Wow. Has it been a year already?
One year ago today – after an extensive cross country search by Amtrak train, and 2-days in the roasting hot 120+ degree Arizona sun trying to get her ready for a test drive – we bought Zephyr – our 1961 GM PD-4106 bus conversion.
When we found her in Yuma, AZ she had basically been sitting abandoned for most of the past 15 years, roasting (but not rusting!) in the dry Arizona sun. The nondescript Craigslist ad that led us to her was so underwhelming that we almost didn’t even make the long drive to go check this bus out.
We are sure glad we did!
She was so heavily oxidized that we could barely tell she had blue striping. Her interior so dusty that it took imagination to see the beauty that was laying underneath.
She still had split rim wheels, and tires so old that it was scary even taking her for a spin around the parking lot. We knew we’d have a big maintenance bill to get her safely on the road again.
But the first time we saw her, we knew we had found a bus with potential to be our full time home on wheels… if we were willing to take a chance that this old girl had more life left in her.
The conversion was complete and seemed to be done to pretty high standards. She would be nearly livable from Day 1 (providing we could prove the air conditioners still worked), to provide us a foundation to start our own extensive modifications and updating. Unlike most folks approaching a bus conversion – our bus had to be ready to serve as our home while we were in the process of making it ours.
We were shocked when the seller (someone who bought the bus at auction) accepted our low ball offer of $8,000 without even countering. And we were even more shocked (and relieved!) when we got Zephyr up to an expert (known as the Yoda of Buses) and he proclaimed her a strong runner.
When we started our search, we barely knew a thing about buses or 2-stroke engines. I still remember the first time someone showed us the engine compartment of their bus and I just nodded. Now we can both name most of the parts, know what they do, perform pre-flight inspections and even recognize potential problems. We’ve spent hours in the pits with mechanics learning our systems and how to maintain them.
Are we bus experts? Hardly… but we know where to go to get answers, and how to ask the questions. The bus community is amazing, and has been so welcoming of us newbies. We couldn’t have done this without them; so many have gifted us their expertise, experience, spare parts and assistance.
Aside from a stuck valve that caused us quite a scare, we’ve not yet had any major mechanical problems (knock on wood). We continue to keep Zephyr up on maintenance to help keep that track record.
We’ve gotten quite ahead on our modifications to making the space truly our own. We’re still quite under the budget we set as our final goal for creating our next home on wheels. But we also still have a list of about 150+ projects to go.
Some of them quite pricey and will involve some effort – like adding solar, expanding our lithium ion battery bank and adding a diesel burner hydronic system for hot water, heat and engine pre-heating. Those projects became less important as family took our priority this year, but we’ll get to them in time.
When we found Zephyr, the odometer installed during her original conversion & in-frame engine rebuild in the late 1980s was showing just 21,489 miles. We have no idea how many service miles she had before that, but as a regional charter bus in Arizona – probably not nearly close to the 1/2 million she was built for.
In the one year since, we’ve driven 9,454 miles together. And what a ride it’s been! We couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out when we decided to follow serendipity to that little lot in the blazing hot Arizona sun.
Here’s to many more miles ahead!
Serendipity Challenge Last Chance
We’re hosting a Serendipity Story Contest in honor of Zephyr’s 1-year Busiversary. We’ll continue to accept entries through the end of today, and announce our winners sometime next week!
Late to the party here! Dang.
Congratulations on a year. That did go fast. Don’t want to get maudlin about the passage of time, so we won’t go there.
Even the interior in that first shot didn’t look ALL THAT BAD. I’ve looked at a few old buses on line, and some of the interiors are just butt ugly. I’m sorry, but I don’t know what some folks are thinking.
Mind you, my guess is we don’t really see the dust in that first picture. But you could at least ‘move in’.
The improvements were huge though. Nicely done.
It just so happens I’ve been reading about “Eberspaecher” and “Wasbasto” heaters. They’re pretty neat. *Slightly* pricey, but really do a wonderful job. Whatever you decide to do will no doubt be well worth sharing.(hint hint, nudge nudge)
Keep on truckin’.
Or, bussin’ or whatever.
The original interior was pretty darn nice… completely livable until we could decide and implement our own style. Which was perfect.
And yup, the original interior pic is after we gave it a good cleaning first.
Yup, hydronics systems are a tad pricey (but can be done cheaper), but everyone we talk to who has one – loves them. I’m sure we’ll blog all about it when we get around to that project.
Thanks for bussin’ along with us!
Serendipitous in so many ways – not the least of them being, the fact that the bus survived the year so well! Buying bus-ted up vehicles (excuse the pun) is such a lottery, you guys did amazingly well to come out on top!
Best of luck for the next 20 years! :0)
Tony
Thanks… we do certainly count our blessings on how our gamble payed out.
Congratulations and taking all your reader for the ride…
and thanks for all the great articles you guys right about your experiences and the techie stuff…
Thanks, Jil – our pleasure. It’s fun to have passengers along for the bus ride.
Say the old PD-4106 looks like a million bucks Happy Birthday Zephyr girl.
Come back for a visit to East Texas real soon.
Take care be safe and bye for now.
jlv/sgv
We’ll be back, for sure, guys! Thanks a bunch for the recommendation for Sheila Shine, wow!
I’m jealous!
You may be jealous.. but you are also incredibly kind in gifting us your expertise!
The ability to assess something like your bus for the soundness of the structure and see past the flaws to what it can be is a rare ability. Kudos to you for being able to do that and realize your dream.
Or maybe it was our brains baking in the AZ heat last summer? 🙂
Happy First-iversary! Zephyr is sure looking great since being rescued.
Wasn’t there a steering issue at some time?
Thank you 🙂
The steering needed some adjustments to tighten it up (as did many things), but nothing that kept us on the side of the road at any point.
You guys have done alot in one year. She sure is preeeety!
Nina
It’s hard to believe the before and after, and all we have accomplished. And so much left to do! 😀
Awesome job and adventure!! Congratulations to the three of you. 🙂
Thank you 🙂 It has been an awesome adventure.
Congratulations! You guys have done a beautiful job on your bus!
Thanks guys.. there are days we miss our Ollie and the simplicity of things. But we sure do love the comforts the bus has brought into our lives.