2005 Progress
April 2 & 3, 2005:
After keeping the bus in storage since last October, #22 took it's second trip to the mechanic's shop. This time, #22 went in to get the last of the miscellaneous work on the undercarriage completed that was not finished the last time it was in the shop in August 2004. The work needing to be done this time includes repairing the bottom step in the front door, replacing a brake line, replacing the windshield rubber gasket, and some welding that got missed the last time the bus was at the shop. I am waiting a quote for how much the work is going to cost before I proceed with getting it completed. As long as it keeps under approximately $700 to $1000, this work will be completed so I can go ahead with getting a commercial vehicle safety inspection so I can generate money to get the bus painted hopefully by the end of this year. In the photos above, 22 is shown first at the Canadian Premier Charters yard awaiting the trip to the mechanic's shop, and in the second photo, 22 is shown waiting near the shop for the work to be completed.
April 14, 2005:
Today I had a chance to go see my mechanic and see what got fixed on my bus so far. This time, I had the front windshield gasket replaced, one piece of the windshield that was cracked replaced while the glass was out, the front step support repaired, front leveling valve replaced, front brake line replaced, and had the side windows checked so they can open in case of an emergency. All that's left to do in order to have my bus pass a safety inspection is to get the right windshield wiper motor replaced, replace the windshield wiper dispenser pump, and repair the floor up front between the two front wheels (including replacing the rubber floor). I am estimating that it will be approximately an additional $325 in repairs at the minimum if I provide all the parts to install. The 4 photos above show #22 after the work had been completed on the step well, windshield, brake line, etc.
May 10, 2005:
Well, day by day, #22 is one step closer to having it's restoration completed. I have some used parts that I'll be installing to replace the windshield wiper motor, windshield wiper dispenser pump, and the rubber floor to replace the stuff cracked in between the front wheels. Unfortunately the rubber floor that I have is black in color, but it'll do for now. If and when I do decide to replace the plywood floor on the bus, I'll be ordering new grey rubber floor right from RCA Rubber in the USA. I also found out today that the windshield wiper motor that I was told needed replacing turned out to being a worn out wiper control valve, so now I'll have a spare wiper motor. The windshield wiper dispenser pump turned out to be okay, just that two of the lines weren't connected properly, but it's all fixed now. Sometime this week, I'll have the floor repaired on #22 and get the Alberta Commercial Vehicle Safety Inspection on it. Once it passes a commercial safety inspection, I plan on operating this bus to raise money to get the paint job, bodywork, and the decals made, along with using any donation money that comes in between now and when the bus gets painted. The two photos above show the grey floor just before it was changed to have black between the front wheels
May 19, 2005:
Just over 13 months since I originally purchased the bus, I finally got #22 to pass an Alberta Commercial Vehicle Safety Inspection. After almost $8800 in repairs, my bus can now operate for hire as a commercial vehicle. I plan on operating the bus this summer and fall for fan trips and for commercial service to raise funding to get the bus painted hopefully for the end of the year. After the bus had passed a commercial vehicle safety inspection, the bus was brought back home to Calgary to enjoy all the hard work that was put in to the bus to get it this far. In the first group of photos above, 22 is shown in the first 4 photos at the mechanic's shop awaiting to be certified earlier that day, the next 3 photos shows the replacement black floor that came out of Ex-Edmonton Transit #368. In the eighth photo, 22 is shown pulled into the Turbo Gas station in Airdrie while it was being fueled, and then in the last three photos, 22 is shown beside an Airdrie Transit Bus stop in the East Lake Industrial area before being brought home to Calgary again.
In the second group of photos above, the first photo shows me beside my bus proudly showing off the Alberta Commercial Vehicle Safety Inspection sticker added to the teardrop window. The second photo shows the bus pulled over on a service road about half way home to Calgary for a quick photo stop. On the third photo, it shows my bus southbound on Barlow Trail at Country Hills Blvd. And finally the fourth photo shows 22 back home in it's yard ready to go to work as a passenger bus. Special thanks to Kevin Lo for letting me use his photos added to today's entry. More of Kevin's photos can be viewed at his website at www.kevinsbusrail.com
July 4, 2005:
More good news for 22! Sometime before July 31, 2005, if all goes to plan, 22 will be repainted back into it's 1978 paint scheme. Sometime over the next couple of weeks, I hope to strip the ETS decals off the bus and have it ready to take to the paint shop about mid month. After it has been painted, this bus will be completed for it's cosmetic part of the restoration. Still in the plans for the future is to put a set of red seats back together for 22, along with possibly changing it's restoration process to look like it's "as delivered" look with the old 3-piece "Alberta" style destination sign and the old metal ETS logo.
