Before
Raffle Bus #35
1966 LHD Walk-through
Split Window Bus
This bus is gonna be
After ?
Raffle Bus 35 - Nov. 12-13, 2025
Tuesday, Nov. 12th
Mike did his best to show me how to correctly rebuild the linkpins with the correct number of inner and outer upper and lower shims so the tires wear evenly, install a steering knuckle and lock everything in place. It’s way more involved than it sounds but Mike is a great teacher and I really learned something today. Thankfully for me he’s also very patient.
We owe him a lot. ~ John Manning
I can't take credit, it's fun to work with John. Team effort that despite our best attempts to screw it up came out really well. Glad that is behind us for sure.
On to the next steps. ~ Mike Baleda
Thursday, Nov. 13th
The link pin cinch bolts are drilled for cotter pins. One of the bolts was not drilled and too short so I spent this morning trying to remember how to drill a hole in the replacement bolt. It actually came out ok. I’ll know for sure when I try to install it. 🙏
I had no idea rebuilding link pins was soooo difficult. Got all the way to the last step of installing the dust caps and discovered I had missed a critical step. So both of the steering knuckles had to come all the way out and I basically started over. Sheesh! So we won’t be able to roll the bus at all and can’t have a work party this Saturday. I know how much we were all looking forward to sanding for hours 😁, but maybe we’ll have this all sorted out, correctly this time, by next week. 🙏 I’ll keep everyone posted……
~ John Manning
Raffle Bus 35 - Nov. 4-6, 2025
Getting serious about renewing the brakes on the bus. Left backing plates were cleaned by Russell and Brian Saturday. About ready for rust converter and paint. Should look pretty good. The ones on the right are for the front and will take at least two days to prep for their rust converter and paint. We have new shoes, cylinders, and hardware for all four corners so it hopefully will be good as new when we’re done. Maybe even stop the bus, too. 🙏 We’ll replace all the hard lines when these are done.
Right now the bus is up on jack stands in the garage so we can’t sand the way we want too. It would just make a mess of Russell’s garage. So when the brakes are done and we have a rolling chassis again, we can have work parties. Probably not this Saturday but definitely the following one. Say, 11/15 ?
A little before and after cleaning the backing plates. The much thicker steel of the original ones is so much better than the cheap thin aftermarket ones that it’s worth the work to do our best to save them. They’re now ready for minimal rust converter and then paint.
~ John Manning
Raffle Bus 35 - Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025
Check out John's blog post on what was accomplished November 1, 2025.
Click the double arrows (when you hover) next to the top right of the image slider to enlarge.
Raffle Bus 35 - Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025
Check out John's blog post on what was accomplished October 30, 2025.
No pictures today.
Raffle Bus 35 - Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025
Check out John's blog post on what was accomplished October 26, 2025.
No pictures today.
Raffle Bus Update: Friday, Oct. 24, 2025
Reuben and our new member, Filipe, worked hard removing all the fine sandblasting media left behind after the sandblasting, along with some other tedious work. Thanks guys! Russell and John followed up with some additional details.
Check out John's blog post on what was accomplished October 24, 2025.
Click the double arrows (when you hover) next to the top right of the image slider to enlarge.
Raffle Bus Update: Oct. 20-23, 2025
We're sandblasting the bus to remove surface rust and ready the bus for metal work and painting.
Looking good guys! By the way, that's David in the NASA suit... 😁
Check out John's blog post on what was accomplished October 20-24, 2025.
Click the double arrows (when you hover) next to the top right of the image slider to enlarge.
Raffle Bus 35 - Oct. 17, 2025
Now we're starting to work on the bus. See the M Codes on the last two images.
Raffle Bus 35 - Saturday, Aug. 9-18, 2025
Taking inventory of everything that came with the bus.
