I have owned my 1982 MCI MC-9 Custom Coach Corporation (CCC) bus for a year and a half now. When it was first converted, it was CCC’s show coach, and I'll bet she was really something when they first converting it. She has held up really well for being over 40 years old, especially the inside. 

I don’t know how long the coach was with CCC until they sold her the first time.  Perhaps the first owner took good care of her, kept up with the maintenance, ensured all of the systems were in working order, and probably knew those systems like the back of their hand. I myself am clueless to a lot of it and have a lot to learn yet, but at some point, she was sold again, possibly three more times, each time getting less and less attention to maintenance, just driven for miles and miles. 

To be clear, though, the total miles on the coach were 151,000 when I bought it, so it's not a converted service bus with tons of miles on it; this was a brand-new shell when CCC purchased it for the initial conversion. 

One owner ran over something in the road that kicked up in the engine compartment, knocked the lower radiator hose off, and kept driving it with coolant leaking out, ruining the engine. The 8V92TA was replaced in 2013 with a professionally built engine by Jay Wood, a former employee at Custom Coach, who had owned it three different times. Still, it had been ten years since he owned it the last time, and from what I can tell, it had only had about 5,000 more miles put on it when I purchased it in January of 2023. 

I know the last two owners did very little maintenance or upgrades to the bus. The seller I got her from evidently had to put tires on the drive axle in 2018 and new batteries in 2019.  The owner before him put tires on the tag axle in 2017, but when I bought it, nobody had put steer tires on it since 2015. According to the mileage, that would mean that none of the tires had more than a few thousand miles on them. They are knee-deep in tread, with no cracks showing, but they are old. 

As I mentioned in the first article I wrote for BCM about this bus, The Gypsy Queen, we spent our whole budget purchasing the coach, so progress is going slow on restoring it back to life. I changed the oil and filters not long after I purchased it because the previous owner had owned it for four or five years and said he never changed them. Still, at that time, he only made one 2,200-mile round trip in it and did some local camping; he said pretty much the same thing was told to him by the previous owner from whom he purchased it. 

I guess they put a new air filter in it when the engine was swapped out because I bought one to replace it with, and the filter that came out was clean as a whistle; I saved it but put the new one in any way. I also painted the inside of the breather housing with POR-15 because it was rusty. 

I put all new belts on the engine, AC pump belts, fan belts, and a belt for the 12-volt alternator that sits on top of the fans. The fan system itself was built up with oil and dirt. I don't know if it was leaking or if they just spilled oil on it every time they added to it, but I want to take all of that out and replace the gaskets and bearings, as well as the rubber isolators, give it a good cleaning, and fully clean it, and paint the fans. 

When getting the coach ready to take my first trip in it back in September of 2023, I noticed one day that the low engine coolant light wouldn't go out while I had it running. After further inspection, every rubber hose or boot was seeping coolant, so I tightened them up and added two and a half gallons of coolant. I noticed that the lower radiator hose, probably the same one that caused the damage to the engine, wasn't straight and was sitting on the frame rail.

I didn't have the time or money to replace all of the hose joints and coolant, so I slid a piece of split clear rubber hose between it and the frame rail to prevent chafing and causing a leak and crossed my fingers. The mount that holds the neck was bent. It should straighten right out, but I would have to take the hose off to fix it properly, which meant losing all 30 gallons of coolant, which I hated to do as it still looked good. 

I purchased new taillight lenses and NOS (new old stock) brake lights, and my son Jeremy installed some new LED headlights because the original stock lights didn't give enough light at night. The tail lights work sometimes, but not always as I had truck drivers flashing their headlights at me as they passed, letting me know that one or possibly both lights were not working as they should, even though I put new pigtails and new bulbs in.  It must be a wiring issue? 

I had my friend charge up the three basement AC units and the bus AC system. We never did get the bus AC to blow cold; I think he ran out of freon and didn't realize it. The three house ACs were blowing cold, though, and I knew I could run my generator down the road and have AC. 

Then, I turned my attention to the generator. It's a 12.5kW Kohler with a 4-cylinder Perkins diesel engine. It took a while to get her to start, and within a few minutes, it started overheating. My friend Charlie and I changed the thermostat, which fixed the overheating problem.  We put in some new coolant and fired it back up. 

I kicked on all three of the basement ACs, refrigerator, and battery chargers, and within a few minutes, it flipped the breaker off, so I guess you can't run all three ACs at one time on this generator, or perhaps the breaker itself is weak? I went back out, opened the bay door to the generator, and noticed some oil in the catch pan below it. I looked all over to see where the leak was coming from, and all the gaskets seemed to be at least wet with oil. 

