Help Restore the FURTHUR Bus (Kesey, LSD, Pranksters, hippies, Grateful Dead icon)

[MadHound]

70. I would love to do it, but right now my life is too busy to take on such a project,

But I will give you some basics to consider when prepping to get Furthur restored.

First of all, I'm assuming the engine is still in the bus. Go out, remove all the spark plugs. Once you have that done, go to the front of the engine, grab the fan and try to turn it. If it turns, that is great news, it means that your engine hasn't rusted up and frozen, which means the engine portion of your restoration is going to be relatively easy. If you can't turn the fan, go to your nearest hardware or auto parts store and pick up several bottles of Liquid Wrench or other high quality penetrating oil. Squirt that oil down the spark plug hole, just drown them. Do this for a few days in a row. Then try to turn the fan again. If it still won't turn, then your engine has been seriously rusted and you're restoration is going to be more difficult since you will need to get some major engine parts, if not an entirely new engine(which actually might be the cheaper option, but that's up to you, depending on how much money you raise and how original you want to keep the bus).

Now, on the body side of the restoration, go through and inspect every inch of metal. The sides, the roof, the wheel wells, and especially the frame(the big I beams on the bottom). Push and prod each inch. If the metal is rusted and bends easily, or you actually poke your finger through it, that piece of metal is worthless and will have to be replaced(do not, whatever you do, give into the temptation to use Bondo or other such filler products). If the piece of metal is rusty, but doesn't bend or break under inspection, good news, it is just surface rust and all that needs to be done is sandblasting and painting or chroming.

Now, you want to get the bus back to its original condition. There are, believe it or not, people out there who collect automobile literature, pictures, promo pamphlets, and probably most importantly for you, shop manuals. You absolutely need a shop manual for that bus. Shop manuals have all the specifications you are going to need to restore the bus, point gap, spark gap, etc. etc. It is essential that you have one these for the restoration. Old photos, pamphlets, etc. will help you visualize what the bus originally looked like.

This is where you need to start networking. There are a couple of clubs out there that you need to get next to. First is your regional IH Collectors Club, http://www.ihcc14.org/index.cfm. The second is the IH Truck Club, http://oldihc.wordpress.com/. These contacts are invaluable, because they are the ones that can lead you to the literature, parts and experts you need to undertake this restoration. Get ahold of these folks and get to know them. They will probably be thrilled to be part of the restoration of such a historic vehicle.

Also, get yourself a subscription to Hemmings Motor News. They don't call it the bible of old car collecting for nothing. It has a large directory of people who sell parts, literature, and their restoration expertise for virtually every make and model of vehicle ever built. http://www.hemmings.com/

Finally, get to know, and go through, every backwoods junk yard within a three hundred mile radius. Not the slick commercial operations, the salvage yards that sell parts over the counter. I'm talking about the ones that cover acres and acres, where you go in and pull the part off yourself. Go through these junkyards and see if you can't find another '39 IH bus to use for spare parts. Or advertise through Hemmings and see if somebody has one. A parts car is always a good thing to have on hand.

Rubber. Everything rubber or paper is going to have to be replaced, gaskets, door seals, tires, anything and everything. Electrical, bite the bullet and buy an entirely new wiring harness for the bus because by this time the old one is shot(old wires had cloth insulation if you can believe it). Again, check in Hemmings, there are businesses that do nothing but custom make wiring harnesses for all sorts of vehicles.

When you are going to transport the vehicle, do so on a flatbed truck, don't tow it. Towing a car puts stress on it, and while cars that are in decent shape can take that stress, we don't know what shape the bus is in, and would hate for the back axle to fall off in transit. Since you're dealing with a large vehicle here, talk to the folks who tow eighteen wheelers and other such big vehicles.

What else, shop around and get the best upholstery guy you can find. If the bus is like other vehicles of that era, you're going to have a lot of dash parts, and other parts, not to mention the bumpers, that you're going to have to get chromed. Take off all the stuff that was attached up top, save it for later, but that will make it easier to restore. Be careful when you are handling the wheels, they are probably split rims, and have a tendency to blow apart if you bang on them or drop them hard. When you do the final, funky, groovy paint job, put at least three coats of clear coat over it, just for protection. There's probably more, but I'm ill and need sleep now.

If you have other questions on this, or need some help, please PM me. Good luck.