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Our "NEW" church bus
We've been without church transportation for quite some time. In anticipation of buying a bus from a sister church, I've been lurking around this site getting inspiration for paint schemes. Well, yesterday was the big day. We traveled four hours to Nixa, MO to pick up our "NEW" bus, a 1980 Superior Ford w/ a 370 c.i. gas engine.
The body is in decent shape, although someone failed to notice a low clearance sign and the hood is missing a bolt on one spring and won't close completely. The seats are in pretty bad condition but the bus was doing 60-70 mph for most of the trip home.
About half way home we noticed the throttle was "stuck." After being forced to turn off a racing engine and experiencing a rather large backfire, we realized that only one of the three throttle return springs was attached. All three worked great for several miles, until one broke and all three came off again. With a racing engine and quick thinking the driver came to a safe stop. We found that two springs worked great for the remainder of the trip.
Unfortunately, the throttle couldn't be blamed for a drastic loss of power about an hour from home. Of course, with the drastic loss of power came a drastic increase in blue smoke from the exhaust. By the time we parked the 66 passenger beast, there wasn't any oil on the dipstick. It's about this time that we really question the "original 78,000 miles" on this bus.
So, after 13 hours and $1,500, we have six new tires, a new battery, new brakes, new exhaust, a tired engine, 22 bad seats, a crumpled body and no church transportation.
All in all, the day could have been much worse........I think.
Have a blessed day!
__________________
Learning by experience isn't always the most fun, but it's effective.
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