1960 GM

[Junk Yard Dog]

Coming along well, what's up with that rusty Dodge truck I see over alongside the fence? Looks like one I had as a snow plow 30 years ago.

[awalker1829]

The Dodge is an ex-Army truck that one of our volunteers bought. It’s actually in really good shape-original interior is very good-dash has a couple of cracks. Seat cover looks original-no tears or stains. Motor is complete. Bed is missing-we think it might have been a field ambulance at one time. The bus blocks the view of the Corvair van and Corvair sedan.

[ffuries]

The Dodge is an ex-Army truck that one of our volunteers bought. It’s actually in really good shape-original interior is very good-dash has a couple of cracks. Seat cover looks original-no tears or stains. Motor is complete. Bed is missing-we think it might have been a field ambulance at one time. The bus blocks the view of the Corvair van and Corvair sedan.

Ok that's it, you're going to have to do a guided photo tour of the yard/garage/barn. Sounds like there are a lot of interesting toys in your play area!

[awalker1829]

I’ll put one together sometime. We really do have a lot of interesting stuff and interesting people. We are working on developing a full museum at the site in addition to the restoration shop. All of the models displayed in the museum are made in house by one of our volunteers. We have tons of reference materials and original items, which vary in size from a bus token to a boxcar.

[awalker1829]

Well, we removed the masking and have started putting things back on the bus.

Here’s what the bus used to look like:



Here’s what it looks like now:









There are a few spots where the masking took paint off when it was removed. Those spots will get hit with touch up paint.

Putting the brake lights and turn signal lenses wads bugger. The lenses are held in place with little wire springs.



Those little buggers are a pain to put in, especially if you don’t remember which way they go in. Took a few minutes but I finally remembered which way they go in.

Tomorrow the bumpers and mirrors will go back on-couldn’t do them today as those parts were painted this afternoon. Thursday we’ll touch up the paint and install the rubber trim on the door and Friday we’ll do whatever last minute stuff needs attending to.

[ffuries]

Why was the verbage/signage on the bus moved to above the windows, when a before photo shows it below? Different time period or some other reason......

[awalker1829]

The previous livery was correct for other bus models used by Old Pueblo Transit, but not this one. This one had the lettering on the letterboard above the windows. The reason is that the TGH-3102s had large advertising signs mounted on the sides. The signs (which we plan to add eventually) were so large that they didn’t leave enough space below the windows for any lettering. They also had smaller signs on the front and rear. The sign frame on the left side of the bus had a cut out that allowed the emergency exit to be opened.

We are fortunate that we have a lot of reference material. We do in fact have a photo of 135 in the current livery with the sign frames on. The original frames were removed when the bus was retired. It also got additional clearance lights added at that time, which we have removed. The destination sign is an original Old Pueblo Transit roll sign. We have a small collection of original roll signs from various Arizona bus lines. Ones in better condition will eventually be used and the more fragile ones will be used as templates from which to create reproduction roll signs.

[awalker1829]

Front end is all put together-bumper, mirrors, turn signal lamps and windshield wipers are installed. Need to install the right rear bumper. Tested lights and found two out-right brake lamp and right rear marker lamp. Disassembled the brake lamp and found one wire not connected to the lamp base. Don’t know about the market lamp-couldn’t get the lamp housing off. One screw came out fine but the other has a badly damaged head. Might be the bulb failed or a wire problem. I suspect a burned out bulb. All of the other lamps work fine.

Faults have been reported and will be corrected.

[Junk Yard Dog]

I know that style light and it's clips, we have an old Mack bus out back so rusted a good sneeze would bring it down. I salvaged the lenses off of it, and now I am selling all the transmission cores that were stored inside it for the last 60 years.

[awalker1829]

Transmission cores, engine covers and such can be useful items. Clean them up or rebuild them and they’re good to go. Had to replace the head on the engine. The engine shop we use has been in business for several decades under different ownership. We told them what we were looking for and they had one in stock. New OEM part that was there when the current owner bought the shop in the Seventies. We also have a NOS engine block for the bus. It’s literally an untouched factory casting-no machining done to it.

[Junk Yard Dog]

The cores in the bus represent the crop of automatics from the 1950's and early 60's, cars. Hydramatic, ultramatic, mercomatic, Dynaflow, Powerflite, powerglide, and so on. A few of them have found new homes of late

[awalker1829]

TGH-3102s had the Hydromatic transmission. This one has a cheap gear indicator on the steering column which is broken.

[Junk Yard Dog]

That Mack is a pusher also, don't know what it has for a transmission but I will look at the steering column and see if it has any indicator when I am next near it.

[steelbuttplate]

I’ll put one together sometime. We really do have a lot of interesting stuff and interesting people. We are working on developing a full museum at the site in addition to the restoration shop. All of the models displayed in the museum are made in house by one of our volunteers. We have tons of reference materials and original items, which vary in size from a bus token to a boxcar.

I have a cousin in Tuscon, that drives a '50 Hudson modified, named Frank Fry. Know him?

[awalker1829]

I’ll put one together sometime. We really do have a lot of interesting stuff and interesting people. We are working on developing a full museum at the site in addition to the restoration shop. All of the models displayed in the museum are made in house by one of our volunteers. We have tons of reference materials and original items, which vary in size from a bus token to a boxcar.

I have a cousin in Tuscon, that drives a '50 Hudson modified, named Frank Fry. Know him?

Name doesn’t ring a bell to me. However, I don’t run in the collector car circles.

Had some problems with the coach Friday evening. Compressor started slipping and wouldn’t build air. Had to call our mechanic out and found that the generator had come off it’s mount. The person that reinstalled the generator (probably one of our student interns) put the bolts and nuts on but did not torque them to the required values. Somehow that was missed in subsequent inspections. We will rectify the inspection issue by implementing additional safeguards. Needless to say, I was extremely unhappy about that.

