Bus Update - Part 11
Hopefully this is update 11 of 12 because the end of this saga is nearing. This is a quick post and exciting update about the current stage of the bus since we dropped it off at the mechanic for PA vehicle inspection. Short story, we have officially passed vehicle inspection for PA.
177 days after first laying eyes on this bus and 88 days after purchasing it, we now have a road legal bus in Pennsylvania. This means so much to us to finally be able to start getting it ready for our next big inspection from the health department. I really want to thanks Mick from Mick’s Automotive Service in Cheswick for his work and patience with this vehicle. We brought the bus to him after our first mechanic admitted that it was beyond their capabilities and he accepted this bus into his lot without hesitation. Mick was able to locate all the part needed to replace the tie rods, the torque arm bushings, and a few other random necessities within a few days. With the bus being so large it did not fit in his garage so he did all the work in the lot on days when it wasn’t raining outside. Lo and behold after just over 2 weeks with him we have a fully functional and legal bus to start serving food around Pittsburgh. I count not be more thankful for his skillsets and ability.
In the build up to getting the bus back from Mick we were given a rough time frame of when he would be finished, weather pending. He called us on Tuesday during our prep day with the good news that it was ready for pick up. Scrambling to get the bus back so we can begin the next stage of the build we were lucky to have an extra set of hands in the kitchen, and those hands belonged to Will. Will was assisting us on our prep days to see what it is like in a food truck kitchen commissary and when we got the call he willingly offered to drive me up to Cheswick to pick up the bus. Luke stayed back in the kitchen to finish cooking while we picked up the new bird for the flock.
A lot of stuff happened on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not only did we get the bus back from inspection but we also lined up the time to get the bus to Kevin who is going to install all of our systems. This is the next to last step before we are able to serve food.
Kevin is going to connect all of our equipment, run power, connect gas lines, and install a ventilation system above our grill and fryer. He has been doing this type of work for many food truck in the Pittsburgh area and we are so happy that he accepted this project with his busy schedule.
We were able to drive it to the south hills and drop it off with him to get to work on it, he is just as excited as we are and says the work wont take long once he gets started (hopefully Tuesday he begins). When his work is finished we will just need to get a health inspector onboard to approve everything we have done and then bring it to you to serve food. Hopefully this all goes smoothly and we will have a fully functioning food bus before Christmas hits us.
Also, hope beautiful is this bus in the slow motion snowfall? seriously.
I am so excited to see this project come to an end and begin this next chapter. Thank you again for reading, and hopefully we will see you soon!