Feature - Paul Jones' '34 9-window bus

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Paul Jones' bus was covered to some degree in these pages before, when it was under construction. After a 6 year build, it is on the road, and looking good. Paul had already built a great little '34 pickup, the red one that you can see below, and that build had given Paul the idea of tackling a woodie, or Estate Wagon. However, upon reflection, Paul realised that the timber cladding that woodies use is a high maintenance material, so he switched to the paint 'n forget type of construction, and the woodie project immediately became a bus project - more complicated to build, but requiring lower maintenance.

The LED destination board is capable of delivering up to 100 pre-set messages, some of which can be quite informative.

The luxurious leather covered seats are evident here - they are the best that can be bought, in the field of mass transportation.

The front guards are fiberglass '32 Ford units, while the rears are modified; they were originally on a quite rare English Ford Model Y; a mini version of a '34 Tudor.

The rear end is a triangulated Ford 9", with large drum brakes, and uses air bags to facilitate getting on & off the Russel Island barge.

Paul's good mate Bill Bates painted the bus, and the pickup that preceded it.

The '34 pickup has been Moya's daily driver for 6 years, and it has never missed a beat. The side boards reveal one of Jonesey's other commercial interests.

Ready to take the grand-children for a ride, or a group of like minded tourists to the vineyards, the bus is off to a fine start.

This location is a good spot to do features, and the QML architect clearly shares Paul's taste, in that the QML building is also painted silver on blue.

The Transport Seating leather covered seats have seat belts and the most decadent reclining option.

The '34 commercial grille came from fellow Cheetahs club member Wally Deskins, by way of a trade, for a set of rough '34 passenger guards.

Just out of sight is the rear view screen - yes, it has an essential CCTV that graphically reveals where they might be reversing to.

Toyota designed this all-alloy 4 cam motor for luxury sedans, so it should do famously in a 1934 7 passenger bus.

Paul hams it up at a bus stop. We didn't deface the sign, but someone had changed the numbers around.

The cowl came from Rod Hadfield's collection in Castlemaine, and the 131½" wheelbase frame was found in Kingaroy. Paul had learnt quite a deal about building long wheelbase '34 projects with his earlier '34 extra cab pickup, so he Z'ed the frame and established the ride height in pretty short order, and the build then entered the long drawn out part.

Phil Dean rolled up the side panels from sheet, adding the '32 style swage lines along the belt line. It occurred to Paul that the roof would essentially be an up-turned skiff, so he obtained some honeycomb core cell foam, and coated it in epoxy, over a western red cedar frame - the timber was recycled from a bathroom renovation. The interior roof was so well laid up that the bus didn't need any hood lining.

Paul bought a Toyota Lexus V8 half-cut, pulled the 1UZ-FE motor and most of the wiring, then adapted a C4 Ford 3-speed trans to the Lexus. Paul turned up his own adaptor, and it works exactly as it should.

The instructions from Paul's wife Moya were to not spare the credit card, as this would be their last rod. The 8 leather seats certainly soaked up some spare cash.

8 seats, and 6 sets of electric windows - phew! We can see why it took so long to build. Additionally, each window had to have its own custom made window surround, which Phil Dean fabricated from scratch.

The bus has three doors, but it isn't a hatchback. The rear door looks as though Edsel designed it, with all the right swages in the right places.

Redlands Auto Electrics wired the bus, and Pat Laub assisted with all the tricky bits just before the bus hit the road, for which Paul is grateful.◄

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