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PHOENIX RISING, a WordPress Photo Blog and Web Journal by Ray Bangs
| ABOUT ME | SERVICES OFFERED | PHOTO GALLERY | WORKS PORTFOLIO | CONTACT ME

Ray’s Chop Shop


Photos 1 - 20 out of 20 | Back to Albums
This 1972 bus body was fairly straight and immediately I saw it had a ton of useful parts. The bus in 72 was a weird model, where the most of it matched the previous body style (like my 71 Betty), but in 72 the bus got the new wider read end, and the famous type 4 tird of a motor... I found it for $200 on craigslist, with no motor or tranny. My bus needed the windshield, steering box, and front clip to start (worth easily $600 to replace new/used), plus I ended up with a ton of little latches and clips and whatnot. Then I sold the pop-top camper top for $50, the camping louvre windows for $100, and the dashboard for $50 to make up my cost. The rest is gravy, baby, gravy... The doors and dash came off in a southwest minute. Boxes of parts, boxes of rain...
My 1971 bus Betty got dozens of little parts, starting with a like-new bulb for a weak brake light... Of course, it turned out to be a whole lot more than a crappy bulb... Patrick and I ended up rebuilding the whole tail-light housing. Took about 20 minutes or so, emphasis on the so... Patrick tries to solder the brakelight housing piece, but I ended up having to perform surgery... Patrick starts cutting the rear clip
this photo somewhat shows just how straight she was, but once we started cutting... Would have been nice to save and body-off restore, but that's serious time and dough. Hell, just put a layer of clear coat over the rust, and preserve it.. WOW that could have been hot... oh well... The rear end is off to Patrick's brother Bernie for his bus, "Princess" the junkyard dogs pose for a pic...
Dollar Bill and Patrick finish cutting the sheet metal on the sidewalls. Kids, do not attempt the one-hand sawzall maneuver without proper training. Pat wonders where the bus went, Dollar Bill looks for things to sawzall...
It hardly took anything to heft the bus up on her side... and then the front beam came off rather simply by unrouting some hoses and wires, cutting a few little brackets and whatnot off the frame, then pop off 8 bolts, and voila... We strategically cut off the rear beam, which is integrated in the frame. These are super heavy duty, loaded under tension like you wouldn't believe, and one would think highly sought after to be used on a sandrail... turns out, since the bus is so heavy, the beams are too heavy duty for a rail. Pat is ready to finish chopping the pan/frame...
Instead we fasten together a hillbilly gocart... At least it's much easier to roll around supported, than trying to lift the beams that weigh hundreds of pounds... The white piece bolted to the front is from the old pool fence, and shoved into that is an angle iron C bolted to the rear beam. The brake lines work... The beginnings of a a beautiful desert cruiser... * The blue bins are for Waste Vegetable Oil, which is collected from local restaurants instead of throwing it away... It can be used in place of diesel fuel. It's costs virtually nothing to produce because it's a waste product, and it's not polluting like petroleum. Somehow this technology (from 1920s) is not considered to be an Alternative Fuel vehicle by state of Arizona... If that isn't an alternative fuel, I don't know wtf In some ways I'm sad to see another bus off the road, but this one was just rusting in a guy's backyard junkyard. In death, the bus lives on, traveling to a new life in many directions, parts going off to many new people and new busses. In my garage, the bus beams sit, disc brakes!-- soon to go on Andrew's 69 Bus "Bandit" - something curious about the greatest potential energy of a stationary wheel, oh that is quite interesting to try to wrap your head around
Patrick finishing the first major cut across the pan. The bright work light makes it seem like midnight, but it was only dusk. Ray's Chop Shop... We can take a $200 junkyard scrapper van, get $5000 worth of parts out of it and make tons of people happy, extend the life of many other buses, and meanwhile have a crazy fun time. Life is good....  
Photos 1 - 20 out of 20 | Back to Albums
Description: This old bus with beautiful patina was going to get scrapped, but as a firm believer in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, I figured we could reduce the need to buy new parts and reuse MANY parts off her, and then recycle the skeleton to scrap metal. There wasn't much left... Here's just a very small list of the many useful parts we were able to salvage, recondition, and reuse or sell --- steering gear, front clip, rear clip, sliding door, windshield and all the other windows, driver door window regulator, passenger door mechanics, door latches, engine hatch lid, rear door, seat stands, seats, vent covers, camper top, dashboard, lightbulbs, enginebox insulation grates, lots of extra body tin to use for whatever, and a coffee can of nuts and bolts. And then of course, I've got the front and rear beams for my dunebuggy project! sweet/ see ya on the flip side...
Location: Phoenix, AZ