Rusty 87 build thread

[o1marc]

School districts are not in the business of selling buses. They were bought with Government money, so no one cares that some is wasted. They just want them gone. Easy for them to let an auction handle that end of the business.
MG, I would continue to find out if a local scrap yard would take it and wether there's a local tow company nearby. I was surprised how much I came out ahead by scrapping instead of selling that bus. The scarp yard may even have towing capability to go get it and pull the bumper for you. WHen I went to pick up my wheels, I could not see the body anywhere, but saw the bare chassis with the rear bumper on it on a large heap of metal.

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Yeah, I'm not confident this is a smart move for me. But I think a school district would not bother with this because it would be a break-even deal for them or even with a tiny profit it's not worth the effort because they're not going to pocket that money personally. For me to do it, it would hopefully be enough for me to get the bumper etc. that I need for free plus a bit of time and effort.

A lot of gov stuff winds up at auctions because of legal reasons. By law they can't sell stuff straight out because the individuals involved might be profiting off of it - brother in law sales. So their only option is trash or auction (scrap is still considered selling), which, in theory, gives every one an equal shot at it and brings in the highest bid - providing the auctioneer is legit. Trash still leaves them open to accusations of wasting taxpayer money or somehow profitering.

[Frochevy]

Originally Posted by kidharris

A lot of gov stuff winds up at auctions because of legal reasons. By law they can't sell stuff straight out because the individuals involved might be profiting off of it - brother in law sales. So their only option is trash or auction (scrap is still considered selling), which, in theory, gives every one an equal shot at it and brings in the highest bid - providing the auctioneer is legit. Trash still leaves them open to accusations of wasting taxpayer money or somehow profitering.

Agreed. My mother in law is in charge of transportation of the school district we live in. They just got rid of two buses a couple weeks ago. A company called purple wave auctions sold the buses for the district. Takes it out of her hands. All she has to do is answer questions about the buses when people called to inquire about specifics.

On a different note, great work on the paint job!!! Your work has got me in gear. I've been doing some minor bodywork this week and hoping to get ours painted over the weekend.

[musigenesis]

Broke down the interior today in advance of painting. Kind of depressing to do this, feels like taking a few giant steps backwards although I know it's necessary.





Big pile of homework - all the cabinet doors and drawers to fill, sand and paint.





Needed to make a special 90° screwdriver so I can remove the window pillars that are behind my sink. Tried bending this screwdriver with a sledgehammer which didn't work, so I cut halfway through it and then the sledgehammer broke it.



I wasn't sure the welding was going to work since I think it's stainless steel, but perhaps it isn't. The weld was easy to do on max voltage and it's holding. I wonder if Craftsman back in the day would have accepted this as a return?



Does the job.



Got all the normal pillars out. Removing them just basically lets me paint them easily without worrying about getting paint on the black bus windows.





An example of good foresight on my part. Easily removed this panel which allows this partial pillar on the edge to come out, so I can paint it and also fill in the gaps with XPS when I reinstall it.



And an example of complete lack of foresight on my part. I built the overhead bin over the top of this side panel, preventing me from removing it. I need to get a cutting thing for my Dremel, but a wood chisel did reasonably well. This seam will be covered by a piece of trim when everything goes back up.





Corner piece over the couch also required chiseling at the bottom of the window. This will also be covered by trim, and the couch pillow will conceal it anyway.



And my homework pile is even bigger. This includes the broken skyhatch which I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to fix/reinforce. All I know is that the fix will necessarily be ugly.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Frochevy

On a different note, great work on the paint job!!! Your work has got me in gear. I've been doing some minor bodywork this week and hoping to get ours painted over the weekend.

Thanks! I've been averaging about 10 complements per day on the paint job, which is nice. Every person that walks past my house while I'm in the bus stops and says how much they like it, which may just be an indictment of how crappy it was looking before I painted it.

I overheard one little girl say to her father "how does somebody get their own school bus?" I wanted to shout out "by having slightly more money than brains!"

[musigenesis]

I did another pre-trip training on one of the school's C2s on Wednesday while we were getting swamped. I thought maybe these brand-new C2s would be less prone to leaking than my bus used to be, but hell no, these things are probably even worse than my era of International. When I did the stopping part of the brake test, probably a pint of water came out of the overhead storage all over the dashboard - my trainer said that happens with all of them, any time it rains. The windows mostly all leaked as well, although it didn't help that most of the drivers seem to always leave some of the windows down.

