Ever do an internet search for cool vehicles that are nowhere near where you live? Of course you have. I know I do that every day! Now, how many of you have acted upon those urges and gone and gotten said vehicle? Ok, a few of you… cool. Now, how many of you have gone and gotten some weird old camper/bus thing that hasn’t been on the road for 10+ years and attempted to drive it across the country back home? Crazy you say? Well, that’s exactly what a guy and his son from South Carolina is doing RIGHT NOW.
Did that capture your interest? Let’s have a look at this crazy adventure, shall we?
The vehicle in question is a 1956 Ford B-600. I’m not sure if it was built this way, but it at one point served as an RV, and it just oozes awesomeness. I really like the lines of this old beast. It looks rough on the outside, but was solid enough to become a candidate for a cross-country adventure.
I’m not sure what’s going on with the wooden front door, but it looks like it was ripped off an old farm house, cut to size, and pressed into use! Other buses of this vintage came with metal doors, but this one is long gone. Hey, if it works, I’d keep it!
Talk about a time capsule! It looks like your aunt’s kitchen in here circa 1956. If this were mine, I’d clean it up, make sure everything in the kitchenette works, update some of the wood to hipster-approved reclaimed timber, and roll around in style. I’m pretty sure that’s where the buyer is going with this project.
Under the massive hood is what appears to be a FE-series Ford V8 of indeterminate size and vintage. The FE series debuted a few years after this bus was built, so my guess is that it originally came with a Y-block engine that gave up the ghost long ago. One problem that this bus has is the lack of heat. Since the bus is up in Wisconsin, and, well, it’s the dead of winter, there will have to be some improvisation on the new owner’s part to stay warm on the long journey home. Other than that, the bus is said to run and drive, so it has that going for it!
The buyer and his son did not pull any punches when preparing for this journey. They packed tons of tools, supplies, and warm clothes for the trip. One of the benefits of doing a long distance buy like this is having a support vehicle full of tools, especially when you are buying a vehicle like this. Having a “mobile garage” like this can prove to be invaluable if and when something goes wrong.
If this is the sort of thing that interests you, or if you want to do something nuts like this and want a blueprint of how to go about driving some old beast back home from wherever it is, you can follow along over at the Grassroots Motorsports Forum, where they are posting updates as they go! As of writing this, the father/son team has passed through the Chicago area and heading north to claim their prize. They have also set up a GPS tracking map where you can follow along HERE. I don’t know about you guys, but I have the itch really bad to go and retrieve something cool for my own fleet!
Well done!
Now I’d hijack it at the edge of the desert somewhere near Barstow and have a driver called Neal Cassidy and a bunch of crazed lunatics cavorting inside it as we cause mayhem all over Amearica.
What – that’s already been done in the 60s?
Oh, bugger!
Want a good site for school bus restorations? http://www.skoolie.net.Great group of people with tons of DIY skills.