Hey Christopher,
Is there anything I should be looking out for on the Carpenter? It's a CT-2 though I can't find much on it...
Carpenters (at least mine) is a HEAVY solid Bus.. even my little 7 row is rated at GVWR 27500..
on mine my bergstrom driver heater console leaked internally of coolant.. but I think that was changed to a better unit in the late 90s...
all of the heaters are designed such that the coils easily become clogged with dirt, so if you want to have good road heat, pull them apart and clean the coils out.
like any other bus look for rust, carpenters dont rust in any different places than others do. the normal spots.. around the wheel wells, mud-flap brackets etc..
its hard to find info on the carpenter body as I think somewhere around 01 or 02 is when the company shut down and went ouit of business.. so theres very little about the body... you CAN find the manuals on the International 3800 Chassis for working on the engine, trans, etc..
the electrical panel on mine is a nice fold open design and everything is on 2 circuit breaker rails with 20 amp self resetting breakers.. so adding and deleting 12 volt electrical items is a cinch on it..
I dont klnopw how many school bus windows you plan to keep but the guy at schoolbuspartsco said the window latches for the carpenters are starting to become harder to get.. those little plastic levers get brittle and break as they age.. so if you dont remove your windows you may want to get some spare latches.. or if you remove some skoolie eindows and keep others, part out the latches before you toss them.
the insulation in my 1991 seems to be minimal to non existent.. but im assuming you are pulling the ceiling and insulating...
my carpenter interior ceiling panels are all screwed in with Torx screws,so if you are re-using your metal ceiling panels you have a shot at getting them down without destroying them (unless they switched to rivets later on)...
Carpenter roofs love to leak.. i only had 2 small ones on mine.. but I remember from riding a carpenter to school (new one at the time) that we had roof leaks.. from a fellow bus guy he said the rivets used on the outside of the roof were not always sealed properly..
when your ceiliong is down hose the roof down for good and check for leaks.. and seal accordingly.. or Bus-Kote the whole roof.. (thats what im going to do with mine)..
my carpenter is a Noisy Bus.. a lot of stuff rattles it seems when i go over big bumps.. even with air-ride suspension.. but it all seems solid as a rock when I check everything out.
yours is also 9 years newer than mine.. thats a lot of years in school bus years LOL..
-Christopher
Anything I should be looking for in particular?
