Introduction / Overview:
Back in 1942, western Truck and Auto out of Winnipeg Manitoba Canada built a couple of Glass-Top buses for Brewster transport in Banff Alberta Canada, they were well received and in 1946, 42 more were built, on the ford industrial cowl and chassis.
These buses were used for a few years before they were "retired" from service and sold to the government, after the government was done with them they were all destroyed (as was the customary thing to do back then) But somehow this bus (#27) was not destined to that fate, instead it bounced from owner to owner, spending time as a work bus and a crew bus in Alberta and British Columbia before ending up in a wrecking yard in the 1960's, where it sat for many years and became the local make-out spot for teens!
But...
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far far away...
My dad was a long haul truck driver, working hard to provide for his family! He had been driving through a town in central Alberta Canada called Lamont, it was sitting in the remains of a wrecking yard near the center of town more or less all alone (there was a 1953 Chevrolet and some junk around it)
My dad had spotted it over and over as he would drive through town, all the while his thoughts would gravitate towards this ugly, decrepit bus slowly sinking into the ground out in that field. After some research he was able to find out that it was owned by a local wrecking yard that had been at the same location as the bus, but had moved to the other side of the field, but they had left it where it was because it was to much of a hassle to move to the new yard!
In 1984 a deal was made to buy the bus for $400, there had been higher offers made on the bus over the years before we bought it, but none of the potential buyers wanted to restore it, most wanted to cut the glass roof off of it to put on other buses! So mom and dad packed us kids up (I have 2 older brothers) in the Suburban and we headed up to Lamont to get the bus ready to bring home.
A lot of the bus was still there but everything was in very bad condition, it had been stripped of a few seats and its wheels, so it was sitting on its frame on the ground and had sunk with the door open thus crushing the bottom 2 feet of the door!
The owner of Aldons Auto Salvage was nice enough to not only get the bus out of it's 'hole' but to get it up on wheels and rolling too! Then they even towed it out to our house a few hours away!
Home at last! This picture is after many hours of work had already been done, like roughing out the front fenders and hood and installing the new engine. The original (the one that was in it when we got it) engine was seized solid so we found a 1951 239 Flathead V8 at a local hot rod shop, when they fired it up on the shop floor and it started to dance around and blow flames out the exhaust ports, we knew it would work (I was a young kid at the time, and it's one of my fondest memories!)
Soon it was mobile and running great too! But the amount of work that still lay ahead was mind boggling to say the least, but blind ambition can go a long way to help get things done!
You can see where the bottome of the door was replaced up to the seam! The entire body was covered in dents of all sizes and rips too, and because it as an aircraft aluminum body (with a steel roof frame and front-end) it was a lot more work to get things back together and the damage fixed.
Details of the side emergency door and this is the only bus I've ever seen with a trunk! If you look closely you can see marks from it being hit by loaders in the wrecking yard for many years.
The roof frame with all of the broken glass and plexy glass roof panels removed so it can be repaired and prepped for sealer.
Notice that the front fenders have been massaged even more in this picture.
Still sanding and repairing damage, there was a lot to fix.
My dad starting to spray the primer/sealer with ominous clouds rolling in. I think this was in 1985.
After the bus was built for and used by Brewster Transport, it was sold to Parks Canada as a work bus, they painted over the nice blue and yellow with a nasty looking lead based orange and painted most of the roof panels green for some reason.
One really hot day my dad my brothers and I were peeling old paint off of the bus when dad saw that this decal had a corner lifting, so he very carefully started to peel it off and managed to get it off in one solid piece! It looks to be hand painted and has one very evil looking beaver on it!
The trunk and yet more damage. (keep in mind that in these shots many many hours of pounding and pulling of dents has been done)
The original plan was to do it up in a home made combination of burgundy and slate gray (the gray turned out a little on the purple side because it had been mixed under florescent lights)
But while on a trip to Banff in 1991 we wanted to try and find out some history on the bus from Brewster, and we were told about their 100th anniversary celebrations being held there in the fall of 1992. They asked us if we could get it together in time for this celebration.
