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I recently purchased a 29 passenger, 1989 carpenter school bus. It has 80,000 miles on it. It houses a gas powered chevy 454. I appears to be in great shape. I intend to make it a tail gate vehicle. What's it worth, and any renovation suggestions.
I read about that. My Carpenter is from the 60s so it has no such issues. You can check yours, if you're interested, by examining the welds where the carlin rail (the rail atop the windows where the roof sheet metal joins the seam along the windows) and where the roof joists weld to that. If the welds look good=you're golden. If they don't, then its time to get the mig welder out and make 'em look good=you are again golden.
Gasser buses are unpopular primarily due to the price of gasoline. Thanks, Mr. Bush :-( However a 454 in a short bus like that should have plenty of power.
Don't plan on getting out financially what you put into a conversion, ever-unless its some high-end custom cabinet Prevost motor coach. Its all about the labor of love ;-)
If you want to gain a few mpg, you could convert it to fuel injection.
Stick in a bathroom (very important to the ladies, trust me on this one ;-) a sink and a bar, a fridge later, and some sort of fold down bed and you got an instant house :-)
email Troy Oehlertz
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