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Message |
R. TERRY (205.188.196.22)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, February 03, 2001 - 10:03 pm: | |
Recently, a business acquaintance noticed my old GM 4104 in the parking lot behind the photo lab. To my gratification, he asked me if that was my bus, and then, to my consternation, empty-headedly asked me one of those non-questions that insinuates his disapproval, "What'd you buy that for?"
What?
Sure enough the Salvage Yard on Wheels isn't much to look at and may in fact, at least to some people, be hard on the eyes. But it sure as the dickens didn't just fall out of the sky and end up on my property, leaving me to exclaim, "Holy Trailways, Batman! What am I going to do with this?!" No, it was there for a reason. So I answered his question by saying the most ridiculous thing I could think of, "Pride of Ownership!"
Oh yeah?
Until I bought the bus, I would have equated Pride of Ownership with sitting behind the wheel of a shiny red 1963 Corvette Convertible, or a growly '67 Shelby Cobra Mustang. Once, when I saw a gentleman breezing down the road in his sexy, white 1957 Jaguar XK140, I thought I understood what Pride of Ownership must have meant, at least for him, and I almost hated the guy for it, because I, too, wanted to feel that way.
Well, time allows people to grow up and see things more clearly, perhaps the way they should have been seen in the first place. I was picking my kids up at school one day when I overheard my youngest son excitedly telling one of his classroom buddies, "My dad has a Greyhound bus." Wide-eyed and thoroughly amazed, the kid said, "Really?! COOL!"
At that moment, I found all the Pride of Ownership I need. Thanks, son.
RT |
CoryDane (198.29.253.131)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 04, 2001 - 1:43 am: | |
I too have had an experience that has helped me with my love of my bus, huge as it may be. My bus work has been stop and go, work has stolen my free time and the pressures of the corporate take over are over bearing these days. I had a moment the other day when I was ready to give it all up and move to Antartica and sell ice cubes, well, maybe not Antartica, but I make good cubes. As I was letting it all out to a friend I was reminded that the bus is no longer a Trasit bus and that a good amount of work has indeed mysteriously been completed. I need to find out where those elfs are coming from, maybe they will work for food. Then he mentioned pride in work and dreams coming true which was the whole thought process of the bus in the first place. I am proud of my bus, its like taking care of a elephant, but imagine the dreams that will be able to happen after she is completed.-cd |
Earl-8-Ky (209.250.53.79)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 04, 2001 - 2:32 pm: | |
I can relate to that. I had been retired 6 months when I bought my bus.I retired when I was 60 and I had been kicking around the idea of a motor home. I had a nice 5th. wheel camper. I looked at a few motor homes and what I could afford I didn't want and what I wanted I could not afford. I had a friend who had a bus and one day he said why not buy a bus. I started looking at buses and I got hooked. I knew when I found the bus I wanted I would know it. I guess I looked at 25 or 30 buses. I found my 8 at ABC bus in Florida. I bought it sold the seats back to ABC bus and they even took them out. I drove it home and when I got it here I stepped back and looked at it and I thought. Boy what in the H--- have you done. A couple of days later a friend of mine came by in his new shinny stick and tin Class A motor home. He walked up to the front of my bus and looked at the MCI on the front and said. Ha my crazy idea. He had just named my bus. It took me two years to do the main part of the conversion and we are very proud of what we have now. My friends motor home has all ready lost at least 1/3 of what he paid for it. He doesn't think I am so crazy now. |
J.L.Vickers (209.34.1.51)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2001 - 7:42 am: | |
So you Own a Bus!
How many times have I heard this remark to many times to count in the last 15 years.
When I first got our 4104.We were going on a short trip with it.I had to pick up our youngest daughter from grade school 1st or 2nd grade.She had told the teacher that My Daddy is going to pick me up and he has the bus.
Well the teacher thought "Sure" it,s a old school bus or something on that order.
When we drove up she had the whole class lined up and her words were and I quote.It,s a real bus just like a Greyhound!
So as the years have gone by we still hear.So you have a bus.And my reply is yes we sure do and it,s like a Greyhound.
jlv |
Frank A. Squeo (Himiler1) (152.163.201.62)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 20, 2001 - 4:15 am: | |
Evening All!
I'm about to take the plunge and Buy a first rate Pro built, and barely used MCI-9; vintage 79/99 done w/ quality & classic workmanship. This site has been terrific as a guide in all the many details involved. Thank You all for your knowledge shared.
The Bus has All new systems, except the 8v71N and HT740. No Jake or retarder or cruise control. Seems they spent $5K in getting the motor to look first rate from the exterior. And another $000K making the inside's, a new home. I won't tell you what I paid, but you all know the process.
Will pull the pan after an oil sample and look at the lower end first. Compression test next and nozzles sizing determined as well as cam advance.
