Thread: '51 suburban school bus to show burb

Tweet

The suburban came with three seats but of course ours was missing the short middle seat. i tried to talk the owners into just moving the back seat up and making it a two seater but that didn't fly.. the middle seats are hard to find ( well all the seats are hard to find) so we ended up making a middle seat.......

We found that an early '50's truck was close to what we needed so we found one at the swap meet.. It was too wide and didn't have the right legs as we needed but that gave me a reason to buy a big tube bender.. we all need more tools right? The stock truck seat doesn't have the sheet metal back like the suburban seats so we had to bend up one and weld it in.. once the interior was completed it was hard to tell it wasn't a stock seat...

Breaking it down to get it off to the sand blaster to find out what was really under all that primer..

And this what we got back.....Dave this ones for you for asking how was the shape when we got it... the floors had to be replaced half way up the toe boards and the cowls inside and out had to be replaced... pixs later.

A few shots of the floors getting replaced along with a new transmission tunnel and Lokar shifter.

Awesome looking old bus.. Really good condition too..Like....Like it a lot..

Thanks for all those pics! An amazing piece of work you've done there too. And a beautiful shop to boot.. LOL..

Can't wait for some more..

That is awesome! I totally hear ya on the frame holes thing! I welded up all the holes in my frame on my 72 and maybe one person noticed. Was your lower steering column mount part of the column you used or is it an aftermarket piece? I really like it. Great work, I can't wait to see more.

Thanks for posting and the story, I am enjoying the journey. I agree with the owner, it did need the extra seat to finish the interior correctly. I didn't realize how destructive rat urine can be but heck, that floor was in a state.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

That is awesome! I totally hear ya on the frame holes thing! I welded up all the holes in my frame on my 72 and maybe one person noticed. Was your lower steering column mount part of the column you used or is it an aftermarket piece? I really like it. Great work, I can't wait to see more.

Ryan, the mount is from Flaming River.. you can see them on their web site.. i think we ordered it from Summit and saved a little money

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Thanks for posting and the story, I am enjoying the journey. I agree with the owner, it did need the extra seat to finish the interior correctly. I didn't realize how destructive rat urine can be but heck, that floor was in a state.

You're right Mark about the seats.. i even tried to talk them out of the stock seats all together but they would't go there and in the end as you'll see when i get them posted it all looked right.. and for floors yes they could have been in another state but the smell did go away...

Originally Posted by lamin8r

Awesome looking old bus.. Really good condition too..Like....Like it a lot..

Thanks Robin, it wasn't bad if it hadn't been for the front floors... i did spend a lot of time getting the door gaps right as you'll see a little later.

Thanks for the info sir!

At the same time we were doing the floors we also started replacing the cowls on both sides. The pass side was rusted out more than the driver side..

Well not only did the frame have a lot of holes the fire wall was like swiss cheese, i think i welded up over 75 holes in the fire wall.. My miller got a work out on this baby..