Hello From Michigan

[VivaciousClam]

Hey Everyone!

My name is Calvin! I'm currently a senior in college, and I'm purchasing a bus on Monday. My plan is to work on converting it throughout the next year and live out of it once I finish college.

I'm going to have a lot of help from my family, but I really appreciate all the help this site already has been for planning and will continue to be throughout this adventure

[Robin97396]

Welcome Calvin

You'll get more alternatives than you could ask for here.

So tell us about your Monday bus. It sounds like you have the build skills.

[DawnTreader]

Super exciting! Can't wait to hear about your bus once you get it home!

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by VivaciousClam

Hey Everyone!

My name is Calvin! I'm currently a senior in college, and I'm purchasing a bus on Monday. My plan is to work on converting it throughout the next year and live out of it once I finish college.

I'm going to have a lot of help from my family, but I really appreciate all the help this site already has been for planning and will continue to be throughout this adventure

Make sure its not rusty if its local to you. Rustiest bus I ever saw was from Michigan.

[Robin97396]

Are rust belt buses cheap? One can't help but wonder about getting a nice powerpackage out of those rust buckets.

I still say a 8.3 with it's 3060 would make this bus more impressive. Then again cutting down a pusher into a pusher shorty would also make an impressive little bus.

[VivaciousClam]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

Welcome Calvin

You'll get more alternatives than you could ask for here.

So tell us about your Monday bus. It sounds like you have the build skills.

The bus is a 2003 International. I've only been looking around seriously for a bus for the last couple weeks, but I ran into this one while moving some things between school and home for the summer. The store owner bought the bus from a school a couple hours north when they retired it about a year ago. It has only been sitting on the lot since this spring. Bus has about 200,000 miles on it, but the owner said the engine has under 100,000.



I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I'm much more confident in the people who will be helping me than me myself, as far as build skills go

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Make sure its not rusty if its local to you. Rustiest bus I ever saw was from Michigan.

It isn't too bad, as far as I can tell. I walked around it and inside it and this was the only slightly worrying spot I could find. Even here, nothing has rusted out enough to get anything inside the bus.



Here are a couple other pictures, for anyone's entertainment

[Robin97396]

Yup, that's what they look like. Way to many seats and rivets in there.

The rust isn't so bad behind the license plate. There's also some rust showing in your door jam on the back door. You could use your ceiling panels to patch most of that. It does indicate you will likely find some other rusted areas, but time will tell. Overall that's a nice looking bus.
So you're farming out portions of the work. I find myself wanting to do that sometimes. You'll find this pretty easy overall. Most of it's just manual labor.