Intro: First post as bus owner.

[Neurotaffy]

Hi veryone. I'm new, well not new here but my bus is. I have lurked and gotten some very good advice from you all. I have finally taken the plunge and brought home a very nice 1990 Crown Supercoach. It was an Oxnard Highschool Bus #20 and is featured, it seems, on some enthusiast videos on You Tube from about 8 years ago. Wow!

I made the long trip back from Oregon last week and am in the process of Registering the bus as an RV. (Posted questions about this process on the other Forum section.

This bus is built like a tank! It has an all aluminum skin wrapping a steel frame which os coated with rustproofer- some sort of asphalt product (Cosmolene?) It is all original with a Detroit Diesel 6-71 and an Alllison Automatic transmission installed by the school district. It is an 84 passenger. The bus has an extra 3 feet pushing the driver ahead of the front wheels a bit more than the standard 35 foot Crown. It makes for a bouncy ride but the aesthetic is very cool. My kids when they saw the pictures said "it looks like a huge Twinkie". I agreed, and ironically when I signed paperwork the previous owner had written "Twinkie" on the top of the title. So, I guess for now Twinkie it is.

Plans are to make a very mild conversion. Meaning keeping a lot of the stock items but making a very nice restroom, kitchen, and shower. I am a sculptor "by trade" and have a full workshop full of fabrication tools to set in motion. I am a big folower of Chuck Cassiday and will follow his green Crown Conversion's footprint a bit.

Firstly, I think I will need to change the busses color to be in line with NY state's RV /bus rules. I think light blue with dark blue accents would make a nice combination. My Chrome Yellow is faded and peeling. It will need to be stripped either with plastic media blasting or aircraft stripper and re-primed before a new finish is applied. Ill document as I go.

I'd love to hear from any and all of you regarding whats next for this bus. It will be a great adventure.

Cheers, Neurotaffy

 

[sportyrick]

Beautiful beginning! Thanks for joining.

 

[nikitis]

Welcome. I tend to like pastel colors for the crowns. The roundness seems to reflect well with those colors.

 

[Tejon7]

Nice bus! Can't wait to see what you do with it!

 

[SweetNobodies323]

So cool! Congrats!

 

[magnakansas]

No! Do not strip it. If the paint is on there and is not flaking off. Scuff the surface and lay the new paint on the old. IF, you strip it, repaint like it is an aluminum airplane. I would tackle you and beat you with a wet noodle in an attempt to stop you from stripping paint.

William ps, long term aluminum and steel don’t get along very well. Chemistry.

 

[Bjorkinman]

I love Crowns. Crown N around has my favorite, but its a hard competition with Crowned in Style. I believe Crown N Around and his 13 speed Eaton Fuller is what gets it for me. I'll be following along to see what you do with it. Congrats!

 

[BamaBus]

See this thread

Govdeals for bus 20
Govdeals for bus 21

 

[jmiraglia]

Congrats! Crowns are awesome buses. We converted ours a few years ago. One of the things we weren’t planning on doing but ended up being happy we did was removing the interior lower walls and replacing the water proof barrier. Crowns are a bit unique in their water proof wall actually being the interior wall. It’s like an asphalt shingle type material and ours was worn through in a few places that weren’t immediately obvious. We also went kind of pastelish exterior color.

 

[Gorzie]

Congrats on the bus.
I like the body style of the crowns.

 

[Kentucky_Shunpiker]

What a great looking bus! It looks like a Robert Crumb drawing! I want one ... Maybe for the next project.

I hope you post progress

 

[OscarLaVista]

Cosmolene is kinda waxy. If the coating is between the skin and frame, it's there to prevent galvanic corrosion. Congrats! I dig Crowns too!

 

[OscarLaVista]

BTW, if you're near me in NY, send me a message!