Welcome to GiantsBus.com, the ultimate New York Giants Tailgating Machine. This adventure started with $500 bucks and a dream. I purchased this 1992 GMC Blue Bird Mini school bus the day after my buddy Jim called me and told me he got tickets to some of the New York Giants home games for the 2005 season. It was on a Saturday morning with my dad at a Brick Township County auction that I got to realize my dream of spending $500 for a tailgating machine. At the auction I saw the potential for the future of the Giants Bus. I inspected the bus inside and out and started the engine. Although the engine had 183,500 miles, I knew she had plenty of bus left in her. The interior was clean and the rear air conditioning unit was blasting cool air. The radio and all the lights worked, as well as the hydraulic wheelchair lift. The tires had plenty of tread and the brakes were fine as well. After purchasing the bus at the auction, me and my dad went back home and I went to work on imagining all the possibilities the bus had. At first, I knew I had to go back to pick up the bus within a few days and get it registered and insured. The following Monday morning me and my buddy Jim got into my truck and headed to Brick Township to pick up the bus. Upon picking up the keys from the township, the guy in charge of the keys asked what we were going to do with the school bus. We replied, turn it into a Giants tailgating machine. He said that was the best idea he ever heard for a school bus. After getting the keys, I started the bus and I drove it back to Jim's house while Jim followed me with my truck. That was the same day as the Giants/Saints Monday Night football game. After parking the bus, me and Jim headed to Giants Stadium to watch the Giants beat the Saints.
The next day the Giants bus was about to be born without much planning. Jim had a couple of cans of blue spray paint and decided to see what the bus would look like with the blue paint. After about an hour and 3 spray cans later, the bus was starting to take shape. While Jim was spray painting the outside of the bus, I starting to remove the old seats on the inside of the bus. After a while we decided to pick up some more spray paint and continue the next day.
The next day, we really went to work on the bus. Jim continued painting the outside and I was busy removing the seats and anything that reminded us that it was a school bus. While working on the bus for two weeks prior to the next Giants home game, we got some help from our friends and family to get the bus "game ready". Jim's wife started removing the old stickers on the outside of the bus and starting painting the red trim on the outside of the bus. Jim and his wife, Amy, continued painting the bus until it was complete. Jim even risked life and limb while painting the roof of the bus on his belly (what a scene). Oh yeah, he painted the roof with a brush, not a spray can. After the seats were removed, we got to work on putting new seats in the bus.
At first we went to an upholstery shop and got an estimate of over $2,000.00 for new seats. Needless to say we put our minds together and decided to do the work ourselves. We measured the inside of the bus and went to work on putting in new seats. After purchasing the wood, foam and vinyl fabric, we decided to go with blue and red for the interior (actually the fabric shop only had enough red fabric to do half the bus, so we got blue fabric for the other half). After the new seats were in, we changed the stereo system and added a cd player and amplifier. More cosmetics were added to the outside and inside of the bus after that. We added white NY Giants logos on the outside of the bus and loaded the inside with Giants signs and magnets (the interior of the bus is magnetic). Once the interior started taking shape we finally added the blue carpet (with some help from our friend Jose). The Giants Bus was “game ready” for the first tailgate.
The first tailgate was the Giants/Rams game on Sunday, October 2nd, 2005. What an adventure. I was late getting up and called Jim and asked him and the crew to pick me up at my house instead of going to Jim’s house as planned. It turned out to be a good thing. When the bus arrived at my house and I got in and put the bus in gear, I heard a terrible sound from the transmission. Needless to say, we lost checked the transmission fluid and found rust. We filled the transmission with new fluid and went on our way with Jim and Jasmine in my truck as a back up vehicle (All hands on dash at all times please). Luckily we never needed the back up vehicle, but we did need a new transmission.
Upon arriving at Giants stadium we parked the bus and set up our tailgate. We had lots of great food starting with Dave’s Jack Daniels Jumbo Shrimp followed by crab cakes, chicken quesadillas, steaks, hamburgers and plenty of cold beer and alcohol.
Thanks to everyone who helped make the Giants Bus a reality.
Giants Bus Crew: Sal, Jim & Amy, Dave, Mike & Jasmine, Kidney, Phil, etc.
To be continued.........More pictures of the Giants Bus coming soon!!!!!!!!
