Feeling a bit of T-Bird fatigue? Take one of these for an antidote. It’s the most un-T-Bird shot I could think of my recent finds. It has a geodesic dome, a roof-top water tank, solar panels and sky-box seating, all features that Ford never quite got to. I suppose someone’s going to argue that’s a continental spare on the back.
Is there anything in common with a T-Bird, except the four wheels?
And it’s a GMC, to boot. Well, what’s the closest thing it’s got in common with a Thunderbird?
It has a Wayne body. Wayne, Superior, and Carpenter were companies no longer in business that made school bus bodies. Thomas, Blue Bird, and International (formerly Ward bodies) are the survivors.
No mistaking that roof for anything else.
and rear wheel drive. even in late ’80s, Tbird still remains rwd comparing to Regal or later Monte
Very refreshing to see something different for a change.
I know! I never really liked the Thunderbird, so this may be a long week for me.
The mid ’90s ones were okay, but I’d rather have the Riviera.
Only thing I can think of is sitting on the seat on the roof would be good for bird watching.
Oh, those nutty Northwesterners!
Ah, the vaunted “Burning Man” option package. Deck is for ogling (or being ogled by) naked, hairy desert partygoers.
This thing is way too tame. A proper Playa Prep package would involve a bright, gaudy paint job, loads of LED and/or Xmas lights and a Stripper pole on the roof.
Some of the remodeling on the roof looks like it could be over the magic 13′ 6″ number.
Excess weight, large size, terrifying MPG and added bric-a-brac is shared with this generation Thunderbird.
Come back next summer when the 4th floor and the sauna are completed!
It’s got six wheels! Six!
Okay, the back four count as two big ones…
It has a ridiculously long rear overhang. That’s what the two have in common.
Dang it! You beat me to it!
It’s painted in Dusk Rose.
Big round taillights. Ford trucks of that era had either Ford-crest taillights on narrow-bed or long rectangular taillights on wide-bed. So this is more like a T-bird (in the taillight department anyway) than Ford trucks were!
Tail-lights were decided by the Wayne body corp (Indian Head back then), not the Chassis supplier.
Note the round taillights on this Wayne/Ford from the same era (Maybe the same year):
http://www.schoolbusland.com/wayne/b70001.htm
I’ve got it!
Both the Wayne and the T-Bird would have pitiful gas mileage!
There is a common denominator.
The school bus body has nice styling and is a piece of Americana. Going to assume that this bus along with any Thunderbird ever built is more environmentally friendly than a new passenger car. With minimum wage not keeping up with inflation and large student debt this looks like the peasant and/or middle class Shotgun House of the 21st Century. Sure beats a tiny house with a foundation in my opinion.
Alright- plywood construction on top of the roof, being attached with 2x4s bolted to the hood (Poorly).
I wonder why Wayne never offered this as a standard package?
Where’s a strong gust of wind when you need one….
It’s multifunctional, it can also haul hay. (Photo: effert85 / TractorFan.nl)
For the truck enthusiasts: it’s a 1987 Volvo N12 (12 liter displacement), 370 hp.
Stacking hay or straw on an over-cab rack of a conventional truck was always the norm. Or on a COE, back in the days that the cabs were not nearly as tall as now.
Interesting, in the US about the only cargo you see that goes over the cab is cars on some truck & trailer configurations.
Yep, those too. Since we don’t have conventionals anymore COEs with low cabs are required, like this Volvo FM.
Source: http://www.transport-online.nl/site/45453/volvo-fm-euro-6-autotransporter-voor-van-der-woude-autos/
Living DAF rally legend Jan de Rooy built this for his own hauling company in the early seventies….low enough to load a whole truck on its cab.
Source: http://www.truckblog.nl/innovatie-door-de-rooy/
Drzhivago138:
“Okay, the back four count as two big ones.”
Not that this bus is so equipped, but THE latest thing seen (or not really seen and noticed?)on larger trucks is a “new” wheel/tire combo called a “super single”. What’s a super single? Instead of 2 wheels (bolted together) with a tire on each wheel, newer, more aerodynamic trucks use 1 very wide wheel and 1 very wide tire. I’ve already seen a few 18 (?)wheelers….or should I now call them 14 wheelers (the trailers still use “conventional” tires/wheels) on the road.
