1935 Chevy school bus

[ol trunt]

Maybe so but at least I had a dog for a pet--------
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not a chicken.

I stopped by my paint store and looked at a chip of your sandstorm. My tan is a little more yellowish while your tan has a slight greenish tint but is a good color. Since sandstorm is not a metallic it would be possible to get it made either in water base (NO), or base coat clear coat or single stage with a hardener. I was specifically looking at the OMNI line of paints though I ended up using Delfleet single stage on my bus. Both these brands seem to hold up well (at least in the non metallic) and are considerably less expensive. Jack

[tango]

Got the paint sample and believe I have FINALLY have settled on the body color. 2010 Toyota FJ "Sandstorm"...with John Deere "Blitz Black Satin" on the fenders, bumpers and minimal trim.

Does that count at all towards anything that might be called "progress"?

And remember what Daddy always said..."Never have a pet you can't eat when you get tired of them". (Mine actually said that)

[ol trunt]

So Tango, How did you finally cook your pet chicken? With a can of beer stuffed up its arzz or fried up down home style .

As to the color choice I'd say it should look good. As to the choice being progress I'd probably call it incentive instead. HA HA. Jack

[tango]

Roger the "incentive". Now I need to get moving on mounting the body panels so they CAN be painted.

And as for the "chicken"...actually, it was a rabbit...named "Thumper".

The other rule in the house was.."It's never a good idea to name anything you may have to eat later". That said, Thumper made a pretty good stew.

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Look atter go look

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Look atter go

[ol trunt]

Hello All. I'm so excited!!!! I convinced Wiffy to go for a ride with me in Honeysuckle Rose yesterday (over a local grade of 7%) and she agreed. HS made the climb at 50 plus mph and only one downshift/upshift and no change in temp! The down hill trip was completely uneventful thanks to the exhaust brake that held the bus at 45 mph with no need to use the brakes. After the ride we had a pleasant restaurant lunch and talked of all things not bus. When I returned from the gym this morning she said "since we're taking the bus to Yosemite etc." Yippeeee! We'll still stay in a hotel this time and that's OK. I'm scrambling to hook up a bike rack before we go--Oh Boy! Jack

[tango]

You got it figured out Jack. As Confucius say...

"If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

Smart guy that Confucius.

[somewhereinusa]

Great news, pictures, lots of pictures.

[GoodClue]

... nice rear end ... but myself, I'm a headlight fan ... all are waiting for pics
Hope your Yosemite trip went well ... and you didn't get caught up in the fires ...

[Mark R. Obtinario]

I have been following your progress since the start.

I am absolutely amazed at what the end product has become. In my wildest imagination I could never have dreamed up what you have created. And even if my fevered brain did conjour up something like that my skill set would never have allowed me to complete a project like yours.

My only comment that might be at all negative needs to be heard by everyone on here who runs a pre-emissions diesel engine. If your engine does not have a catylitic convertor do NOT use any LE rated engine oil. It may have the correct application nomenclature but it is not to be used in pre-emission engines.

The LE rated engine oil does not have ZDDP which is zinc, phosphorous, and other stuff. The ZDDP stays stuck on hard parts and doesn't allow dry starts. The ZDDP also poisons and ruins catylitic convertors which is why it was removed from the LE rated oils.

LE rated oils without ZDDP do not have properties that allow oil to stay stuck and linger on for days and weeks like the older oils did. Newer engines have been designed with hard parts and bearings that can better withstand dry starts.

Delo 400, Rotella, Ursa, Delvac, and other name brand oil is still made in the non-LE formulas but generally is not available at Wal-Mart, Costco, or most truck stops.

I can hardly wait to see pictures of the completed bus.

Good luck and happy trails!

[ol trunt]

Thanks Mark. You can see pics of the completed bus in my thread here "13 fun steps to a skoolie and a toad" posted the week of Sept. 15. I'll be posting more pics as we are presently on our way to Yosemite in the bus! Jack

[ol trunt]

Hello All. We made it to Yosemite and back without a hitch . The trip was just about 800 miles overall with long stretches of flat hwy, and a couple of stretches of mtn switch backs of about 60 miles each and varying from sea level to around 9,000'. I checked fuel mileage under three sets of conditions and have as yet to calculate overall mileage. I did, however, calculate mileage for 125 mile sections of freeway mtns, flat freeway and twisty 2 lane mtn driving with the results respectively 16 mpg, 17.6 mpg and 12.3 mpg. I expect the overall mpg to be in the neighborhood of 16 as the last section consisted mostly of flat fwy--we'll see. The overall handling of the rig is most satisfactory on all but the roughest roads where the suspension is a bit stiff. The tightest hair pin turns posed very little lean and the bus was easy to keep in the center of the lane.

Along with being too much fun, the trip did help define refinements that will make the next trip even better. I really need to get the soft hanging storage bin made up as we were having to move luggage back and forth over and over again to make use of the floor space. The bin should do away with the luggage all together. I'll definetly be installing docking lights on the sides and rear of the bus as even with walki-talkies backing the bus into the tiny tree lined camp spot in the dark was a bit tough to do and a little light would have made it a snap. A third thing I will do is install some sort of collapsible clear plastic partition to separate the driving compartment from the main bus body. This will improve the cooling capabilities of the little under dash A/C unit which now must run it's compressor constantly to try to cool all the air in the bus. As it is, running the compressor full time eventually freezes over the evaporator requiring A/C shut down for a thaw out (that action turns the bus into a sauna until the unit can be restarted ). I've cured the same problem in various Suburbans in a similar way so I think it will work in the bus too.

I'm sure the other campers wondered what was going on as we hung around the bus during the day and then disappeared for the night only to show up in the morning to make breakfast. Little did they know that we were staying in the hotel . We got a late start on our last day which would have required several hours of mountainous night driving before reaching home so we decided to spend an extra night in the bus. We reached the Camping World RV store in "beautiful" Bakersfield looking for information as to local RV parks and after the normal old bus palavor the store manager suggested we might as well just boondock in their parking lot along with several other real motor homes. We thanked him kindly and took him up on the offer. The air temp was hovering at 100 degrees at 5:00 PM amd the asphalt below the bus must have been about 130 degrees. I fired up the genny and turned on the 6K or is it 8K? house A/C and waited for the bus to cool down. Just as I was commenting to my wife that the A/C wasn't big enough to do the job, it occurred to me to open the zippered windows in the pop up and turn the fan speed to full. Within 15 minutes the air temp had dropped 12 degrees and continued to cool to about 75 degrees as evening set in. I expect the little A/C system was about maxed out so I don't think I'll plan on a summer vacation in Death Valley any time soon . Jack



Our first stop was at a fwy rest stop where we made lunch and checked the bus over before traveling on.



We reached the floor of Yosemite valley early in the evening and walked around by the river a bit.

The huge rock in the background is El Capatan--people actually climb it .

We are unloading the bus in the hotel parking lot. We made and paid for reservations long before the bus was completed so decided to sleep there.

We finally got the bus parked in the camp site.









We paused at the valev over look which is adjacent to a 1/2 mile long tunnel carved through solid granite. In the background is Sentinel Rock and just out of view is Half Dome.

The next few pics are of the bus parked on the sweltering asphalt parking lot at Camper world.

[stuartcnz]

Truly Wonderful!

[Lostranger]

Jack, thanks for a delightful report and those wonderful photos. We're all so proud.

Jim