[dbsoundman]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

I did another pre-trip training on one of the school's C2s on Wednesday while we were getting swamped. I thought maybe these brand-new C2s would be less prone to leaking than my bus used to be, but hell no, these things are probably even worse than my era of International. When I did the stopping part of the brake test, probably a pint of water came out of the overhead storage all over the dashboard - my trainer said that happens with all of them, any time it rains. The windows mostly all leaked as well, although it didn't help that most of the drivers seem to always leave some of the windows down.

Honestly the way these things are constructed it’s a wonder they’re ever water tight in my opinion!

Also, check your private messages again.

[Phatman]

I remember that well MG. I built all of my cabinets, dry fitted them for anchoring. Removed them for painting and then reinstalled them. What a pain !!!

[Oscar1]

Originally Posted by Phatman

I remember that well MG. I built all of my cabinets, dry fitted them for anchoring. Removed them for painting and then reinstalled them. What a pain !!!

And that’s why you are a god type Individual in my eyes, quality work sells itself.
Cheers to you.

[Bus'n it]

Mine had some drips from the closed riveted panels. I am thinking that I do not want to use Tropicool since it does not have any gloss to it. Is there another paint type substrate that can seal the rivets and still not look thick when it is applied?

I have to say, your wood working skills are outstanding. Your bus is looking like a home after all that work. Amazing!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Bus'n it

Mine had some drips from the closed riveted panels. I am thinking that I do not want to use Tropicool since it does not have any gloss to it. Is there another paint type substrate that can seal the rivets and still not look thick when it is applied?

I don't know of anything like that. It seems my paint job has kinda sorta sealed at least some of the rivets, but I certainly don't think it's waterproofing that can be counted on. For whatever reason, my rivets don't seem to be a source of any leaking. Perhaps my rivets have always felt that the windows and lights have the leaking well in hand.

It seems like elastomeric paint should be the kind of substance you want to use, which should make Tropi-Cool a useful product for waterproofing (their fanciful claims about insulating value notwithstanding). But some people have reported that it doesn't actually work for that. From what I've read about elastomerics they have to be applied in a pretty exact way to work properly (e.g. thickness and number of coats) and it seems like they're often not applied that way to buses. And then there's the problem of road vibrations possibly affecting things down the ... uh ... road.

Originally Posted by Bus'n it

I have to say, your wood working skills are outstanding. Your bus is looking like a home after all that work. Amazing!

Thank you very much! But my skills definitely decline the closer you look.

[Bus'n it]

It's ok, my eyesight is declining as I look close at anything...

[musigenesis]

Went to PennDOT this morning and got my CDL learner's permit. Had to take four tests: General Knowledge, Air Brakes, Passengers and School Bus. Naturally the School Bus test was by far the hardest - had a bunch of questions that weren't even remotely close to anything I'd studied and I had to just give it my best guess.

Now I just need the driving training and a 14-hour class in school bus stuff.

[musigenesis]

Drove one of my school's C2s for the first time today. Engine was nice and powerful (it's a DD5 which I've never heard of before), a bit more oomph than my old DT466e, but the bus tracked poorly, the steering wheel was about 45° out of true, and the transmission sounded and felt like it was grinding itself apart. My trainer said all their C2s are like this, and they're all only about one year old. It's making me really appreciate the driving qualities of my own bus.

I have one really bad habit which is going to be difficult to kill before my driving test in about two weeks: letting the steering wheel run through my hands when finishing a turn. I also tend to not stop completely at stop signs (which would just confuse Philly drivers) but at least it's easy to remember to do that every time when driving the school's bus.

[Bert06840]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Went to PennDOT this morning and got my CDL learner's permit. Had to take four tests: General Knowledge, Air Brakes, Passengers and School Bus. Naturally the School Bus test was by far the hardest - had a bunch of questions that weren't even remotely close to anything I'd studied and I had to just give it my best guess.

Now I just need the driving training and a 14-hour class in school bus stuff.

Glad to hear that you passed. I'm curious about the school bus questions, can you share a few you remember?

