THIS OLD BUS is intended to be an ongoing narrative, over the next year or two, of the conversion of a 1956 Greyhound bus into a luxury motor coach.

Teri and I have a year and a half before retirement and we had been discussing possible "after job" lifestyles.  I had been lobbying hard for getting a motor home and hitting the road.  Teri's a homebody and made it clear we were not leaving our home of 35 years.  We have two kids - one on the east coast and one on the west coast.  The one on the west coast is holding our two granddaughters hostage.  I continued researching motor homes and discovered that most are not very well built, depreciate rapidly and, for a good one, cost as much as a house .  Bummer.  Then I came across an article on bus conversions  - interesting.  The short of it is that Teri became interested in occasional travel in a bus conversion and the more we talked about it, the more enthused she became.

Next step - found an affordable ($13,500) bus online.  A 1956 GM intercity transit bus.  You know, like a Greyhound.  It had been converted some time ago, needed to be redone, but had a rebuilt Detroit Diesel engine that should be good for another 500,000 miles or so.

THE BUS
   1956 GM  PD-4104 built from 1953 to 1960.  A total of 5065 were built.
   Ours is number 1953.  It's 35' long and powered by a Detroit Diesel 6-71.
   The engine is mounted transversely in the rear.  More about this amazing
   mid twentieth century machine (bus and engine) later.

The bus was located in Sanford, FL. - a little north of Orlando.  After several emails back and forth with the seller, We bought one-way tickets and flew down to make the purchase.  The bus was mechanically sound, but the interior was second rate and smelled horribly of mildew.  Sitting for two years in Florida will do that.  Fortunately, we had combined the trip with a long overdue visit with some old friends from college, Jim and Diane, who lived just outside of Sanford.  After getting the seller to knock off $2400, we sealed the deal.  I drove the bus to Jim and Diane's.  They have several acres and their property is fenced in.  I had to get the bus into their back yard through an eight foot wide gate.  The bus is eight feet wide.  With two inches to spare  on each side. I managed to get it through the gate, but cracked a side window on a tree branch.  We then proceeded to gut it of all furniture and anything made of cloth and hauled it all to the dump on Jim's trailer.  The following day we departed, indebted to Jim and Diane for their help and hospitality.  As I pulled out of their yard, I hooked the gate with the rear bumper of the bus and ripped the whole thing out of the ground.  Jim just waved and shouted "have a safe trip"!  We got an email from them the next day stating - New 10' wide gate $500, fence $400, concrete $50, three days with old friends - priceless.  Indeed!

We headed north on I-75 - learning the basics of driving a 35' bus with a non-synchro manual tranny.  After about 100 miles I was no longer grinding gears with every shift.  We made it to Atlanta by late afternoon, everything was going well, when there was a shudder from the engine...  And the engine fan disintegrated like a bomb went off.  We pulled off the Interstate an into the closest parking lot I could find - a little convenience store in a not-so-good neighborhood.  After examining the damage, I asked Siri to find me an Autozone.  She found one "approximately 8.6 miles from you".  I called and offered the guy on the phone $100 to come pick me up.  He drove me to the store, where I got two 16" electric radiator fans, wire, zip ties, miscellaneous tools, and other odds and ends that I thought I'd need.  The guy drove me back to the bus, I paid him the hundred bucks and thanked him profusely.  I set about rigging an on-the-road fix and had it done in about an hour.  Fans secured, wired and running...  
NEXT EPISODE - ATLANTA MEDICAL CENTER.