August 9, 2005:
After falling behind on getting the bus ready, I was finally able to get the bus ready for it's paint job. With the help of a few friends, I was able to get the decals all peeled off, the decal glue remove, and the bus all washed up. Also today, I had a chance to replace some of the seat backs so I had a complete set of red seat backs. I am missing quite a few of the red seat bottoms, but hopefully I'll be able to find a complete set and make the interior look like how the bus was delivered as. Originally I had planned on removing all the red seats and installing all orange seats, but after some persuasion from a few others, I was convinced to keep all the seats as red.
August 10, 2005:
Today we took my bus down to the paint shop to have them take a look at the bus for getting it painted. They informed me that they would try to hopefully have the bus in the shop sometime next week to repaint it. The new livery will be Fired Orange and pale white/cream colors as the bus was delivered as and shown in 1978. After the bus has been repainted, I will apply the new fleet numbers to it, remove it's old number plate from the front that is not needed, and remove the E Transit logo from the silversides and replace it with the smaller E Transit logo for the 1978 look.
September 26, 2005:
Well, unfortunately the paint shop that was originally suppose to do the paint job on 22 had declined to do the paint job for a bus, but I did find another paint shop thanks to my friends from Canadian Premier Charters. We dropped off my bus on September 19th, showed them how to paint it on September 20th, and got my price quote of $5854 before GST on September 21st when I authorized the paint job. Because of the delay in the paint job, I now expect to have my bus completed for most of the restoration work by October 12th give or take a few days. I was told that the paint shop should be starting work on my bus on September 30th.
After the paint job is completed, all that is left is to make the E Transit decals (Which is already designed and ready to take in) and in the future will include replacing the entire floor on the interior with new grey rubber floor, fix up the corrosion on the silverside (The paint shop will do the bodywork on the lower skirt panels but not on the silverside), and completing the red seats. Some stuff that will be completed in the immediate future before any major trips (My "Wish List") will be a complete flush of the engine and transmission (coolant, oil, radiator), change all the filters, and a proper winterization including the installation of a block heater. All the mechanical work will probably cost upwards of $2500, replacing the entire floor and ordering new rubber floor will probably cost in around the $3000-$3500 mark, and if I'm lucky, I'll probably be able to find the rest of the red seat bottoms that I need, but if not, will probably cost around $1000 or so to reupholster a complete set with red seat fabric.
October 19, 2005:
Today I stopped into the paint shop to see how things are doing with my bus. The bus is just about ready for painting. There was a bit more touchup work that they wanted to work with before taking the bus into spray it down. Basically they have it all sanded down but need to go in and sand around the joints of the panels. The shop was mentioning that the bus should be the next vehicle that they take in for painting and could probably be done sometime next week or the week after I estimate. Next week I may end up going in to get the decals made for the E Transit logo. I am still thinking about doing the 1969 look of the bus, but for the moment, I'll be keeping the 1978 look of the bus.
November 3, 2005:
Well, today was the big day. I received 22 from the paint shop and got a chance to check it out. The bus itself looks awesome and I'm glad to see it looks awesome! 22 now looks like what I was expecting after I chose to restore it to it's 1978 paint scheme. The only thing missing was the E Transit decals that I picked up last Thursday. I decided to wait and possibly get a piece of sheet metal cut to the side of the logo (32 inches long by 8.75 inches tall) and attach the logo to that so I may remove it at any time. These first five photos were taken this afternoon when I went down to pick the bus up at Pet Autobody in SE Calgary.
Shortly after picking the bus up, we decided to stop for fuel. Taking the opportunity for a sunny driver's side photo, I snapped this photo on it's grand tour of Calgary. In the background is a yellow/black vintage 1968 car that happened to be at the gas station at the same time. We chatted with the guy and he was a bit surprised to see the bus parked there, especially one almost as old as his car.
After fueling the bus, we took it around the corner to 60 Street south of 17 Avenue SE as we posed the bus for a couple more photos. The first two photos were taken on 60 Street, while the third photo was taken on 23 Avenue near 52 Street SE.
Since I haven't had a chance to photograph 22 with the complete set of red seats, I thought that I'd take a photo on the way showing it completed with the red seats. I need to find a complete set of seat bottoms to make the look complete though.
After touring the Forest Lawn area, we took the bus out towards the countryside for a few photos. This series of 4 photos were taken as the bus was posed for photos on 84 Street north of McKnight Blvd NE in a driveway. The front passenger side view I thought looked interesting as I was looking up from the ditch. When I get my other roll of film developed, I'll add that photo in with this series.
