Welding Makes Barbecue Bus for Conroe Police Department

March 7, 2011
Filed under Features

The welding classes are always working on something new. The project they are working on now, however, seems to be bigger than anything they’ve worked on for a while.

“What we’re doing is building a barbecue bus for the Conroe Police Department out of a decommissioned school bus,” Welding teacher, Robert Swisher said.

This is just the latest of the many projects welding has been working on, including using the seats from the bus for one.

“So far we have built a trailer, two barbecue smokers, and seats for deer stands out of the bus seats. We are currently working on patio benches and we have just started a skills test that will possibly earn my students a welding certification,” Swisher said.

Both welding classes have been working hard since the first week of January to perfect the bus.

“The students that are working on the bus are kids from all three of my classes. Everyone has a job, either modifying it, or tearing something down,” Swisher said.

The completion date for the barbecue bus was March 1st, and it was a lot of work leading up to it.

“We took a smoker out of a 1951 Chevy. We’re modifying the bus to accept the smoker out of the Chevy. We’re also reinforcing the floor, cutting out the side so it’s able to flip up, and putting a set of stairs off the base so the cops can easily serve the food,” Swisher said.

The way this idea came to be wasn’t through the welding program, but rather the Conroe Police Department themselves.

“The CISD police chief came up with the idea and approached CISD transportation for fabrication. Transportation had its hands full just keeping all the buses running to transport students so they asked if my classes would like the job. I said yes and that is how the idea came to Oak Ridge,” Swisher said.

Once the bus was done, it was sent off to the police department where it will get its finishing touches.

“Once they get it, they will be getting a custom paint job to make it look like a cop car,” Swisher said.

Swisher was excited to work on the project, knowing he and his classes would be doing something for a good cause.

“I was thrilled when I was approached for the project. I was aware that the CISD police used the barbecue car at different events around Conroe and the surrounding area and it was a show piece at those events. So myself and my students knew we would have to bring our A game to the fabrication of the bus,” Swisher said.

Swisher believes that throughout the course of this project, there have been challenging tasks, but it was still fun.

“The most challenging task has been creating a sequence of steps in the modifications to the bus to accommodate the smoker without hurting the structural integrity of the bus itself. The most fun is watching my student’s embrace the project 100 percent and the level of learning that has happened,” Swisher said.