When Dennis King reacquired the 1999 Van Hool motorcoach he’d traded away years earlier, it wasn’t the vehicle he remembered.
The coach — affectionately known as The Black Pearl — was in rough shape, with a ruined water system and cracked pipes. Still, King saw potential and wasn’t willing to give up on it.
He turned to John Cherry, who lived down the road in White Haven, Pennsylvania, where Cherry owns Evolution Custom Coach and Possible Dreams Fleet Services. He and King had been introduced by a longtime friend, Tony Mongiovi, regional sales manager of TEMSA North America.
King sent the coach down for what was supposed to be a simple water system repair. But once Cherry and King began talking, the repairs took a creative turn into a restoration that became a masterpiece.
“It started with fixing the plumbing,” King recalled, “and then John started talking about upgrading the floors, the lighting, the upholstery. Before I knew it, he said, ‘Why don’t we make it look like the Black Pearl?’” referring to the pirate ship in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films.
King’s connection to the sea runs deep.
“I was in the Coast Guard for four years,” he said. “I like boats, I like the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. I’m not obsessed with pirates or anything — but I am, you know?”
Project becomes more ambitious
Cherry, who has built a reputation for transforming ordinary buses into rolling works of art, took that small spark of inspiration and ran with it.
The project took more than a year, evolving into a complete redesign that would fuse King’s maritime background with cinematic fantasy. The budget grew to match the scale of the project.
The outside was wrapped by Budget Truck and Auto under the direction of Graphics Sales Manager Sandie Marquis. It features a ghostly depiction of the Black Pearl moving through mist.
Cherry and his team rebuilt the coach’s interior as a fully immersive world, inspired by the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films and King’s own service.
The hallway mirrors offer a panoramic scene that makes passengers feel as if they were standing on the deck of the Black Pearl, with ropes coiled at their feet and the Coast Guard ship USCG Cutter Spencer emerging from the fog in pursuit. King was a member of the cutter’s first crew.
A model of that ship, recreated in perfect detail, sat in a display case alongside a handcrafted replica of the Black Pearl itself.
Every inch of the bus is storytelling in motion. A sword for one door handle, a dagger for another, Davy Jones’s chest with its ornate key, and the burned treasure map from “At World’s End” embedded into the dining table. Even the bathroom faucet, a grinning skull that poured water through its teeth, fit the theme perfectly.
Cherry deliberately hid small details and surprises throughout the Black Pearl’s build, and King continued to discover new things long after taking the coach home.
“Every time I’m in it, I see something new,” King said. “It’s like stepping into another world.”
‘Art keeps us alive’
Projects like the Black Pearl fuel Cherry’s passion and are the heart of what Evolution Custom Coach is all about.
Cherry started the company with his own project, which led to a partnership with his longtime friend, Jason Cruikshank. Evolution has grown from a modest bus repair and conversion business in eastern Pennsylvania’s Pocono region.
The company now operates on six acres along the Lehigh River in the small town of White Haven.
“Repair work pays the bills,” Cherry often says, “but art is what keeps us alive.”
The shop’s services span everything from collision repair and electrical work to full conversions, upholstery, painting, and custom cabinetry. Their bays are filled year-round with buses in every stage of transformation — entertainer coaches, mobile offices, off-road RVs, and expedition builds.
Cherry’s love of RVs began in childhood. His grandfather, John Serro, founded the iconic Serro Scotty camper trailers in the 1950s. That upbringing instilled in him a love for craftsmanship.
“We’re a co-op of artists,” Cherry says of his team. “We’re not hanging paintings on walls. Our art moves. It has motion. And we get to be part of it.”
His dream passenger
King is determined to share Black Pearl with others.
When he’s not using it for personal travel, such as camping at Daytona or cruising the East Coast, his company, King Gray Coach Lines, uses the coach for community events and charity work.
“We’ve done Make-A-Wish events, and during Halloween, we turn it into a haunted bus for kids,” King said.
One of his dreams is to use the decked-out motorcoach to transport Johnny Depp, the actor who portrayed Captain Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films.
“When he does appearances at different children’s events, I’d love to be able to pick him up in the bus and deliver him.”
