PROJECTS IN PROGRESS:

In keeping with the “weather rule”, I've been doing mostly shop work, as the outside temps have been in the 20's most days. I also want to get the Bus on the road soon, so I made a trip to Alro Steel in Kalamazoo to buy steel for seat mounts. $425.00 (at about $1.50 a pound) later I was on my way home with eight 20” x 16” x 1/4” plates, two tubes with matching O.D to I.D 5/16 wall thickness, and sixteen 4” dia. plugs to use as giant fender washers for the under-floor side of the seat bolts.

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We bought four new surplus seats in Elkhart last summer. They're second row seats out of a Toyota Sienna. Buckets with integral seat belts and clip in configuration. They recline and have slide out leg rests as well. Very nice. Perfect for a conversion. The extendable leg rests eliminate having to deal with no floor in front of the co-pilot where the entry stair well is.

The design is simple. Telescoping tubes (so seats can be rotated) welded to the 1/4” plates. The top plate clips into the bottom of the seat, the bottom plate bolts to the floor.  I bought three totes (about 300#) of assorted nuts, bolts and washers from local farm store for $20 when they changed suppliers.  I used Grade 8 bolts. I realize that welding them probably annealed them to standard bolt tolerances, but I'm sure the seat clips would fail before the bolts would shear anyway. 

The floor mount for the co-pilot seat was a bit of a challenge. Had to work around the wheel well and still get a solid mount. Since you can see the floor plate up close when you enter the bus, I cut the heads of all the bolts (not a gory as it sounds)and drilled the plate and floor. Inserted the headless bolts, and welded them to the plate from both sides.   Then, ground the welds on the top side and finished the plate with a skim coat of Bondo, Primer and then silver paint. Result is a smooth plate – no visible bolts. I bolted to a beam or bulkhead wherever possible; otherwise I installed 1/4" backing plates or my 4" fender washers. Crash tests begin next week.

The previous owner (referred to as “PO” in the bus nut community) ditched the original taillights, probably because they're hard to find. He cut bigger holes in the engine bay door and installed large ugly plastic lens. I found four original taillights on eBay, so I fabricated buckets to mount the original lens and cover the over-sized holes. Materials; 4” aluminum irrigation pipe, end caps and trim rings were water jet cut. Glued everything together with automotive panel adhesive. Used twist on bulb holders and LED 1157's.

The old headlight buckets were rusted beyond salvage so I got new plastic Mini Cooper headlight buckets and a 7” Halogen conversion headlight kit with diamond cut reflectors.  I could have gotten more stock looking lens, but couldn't resist the look of the cut reflectors and smooth lens.  The Cooper buckets came with new trim rings to replace the old dented ones. 

I also got a pair of 5”x7” fog lamps which I plan to mount just behind the bumper cutouts.  This will give it a better look and make the lamps more effective.  I'll sheet over the old fog lamp buckets holes. 

Directional signals will remain amber sealed beam. The castings that hold the directional signal lamps also serve as the mounts for the windshield wiper motors. The originals were air driven. When you turned them on, the wiper arms didn't as much wipe as flail. Here are the new two-speed electric with auto park motors mounted to the back of the casting. 

Oh!  I almost forgot.  Our youngest son, Paco, gave me this cool cap for my birthday.  A genuine 1953 Greyhound cap owned by Orlyn H. Grinney from Fargo, North Dakota.  He was awarded a safe driving certificate in 1953 for Region 4.  Pictured here is the Supreme Commander and Grand Mystic Potentate of This Old Bus.