What do you think of this vintage Crown bus conversion?

[dburt]

This is a 1966 Crown intercity bus conversion done about 15 years ago. It has about 16,000 miles on a full rebuild of the 220 Slant Cummins diesel mid-under-mount engine and the Fuller RT910 5+2 transmission has been rebuilt also, and a new clutch was installed at that time also.



The bus has an Onan RV generator. It is unknown if the fridge, furnance or other accessories work or not. The bus has sat for about 10 years with occasional starting and a short run down the road.



This Crown was originally bought by Hewlett Packard Corp as an executive transport bus for thier employees. The next owner was a traveling salesman who converted the bus for his business use.



The traveling salesman died about 10 years ago, and the current owner bought the bus from the salesman's estate, who consisted of his x-wife. The current owner never did get a title, and does not know where the x-wife is, she has remarried and moved, and it is not known if she knew where the title was anyway!



The bus is for sale, as is, where is for $3,000 and you can work on getting your own title. It can be done, but is a process. I have done such title work before and it takes time, not much money.



So, is this bus any good? It runs and drives well, it has new front tires, and the rears are 40%. Is anyone interested in this bus? I can put you in touch with the man who is storing it for his brother-in-law, the current owner- who has lost all interest in the bus!



The bus has a full rear bath, the interior needs TLC and updating unless you are stuck in the '80's. And the paint needs stripping and the coach polished or re-painted. The chrome on the bumpers is peeling badly, and they will need to be re-chromed.



It has air-bag suspension. The current owner's brother-in-law, who is a retired trucker and is storing the bus in SE Oregon, says the bus drives and runs very well down the road. He said all he needs to do is charge the batteries and it will fire right up
.












So- what do you all think? A good deal, a great deal, or a leaveherright deal?
(As in: "Leave her right there!)

[dummy]

alot of bus for the money on one hand BUT will need mew tires if they are 10 years old plus much more, so figure $5000 to bring it road ready maybe more.
i think it's priced to high.


but what do i know.

[Rudy]

DB, Thanks for the pics. It is a cool looking bus. Sure, it needs some work, but if the engine, tranny, and air bags are in good shape, that's a good start. I would redo a lot of the interior and paint the outside. Those thing could be done relatively cheaply. Sometimes you get lucky finding tires. I paid $3000 for my bus, but I would have bought this one if I had had the chance.Perhaps my bus is in better shape on the outside. I don't know what buses sell for in Oregon, but I think 3k is a good price. Rudy

[Mark R. Obtinario]

If you start with the premise that a used bus that has some life in it is going to cost at a minimum of $1500, add in the cost of an Onan genset of at least $2000, and the conversion cost a minimum of $1500 and a lot of time and sweat then the $3000 sounds like a bargain to me.

Add in the fact the bus has an air ride suspension with a small cam Cummins and a Road Ranger transmission and you have all the potential for one sweet ride.

And, as it was pointed out, while it doesn't currently have a good title getting one isn't all that difficult.

I would jump on it in a minute if I hadn't already gone in a different direction.

[splummer]

if that bus was in my area and with every thing as dicribed 3000 would be a good deal

[Mark R. Obtinario]

In regards to the lack of title, since the name of the former owner is known it shouldn't be too hard to get some sort of clear title.

Both WA and OR have ways in which on can secure title to untitled vehicles. It is a bit time consuming and aggravating (when isn't it time consuming and aggravating when you have to deal with a government agency?) but it can be accomplished.

[dburt]

I think I have the owner's brother, who is storing the bus for his brother, finally willing to go after a title, he says he will get one somehow to help it sell better. That will be good news for a buyer, no hasseling with trying to get a title for the bus. So when he gets it done, I will advise here in case someone is a player for this old girl!

[earthhorns]

thanks for photos....any word on the title? where in oregon is bus located?...would like to inspect it.
thank you,
scott

[dburt]

The bus is in south east Oregon, near Adrian. The process to get a title is time consuming, consisting of sending certified letters to the last known owner and waiting for them to come back, filing for a storage lien, taking all paper work to the DMV for review, etc etc etc. You can call Wayne at 541-724-5079 to see about looking at the bus in person if you are interested.

[earthhorns]

Thank you very much for the info. dburt, I will let you know what I find out about the bus and title.

[dburt]

Earthhorns, someone needs to buy this bus before Wayne gets tired of storing it and scraps it out. I hope he can get a title, and then it can go to a good home with someone who appreciates it!