What is the 14h school bus stuff about if you already have all the knowledge and know how to physically operate the bus? Perhaps how to suppress homicidal thoughts when the school bus bully is tossing Lil Timmy's backpack out of the window for the 6th time this month.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Bert06840

Glad to hear that you passed. I'm curious about the school bus questions, can you share a few you remember?

The general knowledge questions were stuff like: how do you deal with drowsiness (stop and take a nap), what do you do when someone is coming towards you with their high beams on (look off to the right), how far ahead should you be looking when driving (12-15 seconds), what effect does being empty have on stopping distance (takes longer to stop), what is reaction distance (length your bus will travel between when your brain perceives a hazard and when the brakes start slowing you), distance you should stop before a railroad track (15 to 50 ft.), what gear should you go downhill in for a new vehicle (one gear lower than the gear you used going uphill).

Air brake questions were: what does your supply gauge measure (air pressure in tanks), what does the application gauge measure (pressure being applied to the brakes), what is the most common type of air brake (dual tank), do air brakes apply earlier or later than hydraulic brakes (later).

Passenger questions were: where do you let off an unruly passenger (first safe area you come to), should you fuel up in an enclosed building with passengers aboard (no), should you let passengers bring gasoline cans aboard (no, surprisingly enough), when should you remind passengers to take their belongings with them (before you get to the stop).

School bus questions were: how should students be situated before you start away from a stop (in their seats and facing forward), what should a student do if they drop a personal item near the bus (ask the driver to pick it up for them). This test was 20 questions (you need 16 correct to pass) and at one point I had 13 correct with 7 skips because I had never seen anything like these questions in my manual or on any practice tests and I had to just start guessing. One of them covered learning-disabled students and the two plausible answers were "must be transported in a special bus" and "might have problems controlling their emotions"; luckily I went with the emotions answer. Somehow I answered the first 3 skipped questions correctly and got to 16 (the tests stop immediately as soon as you get enough correct answers).

I've always been good at multiple-choice tests and I was kind of assuming that I would be able to pass these without really studying very hard (or at all), but fortunately I did read the CDL manual and took a bunch of practice tests online until I was getting 100% on everything, because there's absolutely no way I would have passed these otherwise.

Originally Posted by Bert06840

What is the 14h school bus stuff about if you already have all the knowledge and know how to physically operate the bus? Perhaps how to suppress homicidal thoughts when the school bus bully is tossing Lil Timmy's backpack out of the window for the 6th time this month.

I'm not totally sure what the 14-hour class covers, but apparently the normal procedure is to take this class and then take the passenger and school bus written tests at the PennDOT office, so I'm guessing it's mainly to cover that stuff in more detail. Everybody was surprised that I'd already taken and passed those two tests for my endorsements, but that was the only reason I was able to start actually driving today. I was hopeful that maybe it meant I wouldn't have to take the 14-hour class but that's a separate mandated requirement to drive a school bus in PA.

[Mercuric Mind]

Lookin' good!
I like the color scheme.

I just finished painting my bus with Raptor liner. At some point I'll have to upload photos of the build.

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Drove one of my school's C2s for the first time today. Engine was nice and powerful (it's a DD5 which I've never heard of before), a bit more oomph than my old DT466e, but the bus tracked poorly, the steering wheel was about 45° out of true, and the transmission sounded and felt like it was grinding itself apart. My trainer said all their C2s are like this, and they're all only about one year old. It's making me really appreciate the driving qualities of my own bus.

I have one really bad habit which is going to be difficult to kill before my driving test in about two weeks: letting the steering wheel run through my hands when finishing a turn. I also tend to not stop completely at stop signs (which would just confuse Philly drivers) but at least it's easy to remember to do that every time when driving the school's bus.

Having fun?

[musigenesis]

Spent most of the last ten days cramming for my school bus driver tests and training, but also managed to do some work on filling the holes in my drawers and cabinet doors. I haven't used high-performance wood filler (the stuff you have to mix with hardener like bondo) in more than a year; I vaguely remembered the stuff having a long working time but it sure doesn't.











Everything just needs high-grit sanding and the hopefully I can start priming and painting tomorrow. I was thinking my interior paint job was going to take like a week, but of course it's going to be more like an entire month like the exterior paint job was.

[Phatman]

Welcome to the “Estimator”. I suck at it. Frankly, I don’t want to hear it about the painting. You did a great job on the exterior !!!