Osprey
Osprey
1955 White Super Power
Text and photos: Steve
|
|
| Silverbear influenced me about '74 to get a bus, which I did. I bought the Osprey for $300, it was in Gig Harbor, Washington. At that time the bus was full of garbage, and overgrown in a massive blackberry thicket, which were also growing inside the bus, with the rotting old garbage! But the owner assured me it used to run great when he parked it, and sure enough, when we could cut away the blackberries to get to the engine and put new points, plugs, condenser, battery and new gas, the damned thing actually started up and ran! |
From humble beginnings...
 |
I rebuilt her about 87 with the cedar boxes on top, that's the first rebuild. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of it before when it was painted red white and blue, how I purchased it. |
The next rebuild...
|
|
| I realized I didn't do it right the first time, so I reconstructed to what you see. It's actually three buses in one! The two on the top are 16 footers, one's a Superior body off of a Dodge bus. The other 16 footer, I don't recall which make it is, but the body is a Ward body. It was a hell of a situation getting them to bond to the Osprey's Superior body to perfection, but we got the job done, with a little help from friends. |
| The Osprey is original stock motor, flathead 6 cyl, and 5 speed, I've added a Browning gear box, giving me 15 gears now, she gets about 4 miles to the gallon and drives nicely. We had to add new back springs, and huge truck air shocks on the suspension to stabilize for it's size. I have had this old bus at least 32 years, and it is not for sale, it's my house! |  |
|
|
| I almost tipped it over once, when a soggy logging road in some wilderness gave in on one side. That was very scary, perhaps a couple more inches and the whole thing would have been on its side in a ditch, in the middle of nowhere. My wife and I sweated two days with heavy jacks and shovels, trying to save this from happening, and eventually succeeded. Without anyone's help, we managed to avoid our worst nightmare. Imagine if your house tipped over in the wilderness, and that was everything you had. |
|
|
|
Those are dozens of crystals imbedded into the door, each |
|
|
|
Here, Ospery is parked alongside Patchs, Silverbear's bus. |
Original material ©1996-2024 Mr. Sharkey | All rights reserved