Brill_C-37M_Bus

I’ve been wanting to post a bus update for a while, but each work day saw just a couple minor fixes. Well, today it all came together, and I finally racked up a mile on the odometer. The Brill runs, and I haven’t forgotten how to drive her! The goal so far this year was to get the bus running well enough to drive out to the street, get loaded on a trailer, and drive a few blocks from the trailer to my new driveway. While trying not to do anything too invasive to jeopardize my upcoming move, I went just a little further: - Filled and bled the long hydraulic line

On the mobile app, there’s been no change to search criteria. I can still search as I always have. I don’t see why that would be different from the desktop version. Above I did a quick search for a kind of Stewart-Warner sender, and got the results I would expect from using an * wildcard. I may have accidentally found the right sender to fix my current gauge mismatch problem, too. So thanks! -Steven

That makes two of us making progress on our RD-450 engines today! Way to go on that thorough inspection, and I’m looking forward to seeing the engine painted. It’ll be a while before I can do anything that in-depth, I just need mine to move short distances for right now. Good luck with the rest of your rebuild, Mike! -Steven

The countdown to starting my bus’s engine has started, and the plan is to fire her up this Saturday. In prep for that, my dad helped me fill and bleed the loooong hydraulic clutch line, then my wife worked the brake pedal while I inspected the air brake chambers for travel distance and smooth operation. I have a small air leak at the gauge to fix, but otherwise everything looks as good or better than last time the bus ran, in October 2019. Wish us luck! The photo shows the shiny rebuilt clutch slave cylinder (thanks, White Post Restorations!) now full of fluid, and the big battery s

That’s a very neat setup! I’m about to move and have a couple options of how to set up my new workspace, so seeing your work is very motivating. For now I’m working on my brain... cramming in as much Bendix-Westinghouse air brake hardware knowledge as I can find. It really feels good to reach the point where learning about one system (say, air door valves) makes me realize new things about the other systems (like electrical). It takes a while, but it’s all starting to come together!

Did someone ask for green? Got plenty of that color!

I want to finally get my bus ready to drive, at least locally (being ready for longer trips will take even more time and money!). So I’m starting with some electrical troubleshooting. The wiring diagram for a ‘51 Brill C-37M is incredibly simple compared to the electric streetcar diagrams I’d learned from before, but I’m guessing it’s still big compared to car diagrams of the ‘50s. I have persistent shorts in the gauges, so I pulled the panel out to bench-test it. While testing the wires leading to the gauge panel, the old temp gauge sending

Wow, this classic is looking great! Excellent work.

For me it can be anything from ‘30s-‘40s swing to ‘60s surf rock, or as modern as ELO and Queen. But any tunes are always a welcome addition to the workday! -Steven

This thread is interesting to me, coming in from the electric railway museum scene. One good question is, what does “restoration” mean to you? How complete a scope, how big a budget, or how perfect a finish are expected from a “typical” restoration? Or, what is just a slight cleanup compared to a full restoration? And do you think that meaning has changed over the years? That might lead to some answers to the question in the thread title, but I’m not near experienced enough to suggest any myself. That meaning of “restoration” sure changes from collector cars to mass transit pr

Hey Lump, I’m glad that info was useful. Here’s the answers you asked for: Question 1: I haven’t used quotes except to search for an exact phrase with one or more spaces in it. It doesn’t help emphasize words within a search. Question 2: In a comma-separated list, there is no need for a space after each comma. Some of my searches have so many things to include or exclude, they end up so long that I’m hitting the limit for how long a saved search can be! So leaving the spaces off saves on length. And yeah, eBay will recognize the comma or parethesis as a separation

Thanks BearsFan315, that sounds like a solution that covers nearly every item I’m looking for, with bonus points that I’m already familiar with the software. I hadn’t thought of the feature to send a map planned on a computer to my phone, but that’s perfect! I do wonder if anyone will ever come out with a sort of “touring” or “antique car” mode for a navigation app, but this will do in the meantime. -Steven

I agree with your frustrations, and it does take some work to get around those issues. I’ve had a lot of success using special characters in long searches, and saving the search. I’ll try to describe it for any computer skill level. My saved searches usually are a series of sets of parentheses. eBay only shows listings that fit the conditions in EVERY set of parentheses; if it doesn’t match just one, I’ll never see it (which is usually good!). For example, I use this to look for Auto-Lite parts for my bus: (autolite,auto lite,auto-lite,prestolite,presto-lite,pres

I’m looking for suggestions of a GPS navigator app with some features friendly to classic or antique cars. I’ve tried a couple Internet searches, but I don’t see many app websites or list articles relevant to my search. Some features I’d like are: - The app MUST have the ability to manually place waypoints or customize the route. The standard Google and Apple map apps lack this. Especially since my classic is 30 feet long, there are certain very specific road features I’d like to detour around case-by-case, not with some algorithm that doesn’t understand my situation.

I started a new tradition this year: decorating my Brill bus for the holidays. Lights, ornaments, and a retro-style bus stop sign rounded out this first year’s display. I took cues from both Trailways and Greyhound ads and signs of the 1940s and 50s for my sign. Their old ads are such wonderful works of art! I hope I can get near their level someday. -Steven