Bus price?

[lapeer20m]

$3,500 is too much $$ if you ask me. Unfortunately for your friend, skoolies don't have much resale value.

I bought a 1991 ford/Ward 72 passenger with 250K miles on it for $775

My "new" bus is a 1991 International 72 pass with a much sought after DT series motor with 180K on it and i paid $1,500 for it.

To put it mildly, the 6.9 liter with the auto trans is gonna be a dog, but who cares? You're in a bus, not in a hurry.

I think $1,000-$1,200 is a very fair price for that bus. I believe the 6.9 liter is fords pickup truck motor (made my international, but it's not not to be confused with the 6 cylinder DT series motors), the precurser to the 7.3 liter. The 6.9 is a non-turbo mechanicaly injected V8. I don't know what the life expantancy is of that motor in the skoolie application, but I would venture to say it's not a 200K mile engine.

 

[the_experience03]

You're going to need something to back yourself up when you tell him his price is too high so here it goes....I paid $1250 ($1407.25 after T,T, &L) for my 1989 Ford B700 bus with a 65 passenger Wayne Lifeguard body in bery good shape, especially for a Minnesota bus. The bus has a 6.6 liter I-6 Ford diesel which doesn't have the same following as say the DT series, but is generally regarded as a go-forever motor. My rear tires are still in decent shape while I did have to replace the front rubber. The brakes are air with almost new linings. Though it didn't come with service records as they were never turned into the dealership (yes, I bought it from an actual Bluebird dealership), it DID have the manuals for the chassis, Wayne body, Racor fuel heater, Webasto coolant heater, and Allison transmission along with complete copies of the warranty documents which though useless, are somewhat nostalgic.

Basically, that's my longwinded way of saying don't pay too much.

 

[bdavis441]

Rip up all of that rubber and see what you've got. My bus had no plywood either. The cracked rubber trapped water and rusted the floor BAD. Don't take a chance on it. It's a crappy job, but you need to do it.

 

[bdavis441]

Yes, I suppose the dry climate will make a difference. Here in Indiana, the kids get on the bus with snowy shoes in the wintertime and all of the snow melts into the cracks in the rubber and stays there. For a vapor barrier, I'm sure someone on here has a good idea. I didn't use one. I repaired, sealed and painted the steel floor and screwed/glued 3/4 OSB right over it.

 

[the_experience03]

Just a word of caution.....spot checks are just that....spotty. My floor looked ok, but we pulled it up anyway if for no other reason than to get rid of the vinyl smell. While the places we had checked seemed fine, the wood was toast. I just couldn't see doing all the work to convert a bus without starting out with a solid base. Once you start converting, floor replacement isn't an option.

My bus' floor:

sanded all rust, filled in all holes
two THICK coats of red tractor primer
1x2 furring strips in a grid pattern using liquid nails and S.S. screws
3/4 inch rigid white styro insulation
6 mil single sheet clear plastic vapor barrier
3/8 CDX plywood screwed down
carpet affixed to that with staples along the sides after AMPLE stretching