Diesel vehicles are certainly not the most common vehicles found at most car shows, between all of the classic muscle, hot rods, and finely tuned European sports cars. While we love our trucks, it’s easy to wander off the beaten path and spend some quality time with things out of the ordinary. While most people might walk past this old school bus, to us, it definitely deserves a second look.

The first thing that caught our eye was the bright-orange Cummins engine and the understanding that only some serious customization could give such a vehicle that kind of stance. We also thought the combination of original and new details inside the vehicle made for some cool shots.

We spoke with Jim Bassett, from Bones Fab, who built the truck, and he filled us in on all of the details of this hot-rodded people mover. Jim explained, “Basically, we found the bus on eBay one night, and after a few cocktails we figured it was a great idea for a fun project. Interestingly enough, as small-world stories go, the mother of the guy that I bought the bus from lives in the same town I do, so the seller offered to drive the bus out to me for the cost of fuel if I could wait a couple of months … that was a no-brainer.”

Jim continued, “It is a 1954 Chevy school bus, C4500, with a Wayne Body. The bus has a lot of custom fabrication put into it – the front suspension is out of a 1985 Chevy dually pickup, which we narrowed about 2 inches, and the rear 10 feet of frame rail is all custom plate since we had to build a custom frame to get the rear to sit that low. The rear is now sitting on a monster four-link with Ridetech bags. We also have Ridetech bags up front, with Accu-Air controls for the entire system.”

The bus is now powered by a 12-valve Cummins engine with a compound-turbo setup, it should produce about 500 to 600 horsepower and 1,000 to 1,200 lb-ft of torque. Bolted to the 12-valve is an NV4500 five-speed gearbox and a Gear Vendor. The bus weighs in at around 11,000 pounds, and gets about 15 mpg on the freeway at 70-75 mph, not bad! Their bus gets used for everything from a grocery getter to a tow vehicle. “We actually towed a 2015 wide-body Audi here to the SEMA Show, so it was pretty cool to see this vehicle rolling down the road with a brand new car like that on the trailer behind us,” Jim said.

We would consider the bus to be a short bus, but Bassett said that Chevrolet’s school bus vendors offered both smaller and larger versions.  “In my opinion, a bus this size is just perfect,” he said.  “Last summer we took this bus on the Hot Rod Power Tour and did 5,700 miles in two weeks with no issues.  We had two Lazy Boy recliners in it, a couple of Honda Trail 70s, my dad, my dog, and me.  We went out and road-tripped it for two weeks and basically, we had a blast.”

The guys at Bones Fab also wanted to thank ARP for helping them get the bus into the show, and for the trick lug nuts now adorning the bus’ wheels. Ultimately we thought the bus was just too cool to pass up, and we hope you enjoy it too.