As far as the dome pictured here: back in the early 70s my sister took me on a tour of the lakeside “community” where she and my BIL lived and worked. The community was a former farm being re-developed. One house among the many McMansions REALLY stood out. It was a geodesic dome…painted in flesh-tone PINK. Here, in the middle of this rural development, sticking out of the ground, was what looked like a VERY large woman’s breast.
That’s quite the opposite of what happened here. Super singles on trailers and semi-trailers became common about 35 to 40 years ago. But on the drive axle(s) of the truck or tractor they are still very rare. I only see super singles on the steering axles of heavy-duty trucks, like a 10×4 truck. Then you’ve got 6 super singles on the first 3 steering axles and 8 “conventional” tires on the 2 rear drive axles.
That also makes it a 14 wheeler….
I’ve also heard that this is a thing, but I’ve not seen any trucks with super-singles (yet) in the Upper Midwest. Maybe it’s regional.
The wooden tonneau cover isn’t original on this one either. Not quite as well done as some of the other Sports Roadster clones.
The school district where I went to grades K-12 from 1970-83 had several Wayne GMC’s almost identical to the bus in this feature. Only differences were that they had the ‘shades’ above the flashing lights and they did not have the secondary turn signal lights under the drivers window. They were delivered to the school district in late 1970 as 1971 models and all of them had the GMC V-6 paired with 5 speed sticks.
In 1973, more new GMC Waynes were delivered but these were in the newer Wayne lifeguard body design with larger passenger windows. GMC 351 V-6 with 5 speed sticks….except for the newest two which had Allison 4 speed automatics. Those were the first automatic transmission equipped busses in the fleet. The district had nothing but GMC’s in Wayne and Thomas bodies back then…but by 1980, they had begun taking delivery of International S series busses with the 345 V-8 and Allison automatics in Thomas, Blue Bird, Wayne, and Carpenter bodies.
Nice to see one of these old GMC’s still soldiering on in 2014.
They’re both very “personal.”
When I was a kid going to school meant riding in Mr. Spencer’s bus. I don’t think, but I could be wrong, that districts were purchasing the buses as much as driver’s bought their own buses. (Perhaps there was some kind of lease….thing?) Mr. Spencer had a Chevy bus, (body by Wayne) that I’m thinking was a 1958 as it had quad headlights, and before getting to school we met another bus and “exchanged” passengers. That bus (the owner’s/driver’s name escapes me) had a REO bus. I remember eventually looking that up in an encyclopedia and discovering REO was a car and truck company founded by Ransom E. Oldsmobile, after GM bought his first company. Still another bus was a rear engined bus. So basically, a motley assortment.
By the early to mid 60s most bus drivers switched to Chevys with Wayne bodies, to the point they were finally numbered like aircraft at a busy airport.
That REO bus had to be “retired” after it fell through the decking of a bridge. NO fatalities, but quite a few shook up kids and parents.
BTW,
“Super singles” in the U.S. must be either a “fleet” thing or a case of an owner operator that wants to own/drive “the newest thing on the roads”. They aren’t easy to spot at 70+ mph but I have seen a few locally on city streets heading towards the interstate.
Saw a lot of them in the Michigan area & surrounds. Here in Australia you are more likely to see them on some of the lighter semi trailers or as steer tires on rigs that run on unsealed surfaces. I don’t think they are allowed additional weight as a steer axle, so it is just for traction/flotation.
On this bus, it would have to be a Wayne body – rather than a Carpenter or Superior, just look at it!
Both are eyesores on wheels that drive down property values by merely parking out front?
Oh hai whatcha know. Thats my bus. It did have a 351m v6 in it. I replaced it with a 305c v6 from a 66 pickup but retained the beefed up timing chain cover/ dual thermostats.
The color was my “primer” to cover up the even gaudier paint it had when i got it. Ive upgraded to a 600w solar system on a folding mast. The loft is getting wired late winter to include all the leds i can possibly add and yes, a stripper pole will most certainly serve the position of foremast with a projector atop pointing at a screen on the main mast.
Oh yeah, fabbing up a metal tree at my shop to support the dome and the open pentagon will be a fog cannon.
Nice! Thanks for the update.