First the GMC buffalo, then the MCI 8

This is my first blog, so bear with me as I climb the learning curve.  My purpose for the blog is the document our trials and tribulations of owning a used intracity coach and finishing the conversion into a reliable motor home.

My first bus was a 1980 GMC model that was not without lots of problems.  Had I known then what I know now, I never would have made that purchase.  I never finished that bus and I ended up selling it to a gentleman in Tennessee who wanted it just for parts.  The city of Lexington was forcing me to remove the bus from my driveway because it was against code to be parked here.  The bus needed to be completely behind the front line of the house and my driveway was not long enough to do that.  With the economy in the toilet,  this was NOT the time to attempt to sell an old retired charter bus and especially one that needed repairs in order to run.

 Just before I made that sale of the GMC, my best friend Matt found a mostly finished MCI model 8 bus in Winchester that was for sale.  The end result of this is that I purchased the MCI and began my new endeavor,with much more seriousness this time.

The MCI needed a few maintenance items right off the bat, so I put it in the shop at Republic Diesel for what turned out to be approximately 9 months. Then  At that time I was not in a hurry anyway, because i wasn't sure where I was going to park it, so it all worked out.  After this, I took it to S&S Truck Center to have the steering checked out, the front end, and have some radius rod bushing replaced.  They kept it another couple of months doing this.  They told me the steering gear was worn out and needed to be replaced.  They also replaced the two front tires at a tune of $996 for two steer tires, mounted and balanced.

Once I got the bus back I started poking around and planning on the necessary changes to the interior.  I quickly learned that while the previous owner did  fantastic job in his woodworking on the interior I had lots of issues with the way he ran the wiring.  Consequently I started late last summer tearing out a good portion of his wonderful work to enable access to the wiring and make the necessary changes.

I spent the rest of fall, with Barry  as we made several trips out of town to Visone RV Salvage, removing furniture and seating out of a wrecked Bounder, that I wanted for our new bus.  So now the furniture is stored in the bays below waiting for the right time to complete that portion of the install.  However, that will be one of the last things to do on the inside.  Removing and transporting the furniture took us until almost winter to complete.  While at Visone RV Salvage, I was able to walk around the lot and look at many wrecked and burned out "sticks and staples" conventional RV motor homes.  This gave me a first hand look and how they are made and reassured me just how much more "substantial" a used intracity bus is as compared to a manufactured motor home.