Short buses are often referred to in inappropriate jokes. Despite this checkered connection, short buses are very versatile and can be converted into pretty neat campers. If you formerly were a passenger on a bus of any sort, then your chance to get behind the wheel is here. Take a look at this 1951 GMC short school bus for sale on craigslist in Yakima, Washington. With an asking price of $6,000 that includes a late model engine and chassis to transplant under it, is this the kind of vehicle that appeals to your inner child? Thanks to our own Montana D. for the tip!
All of us have memories of school buses, both good and bad. They have been a fixture of American life for over 100 years. A recent phenomenon is that school districts cannot seem to find enough drivers. Who wants to cart around a pack of screaming kids a few hours a day for low wages? This is not a new problem. I once read about the practice of a school district in rural Georgia before World War II. It seems that this district would have the upperclassmen drive the buses, as they would perform the task for free.
As you would expect, they did what high school students do. These “bus drivers” seemed to take great pleasure in picking up the younger kids. They would open the door, slow the bus down to a crawl, and would hit the gas the second the kid tried to climb on. Over and over again. This game went on every day for every younger kid until they grew of age where they were the bus driver. Then the process began anew. The good news is that the district saved a lot of money on driver salaries.
This particular bus hasn’t played any games like that since it was last registered in 1974. The ad doesn’t say what happened to the bus after that, and there are no pictures of the cargo area in the ad. If you stop and think about it for a moment, there are a lot of surviving school buses out there. Some take on a second life in the agriculture industry moving workers from farm to farm. Others become campers and/or weekend party vehicles for races and football games. A select few get to go out in a blaze of glory in school bus figure eight races. However, the most likely second career for school buses is to serve as dry storage.
Dry storage was most likely what this bus was used for after it got through with a life filled with spitballs and countless stops and starts. During that time, the ad says that it accumulated very little rust. The only significant damage has been cracks in the fenders, but fender cracks were an issue with GMCs of this vintage. The bus also is missing its radiator and the seller has a radiator that they think may fit. Another obstacle would be that the seller has no idea if the engine will run. In the sidebar the engine is listed as having six cylinders. If it is the standard GM inline six of the period, getting it running or finding a replacement should not be a problem.
If you want something more interstate friendly, this bus comes with a 1988 Chevrolet truck chassis with a dual wheel rear end and a 454 cubic inch engine. The chassis would need to be stretched to match the wheelbase of the bus, and that woud ikely be a more advanced project for someone. Regardless, both the bus and the chassis need to find a new home soon. The seller is losing their storage, so there is motivation to sell.
If it were mine, the original drivetrain would stay put and this would end up as a low speed camper. Part of the fun of travelling is seeing something other than signs on the interstate. The low gearing and less than teardrop shaped aerodynamics would limit you to secondary roads. That is a great way to see the real America.
What would you do with this old school bus? Do you have any school bus memories you would like to share? Please let ius know your experiences in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCad-OoMGr0
The school bus driver is always picked on in cartoons. I think the most accurate is the one from South Park. I don’t remember any burnout school bus drivers. Alcoholics maybe, but would drive a stoner nuts, as depicted in the Simpsons. I rarely rode a school bus, just those awful field trips, that DID get you out of class. I had to walk to school, uphill both ways, it seemed.
In case some may not get the authors opening statement, short school buses, in a city, meant special education kids, or disadvantaged in some way, rode short school buses. In a rural setting however, short buses were the norm.
And if the world goes completely backocked, paint it silly colors and “C’mon, get happy”,,,
Or put a destination sign on it that says “FURTHUR”.
That was the name of my VW bus ) Haven’t heard that reference in a while. Good on ya.
As for riding the “short bus”, inappropriate as it may be in today’s world of ‘presentism’, I think it’s a hilarious obtuse yet clear reference still in use today.
When the swap meets get going again (if ever) a “short” wheel based school bus ( how’s that?) would be perfect for hauling junk to sell.
My inner child would rather have an old fire engine.
I’d probably use it as a guest house on my property. It’d fit in well since we live in a 40ft school bus and have lived in it for 6 years now. Price actually isn’t too bad, went to an auction and wanted to bid on a similar Chevy bus but it went to 5k. Was hoping for under 1000 but busses have been going up lately from what I’ve noticed. Ours was still in use by the school and it was a high top with a low mileage 24v cummins for 4k. Put a few more thousand in it and we’ve been living off grid in it since!
Hi, you are certainly not totally off grid if you are writing on B-F
Nevertheless, congrats on you living arrangements
I live in canada and it is not doable in such cold for my gf and i
Will have to move somewhere warmer …
As for the bus , i have never understood the attraction but find them funny
YOLO
Personally, I feel there aren’t enough of the OLD buses left anymore that haven’t been cobbled into something else over the years. If this still has the seats, I’d restore this. School Bus yellow again with that familiar black stripe down the sides & lettering. New ‘tough hide’ vinyl over the seats, and working flasher of course. Be original at your next commercial vehicle show `n shine! But the rear glass is missing, and how easy another is to find is up in the air.
The glass is no big deal, it’s flat. Bus glass typically is.
This is a standard bus. My friend and I rode these all the time and would always make fun of the kids that had to ride the long bus.
