1970 Bay Window "Ed"

Me and Ashley were selling Sno-cones in Zebulon in early June when and elderly man pulled up saying he had a bus like ours that he wanted to sell.  He made it clear he wanted $300 cash and wouldn't do business on Sunday.  Since it was Saturday evening before we packed up the Sno-Cone Bus to head home I had to wait until Monday to go look at the bus.  Ed, the elderly man, gave me vague directions to his house where the bus was.  Basically he said go to Williamson and turn right at the sharp curve and he was the second house on the right.  Well I set out on Monday to go find it and after about 45 minutes I finally found it but no one answered the door.  Waited a day or two and went back....luckily this time there were cars in the driveway and I was able to talk to Ed.  He told me to go look at the bus which I did and I was sold on it for the $300 he was asking.  It was only missing one piece of trim and the engine still spun over by hand.


Anyway in between looking at the bus and paying Ed for it I made a call to Sonia and Mike for some backup for the rescue.  The bus was used as a shed for tools and junk so after unloading all of Eds stuff Mike pulled the bus out of the brush and into the open where we loaded it on my trailer.  


What a bad nose job......
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Bitter beer face?

Finall got around to pressure washing it, putting the spare on, snapping on the two missing hubcaps that were inside the bus and inflating the other three tires so it rolls good now

Also got started cleaning the interior yesterday and today.  Three large trash bags full of junk..... First I ripped out the molded and torn headliner.  It was terrible and had to go.  Then I replaced the high back seats with the correct style front seats, went through the dash wiring and removed a bunch of crappy wiring, got the running lights, brake lights, dash lights, headlights and turn signals working.....dome light was still giving me issues


Vacuumed the engine compartment and found the spare key!  All doors are key alike and I have two keys!  While in the engine compartment I pulled the carb and disassembled it, cleaned it, blew it out and put some new gaskets in it.  Also had to fix some rough looking wiring going to the coil from the backup light switch, key switch and choke.  Went ahead and put a new set of points in since they looked pretty rough and a new condenser in as well since the wire was questionable going to the coil.  After adding gas, Ed fired on the first bump.  No smoke and no funky sounds!


The bus is not really anything special.  Originally a Savannah beige bus....its been hit in the front which is why that crazy grill thing was up there.....also been tapped in the rear and the original bumper replaced with a late bay bumper.....missing the middle seat and has the usually front floor rust and some significant side window rust on the drivers side.  I am leaning torward fixing the rust by making the bus a panel bus and do away with the four cargo windows.....just an idea for now

Brakes are next.  I already have some new hoses for it but the brake pedal still has nice pressure so we will see what all I need to dig in for the brakes to be right after a around the yard test drive" />

Wow, that's awesome it fired right up! Looks like a good score.

Replaced the fuel pump as the outlet was loose and leaking. I am going to clean up the old one and loctite the fitting back in and use it for a back up.  Also rigged the gas pedal up with a hinge today so I could test drive it.  Shifted into all gears and the brakes were ok.

Sweet deal.

That's awesome!!   

I have the piece of trim that you are missing if you want it.

That would make a cool panel van- nobody does that to Bay window busses and real ones are kind of rare

DiggerD wrote:That's awesome!!   

I have the piece of trim that you are missing if you want it.

Thanks for the offer but I already picked up the missing piece.

Grifspop wrote:That would make a cool panel van- nobody does that to Bay window busses and real ones are kind of rare

Yeah I think it will be the easiest way to fix the rusty windows too! May end up selling it before i get to that point but we will see.

Bus looks sweet after the pressure washing Bryce!

Really cool score! 

Nice job with cleaning it up and getting it back on the road.