About the bus
The basic story of the bus itself is pretty unique. It was one of few Flxible Clippers that were sold to a private person. It was never used as a transit bus, a school bus, a military bus or a prison bus. This particular one was ordered custom from the factory in Loudonville, Ohio in 1947 by a fashion designer/tailor from Reno, Nevada. Word has it that he would travel to L.A. and environs with four models, and would park at events and such where he would then use the coach as a stage to peddle his (ahem) wears. Wares. He would take orders for the next season, and return to his shop in Reno, where he would fill them. The destination sign up top front of the bus has interesting statements such as “Here for one more day”, “Order now for Spring”, or “Serving the West”, “Special Fashions for You”, and so forth.
It was designed as a motor home from the get-go, with bed, toilet, closet, kitchen (fridge, counters, stove/oven unit) and some cupboards, as well as being equipped with two luxurious couches up front, one on each side. Some modifications to the original accouterments have taken place (new appliances), but for the most part, the original design remains.
Eventually, (and supposedly only after a 40K miles or so) the tailor sold the coach to another man, who died and willed the bus to his brother who took it up to Creswell, Oregon, sometime in ’79. This man was an upholsterer, and redid the couches and wall panels, and installed carpeting. Pink is not our color, so we will be putting in wood flooring at some point! This guy also rebuilt the engine (supposedly), or at least put another one in, as the original type/size/brand is the same, but the numbers do not match. He put the current paint job on the exterior, and thankfully left the vast majority of the wiring alone. According to the stories, he used the bus very little, and soon after, he also passed on, leaving the bus to his son, who sold it at an estate sale to the people I bought it from, also in Creswell.
The bus only left the property where it was housed (yes, enclosed and/or covered) a couple times in the last 25-30 years. This was because the last owners took it out for a photo shoot and to run it in a 4th of July parade. Needless to say, it required a little bit extra in the way of work to get it ready for the run down to our property near Happy Camp, California but for the most part, it was ready to go, and only some minor tune-up, major lubrication, fluid changes, brake adjustment, etc. were required to make it fairly road-worthy.
The engine is the original type the bus was outfitted with. It’s a Buick FB 320 straight-8, with a single double-barrel carb. Yes, gasoline! It is coupled to a 4-speed manual (non-synchro) transmission, and a low-geared single-speed rear end. The mass of the bus, around 19,000 lbs unladen, is stopped from rolling by air brakes, and I will be adding spring brakes to the rear for safety. The tires are old, but seem to be serviceable bias-ply 9:00-20′s on split rims. The speedometer/odometer does not work, but I will use a cheap GPS unit to monitor my speed and log our miles. I need not go into too much detail here, but there is quite a list of things to be done before I can consider this vehicle ready to safely (relatively speaking) transport us to our new home in Homer Alaska!
