GMC PD4501-066 - Lady Greyhound

Home Coming

16 Oct 2007

It's been a long strange trip so far. Almost a year since we bought her, and she's finally home.

First thing this morning, we headed to the DMV to get a 3-day permit. Next, a trip to the shop to pick her up. When I looked her over, there was actually still pressure in the air bags after six weeks of not being operated. Not bad at all considering that only one air bag had been replaced. The motor started right up on the first touch of the starter. After driving her around the block a couple of times, I had a chat with the mechanic about various things I still needed to deal with. Then a quick stop in the parts department for a hubmeter and hinge rubber for the bay doors.

After leaving the shop, I took Lady Grey to the nearest truck stop for a quick pass through the scales (about 31,000 pounds), then back to the DMV. The inspectors gave her a quick check to make sure she was the vehicle noted in the California title, and helpfully made a correction on the manufacture date (the CA title listed her as a '56). After a long wait to see the clerk at the counter, we got her set up with AZ Historical Vehicle plates, and all of her paperwork done.

So, she's sitting in my driveway now, likely annoying my neighbors. In a couple hours I'll take her to the storage lot where there is a space reserved for her.

I did notice a couple of issues that will have to be resolved soon:

• The steering pulls pretty strong the the right, needs an alignment.
• There is a strong vibration and "shimmy" on the left tag wheels. I'll need to talk to the shop about it and find out what might be causing it. It might be balance issues on the tires, but it doesn't seem like it.
• There are some pretty significant air leaks in the driver's area which I will have to fix. I plan on replacing all of the lines, and will probably put in a few strategic shutoff valves.
• There are a lot of wiring gremlins to deal with. The entire chassis wiring needs to be replaced. For the moment, Lady Grey cannot be left for more than a few minutes shut down without flipping the battery cutoff to prevent draining the batteries
• The air pressure gauge is downstream of the pressure protection valve, which means that when the air pressure drops below 80, the guage reads zero. Need to put in a second pressure guage.
• The speedometer is non-functional.

Photos

Exterior
Door
Front / Drivers area
Lower Level
Upper Level
Bathroom
Back
Engine Bay

First day of tear-out

20 Oct 2007

Our first day of work on the bus. We only had a few hours to work on it, but we got quite a bit done.
All of the carpeting has been removed from the dashboard, ceiling, aisle and right passenger area.

Photos

Rats Nest
Lower Level
Front / Drivers area
Skylight

More tear-out, some minor repairs.

18 Nov 2007

Spent the day working on 066 with some friends.

Pulled the left front marker light off the roof. Ouch, gonna need some work. The previous geniuses, when repainting the roof, had just painted around it. The gasket material was all broken down, which let water behind it, and because no good paint... rust, and lots of it. The actual bulb holder is a complete loss, the backing plate is pretty damaged by rust, rusted through in a couple places. The roof itself is pretty well scarred, with a nickle-sized hole in one place from rusting through. I'm expecting the right side to be similar, though the light works on that side.

The rest of the day was brighter. We got the bays pretty well cleaned out of the junk that was in them. Then pretty much tore out everything else that was in them except the water tanks (those will be dealt with later). This includes the home-built electrical panel (yikes!), and the wiring for the generator, which had been removed some time before we bought the bus. Also removed, the electric water heater.

I also removed the panels over both sides of the fuel tank and replaced the rubber hinges, which had torn all but a couple inches. I feel lucky they hadn't come completely off. I also took the chance to replace the upper hinges on two of the bay doors. A couple other need replacing, but aren't in imminent danger of splitting. I'll get to them in the next couple of weeks.

I still need to chase down a lot of the chassis wiring. But when we looked at it this morning, we decided tearing out the uneeded things in the bays might be a better first step. There was a lot of wiring that was passing through that we didn't know what was for. In the process of tearout, we found quite a bit of it didn't actually attach to anything, the things they ran to apparently had been removed. And, in addition, we found a number of things that were not needed. So all of that wiring is now gone, which should make tracing the remaining wiring much easier.

BTW, I hate spray foam, it is pure evil and should be destroyed. One of the previous owners sprayed it everywhere (including filling the left side fuel tank compartment above the tank). In the process, they entombed wiring, fuel lines and air lines, making it impossible to trace. And even more fun, after many years, it's breaking down into dust and chunks, which get into everything and make a bloody mess. Breathing it isn't much fun either. We broke quite a bit of it out and removed it with the trusty shop vac, but we've still got a ways to go.

And in other statistics, so far we have found two dead birds and a rat skeleton.