Hot Rods 1947 Flxible Clipper Bus Warner Bros Studio Burbank CA Original

heres our original 47 Flxible Clipper 29 passenger motor coach. was bought new by Warner Bros Studio in Burbank. we use it for Baseball Barnstorming Trips with the kids from the Marian Anderson Rec center in SW Philadelphia. on our last trip in summer of 2012 we travelled 4200 miles in 21 days. its a head turner

 

Does it have a Buick straight eight engine?

 

what are the dates of your stops? I'd love to see the bus up close.

 

originally yes rich. Warner Bros sent it back to Flxible in 1971 and it was repowered with a 401M GMC V6 gas engine. they were swinging entire engine units from the GMC Bluebird school buses with the flywheel and clutch and all the pulleys, accessories, etc in place of the Buick 8. trans is non synch Spicer 4 speed. steering is manual. weve run this at 400 and 500 mile stretches in 100+ degree weather. with the factory repower and the complete original 29 passenger interior I believe this to be probably the most original of its type in existence. if you go to philly.com/monarchs there are a bunch of videos and stories there.

 

if you go to the philly.com/monarchs site a couple of the articles include trip itinerary. or you can go to google and type in Barnstorming on the Bus. not going anywhere far this year. machining spacers for rear drive hub seals. the original seals were leather and mounted on the spindle. with spacers we can use modern hub mounted seals. rear drums have minor heat checking so we need to have a pair of custom drums made. also refoaming seats. 67 year old foam is done. retaining seating surface but stitching in new side panels for the backrests. we are planning a road trip for next summer.

 

Here is a Flxible Starliner I had a few years ago and should have kept. Original paint

 

Man these things are so cool! I keep telling my wife we need one of these converted to an rv to travel in but haven't quite got her convinced yet.

 

MLB sponsored part of the 2012 trip. we got to met many major league players and tour ballparks in between playing games on the road. team is named after the Kansas City Monarchs. last pic shows the original KC team and their bus. one of the closing shots in the Barnstorming shows a surviving KC player ( I forget his name). he told me they used to take the spare tire out of the fender mount. the guys would pile in the car and the last guy would ride in the fender well where the spare was removed. said it wasn't a bad ride but falling asleep would be the end. crazy.

 

Guffey. that Starliner is incredible. where did it go?

 

It's so neat to see one of these old Flexi's with seats in it...that itself is very rare

 

philly.com/monarchs not sure if this link will work

 

youtube.com/watch?v=pDD8t5UfXFc heres a link from youtube prior to our 2012 Barnstorming Tour

 

yes jim the interior is a time warp. wooden frame recliners, art deco style banjo like cast endcaps on the overhead luggage rack, pull down shades, toeboard aisle lights, reading lights, original flooring with Flxible script in center. we even have the wooden step down box the driver would set out for the passengers. heres a youtube link from our first tour in 1997. this was a barn fresh bus(24 year storage in a 180 year old barn in CT) in the Warner Bros fleet colors of the day. local Phila news station gave us a camcorder and we overnited footage every evening. its a fun watch. this is Part 1 youtube.com/watch?v=raEJ0nAmPm4

 

youtube.com/watch?v=bICl_HZJs3Y PART 2 of the 97 tour with Field of Dreams Iowa and Buck Oneil Kansas City Monarchs footage

 

That's a rolling piece of art. I can just imagine the attention it gets while you're on the road.

 

yes people love seeing it. looks the best in motion. check out the vid www.philly.com/philly/sports/Barnstorming_with_the_Anderson_Monarchs.htm if the link doesn't work just google Barnstorming on the Bus

 

Tommr86.....Those Flxible busses are just so very cool !! What an incredible find and good use for this time capsule. Thanks so much for sharing the pics and story!

Guffey...that Starliner is gorgeous !! You should be flogged for letting that go ........unless, of course, you had sold it to me!

 

that Starliner was a rare grab. wonder where it went? it was kind of a list of coincidences that led us to this bus and to eventually own it. it was also kind of a comedy of errors getting it road ready. still needs a lot.

 

Just too cool!

 

tons of fun bruce. thanks

 

I painted two of those for a bus company in Holyoke Ma. many a years ago.
One was a studio bus like this one that never went anywhere but on the movie lot.
The other one was the road tour bus for The Grateful Dead.

 

Same bus? From Warner Bros. A Star Is Born, 1954:


(Images from IMCDb.org)
Edit: Maybe not; the number over the windshield is 464, and your instrument panel has a label with 469 on it. Still, it's at least a "sister ship".

 

hello roger this is the same bus you painted. it was actually in the Warner Bros fleet service and was the last Clipper they had when they sold it in 1974. paint is holding up pretty well. we are taking the bus to Philly this week. it hasn't been out since summer of 2012. just using it locally this year. planning another 4,000+ mile tour summer of 2015. check out the video links in prior posts. thanks. tom

 

cool pics chris. our bus was painted tan but we could see that blue under some areas of flaking paint. apparently that is the original WB paint scheme.

 

I really dig old Flxible Bus.
Here is a scrawl I did a few times ago :

 

Great story.

 

you got some talent and imagination frogz. pretty cool

 

Thanks Tommr, much appreciated.

 

your welcome frogz. there is a side girder on the side of the bus that runs horizontally from wheel well to wheel well. its about 14 inches from the bottom of the bus. you can see it clearly in the glen Williams bus above. I want to replace the sheetmetal below the girder with mirror finished stainless sheet. can you do a side shot of our bus with the stainless on the bottom? not going to do ahead of the front wheel or behind the rear wheel. thanks

 

Something like that, maybe ?