Oink! Oink!

NEWS: PORKY READY TO ROLL!
We're in the final home stretch of getting Porky all done. Seats are in, stuff's organized, and Ryan's got the menu for Air Force DONE! Check out the most recent pics of what you can expect to see (and then some) at the tailgate lot on Saturday.

Hello there folks! Welcome to the temporary home of the Pig Bus website that will chronicle the adventures of "Porky" the Utah Pig Bus. Below you'll find the most recent pics and progress that I'm making with her with the help of Dean *I'm-a-Gigolo* Pruitt, my bro-in-law Aaron "Myself" Melder, RyRy, and the rest of the pig peeps.

A brief history...

Fall 2006: After a successful football campaign last year that ended with a heart-wrenching loss to the lucky TDS boys led by John "Cry-me-a-River" Beck, I decided that our lil' Pig Trailer was becoming a royal pain in the arse to haul in and out of the tailgate lot. Hence the search was on! I bumped around the web and ran across this website www.skoolie.net that gave me the inspiration and motivation to find me a school bus to turn into.....The Utah Pig Bus! So after much consideration (10-minutes) and after consulting with my lovely wife (5-second mention) and pig crew, I set about to find a 'skoolie' that we could turn in to a party-on-wheels, that accommodated my growing inventory of tailgate shizzle and placate our tailgate Napoleon-complex; borne from walking through the hallowed blacktops of Ann Arbor on game day back in the Fall of 2002 awed at the spectacular 'tailgatingness' of Big Blue fans.

What happened NEXT...
I searched near (Idaho) and far (Arizona) to find THAT perfect school bus that screamed and longed to become the "Utah Pig Bus". Unfortunately, most of the buses I found where either too long or too expensive for me to even consider, however, one faithful morning as I was bumping around Craigslist - I happened upon THIS...

...a beautiful, short, and PERFECT school bus just WAITING to be transformed to a magnificent rolling Utah Tailgating PARTY BUS! "Porky" was in Oakland and after some fierce negotiations with his former owner (5-minutes) we agreed on a price, time and place that we would take possession of this awesome bus. Unfortunately, my negotiation skills aren't what one would consider 'good' so I had to fly to Oakland to get her. Fortunately, my buddy Dean happily volunteered to fly out and get Porky from Oakland since I wasn't too comfortable with driving a school bus by myself halfway across the Western U.S. And after 1-1/2 days of traveling through northern California, Reno, the western desert of Nevada, through Wendover, and across western Utah - Porky rolled into Salt Lake City a few weeks before Christmas and our dismantling of Tulsa in the Armed (pit) Forces Bowl.

The Transformation...
Porky chilled for the winter and as soon as it got warm enough we started to hack away at getting her to Pig Bus shape. The first order of business was 'gutting' the bus. With the help of some industrial strength tool-thingies that sparked a lot and some impact-tool thingies that Ryan 'borrowed' from his dad, we were able to take off the seats and clear the floor IN ONE DAY!!

* Dean "Gigolo" Pruitt actually yanked out a 200lb wheel chair lift by herself and kindly left a LIVE electrical wire that was attached to the wheel chair lift on the floor (more on that later).

After a short spring hiatus...work began in earnest starting with a deep cleaning session of the inside of the bus, painting of the interior, laying a new floor down, and plotting out the design / configuration of the Pig Bus. After a few trips to the Home Depot because of 'HDS'....("HDS" Home Depot Syndrome - where you just keep going back and forth to that stupid store because; a) you forgot something, b) you ran out of something, or c) you screwed up something and have to start over again)...we finally got Porky painted and a new floor laid down (some variant Pergo/vinyl flooring) .

When the weather got warm and I was pretty much 'golfed out' I figured I better get the peeps cranking on the Pig Bus again to make sure we have her ready by September 8th! So I call in the 'Asian Mafia Construction and Painting Crew' aka - my uncles and other family members to come and help make the bus look pretty.

Pre-Paint: Prep, sand, and tape.......what a PAIN!

Paint, paint, and paint some more...

It took us about 2-1/2 full weekends to finish it because the wind picked up. Needless to say I was walking around with red paint all over my hands and finger nails for a couple of weeks.

ALL DONE!....Well, almost...may need another coat, but for 2007 it will have to do.

Get yer saw and hammer!

We got the bus in to my backyard basketball court to get the interior work going. It is going to REALLY challenge everyone's carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and general construction skills to make her turn out how we envisioned her to be. I personally haven't done a lot of carpentry work since high school and my freshman/sophomore years in college when I worked as a construction/painter slave, but I figure that there's really not much to doing basic cabinet and storage construction....besides the other Pig Crew members have some skills that can help get this thing done. So away we go! (Also, this is where I give THANKS to the guys at Skoolie.net and both of the Yahoo Bus Conversion groups where I basically copied most of the plans and ideas from!*Special props to "The Amazing Chicken Bus" and "Hokie Hoopty" for great pics to get ideas from! Shoot me an email I need to send you a Pig Bus THANK YOU GIFT!).

Phase I: Support bracket, gutting, and some painting