Short-Medium Bus: 1951 International School Bus
If I had an extremely large family, I can think of no better way to shuttle them around town than in this 1951 International School Bus, for sale here on Craigslist in Madison, Wisconsin. Of course, I’d probably want to do a little bit of restoration work first. While the asking price of $2,000 isn’t too steep, finding parts for this bus might be a little more challenging and costly than ordering modern reproduction parts out of a Year-One catalog for a ’57 Chevy. Thanks to Chris A for the submission!
The International Harvester L-series trucks were available in a wide range of sizes, from pickups to tractor-trailers. This bus looks to be based on the L-160, which would have been a medium-duty truck chassis. It should have been factory-equipped with a 100HP, 269ci inline-6 engine, so it probably wasn’t much faster when new than it is as it currently sits.
While this bus appears to be very complete given its age, I think it would take a tremendous amount of work to turn it into something useful and enjoyable. The rear panels are plenty rusty at their bottom edges, and the interior also exhibits a good bit of rust on many of the flat surfaces. There aren’t any photos showing the undercarriage, but it’s probably safe to assume there is more rust there, also. The seller says the engine and transmission are original, but that the truck hasn’t been started in over 20 years, so some mechanical freshening is likely needed, too.
I have a soft spot for vehicles like this, as it seems that few medium-duty trucks survive to this age. Most were put to work as intended and then scrapped when their serviceable lives ended. Still, I’m not sure what one would do with this bus. The seller suggests that it could be made into an RV, and I think it would be fantastic outfitted with modern amenities on the inside and restored to as-new condition on the outside. However, that sounds like a long, costly and difficult endeavor, and I’m not sure there are too many folks out there who are looking for such a project. What other uses do you see for this old bus?
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Comments
Cool bus for someone looking for a serious project and has panel fabricating skills.
Years ago in the town where I grew up, across the street from my house there was a similar one abandoned behind the curling rink. As a kid I would “drive” the old bus for fun.
Unfortunately there is too much stigma associated with a “short bus” to consider it an option.
Steve R
Wow Steve. Don’t be so insecure.
About 1965 I rode in a 51 International school bus on cold days it had icicles hanging from the roof .I was colder in the bus than outside ))
Used to ride in one similar to this one
in the early ’70’s when I played guitar in
a band that toured in the Midwest playing
one-nighters and county fairs. Ours had
a hitch around back for pulling a trailer,
that carried our instruments and our
luggage. It may have been slow and
uncomfortable, but it got us there on
time and in one piece. Nice to see
there’s still a few left.
Were your tires ‘square’ for 10 miles after sitting between gigs? Our ’52 Chevy long bus was good for 45 mph on flat stretches. Without band equipment; 45 mph. Getting the B3 onboard was a struggle.
After reading your first sentence, it reminded me of what my Grandpa said when I was a very little kid – “I remember the invention of triangular wheels, they were great as they eliminated one bump per revolution!”
There’s a few people that have hot rodded old busses and some have turned out to be fairly incredible. Check out there: https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=_qFAW8GIGeXXjwTN0ISADA&q=school+bus+hot+rod&oq=schoolbus+hot+&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.0i13k1l4j0i22i10i30k1l2.1487.9380.0.12087.15.13.0.1.1.0.392.2539.0j9j1j2.12.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..2.13.2593.0..0j35i39k1j0i131k1j0i20i264k1j0i131i20i264k1j0i10k1j0i13i30k1.0.G3WhDrrDwhU
Mine included!
First grade through fourth, starting in 1961, the bus was a 1955 Chevrolet 48 passenger, the driver’s name was Mr. Day. He looked like he was about 100 years old and he didn’t like kids. He was a chain smoker and the smoke would fill the air near the top of the bus. Very often, when children would cause a disturbance, he would stop the bus, grab the kid, shake them very hard while shouting at them, and aggressively set them back in the seat. This was a treatment that I received more than once in the four years I rode his bus. It was a common occurrence for many of us on the bus. In today’s world, he would have been in court the first time.
The featured bus could be made into a cool parts hauler.
Our substitute bus was a 1949 or so GMC. The driver’s seat was so shot that the driver could just peer over the huge steering wheel. Lots of grinding and howling from the transmission and rear end.
We usually rode in new 1959 GMC snub nose bus. Someone had the idea that constant fresh air would eliminate the possibility of CO poisoning. Therefore there were metal stops keeping the winows open one inch: and this was Northeastern Ohio. A phillips screwdriver fixed one window at a time.
As a kid I was still a gearhead and noticed that the “flat nosed” rear engine buses rode a lot smoother than the front engine ones.
They had air suspension while the front-engine buses had springs.
The steel grab bar above each seat was specially positioned to take out a kid’s teeth in a 5mph fender bender.
@Dick Johnson: Sure felt that way! Factor in the short wheel base, and
you had the ride from hell. Riding
in the back of one of these could
quite litterally jar the fillings right
out of your teeth! I’ll bet you used
the emergency door to load the Hammond didn’t you? If you did,
that certainly was a challenge too.
The fellow I worked for had a double
axle trailer into which we loaded the
PA system, 2 Fender Super Showman
amps, the lighting, when needed, our
guitars, and then our luggage. Not
to mention the miles and miles of
cable it took to connect everything
together! If your bus was like ours,
you froze your ass off in winter and
baked in the summer too. Not long
after that, the boss man bought a
flatnosed diesel pusher and turned
it into a motor home of sorts with
everything but a kitchen. And he still
pulled that same trailer too. By the
time I retired, (1990) we used a regular
style motorhome….and that same trailer
too!
Being the only professional bus driver here. This bus is a catch. Been driving all types of buses for 28 years. Manual steering,shift etc would love to get my hands on this one.
(Former) professional bus driver here as well: GMC Fishbowls and Old-Looks and a 1982 Prevost that was like a spaceship by comparison. The crash box transmissions were fun, manual steering less so.
6BT 5.9 Cummins with 5 speed NV4500 trans and it will run
Convert into an RV.
Anybody know the weight of this bus? I just got a 1950 and trying to get it shipped.