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Ed, I don't, but my grandmother probably does. LOL.... If I recall, they use to have better paint jobs. A while back on ebay, I saw a guy who made a monster truck from an F100 bus. Very cool. It sold for something like $35,000. I wanted to go to the LA Roadster show but figured the yard and family needed more. Heard it was great show too.
The bus was cool to look at. I always got kicked off the bus and had to walk to school. There was a lot of nice cars and vendors. picked up wiper bullet caps, fan switch, and met a lot of fellow truckers. Check out the 60 4x4 in my other galleries at the bottom. Pretty cool. The 56 truck of the year was there, pretty cool. It's also going to be at the show next weekend.
I would like to find a Bonus Built version of a bus like that. My wife is currently a school bus driver. Her bus is about forty feet long and holds 72 screaming, bratty kids. She actually enjoys driving the thing. If I could find a bus to restore she might finally come around and enjoy my hobby with me.
There is a 56 school bus about 10 miles from me. Been setting there with the hood up for as long as I can remember (at my age that could have been yesterday). I haven't any idea who owns it. Would like to have it but no place to park it.
I checked a bus like that out from special services while our ship was being updated at the Vallejo ship yard. Drove it and 10 drunken sailors over Donor Pass, and parked it for the weekend at the Mustang Ranch (drivers got in free there).
As I remember, we pulled Donor’s Pass in 2ed gear on the non-synchromesh 4 speed – and it drank about as much gas as my buddies did beer. But back then (1967), gas was only 30 cents, and on base a 6 pack of beer was only 79 cents. A gallon of Red Mountain was less than a buck.
And yes, the bus was painted Navy gray with military numbers everywhere.
I rode to school in similar vehicles, but don't remember if any were 53-56 Fords. Baby boomer days and living in the country meant that it was full by the time we got to school. I had to sit on the front step a few times. Something about not behaving. On another note there is a 54 school bus sitting in a yard along the highway about 20 miles from here. It's painted camo, but you can still see it. It is the larger(probably about 40 passenger) size.