A coaster featuring the only 1936 White that Brewster ever had, Yellowstone and Waterton National parks had the rest!
Here is a shot from 1992 of the Waterton Park fleet of Whites (The Yellowstone fleet was painted yellow)
Now comes the fun part, prepping for primer and paint!
Not everyone has the luxury of being inside a fancy workshop with a spray booth!
My brothers and I were always ready to help where we could.
The blue gets laid down on the roof first.
Stop posing and get back to work...
And then the bottom gets its blue too.
Lines get plotted and measured on both sides, and the masking starts.
That's a lot of surface to try and cover, and the wind was not helping. It's not like we could park it inside anywhere!
That was a lot of masking!
Now the yellow gets laid down the sides, it's starting to look like something now!
I think peeling the tape is one of my favourite parts, when I see that colour separation it all feels so good!
Fitting the new Plexiglas roof panels.
All of the roof panels were made in my driveway, by hand and custom fitted on the spot! All 18 roof panels!
And viola! A basically finished restoration, all that was left at this point (in 1991) was the interior.
A couple of tickets that were still under the upholstery when we tore it down!
A photo from a book on the history of Brewster Transport showing the post-war 1946 Fleet of Skyview buses, mine is either the first one in line or the second, nobody really knows for sure.
We found the same train station and attempted to recreate the same picture in modern times! It seemed a little sad though, this is rumored to be the only Bus like this left in existence out of the 44 that were built, the train is gone and so are most of the people too.
While in Banff for the celebration, we toured around the town, and ended up at the world famous Banff Springs Hotel!
Later on (in 1995) the bus was used on a new Canadian television show called Jake and the kid, it was about the life and times of young Ben Osbourne (Ben Campbell) who was being raised by his mother Julia (Patti Harris) and the hired hand Jake Trumper (Shaun Johnston) in the fictional 1952 Rural Saskatchewan town of Crocus! The series was very popular but was only made for 2 seasons due to a cut in the funding.
The series was based on the Canadian cult classic book series written by W O Mitchel.
The "town" of Crocus was built in a field near where I live (literally a stones throw!)
On location, filming episode #4.
A strange sight to see in the middle of nowhere, a time warp of a "town".
Many props were acquired from the locals, the towtruck is my dads, and it should be on the road by this summer (it's a 1936 GMC ute that was built as a hot rod in the late 30's or early 40's) and the 1937 Dodge 2-door is mine as well!
Winter sucks, and it is never fun having no Quonset or a big garage to park the buss in in the winter.
Some of the many car shows I've taken it to, I like that 'fun shows' where there are no trophy's or competition! Because people can be relaxed and happy!
And yes, we do drive it as often as possible! This picture was taken just before pulling into my own driveway after going to town for groceries (I drove through a Wendy's drive-through while I was out, that was fun to see the looks on their faces!)
An actual photo from Western Truck and Auto in 1946 when the bus was built!
Driving through the Columbia ice fields in 1946, the glacier has receded a couple of hundred feety back from this point since 1946.
Cave and Basin hot springs in 1946, my bus is the one with the big gouge in the side of it (it still had that when we got it!)
The following are screen shots of my bus in action on the TV series Jake and the kid 1996-97
I keep finding blogs on my bus and other cars on other sites and I am very very flattered by this, but I must ask to please get the facts right when writing about it, when the facts are incorrect on other sites it always seems to come back to me and cause me grief... So feel free to quote anything here directly or contact me for more information you may need or questions you may have, I am always happy to help out when I can!
QuanticChaos1000 @ Hot Mail . Com
If you contact me I will also link back to you and your blog!
Gotadime http://blog.cardomain.com/2009/04/29/ryans-ford-glass-top-bus/
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2007/05/19/the-toughest-46-ford-resto-we-can-imagine/
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/03/last-glass-top-bus-of-brewster.html
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