As for Me; I'm 46yrs old, with two heart attacks over the last 18 months, and have three stainless springs in my Heart to keep the fuel flowing. Yep, it's time to retire. Over my career, I've flown over 300,000 miles in a year, worldwide and have visited the most remote third world destinations imaginable. Lived in Hong Kong for two yrs and Singapore for three, all out of the last ten years.
Time to Travel the roads of America and Canada to start. I always loved the desert Hi Country around Lake Powell. Might spend couple months there.
My Background, Well I used to run a 125" Spitzer chassis, Methanol 8/71BDS Blown & Injected (16 nozzles) 540BBC in a 23T front engine Blown Altered. The Old "PINK PANTHER" Hot Rod from Hell car.
Can't get my advanced E.T Licence signed anymore cause of the bad ticker, so this passion for wrenching has got to be channeled into something I can still enjoy. The boy's joking around the Race track pit's goes like this;
Race car on Methanol, Driver on Nito!
I'll Miss 3G's Pos. and 2G's Neg. in 6 seconds.
I don't care about the current motor, because before long, she will be out & rebuilt to better than stock numbers. Or, I may look at a series 60 transplant from a winter Big Rig rollover.
Any stories you wish to share about your MCI-9 will be greatly appreciated. Installing a Jake, Cruise control, or Conversion over to a DD-60 series motor???
Also any one that can share their mobile computing equipment installation's would be a great help and cost saver. Plan on having a scanner, Notebook, CellPhone, Laser printer on board. May look into a Sat. Phone as an option to talk or link worldwide.
Glad to join you BusNut's.
I think I'm going to enjoy this...
Regards,
Himiler1 |
Clarke Echols (216.17.134.182)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 11, 2001 - 5:06 pm: | |
A friend, a mechanic at United Air Lines, accompanied me to Denver a couple of weeks ago to get my Neoplan that I bought as a "parts bus" so I could get the DD Series 50, HT748R tranny, a Sutrak air conditioning system, and sundry other stuff, all for less than the sales tax on a new Series 50 and B500 transmission. I was talking with a friend at church today when his (the mechanic's) young son, probably about 5 yrs old saw me as he walked by and said, "I know you! You're the man who sold my dad that bus!" :-) Not really -- but kids do have this ability to mis-understand the intricacies of commerce, eh?
I can't guess how many times I've told someone that I am building a bus -- as in like a Greyhound -- and they ask where I got the chassis, obviously assuming I'm doing a conversion. When I explain that I didn't buy a chassis -- that I started with 3 axles and a pile of steel -- they respond, "Oh. You're *building* a bus." To which I reply, "That's what I said: I'm building a bus." DUH!!!
We caught so very much criticism from so many people when I built my own home from 1975-79 (it's over 8,000 square feet -- enough for me, my wife, and our nine children) that I once told my wife we needed to do something that would *really* bend their brain, and I knew just the ticket. Now, when people see the "contraption" as it was called by someone complaining to the local newspaper (in consequence of my activist participation in removing a city council from office in a recall drive), they ask me where I bought the bus I'm converting. It's looking better all the time.
How sweet it is. Success is REVENGE!!!
Clarke |
Clarke Echols (216.17.134.182)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 11, 2001 - 5:12 pm: | |
Correction: Removing a city councilMAN from office, not the entire council. We threw him out quite forcefully in a nearly 60-40 vote ratio. He was one of those California enviro-wacko types who had transplanted to Colorado, got some puppets elected who would do his bidding, then took over the city. Not cool. He was using city stationery to promote a $3.00 per gallon state-wide fuel tax to reduce traffic on Colorado streets and highways by making it expensive enough that it would force some demographic changes and "sock it to the tourists" (his words, not mine). I got 10% of the signatures that forced the recall election.
Clarke |
PrevostBus3406 (152.163.213.189)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 11:33 pm: | |
I grew up in motor homes and like the idea of travelling in vehicles such as motor homes and buses. I am 28 years old and have a 71 Prevost Champion that I am restoring from ground up. i have driven motor homes and don't like the way they sway, drive, or service. I hate working on motor homes but like the privacy and convienences of travelling on them. So I went over my options and shopped around and decided what I needed was an old bus that needed some work and TLC. I found the Prevost sitting axle deep in the dried up mud and stopped to check on it. The RV dealer wanted $5,800 for it. So I got a small loan and had the bus the next day. My dad does not like the idea of me having the bus, but since I love big rigs and know how to work on them, I don't care what others think. I love my bus and the important thing is that I am happy with her. My brother isn't to happy with the idea either, but the day will come when they want to borrow her to take one of the show cars to a show and I will remind them of all the negative things they said. It isn't their cup of tea, but people have hobbies that I am not into and I support them on the idea anyway. Surprizingly, my dad has agreed to help me paint her since he is a auto painter by trade. Don't let anyone steal you dreams. |
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