Thread: Progress on the bus . . .

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This thing is killer but I sure wouldn't want to wet sand that baby!

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Well said JP! I don't like following the herd either. Altough stuff would get done faster if I did.

Only dead fish, sticks, and turds go with the flow.

Originally Posted by cffisher

Yep why build what's already been built

Exactly!
We've 'been there, done that', let's do something that when it's finished (if it ever is,) is gonna be both practical, fun, and something different.
Another Mustang?
Ho-hum
Another Corvette?
Ho-hum.
Another '32 Ford?
Ho-hum.

Bellybuttons.
Everybody's got one

Let's do something else!

(I can see I'm gonna get rocks thrown at me any second now!)

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

It's much safer to pop that nest with a lead slug, from a distance.

Naaaaaaaaaa, what's the fun in that??
I want that adrenaline rush, lololololol

Shot up to Waitara yesterday to check out progress.
The upper rubbing strip has been painted, (that's the one moulded into the body,) and the two lower ones have been painted and mounted.
The three black horizontal stripes along the sides have broken the intensity of the yellow nicely.
While we were there Robin (lamin8r,) and a mate were mounting the rear guards, mirrors, et cetera.
The replacement of the chrome trim and black bumpers will do even more to 'mellow' it.
Although I can see now that at some stage in the near future I'm going to have to paint the grille bars in something like a pale ivory; primarily to 'break' the yellow.

We then shot down to Normanby (virtually the other end of the province,) to talk with Dave Kindberg (a mate from way back,) regarding seat belts in the rear of the bus.
"Measure what size you want them to be, and I'll have them done for you within a fortnight. Measure them in inches, 'cos that's what my supplier, an American outfit, deals in."
Cheers mate! That's what I wanted to hear!
(As an aside, and really relevant only to us Kiwis, he's sold the custom car/trike building side of his business to Colin Hook, who has been his manager since its inception...a good bloke. So there's a bit of gossip you didn't know...Colin too I've known since he was a hairy-legged school-boy...)
So I'm getting all my ducks lined up...they're not in a row yet but.
That's dependant upon how soon we get the bus out of Broker's workshop.

I've got the crown wheel and pinion for the diff sitting under a bench.
The squabs and the material to cover them are sitting under another bench.
All the interior lights and relevant fittings are here waiting...as is the carpet for the floor.
The interior insulation is still sitting on my trailer in a shed
I've got the non-see-through film for the windows in the shower/toilet.
The seat belts will be ordered next week.
The appertainent tradies are poised and ready to swing in to action.
(They're all friends, and recognise the importance/time-frame of this.)
We've got less than two months now to get this thing finished before our NSRA Nationals, and the Spears' New Zealand Sojourn.
And it's all dependant upon when the bus departs Brokers.

Rattle your dags man!

Sic'um jb, sic'um! We're counting on the bus being ready for a long shakedown cruise!!

Originally Posted by johnboy

Shot up to Waitara yesterday to check out progress.
The upper rubbing strip has been painted, (that's the one moulded into the body,) and the two lower ones have been painted and mounted.
The three black horizontal stripes along the sides have broken the intensity of the yellow nicely.
While we were there Robin (lamin8r,) and a mate were mounting the rear guards, mirrors, et cetera.
The replacement of the chrome trim and black bumpers will do even more to 'mellow' it.
Although I can see now that at some stage in the near future I'm going to have to paint the grille bars in something like a pale ivory; primarily to 'break' the yellow.

A little bird on FB says this is how it looked a bit after jb & Rosie departed ...... Hope you don't mind me posting it here, jb?
Bus4.jpg

Mind?
Do I mind?
Would you ask a leper to count to ten on his fingers?
Hell no!

Man but you're pretty quick off the mark mate, I only became aware of this on farcebook around bedtime last night.

When I did I promptly put it in an e-mail and posted it to Coxy (Graeme Cox, the engineer who did the work on the bus for me,) then rang him to ensure he saw it.
Got him out of bed but, and he was a bit grumpy initially, but I told him to tell his missus to go to her e-mails and print it off.
When she returned with the pics there was a silence for a few seconds at the other end of the phone.
It's not often Coxy's speechless, but he was this time.
It really made his day to see it like that.
So we oohed and aahed for twenty minutes patting each other on the back.
He reckoned it was worth getting out of bed to see.

Its been a saga over the last couple of years; but to see it like that makes it (mostly) worthwhile.
Hell; I know I couldn't be happier if I was a hurricane in a caravan park!

There are an awful lot of people we've got to thank for their work, advice, assistance with knobby bits, and also just 'holding my hand' and giving encouragement throughout this whole drama.
Very humbling.

Thank-you one and all.

(There's also one or two who deserve being splunged with a gillican spike...but we won't go there now. Note my comments re bureaucrats in a previous post.)

Thanks Roger!

Kurt Broker rang today; we can pick the bus up Wednesday.

YEEHA!

First stop will be the signwriter's, where they can do their measuring preparatory to putting it on vinyl.
Regulations state that only school buses can have the word 'school' on them, so this will read: Billings Ind Dist on the top widest rubbing strip, with a large numeral 4 on a black background between the upper rubbing strips and alongside the door, as it did originally.
(Can anyone verify the 'Ind Dist' as Independent District?)
Then to Pete Moller's garage for the diff gears to be changed.

Then to Okato for the interior work to be done.

Things are moving again.
I'm so happy if I were a puppy I'd leave puddles.

good news jb looking forward to the final post.


by the way- at the age you're approaching - you won't have to be a puppy!!

jb, "Ind. Dist" was "Independent School District" back in that era, replaced today by "Public School District", or in a few rare cases "Consolidated School District". Is your signwriter going to do the elephant across the back, or have you decided to keep it more period correct?

Many school buses in TX still have an ISD suffix on the side, for Independent School District, and the various areas are still called Independent School Districts.

ISD is "Intermediate School District" Separate from Independent School District.

Originally Posted by rspears

jb, "Ind. Dist" was "Independent School District" back in that era, replaced today by "Public School District", or in a few rare cases "Consolidated School District". Is your signwriter going to do the elephant across the back, or have you decided to keep it more period correct?

Yep. The elephant is going across the back, along with a few bars of Baby Elephant Walk.

Thanks for that info people.
It's good to have your assumptions verified.

Roll on to-morrow!