To buy or not to buy

Byzantine51

New member
I have been looking into a 4x4 van or bus for a long time, and have found two 2011 GMC Minotaur short school buses with Quigley conversions and about 140k miles apiece on Chevy 6L V8s. Standard rust situation for vehicles from New England, not great but not true cancerous rust yet. Seller is asking $10k. He owns a dealership/garage and said he will include a full service and 6 brand new AT tires (it's a duallie). Included are some pictures. What do you guys think of this deal? I plan on converting it into a 4x4 camper for Utah and Colorado bike/camping/desert trips. Also, does anyone know the state rules for Colorado regarding repainting privately owned school buses? I know I have to remove/disable the stop sign and its armature, remove all "School Bus" signage, and probably change out the 8 colored light lenses, but do I have to change the color? Thanks for all advice in advance, love this site.
 

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rex_1_mn

Observer
4x4 bus’s are not the most common. If the rust isn’t killing them I think that’s a pretty good deal. I would budget to do some steering and suspension maintenance. Most conversions alone cost about what the entire vehicle does in this situation.
 

boardrider247

Weekend warrior anarchist
I feel those are priced pretty well.
If it were a standard body van GM quig conversion the asking price would be at least double if not higher.


Personally if I were local I'd jump on it.
 

UHAULER

Explorer
Seems like a fair deal. You can always offer a little less. You couldn't have a van converted for that price.
 
That rust doesn't seem too bad, relative to where I live, they salt the roads 6 months a year and we get a lot of mid winter melts. As for price, again, locally, try finding a nice 4x4 van for less than 40K cdn. Those buses offer a big upgrade in usable space over a van, especially for a camper.
 

eporter

Adventurer
Go for it! The school bus body offers some nice room for a ski RV setup. Plus it's easy to setup a wood stove in there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Bbasso

Expedition Leader
Sure the surface rust doesn't look toooo bad but every nut and bolt that you will have to eventually take apart will have you cursing.
 

eporter

Adventurer
What part of the country have the buses been used?

I grew up in upstate NY, and I HATE rust. I'd be hesitant to touch anything like that, but I say that living out here on the west coast. So, if they've only got ~6-7 winters on them, they might not be totally bad. And you might not have to do a whole lot of maintenance for a couple great years of adventures...

I bought a ~14 year old Mazda for $200 in Syracuse. It had a "brake problem". I ended up replacing EVERY SINGLE STEEL brake line, gas line, all brake hardware, and the gas tank. Then the ebrake cable snapped-from rust.
 

eporter

Adventurer
I've been watching a 1995 E350, 7.3PSD 4x4 ambulance inch up past 10k on Govdeals. Stout rig for sure, and will likely go higher. One of these buses that's ~15 years newer & half the age for 11k w/ 1k in new tires seems pretty good.
 

Byzantine51

New member
They are 2011 buses from New England and Pennsylvania. I do hate rust but I have a metal/welding shop at my disposal. Good advice about the duallies in CO dirt roads. I plan on having the undercarriage glass blasted and coated in Por15 anti rust coat.
 

Deshet

Adventurer
PM me if your are interested in a 1995 7.3 powerstroke 4x4 Single Rear with 94,000 miles.
Virginia Safety Inspected and rust free.
Has new tires on all four corners and you can drive it home.
Leaf Springs all the way around, similar to a Ujoint style lift not the coils used by Quigley.
Clean and No rust issues.
I would not buy anything that was government owned North of Maryland.
Also if you are spending that spending the money get a diesel.
$16000 obo
 

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Byzantine51

New member
Thanks for the offer, but it's A) about $3k out of my price range, and B) a diesel, which are notoriously difficult to start in the winter, here in Gunnison, CO, routinely top 5 coldest places in the US every year. It's also 23 years old, which is not something I want to deal with, either.
 

Deshet

Adventurer
As a person that runs into a lot of Northern Vehicles I would proceed with caution.
I have also owned over 50 buses from all over the east coast.
I have not had good luck with the GM 6.0 only engines that I have ever had fell, I haven't had experience with the 2011 model year to be fair. See if Oil Pumps and low Oil Pressure is still and issue in 2011.
Even if you weren't remotely interested in mine I would at least get a Duramax.
A properly running diesel with good glow plugs will start in Alaska just fine.
Two wheel drive schools buses are very tough and capable. Think about what you plan on doing with a 4x4 Dually Bus and it's limitations. You will be spending a lot of money to get to more then just service roads.

Not many on this forum would pass up a 1995 7.3 Turbo Diesel with Southern Garage Kept History for a Northern 6.0 with more miles. If you really like the Chevy just hold out for a clean one, you know that as soon as buy it another will pop up. Honestly I really don't want to sell my Van that is the only reason why it is a $16,000. There is a guy on youtube that bought one of the same vans, I saw the video Years ago, he filmed the process. He showed to buy the Bus it had a few minor problems, the owner but him up in a Hotel over night, and got everything fixed. The guy was happy. His was clean though.

I recently had a Northern Rust bucket Quigley that I sold for $3500.00. It was cheap because of the rust. The new owner is Happy, He is switching everything over to another van.
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/t...igley-Powerstroke-Van-New-Trans-near-VA-Beach

I have only sold 1 vehicle through this website so I am not typing all of this for my personal gain. Northern Rust is no joke. You are looking at a Bus that was never washed, waxed, or rinsed off during it serviceable life or the first 140,000 miles of it's life.

Thanks,
 

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