We discovered the main culprit was the oil pan gasket. She had been sitting so long with no running intervals that the gasket had shrunk and dried out, causing the leak. My friend Aaron helped me find a Perkins lower gasket kit, and my son and I spent the better part of a day getting the oil pan off and cleaned, then the matting surface on the block cleaned and a new gasket installed. All of this was an expense, but I was learning that bus maintenance can be expensive but much less expensive than replacing parts after disasters happen. 

On my trip in September, when I was almost to Nappanee, Indiana, the starter started going south, and by the time I got back home, it gave up the ghost, and the engine never started again; I had to rebuild it. When I was almost back to Texas on that trip, none of the ACs were cooling anymore, and I spent $500 having that recharged the first time, which may be cheap, I don't know, but I'm going to have to do it again, and I still need to save money to buy new steer tires at least. 

The electric toilet did not work, as it was not getting power. I am not an electrician, so I opted for a new porcelain straight-drop toilet that is very similar to the toilet in there now and has the same brand name. It has a foot-operated flush, similar to most RVs, and I still haven't installed it yet. The shower drain leaks, so that needs to be tended to as well. 

The water compartment consists of copper pipes with screw-type valves, similar to most buses converted back in the day. There are two water pumps; I have only been able to get one to work.  It also has a macerator pump for the black tank; I still don't know how that works or if it does, but just looking at all of this stuff in this bus is overwhelming; I have never had any experience with any of it. 

I sure could use some hands-on teaching about many things to do with the coach, bus-wise, and the RV side as well. I am not helpless, but I am not rich monetarily by any means, and these things are expensive and confusing to a newbie such as myself. However, I am not afraid to get all up in it. 

I have yet to find a safe place to work on the bus and leave it because I want to take all of the tires off and inspect the underneath and do some major cleaning and detail work. I also want to inspect and replace every wheel bearing that needs it. The front end has some play; I don't know if it can be adjusted or will need King Pins, etc. A power steering hose in the engine compartment is leaking and needs to be tended to as well. 

I want to put all new brake canisters and airlines on if needed. I will inspect the airbags and replace them as necessary, but she has held air for quite a while now. Once I get it jacked up, tires off, waiting for parts, etc., I would need to be able to leave it where it was. Again, that could run into quite a chunk of change; however, peace of mind is priceless. 

If I were better off financially, I would take it to Scott Crosby at Bus Grease Mountain and get him to let me help so I could also learn and go over the whole coach. His videos are what got me into buses in the first place. His son Tyler is the one who got me out of a jam with my starter in Indianapolis on the way to Nappanee, Indiana. 

Raising two grandsons is my top priority; the money spent on the coach could go towards them. Once everything is dialed in and with regular maintenance, the bus will outlast me. Perhaps one of them will take an interest in it, and I will pass it on to them someday. 

I'm glad I have a home on wheels in these uncertain times. I'm also very glad I purchased an already conversion coach because there would be all these current expenses, plus the build-out expense and appliances if starting from scratch. However, when you build it yourself, you do know how everything works, so problems are easier to find, and repairs are easier to make. 

I do believe that I have a good bus conversion. No matter her age, she just needs some love, attention, and affection. Hey, wait a minute. What about my needs? 

The coach has not moved since September 2023. I have fired it up a few times to let it warm up and air up, knowing everything that needs to be tended to and inspected. My wife has shown no interest in it, which is sad because we used to go camping every summer, and the grandsons love camping. 

Plans were to travel cross-country to see more of this great nation, but it won't happen until everything works properly. We have some savings, but again, with the uncertain times we are going through, I don't want to get into any of them. Oh well, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time... 

If you are considering buying a bus, be it a school bus or a private Motorcoach, know what you are getting into. They are not for the faint of heart. If stacks of Benjamins are not in sight, like they aren't for me, know that saving up for things you may need will take time. If you are unfamiliar with buses, have someone with knowledge of buses check it out before buying it.

Many people are selling their homes and downsizing to RVs and bus conversions of all kinds; RV parks are popping up all around us here in Texas. Some are well-appointed, while others are just open fields, but they fill up as quickly as they are built. It could be a lot of young couples are in that mix; buying a house for them is hard to do these days, and rent is astronomical. We have talked about selling our place and downsizing as well, but we really don't want to have to do that. I know I could come out ahead on the sale, but moving out of our home would be hard. God bless us one and all. 

A huge shout-out to Gary Hatt for running these articles to teach others all about living and traveling in conversions of all types. Over the many years that he has been doing this, has helped those of us who are a little older, as well as the younger people getting into this way of life, with solid advice and information.