Here’s a sweet little old Ford bus gracing a driveway, someone’s dream on wheels. Some serious attention has been given to the exterior paint job, right down to the gold wheels and headlight surrounds. Wonder if the interior has been that well attended to?
Umm, no. Pretty basic. I understand; the dream was visual, and involved a colorful paint job. Then the attention span started to peter out. Reminds me of my own house except the other way around: inside redone; outside desperately needing to be finished. Do dreamers ever finish anything?
Even the electrical panel reminds me of the one in my basement.
Too many projects, not enough time. But the dream lives. It will get done…
I am in some kind of admiration (I think) on the door used on this bus. Where the skills of a carpenter and a bodyman intersect. I’m thinking that a door knocker and a mail slot would finish this off nicely.
But I cannot really say the same for the job on the padded dash. Although, I suppose that on a job like this, a guy needs something padded to beat his head against from time to time.
That door, pure genius. I also admire the matching woodgrain on the side panels, even if it isn’t wood. This is an artist’s mind at work. Not sold on the door knocker idea, but I agree a mail slot would look good. I love stuff like this, and it reminds me that I have lived way too long in Sunny SoCal where everything has been homogenized into oblivion. I will save this as a desktop background.
Yup work in progress very nice housebus.
I used to dream of replacing my cozy Revcon with a funky old bus like this, but then the vivid memories of riding in them as a grade schooler came crashing back and I realized — Nah. Some dreams are better left dreams. Those things were crude, noisy, underpowered, ill-handling rattletraps.
I admire and applaud the hardy young souls who will actually rough it to that extent, but I’m older now and need a bit of pampering to help with the bodily discomforts illness and age have bestowed upon me.
When I was young I rarely had much physical pain, but always had a lot of emotional pain. Now it’s the other way around, which is actually a lot easier to deal with… 🙂
Have a 59 chevy similar to this sitting in my yard. Sorry to say that I really cannot do much with it. Using it mostly for storage.
Everything is expensive. Brakes – tires – fuel. Sorry to be that guy but it is the one vehicle I wish I had not bought. Won’t go higher than one ton again. This is probably 2 1/2 ton like a farm truck. Top speed was about 60 which was faster than you wanted because of the brakes. Never mind. I sound like an old man. Oh…. Wait….. nevermind.
I’m about half your age and made the same moves. I’m hesitant to call them “mistakes”. Yet.
That bus probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but…
That thing was designed for extremely short, stop and go trips with gearing and suspension to match. Not a good RV or motor home candidate unless you have a strong back to tolerate the ride and deep pockets for the fuel. Poor guy probably finished painting it, then took it for a spin and realized he had made a bad decision. Or he took his wife for a drive and that was the end of the bus project.
Cool looking bus nonetheless.
He can probably replace the engine with a new-ish diesel six.
There is some nice Craftsmanship showing there.
The “split rims” would have scared me away pretty quick though.
The only way I’d try a project like that is if I found a GMC Motorhome that is driveable, has new tires and is cheap. I’m not holding my breath.
I would live in that! But certain others around my household prevent me from doing something like that.
“Do dreamers ever finish anything?”. Yes. I am a Piscean, so that makes me a dreamer. But I am also Obsessive Compulsive, so that makes me finish everything 🙂
Pure Gold.
“Reminds me of my own house except the other way around: inside redone; outside desperately needing to be finished. Do dreamers ever finish anything?”
Ditto here, on the house (the siding materials arrived two weeks ago – will it finally get done this year? stay tuned!), as well as the 1950 International L-170 (bought 5-6 years ago to “fix up” for hauling hay); the 7/8 scale VW-powered Nieuport XI fighter plane (airframe completed ten years ago, now gathering dust and bird poop in the back of the barn); the restoration of my ’69 F-100 (which looks less and less likely as it dissolves away); the restoration of our ’62 and ’63 VW Beetles (which are actually finally starting to see some progress).
Meanwhile, the wife continues to gently remind me I need to finish stripping and repaint the tin tiles that will complete the ceiling of our dining room, and then build the cabinets for same…
Hi, I’m Ed. And I’m a Dreamer…
And so my dream of a Mercedes-Benz OM312 six-cylinder 3 ton diesel truck/bus remains a dream… oh the emotional pain!
This bus spent roughly 20 years in a driveway off of Horn Lane in Eugene, and was the same color then. The door is recent tho.