[Junk Yard Dog]

The project isn't right until some little thing like that comes up, irritating, but minor. I understand this is a volunteer effort, most of whom probably don't do, or did not do this sort of work for a living. In light of that your effort has accomplished a great deal with these machines. Senior moments happen, fasteners forgotten, wires left loose, keys lost, it's all normal in any restoration project, it's normal even on the original factory build. Buss's, trucks, and RV's are notorious for needing shake down tours to identify and rectify all the little issues that crop up. Even the auto industry with it's highly automated factories manages to screw up things from time to time. Tightening some loose bolts is doable, rebuilding a failed air compressor is an expensive pain in the ass.

[ffuries]

.......Had some problems with the coach Friday evening. Compressor started slipping and wouldn’t build air. Had to call our mechanic out and found that the generator had come off it’s mount. The person that reinstalled the generator (probably one of our student interns) put the bolts and nuts on but did not torque them to the required values. Somehow that was missed in subsequent inspections. We will rectify the inspection issue by implementing additional safeguards. Needless to say, I was extremely unhappy about that.

Maybe do what we did/do in the Air Force, during certain parts of parachute repacks or survival kit repacks we had to do a CPI (Critical Point Inspection). Example with the survival kit, when the one man raft is attached to the kit by way of a drop lanyard, and the Co2 bottle connected and torqued a second set of eyes are required to watch, after that task is completed the torque wrench is handed over to verify the torque settings. The inspection card is initialed by the person conducting the CPI as a way of showing it was done.

Granted we're all adults, but people make mistakes, get hurried, get side tracked, etc. The second set of eyes keeps that from happening. Granted in our case it's a life or death situation if we screwed something up, but the concept is the same. Doesn't take a lot time to do.

In yalls case, hey I'm getting ready to hook this up, someone watches, initials a hang tag, saying good to go. Means not having to go back and double check every connection after the fact.

Just throwing an ideal out there.......

[awalker1829]

.......Had some problems with the coach Friday evening. Compressor started slipping and wouldn’t build air. Had to call our mechanic out and found that the generator had come off it’s mount. The person that reinstalled the generator (probably one of our student interns) put the bolts and nuts on but did not torque them to the required values. Somehow that was missed in subsequent inspections. We will rectify the inspection issue by implementing additional safeguards. Needless to say, I was extremely unhappy about that.

Maybe do what we did/do in the Air Force, during certain parts of parachute repacks or survival kit repacks we had to do a CPI (Critical Point Inspection). Example with the survival kit, when the one man raft is attached to the kit by way of a drop lanyard, and the Co2 bottle connected and torqued a second set of eyes are required to watch, after that task is completed the torque wrench is handed over to verify the torque settings. The inspection card is initialed by the person conducting the CPI as a way of showing it was done.

Granted we're all adults, but people make mistakes, get hurried, get side tracked, etc. The second set of eyes keeps that from happening. Granted in our case it's a life or death situation if we screwed something up, but the concept is the same. Doesn't take a lot time to do.

In yalls case, hey I'm getting ready to hook this up, someone watches, initials a hang tag, saying good to go. Means not having to go back and double check every connection after the fact.

Just throwing an ideal out there.......

Definitely a good couple of ideas that could easily be incorporated. One thing that I have worked on for the operational coaches are pre and post trip inspection check lists and operational checklists. Because of the significant differences between our coaches, each operator will be required to qualify on each specific vehicle. The checklists are flow oriented like those that pilots use, since those checklists are the type I’m most familiar with.

[ffuries]

.......Had some problems with the coach Friday evening. Compressor started slipping and wouldn’t build air. Had to call our mechanic out and found that the generator had come off it’s mount. The person that reinstalled the generator (probably one of our student interns) put the bolts and nuts on but did not torque them to the required values. Somehow that was missed in subsequent inspections. We will rectify the inspection issue by implementing additional safeguards. Needless to say, I was extremely unhappy about that.

Maybe do what we did/do in the Air Force, during certain parts of parachute repacks or survival kit repacks we had to do a CPI (Critical Point Inspection). Example with the survival kit, when the one man raft is attached to the kit by way of a drop lanyard, and the Co2 bottle connected and torqued a second set of eyes are required to watch, after that task is completed the torque wrench is handed over to verify the torque settings. The inspection card is initialed by the person conducting the CPI as a way of showing it was done.

Granted we're all adults, but people make mistakes, get hurried, get side tracked, etc. The second set of eyes keeps that from happening. Granted in our case it's a life or death situation if we screwed something up, but the concept is the same. Doesn't take a lot time to do.

In yalls case, hey I'm getting ready to hook this up, someone watches, initials a hang tag, saying good to go. Means not having to go back and double check every connection after the fact.

Just throwing an ideal out there.......

Definitely a good couple of ideas that could easily be incorporated. One thing that I have worked on for the operational coaches are pre and post trip inspection check lists and operational checklists. Because of the significant differences between our coaches, each operator will be required to qualify on each specific vehicle. The checklists are flow oriented like those that pilots use, since those checklists are the type I’m most familiar with.

Yeap pre and post flight procedures, could also do a pre-storage checklist. A lot of concepts used in military or flight circles can be adapted for civilian use in any operation. Means everyone is on the same page, and that everything is done the same way everytime. Same thing as troubleshooting checklists takes all the guess work out.

I need to make a trip west, would love to see the shop in person.

[Brake Weight]

A simple paint pen for everyone. Each level of authority gets a different color and when something is bolted down they dot it. Should something come loose then someone is responsible. If something isn’t marked then re-torque it and find the person responsible.