[earthhorns]

I called Wayne this morning, he has no new leads on the title, other than it was titled in Wa., so I will go to licensing dept. here for more info. I have restored/converted 2 old buses in the past, and would love to put this beauty back on the road again! Thanks again dburt for the heads up on this bus.

[mokibrabrant]

Personally, I think this coach is Awesome. Raised roof in place, originally owned by Hewlett Packard.......there's a definite upside to this Project. Personally I have no Issues from what I can see of the Exterior........Nothing that a good glass bead Sand Blasting wouldn't cure. Right down to the Aluminum.......Who know what might strike your fancy once that paint came off..........Drive train sounds very sweet: What it lacks in Raw horsepower is easily compensated by the 10 spd (spicer)........

The most daunting and no doubt the most disgusting would be the demo of that interior.........And I think you could count on those airbags being pretty much toast. But the demo of the interior would be a formidable task. Particularly if one was interested in preserving any of the plumbing, electrical that has been stubbed in...........I don't think so...........I would get up early in the morning, have a sledgehammer and saws all at my command.........head out to the Home Depot........and find a Couple or may just one of those guys you often find there. and let him have at it.........Of course you could color code areas where you are interested in being present for the demo.........As to avoid something terribly untoward...........But as far as I'm concerned it would be Money very well spent to have another do the demo. I'm pretty confident I would take it right back down to the floor......The Headliner looks pretty trick........I would want to avoid any damage to that. But that raised roof is killer, that transit style is beautiful, and there appears to be an abundance of stainless in the Cockpit.

At 3K that is a win win..........as long as hired help does the demo. Not only do you end up with square footage, but as importantly, with the roof raised you also gain volume, which can make a small space seem considerable... Factor this into the time and expense to achieve the raised roof. Not only that, but achieve it as intended. I believe in all fairness the value of this aspect alone, should be assigned a finite value directly juxtaposed against the initial cost of the Bus. Labor, materials, but particularly labor.........throw in the engineering required. I look at it like this, you've almost gotten the Bus for free, and still have a five-hundred dollar credit. So for thirty five hundred, the interior is demoed, a sand blaster and sand or bead ......about 3 tons, depending on the difficulty of the paint.........though that looks like it would come off easily. Your guy that does the demo, also cuts and tapes the tar paper for the lights, windows and lenses.........unless you are looking to frost, and for Thirty five hundred you have a extremely unique High Roof transit crown, taken to a blank canvas on the interior and ready to Paint.........Fact is while the tar paper is still affixed, you could tap a thread into the compressor, screw in an air hose, put an in line water filter...........attatch a paint gun and hit it up with a nice primer. Might just be better to rent a compressor. But get a nice primer on there immediately after the "Blast" How cool is that. If this drive train is as represented, of course I would drive it as step one, but if as represented..........You have a one off with History. A nice job on this could lead you to Arizona, or Newport Beach at one of those High priced Auctions...................There's nothing but upside to this Coach.................If I lived in Oregon or Washington........had a place for it........hard to imagine I wouldn't that Coach would be a done deal......That is your proverbial Diamond in the Rough.

You could take the same time, same money, same diligence and put it all in a BlueBird, an Am Tram, a Thomas................Do it as nicely as possible, and you would number one never have the Coach that Crown is, and Number 2 you would never have the upside potential to really Cash in if you decided to sell.............hands down...........gotta go with Crown.

[mokibrabrant]

Looking at it again I think I might leave that rear bulkhead wall that spans the Coach. Put some 3/8ths Wonder Board on that, and depending upon the motif for the floor, probably a 24X24 gray matte textured tile.........that has a slate or granite appearance I would carry that right up the wall. both sides.............and finish of the floor the same way. Saving all my cuts for the very end. as to allow space to cut in electric for sure........... In fact. depending on the length on the space of now captured by my slate bulkhead..........This would probably become the utility room. Electrical Panels, Instahot water heaters, inverters and House batteries. and what ever Pumps....and of Course a Chest of Tools. You might even be able to put a small forced air heating/air conditioning unit into that space. I would like to have a substantial space enclosed, and dedicated to to the guts of the "systems" I would employ............Nice to have them all in one place, straight forward.........out of the elements in the event of an emergency and well lit............Of course I would live in this Coach for about a month.........get a feel for what it can do...........let it talk to me..........and go from there......One things for sure.........You would have one nice space at the end of this stage.........all uphil from there. mokibra

[mokibrabrant]

A couple of details that seemed to have escaped all Rudy's hard work here. What is the year of this Coach.......available on one of the affixed Plates..........What is the Over-all length..........and height from floor to interior ceiling.