52 Chevy panel project...lots of ???

[2ndGenRR]

Hey everybody - My brother just picked up this monster from Colorado. It's a 3/4 ton (at least?) panel, that is longer than normal panels (it's just shy of 20ft). However, it doesn't show any signs of being lengthened either on the chassis or body, which leads me to believe that it came this way from Generous Motors (I'm originally from Flint...sometimes local vernacular slips out ). Anywho...it lived it's entire life in Wray, Colorado, orginally as a school bus and then as an ambulance for the fire dept. It was modified for these endeavors by a company named Winter Weiss out of Denver.

Anybody know anything else about these trucks? Or have you seen any? Owned one?

Also, looking to convert the front suspension to ifs. I have heard of the '73 - '87 swap...can anybody point me to a thread on these conversions. Would like to use 3/4 ton stuff, but it looks like it is wider than 1/2 ton and therefore wouldn't work. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks for the info.

Pat

[youngrodder]

Hello fello Michigander!!

That is what I call a family hauler. I have never seen one of those, so I can't offer any help. Is this your project or your brothers?

Thanks for sharing with us.

Best of luck

[2ndGenRR]

Hey youngrodder - nice to see another Michigander cruising around this great site during business hours. It's my brother's project...I found it doing some online scrounging and would like to have kept it for myself, but I also found and bought back the '52 GMC that I had when I was kid and that's where my focus is going to be.

He plans to make it a family hauler and trailer puller...but the opportunities are many and I don't think he has settled on a specific build yet.

[youngrodder]

Originally Posted by 2ndGenRR

Hey youngrodder - nice to see another Michigander cruising around this great site during business hours. It's my brother's project...I found it doing some online scrounging and would like to have kept it for myself, but I also found and bought back the '52 GMC that I had when I was kid and that's where my focus is going to be.

He plans to make it a family hauler and trailer puller...but the opportunities are many and I don't think he has settled on a specific build yet.

The beauty of a lunch hr (or a little longer).

Is your 52 the pciture in your avatar? I just found this site a few weeks ago and I am addicted.

The nice thing about your brothers (BIG) project is that it looks fairly complete.

[TooMany2count]

what you have is a one ton (3800 series) School Bus that has been painted whit some time over the years. not many out there & i believe to date i have only seen maybe 6-8 of them including my own out on the big WWW.
what they did was send a 1ton panel truck to a coach shop & had small busses made. you may look around inside the cab or in the engine compartment & u may faind the "Coach Shop" tag. i would bet that if u look the floor from bottom side u will see holes coming through the floor.
GOOD LUCK finding parts for the 1ton suspension & brake parts because they are almost impossible to find, but t here are some out there if u look hard enough. there is someone over at Stovebolt that either has or is making up 8 lug disc brake kits for these beast & you should be able to find a later model rearend to fit also. can't really help u out on any of the suspension stuff since i put mine on a stretched S10 frame.
i will have to say at least it looks like a fairly clean body to start with though considering some of the Panel/Suburban rust buckets i have seen out there...joe

[2ndGenRR]

I knew there was somebody out there that would have one. Yeah, it was painted white when it was converted from a school bus to an ambulance for the fire dept. Under the hood and elsewhere is still #20 yellow (as written on the underside of the hood). No coach shop tag, but there is a "Winter Weiss" tag, which appears to be the outfit that did the conversion. I'll have to take a pic of that.

It is a pretty complete truck...glass is gone on one side, but it's all flat anyway. Rust in one of the rear corners where water sat and the front floor pans, but nothing major. All of the seams are clean, which is super rare on these. I love the rear heater next to the driver's seat!

Thanks for the info...guess we will have to get creative on the suspension, but that's the fun part.

Anybody else out there with info on these?

[2ndGenRR]

Originally Posted by youngrodder

Is your 52 the pciture in your avatar? I just found this site a few weeks ago and I am addicted.

Yup, that one is mine. Started tearing into it and then got sucker punched by a kitchen remodel. I'll be back on it in a month or so...

I hear ya about the site...I'm mostly a voyeur, but hope to start a build thread soon on my GMC.

[TooMany2count]

if u want to see mine click on Large Marge in my sig. she's far from done but i was able to give my son a ride in b4 he went over to Iraq....joe

[2ndGenRR]

Joe - Just got done digging through all those pics. Very cool project and certainly gives me some ideas. Did you have to do anything to the s-10 suspension to carry the weight of the bus?

[TooMany2count]

Originally Posted by 2ndGenRR

Did you have to do anything to the s-10 suspension to carry the weight of the bus?

nopeeeeeeeeeee, the body only weighs about 12-1400 pounds. i use a 4.3 frame & put a 4x4 s10 blazer rear springs & rearend in it. the caddy mtr only weighs about 75pounds more then a SBC mtr so its good to go...joe

[rwspoor]

Pat,

I too have one of these buses. FYI, the Winter Weiss Company's HQ was in Denver. I went to the Denver Public Library and found 6 boxes of materials. I did find a one-page brochure for this bus. I also found an interesting letter which lists the requirements for such a bus in New Mexico.

Your bus and mine are in comparable condition. Do you still have the handle which opens the passenger door? I am also considering what to do with the suspension. It seems that S-10, Camaro, and Nova options would be too light weight for a 1-ton truck. I removed the IFS from a '76 Chevy truck but am still considering the engineering before I start cutting. I will pay attention to those who respond to you and perhaps I will learn something.

In the meantime, I am happy to send you copies of the bus brochure, if you would like them (I will also send them to any other owner of a Chevy Panel truck/bus conversion). Just call me at seven two zero, three five one, eighteen hundred. Pls leave a message.

Finally, I am new at this message board stuff and consider myself lucky if this message gets posted. I do enjoy the information and wit of writers here.

Best wishes, rwspoor

[entourageguy]

Welcome to the board..............

Brian ...

[2ndGenRR]

entourageguy - Whatcha mean...no pics? I see 4!

rwspoor - thanks for the additional info, and welcome to the board! i will contact you regarding the brochure. thanks.