I road about 65 miles a day on two different busses. The short bus, which was called a “feeder” bus, picked up kids along the county back roads and hauled us to the highway where we boarded the big bus, and off to school we went. So I’m still a little bussed out. My inner child could think of better things to spend $6,000 on.
I’m with you. I had two great bus drivers but routes that were way too long after tough days at school which most were. I wouldn’t want to own one.
South Carolina also utilized High School students as bus drivers (late 1970s); I took the written test, but ended up going to work at Bi-Lo instead. Probably a good thing. Hijinks were pretty common, and at least one bus was burned up by a student who went weekend joy-riding and used a lighter to try to see down the filler neck when it ran low on gas.
The Voc-Ed school my Dad supervised had an old shorty bus used for practice by the auto repair class (among two or three other more interesting vehicles). I used to drive it around the parking lot on summer weekends when I went to the school to hang out while Dad worked on curriculum. I think it may have been an IH, though.
Price drop to $5k. It’s a nice shape/size for a home conversion. Just don’t do it on the cheap.
Nope my inner child doesn’t want it, I never used the bus to get to school as a kid grade school was only 4 blocks away and Jr high was 7, high school was a mile in a half but the closest school bus stop was half mile walk. And yes it actually was up hill both ways. My house sat on a hill and Everett high school is on a hill so I had to cross the valley to get to school. I thought about converting one to a RV but since I don’t have the skills to do that it was cheaper just to buy a RV
We rode on these advanced design busses in primary school but I’ll never forget the day the new fleet of c chassis busses rolled into the schoolyard back in 64 or 65. They looked so modern and you could even smell the new paint and oil burning off the engine and exhaust. I was six at the time.
Someone should buy this and make it into a mobile Canibus dispensary…. Picture this bus with a Psychedelic paint job,HIPPIE style…Peace signs, pot leaves, etc. and the the word CANI-BUS painted boldly on the sides. Does anybody know…. Can hemp-oil be used in place of DIESEL?
After I first retired, I drove a school bus for 18 years. I still have my CDL and may drive part time if I get bored or need money. The reason short busses are used for special ed or disabled kids is because they are usually picked up at home, and regular length busses can’t navigate some of the residential streets.
If I was younger, I’d visit a truck wrecking yard and pick up highway gears (or rear end) and possibly an overdrive so it wouldn’t be a hazard on the highway. Every bus I drove had highway gearing. The good thing about school busses is that they are built on a regular truck chassis, so everything not related to the body is readily available. The rear glass is flat, and any glass shop can cut a piece to fit. That inline 6 is a workhorse and should give lots of service for whoever gets it.
Wasn’t this one spotted floating over Canada airspace earlier today?
That certainly brings back some fun and not so fun memories. I was in the third grade my sister was in the sixth grade we were living with our grandparents in the Ozark mountains in southern Missouri. The closest town for us to go to school was a very small town called Mansfield. Believe it or not we were in that group of kids that had to walk from our house a good five miles down an old gravel road crossing several what seemed to us rivers ,but actually we’re country creeks down to the “blacktop road” where we would catch the only school bus the school had. It was a very yellow 1952 Chevy short bus. It seemed like it had three maybe four windows not counting the ones in the door. I can still hear the whining transmission that old bus made pulling through those hills until finally reaching Mansfield school. What sticks in my mind the most is one morning it had snowed and yes we walked through deep snow the five miles crossing the creeks stopping to make snow angels knowing if we were late enough to catch that bus we wouldn’t have to go to school that day. As we got closer to the blacktop road we could see that yellow, short school bus setting there waiting on us. We hid behind a big rock beside the gravel road waiting forever it seemed for the bus to take off without us. But no, it wasn’t going to move an inch until they were sure we weren’t going to make it. After hiding there behind that rock until we almost froze to death,sis said we might as well go on and get in looks like we’re not going to get to stay home today. No such thing as snow days back then the bus driver wouldn’t stand for it.
Chip Foose turned a short bus from John Forces old school onto an outstanding “RestoMod” for him.
Celebrated his 13th Championship.
Was an episode of “OverHaulin”.
Resto Mod all the way. The frame should be heavy enough to put a V8 in it without too much help. Air ride suspension, tall custom rims with low-pro tires and a “respectable” finish (wrap) on the outside. Tint the windows and do whatever on the interior. Just a fun and do-able project for someone with a good imagination. Were I younger (and single) this would be a bucket list realized…
i love it!!!!!!
I currently own 5 ‘long’ school buses. All are being used to store motorcycle parts and shipping boxes. Two without running gears and the last one I bought a few years ago I drove home 113 miles from west of Brookings, SD. It’s a ’94 IH with DTA360 engine. Nothing wrong with it but for $1700, it makes for cheap, non-leaking storage. Working on a deal for a running/driving $2,000 ’84 Chevy farther out in SD. That should be enough storage. Where can you buy a similar square footage DRY storage building for $2K or less?
A few years ago, I sold my ’44 Chevy short bus to a guy NE of Minneapolis. He builds big diesel rat and street rods. I hope he gets to it soon.
I ‘kind of’ have my eye on a ’53 Ford shorty party bus 12 miles away in SD. Shorty’s don’t hold much but if the price is right…. I’ll keep buying if the price is right.