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Old 11-09-2020, 08:11 AM   #1
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Join Date: Nov 2020
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Thoughts on buying this bus?

I am going to give as much info as possible. It's from facebook and the guy seems as genuine an honest as possible for someone you have never met in person.

I found a 39' 2004 Blue Bird All American with 98k miles, already has a roof raise completed (used sheeting cold rolled 18g sheet metal attached with 1/4 steel rivets and panel adhesive for the roof raise),seats pulled out, side and roof panels removed. It has an 8.3 Cummins Diesel with Allison MD 3060 transmission. It has windows to come with it. School bus words and signs already removed and registered as an rv so it's ready to drive.

Only issues mentioned is a little bit of exterior rust at a seam and some undercarriage rust. Additonally, the radiator needs to be replaced. They were quoted $300 for the part not labor. Said they drove it 500 miles home and just had to run the heater occasionally to keep it cooled down.


These are some facebook messages he we have sent each other

(ME)Curious about the radiator. I'm around 900 miles away so I'm pretty sure that would need to be fixed for the drive home. How could we go about getting that done if I were to fly to you to pick it up?

It's a toss up. I was able to dive it here without issues if I ran the rear heaters. If it's something you find you are serious in purchasing we can have it fixed locally at your cost. You'll be hard pressed to find another rear engine 8.3 already raised at this price.

(ME) Got it. You mentioned some undercarriage rust. How bad?

I guess that would be subjective. Typical for this area in told. I can send some pictures tomorrow. A friend who is a heavy duty tech said there is a fair amount of scale but nothing structural. Just needed to be gone over with a scaler and then have por-15 sprayed on. I have the por-15 as I intended to do it. I'd be willing to include. If you are willing to do it yourself it wouldn't take much. Just your time.

No worries I understand. I'll provide you as much info as I can. I honestly to not know how many hours. I have not seen a hour meter anywhere. It was used as a route bus in the Chicago area. It has not been delivered any distance since 2018. But I do start it and drive it every few months. When it hasn't been worked on its been covered with an RV cover. The tires were fairly good. I do not know the date code but I can look tomorrow and send some pics. I was not able to obtain service records but I see no indication it was not taken care of. I did find the daily checklist it in. There was nothing noted in the driver checklist as an issue.I drove it 500 miles home and it drive nice. A new alternator and batteries were installed them I picked it up. The batteries have been on a maintainer while parked.

Also, I started to the bus to make sure all is still good. I noticed the ABS light is on. I think that was on before but I do not know for sure. I'm going go back tomorrow and let it run long enough to fully come up to air pressure to see if it will go off. I'll let you know the results.

I pulled the code from the tires I had access. The inside drive tires had the code facing the others. The two steer tires were manufactured in June of 2015. One rear drive was manufactured in January if 2013 and the other July of 2011. I'm guessing the two inside are in the same date range

(ME) Ok thank you. Just wanted to use that to double check the engine. Apparently 2003 is when emissions control started and that causes engine issues down the road. But some buses used older engines so it could have an 8.3 from pre 2003 from my understanding

Ok. I can tell you it does not use def, no egr, or anything such as that. Straight from exhaust manifold to turbo to muffler then tailpipe.


Additonally, here are the imgur galleries

http://imgur.com/gallery/FS9IVX6

http://imgur.com/gallery/ScUDctK


They are asking $5,500 for it. Any thoughts?

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