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Old 09-05-2009, 03:09 PM
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JeffsMagicBus
JeffsMagicBus is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Brentwood, Tennessee
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Newbie Needs Help With Engine ID... I Think It's A 534!

Hello!
The Bus God's sent me a real beauty! A 1970 Blue Bird Wanderlodge! I don't have it at my house yet but I have it stored at my buddies business about an hour away. I've only seen it twice myself the first time being when I was rescuing it. The second trip was to secure it and take some Before photos. It had Wandered into limbo about 4 years ago and I literally stumbled upon it on Craigslist.
After making a post on the MAK sight I had a response and the guy said that I most proabably had the 534. I thought it was a 391 going by the records I could find on line but this is where things got interesting!
Within 10 minutes of joining the Wanderlodge site and posting my first thread, I had 4-5 eMails from a guy in Pasadena. He wanted me to call him even thought it was 2:00 am. I did and we talked for at least an hour and I'll spare you the long story but his parents had purchased a new late 60's WL and while he was at the WL factory picking up their new coach he saw the '70 model on display. Now I know what kind of impact they make on me as an adult and I can only imagine how it can effect a 10-12 year old!
Talk about being ectched into your memory!
It turns out that I have an Extremely Rare Prototype (Front Entry-Rear Pusher) of which only 9 where made! I was told that Jimmy Carter had one of them while he was campaining for President but he had it converted to a side entry when BB was repowering it for him. So there's really only 8 of them! I've seen one in Oregon for $17,500.00 and another one in N.C. for $16,000.00 so that make's only 5 left. And it's fairly safe to say that 2-3 of those, if not more, have gone on to the Big Camp Ground In The Sky due to accident, neglect or any of a dozen other reasons!
Well the guy in Pasadena said he'd trade me his fully operational 1980 Blue Bird Wanderlodge for mine! I haven't heard back from him in a few days but I'll do it if he wants to! I'm beggining to wonder if he might have come to his senses... But my coach has more character and it not a Forward Control model either! And it only has 67,*** showing which is believed to be actual!

OK back to the subject. I made a photo album of my Bird and a slide show of it can be seen at the following link:

http://http://cid-c6ec323e6ef26dd8.s...20It%7C6?ref=1

I have some photos of the engine I can send you direct if needed but I'm pretty sure somebody on here has seen one of these before and will know it as soon as they see it! I mean it's as big as the hood on a full size truck! Plus the pulley on the lower right front of the engine looks very similar as does the size and shape of the water pump on a factory photo I have of a 534.
If it wasn't an hour away I could just go and get some engine numbers and find out myself but it's going to be a couple of weeks before I can bring it here due to space limitations.
I'll quit rambling on now and let you go.
Thanks for the help!
Take Care,
Jeff