As we continued north on 84 Street, we took an opportunity to pose the bus in the true countryside (well, just barely anyways, we were past city limits of Calgary by only 500 meters or less). I took the first shot showing 22 with a Municipal District of Rockyview sign in the background on the right, the second photo was taken in the same spot, but a lot closer than the previous shot was taken. Both photos taken on Township Road 252 east of Range Road 290 (Calgary's equivalent of 84 Street at 80 Avenue NE) as the bus was displaying the Route 58 - King Edward Park
Coming back into town, 22 was posed for a couple more photos, this time along Falconridge Drive at Falconridge Blvd NE. In the first photo, 22 is shown after we arrived at this spot, then again in the next photo a few moments later as a Calgary Transit 2003 New Flyer D40LF passed by on the Route 55 - Falconridge.
The next stop on the tour was a lunch stop at Deerfoot Mall as the bus was photographed in these 5 photos sitting in the parking lot before we headed in for a bite to eat.
Shortly after the lunch break, we stopped the bus in the NE industrial area of Skyline Industrial for a couple of photos. Just before this photo was taken, 22 had it's fleet numbers applied. Unfortunately because I didn't have the proper fleet numbers for the front and rear, I used 4 inch black numbers on the front and 5 inch black numbers on the rear. It looks a bit odd with the wrong fleet numbers on it, but it still suits it quite well. Just for the heck of it, here's a photo taken on September 24, 2004 showing what 22 looked like about a year before in it's "as retired" paint scheme, taken in the same spot as it was today repainted.
And last but not least, four more photos shown of 22 with the fleet numbers applied as the bus is shown parked along side a side road near Deerfoot Trail.
Now that 22 is cosmetically restored, very little amount of stuff is required to make the bus look like it did from the photo I was working with. There is still a bit of body work left to do, just filling in parts of the silverside with a bit of bondo in a couple of spots, install the 1978 version of the E Transit logo, finish getting a set of red seats bottoms, and then eventually maybe one day down the road, I'll do an interior restoration by replacing all the floor and repaint the interior panels. But for the moment, this project is officially completed. The two above photos show ETS #15 in the photo that inspired me to restore 22 like this and a comparison photo of 22 taken on the same view showing how closely matched 22 is to the way I intended to make it look. Eventually the front fleet number plate will be coming off to make it look even more like it was from 1978. Today's series of photos showing 22 repainted in the old ETS livery with the large E Transit logo on the silverside was inspired by the photos of ETS Flyer E800 trolley buses #225 and 235 that were photographed like this around the same time frame as I was dating this look.
I would like to take this time to thank everyone involved in making this project a success. First I would like to thank Cliff Carbol from A1 Auto Salvage in Edmonton, Alberta for selling me this bus and for providing me with the parts to make 22 look like it does today. Next I would like to thank Chris Slaney and Rob Byers from Canadian Premier Charters/More Better Buses/Leander Coach Lines for their numerous hours of help with different things they contributed to my bus. I would also like to thank Peter McLaughlin, Martin Parsons, Kevin Lo, Ashton Wong, Dan Dinu, Andrew Gold, Brian Grams, and several others who contributed to assisting with various things to keep 22 going, providing information, assisting with mechanical repairs, and more. Two other corporate establishments that I would also like to thank is Ron Befus from ABR Coach Services Limited in Airdrie, AB for his excellent efforts in repairing my bus as well as Jim and Darrell at Pet Autobody in Calgary, AB for their hard efforts to paint my bus. And last but not least, I would like to thank everybody who donated cash and other valuables to my bus to assist in the restoration process. Their names can be found on the Donations page of this section, along with on a plaque that will be installed on 22 sometime in the near future. 22 looks absolutely fabulous and I'm happy for everyone's contributions. Thank you very much everyone!!!
November 29, 2005:
As the end of November approached fast, I had to take 22 into the shop for another inspection. Every 6 months in Alberta, buses are required to have a Commercial Vehicle Safety Inspection completed. The first 3 photos shows 22 covered with the little amount of snow that we received in November 2005.
Along the way, we stopped for photos a few times. The first stop shows the front of 22 as it is parked on a side road next to Deerfoot Trail North, while the second photo is shown taken in the Deerfoot Industrial north of 64 Avenue NE. If you look closely at the rear photo, you can see Calgary Transit #1103 (A 1982 GM T6H5307N) passing on the road further in front of the bus as it was doing some training.
Shortly before arriving in Airdrie at the shop, we stopped along Range Road 290 North of 208 Avenue. This section of road was freshly leveled after being recently filled with more gravel. 22 got a bit dirty from the trip up, but the country view made the drive worth while. While the bus was at the shop, 22 also received a block heater, a coolant change, and the oil/filter changed on the engine.
December 10, 2005
December 10th marked the date of the first charter that 22 ever operated on. London Drugs - Mount Royal Village location used my bus for 22's first charter since I fixed the bus up. We used it for the store's Christmas Party shuttling a small group of people to and from the Christmas party. The three photos above show 22 parked at 1508 8 Street SW while it was waiting to pick up the group that was about to use the bus for the night.
This page last updated on February 4, 2006