|
Paul programmes the destination board to announce the buses
main intent, while Scrivo plays bus driver.
|
The Cheetahs Street Rod Club (Paul has been a
member for >30 years) have been around a lot longer than most, and
their social events are always a great time, plus they've been known
to have a cold drink or two on a hot day. The 8 seater bus
idea came to Paul after another of the Cheetahs SRC bus trips to the
Stanthorpe vineyards, and the irrepressible Paul had the makings in
production in short order.
The chassis is a long wheel base '32 commercial
unit; parts of the cowl came from Rod Hadfield's Castlemaine based
stash, as well as parts left over from Paul's red '34. Bits of the
cab were being used as a urinal at Pat Laub's place, but cleaned up
fairly well. Paul hand formed the bonnet sides, joining '32 and '34
parts, and custom formed the one piece 32 style bonnet top and
internal latch mechanism.
The front fenders are 'glass '32 passenger style,
and Paul adapted a repro dropped headlamp cross bar by inserting a
custom inner section that he rolled, TIG welded and polished.
A Commodore radiator was inverted and Paul made
custom top and bottom tanks, all to keep the 4 litre Lexus quad cam
all alloy V8 cool. Not that these things aren't already cool, what
with their multiple roller cams, 6 bolt mains and high flowing electronically fuel
injected heads, and massive over-engineering throughout. Paul
adapted a Ford C4 auto to the Lexus V8, then made his own
extractors, before having the extractors HPC coated.
The front end is a reliable HT unit, while the
steering is a narrowed Commodore rack & pinion unit, with a
Commodore column. The interior will use
Transport
Seating Technology
leather covered, reclining, swivelling coach seats, each with arm
rests. These tourists will travel in style.
The rear suspension is a Ford 9" riding on air
bags, and controlled by a triangulated four bar system. The air bags
are necessary for getting the ground hugging bus on and off the
inter-island ferry - the back of the bus will need to come up a ways
to clear the deck.
Those round Pontiac tail lamps were used - a
pair of reds for brakes, and a pair of amber for indicators; at
least that was the plan. Paul changed the lenses to amber for the
indicators, but the LED's were red, so he had to get whole new LED
bases cast, in amber, to get everything to work.
◄
 |
The programmable electronic destination
board can also convey messages to people nearby - in this
case the renowned "Cheetahs farewell". |
| |
|
Accreditation: The Editor,
and information supplied by the owner.
|
