park the bus at my house. (In the meantime, I'm going to keep cruising through all the build threads and steal ideas along with does and do nots)

bansil · 06-30-2013, 05:36 PM

waiting for the rain to stop? are you an anti-rain maker?

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If so........ you can visit down here for a month or so....let it rain lightly mon thru thur and then make br nice fri thru sun

good luck with the build!!!!!!!

Westward · 06-30-2013, 08:27 PM

Not an anti-rain maker, more like a rain reducer. Trying to level a driveway with mud, just doesn't seem to work so well.....this past friday evening we had something like 4-5 inches of rain in 2 hours and they are calling for more heavy rain through tuesday evening....Friday night this is what my yard looked like (photos taken between lightning strikes)

This one was taken from the front porch..looking toward the road...any guesses as to where the driveway is??

this is to the right of the last picture....the building is my well-house.....the driveway is between the green-plants (my walkway) and the well house...the bright spot onthe bottom right is my utility which is parked inthe driveway under a foot of water....the water at the well house was over waist deep....

Maybe instead of an rv....I could convert into a skoolie boat.....how many pontoons would it take to keep it upright??

Westward · 06-30-2013, 08:42 PM

btw Bansil, I'm just across the Yadkin river from the Uwharries....with the rain we keep getting you could probably kayak those offroad trails...."stroke, stroke, oh S*^%, TREE!!"...

bansil · 07-01-2013, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westward

btw Bansil, I'm just across the Yadkin river from the Uwharries....with the rain we keep getting you could probably kayak those offroad trails...."stroke, stroke, oh S*^%, TREE!!"...

I've been on Rocky mount loop during these rains and you could paddle down it

Westward · 09-29-2013, 08:21 PM

Finally got to doing some work this week on the bus....removed the last remaining seats (only the front 2 seats were left) and the 2 short padded "walls" in front of them.....we took the time and removed 5 of the 16 floor bolts with wrenches, crawling under the bus to hold the nut while my wife worked the wrench up top....thats hard to do and not reagravate a pinched nerve in the back....enough of that...Let the sparks fly with the angle grinder...a little quicker and definitely easier on the back. We removed all the trim screws for the center walk way, the trim where the side wall met the floor, the wheel well covers, heater hose covers, and the 2 heaters. There had to be atleast 250 screws in all. The came the part I was a little nervous about...peeling the rubber floor up. 3 things we found that I think helped make it a lot easier 1. Have 2 people 2. Let the bus heat up during the day and then about mid evening (around 4) when the floor starts to cool off the moisture build up helps to make the adhesive gooey 3. A flat shovel- As one person pulls up and back on the rubber floor, the other uses that flat shovel to kinda of "skin" the floor, cutting the adhesive a the edge of the floor being pulled up...worked well. With about 5 hours work we had the seats and trim out with the floor bare....

The heaters are in the boxes with the long blue hose attached to it (atleast 40 feet total of heavy goodyear heater hose in great shape)...the green bag...yea that the empty dog food bag (one of those like a blue tarp material)...works great as a puncture resistant garbage bag

Looking toward the front of the bus.....with the 2 of 3 inline heaters. We are planning to take out the two in the back and the large one by the front door, and leave the small one behind the drivers seat for a little heat while driving if needed. Anyone need some heaters?

This is what most of the floor looks like...seems to be in good shape with a little rust at the seams....we are going to wire wheel the rusted areas and paint the whole floor...I was planning on just painting over the dried adhesive where there is no rust...going to cover the floor with insulation and flooring so looks aren't important...

This is the area of the worst rust by far...the rear 6 inches by the rear emergency exit....It seems that the rust is the worst (And it still isn't bad) by the emergency exits at the back, side and the emergency exit windows. Anybody keep the emergency exit windows?...we are planning on moving them to areas we might need them (like one in the bedroom area and another one or two in the main living area...)

Westward · 10-14-2013, 05:42 PM

Thought about going ahead and painting the floor, but decided to wait till we are done with removing the interior wall panels, and ceiling panels. We went with the cutting a slot on the rivet head and then knocking it off with the cold chisel and 3lb hammer.

Cutting slots on rivets below the windows. A woman that knows how to handle a power tool....sorry fellas...she's taken....

Limited space above the chair rail meant only one slot (instead of making the X). This made removing the rivet heads a little tougher, and the piece of metal the rivets went through would often want to bend in, making a pain in the arse to get the rivets out.

The top of the side panel is spot welded to a another piece of metal that turns out to be the flashing behind the windows. So instead of trying to bust the welds and not mangle the flashing, just took the cut off wheel and cut the side panel just under the welds leaving the welded piece in place. We are going to case around the windows later anyway.

Trying to bust the rivets while nearly upside down, wore me out. Nephews are great help and its always good to teach someone how to do something.

After working so hard on one side, decided that there had to be a little easier way. We cut the X in the vertical rivets, cut the slots on the rivets by the chair rail and then went ahead and cut the tops loose from under the window. The vertical rivets with the X busted off easily. Then we folded the metal down, which made busting the rivets alot easier (we didn't have to contort ourselves to swing the mini sledge)

Glad we cut open the sides, the insulation was going to a powder and there was areas that were leaking around the windows that let water inside the bottoms of the walls, wet soggy insulation!
Now we have just two more side panels to go....and then its onward to the ceiling!

bansil · 10-14-2013, 06:04 PM

I would like the heaters!

bansil · 10-14-2013, 06:09 PM

How far are you from arrowhead campground?
I will be there in next 2 weeks with bus,If el presidenta opens parks back up....pm if close

bansil · 10-29-2013, 11:45 AM

It was nice to meet you and your wife and spend some time talking buses!!!

thank you for the heaters also!

my wife saw them and asked what they were for........I told her and she just shook her head (as always)

this late spring we need to plan a mini rally at URE since we have at least 5 real close

Westward · 11-11-2013, 07:41 PM

Been Busy working on the bus. Have all the interior panels removed, 8 cut off wheels, 6 dust masks, and one worn out cold chisel is all it took to remove the couple thousand rivets to do so. After removing the panels and the insanely itchy fiberglass insulation, I found some secrets the old bus was hiding. The insulation was wet in the space under 2 of the emergency exit windows. But the real suprise was the rust found in the ceiling. Along 2 of the cieling ribs, there was a hole in the roof, letting water in and soaking the insulation. Climbed on the roof and found that the holes were from rivets that missed there mark, and so I caulked them closed till spring when I can recaulk the roof and seal it. NExt up is insulating the ceiling, resealing the windows then it will be on to the walls and floors. I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

Westward · 11-11-2013, 07:46 PM

Bansil-
Thanks for showing us around La Tortuga. We really appreciate the advice, especially the about using common easy to aquire parts. We got a lot of good ideas for our bus. I think a mini-jamboree in the late spring would be awesome! I just have to get to working on the bus more. Good luck with the heaters!

bansil · 11-12-2013, 06:51 AM

CHOP...CHOP...

inkblots84 · 11-12-2013, 11:13 AM

I too vote for a bus party!

Good that work is moving along Westward, now where are those pics?

How'd you come to pick Linus for the name?

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