Just in time to scare the kiddies! And if patina frightens you, then this 1953 Dodge School Bus will cause you to drop your candy and scurry home! Found here on eBay in Minnesota Lake, Minnesota without a reserve. Thanks to Matt W. for submitting this spooky ride.
Looks to maybe be a Ford rear bumper, all bus lights look to be accounted for, and not a bullet hole or broken window in sight. Minnesota winters can be brutal on all metal, especially a 1953 Dodge that probably never saw the inside of a garage. Great patina is present up top, but beware what lurks below. Some bonuses include the tires currently holding air, said to be mechanically intact, and it has the mandatory metal driver’s fan. I remember as a kid always listening to that little fan on the bus just spinning away, wishing we all had one.
The flathead six was running a year ago, but now needs a new battery. These final year B-Series trucks were known for being rugged, job rated performers. With all that weight and length, plus many little ghouls on board, any hill was a challenge with 100 horses. Today, it is standing room only, but that might make it easier to convert to living quarters inside.
You’ll need lots of room to bring home this big boy. At 96″ wide and 26′ feet long, is it too long to hot rod? Too far gone to restore? What would you do with this fright bus? Mobile haunt? Guest room? With Halloween around the corner, and currently one bid at $900, you would be a scaredy-cat not to take a ride on the ghoul bus.
What it would look like if “Counting Cars” got ahold of it…
Horny Mike
96’ wide? Yikes. That’s bigger than my garage.
Yet only 26′ long… Does it work nights as a Stealth bomber or other flying wing?
96ft wide is as wide as my Block of Flats, I noticed that the profile says that it was 96″ wide & 26′ long it’s crazy to think how many problems a single ‘ in the wrong place can cause! Not trying to sound like a know it all but punctuation is extremely important & unfortunately people nowadays don’t know how to Proofread as life is going too fast?! Have a good day guys.
I’ll admit, I’m one of those people that’s creeped out by old buses! This one’s not too bad, the bulbous GM /Flxible-style from the ’40s-70s are the ones that really get to me…
Like a fire truck pretty much useless for any practical application these days I’d say part it out for the dodge stuff and scrap the rest.
I say put a few sofa seats, a mini-fridge/bar, paint it up like the Partridge Family bus and you’ve got a rolling party
There surely has to be a Hippie commune looking for one of these.
I would have assumed Dodge would have used something bigger than that little flathead to pull something like this around. But then again, it was meant for around town use.
I would leave the patina on the outside for sure. Then I would do a complete resto mod engine drive train and a complete awesome interior.
We had a 51 Dodge Job Rated truck for our twin boom tow truck at our dealership. One winter day I rode along to pick up a customer’s no start car. After hooking it up, we had to pull it up a hill. When we got to the hill, somebody was having traction problems going up, so we ended up pushing that car while pulling the car we came after with our ‘little’ flathead and creeper gear.
Reminds me of the stories my dad told me about the ’46 Dodge semi he owned after getting home from WWII,it had the Chrysler 251 flathead six with a five speed but without a two speed axle,it was a dog on the flatlands but going up hills was where it left the bigger rigs in the dust,my favorite was when an acquaintence ran his fairly new ’49 Ford over a embankment,when it high centered approaching the edge of the road the fellow told Dad to go ahead,when he let the clutch out here came the front bumper and frame back as far as the front suspension,that old Dodge was a pulling fool!!
Drop in a Cummings 5.9 , Automatic, 5 inch exhaust, paint it blood red, make it an ice cream kids food burger hot dog truck. No need for mr softie song , just rev the engine.
Great idea… It could be a unique mobile bar- food servery for events and so on..
I’ve been looking around to buy some 40 or 45 foot D’s or X2 motor coaches. This baby is a midget with manual steering and shift which I am familiar with.
I’d grab her up in a jiffy a long as she starts and runs.
What is the large tank cylinder on the back bumper? Is it school bus issue for Minnesota winter bus heater? I doubt the safety concerns were an issue in 1953!
Yikes! I rode to school in a 54 ford school bus that reeked of exhaust fumes and the back end was falling off!! oohh what a time!! One poor over worked bus that served for more than 10 years!
The first school bus I rode in was a ’56 Dodge with a Superior body that looked a lot like the body on this one,main difference was it was equipped with a V8 instead of the flathead six.
Or done up special!
Would convert it to an RV.