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Old 09-02-2014, 05:08 PM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
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Year: 1989
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Chassis: Ford B-700
Engine: 7.8 Ford/New Holland
Department of Corrections Bus

Hi all,
My wife and I have recently decided to become part of the skoolie community! We have been toying with the idea of buying a bus for a year or so now, and finally took the plunge. We have been reading and researching on the web and you guys have played a big part in our decision making process. So, thanks to all of you!

So about our bus. We decided to buy the bus you see below. It is a former Alabama Department of Corrections bus. Our friends have really gotten a kick out of that. It is a Ford B-700 with a Wayne body, and has the Ford/New Holland 7.8 diesel with the water jacketed after cooler. It really seems to have enough power for us. The cool thing about it is that it's super tall inside, or a lot taller than the buses that I have been in. I think it's around 6'6" in the center. It has 153k miles on it, so we are hoping it has plenty of life left! They tires are all in pretty good shape and were manufactured in '05 or newer. We paid $2k for it, which I don't think is a bad deal. What do you guys think?



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Old 09-02-2014, 08:59 PM   #2
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

More pix!! It looks nice from what I can see.

It runs and you paid $2k AND its a diesel, cant get any better than that! Welcome to the club. ;)
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Old 09-02-2014, 09:01 PM   #3
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Welcome, and have fun building the conversion!!! Nice bus
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Old 09-02-2014, 09:42 PM   #4
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Welcome.. not bad at all! Beware of rust hiding in hard to reach places lol.. don't mind me.. I've had quite a rusty weekend =)
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Old 09-02-2014, 11:09 PM   #5
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Simply Outstanding guys! --- quite the deal. Best of luck with the buildout and keep the pix coming.
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Old 09-02-2014, 11:14 PM   #6
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Thanks! It looks fairly rust free so far, but I haven't pulled up the floor yet. We haven't got to do much to it at all, but here are some more pics.

Here's one of the ceiling:


It was pretty nasty inside, so we've been cleaning it out:


My wife removed almost all of the decals by herself:
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Old 09-02-2014, 11:18 PM   #7
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

I also finished removing the heaters:


The rest of the work that I've done has been maintenance. (Cleaning up battery post corrosion, replacing blown running lights, etc.). I'm going to try to get most of that taken care of before I start with the big stuff.
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Old 09-03-2014, 06:17 AM   #8
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

welcome, and good luck on the build

is this for a weekend Glamping machine or a full time living project?
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Old 09-03-2014, 11:11 AM   #9
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Quote:
Originally Posted by bansil
is this for a weekend Glamping machine or a full time living project?
Possibly both. We mainly want it to be for weekends and our occasional trips around the area to go whitewater kayaking. However, we are getting ready to list our house for sale and we're toying with the idea of moving into it for a while as we shop for a new place. We've even thought of buying some land and living in the bus there, then eventually building a house like we like on that land. So basically, we don't know what we are doing for sure, except for setting up the bus how we like it.
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Old 09-03-2014, 12:19 PM   #10
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Quote:
Originally Posted by Leftyclick
Quote:
Originally Posted by bansil
is this for a weekend Glamping machine or a full time living project?
Possibly both. We mainly want it to be for weekends and our occasional trips around the area to go whitewater kayaking. However, we are getting ready to list our house for sale and we're toying with the idea of moving into it for a while as we shop for a new place. We've even thought of buying some land and living in the bus there, then eventually building a house like we like on that land. So basically, we don't know what we are doing for sure, except for setting up the bus how we like it.

good luck
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Old 09-03-2014, 04:05 PM   #11
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Cool bus. It looks like my 1986 Intl. Your roof is taller than most. It's got that 4" section between the roof and the body.
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Old 09-05-2014, 07:16 AM   #12
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

How did you remove the heaters? We are at that stage and I am just not sure how to proceed.
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Old 09-05-2014, 12:43 PM   #13
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
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Engine: 7.8 Ford/New Holland
Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Quote:
Originally Posted by Laurel
How did you remove the heaters? We are at that stage and I am just not sure how to proceed.
Our bus has an access panel on the outside under the drivers window that allowed me to access the hose and wire connections. First thing, be sure to shut off the valve that supplies the coolant lines back to the heaters. As a temporary fix, I disconnected one hose, cut the other hose off at about 16 inches, then attached it to the other pipe. Basically I just made a u-bend out of a piece of hose so that all of the coolant would not run out. But be prepared, you will probably have a lot of coolant run out of the lines that go back to the heaters.

Next thing was to actually remove the heaters themselves. Mine had a metal channel running down the inside wall of the bus with the hoses and wires running in it. I removed all of the screws holding the channel in place, then removed the channel. It was basically just pieces of metal that were in place to protect the lines. Then I cut hoses at the heaters and then lifted the heaters out. I chose to cut the hoses because I was unable to get them to pull off, and the hoses looked like they had been leaking as well. That was basically it. I am definitely not an expert, but let me know if you have any questions and I will be glad to advise.
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Old 09-05-2014, 12:44 PM   #14
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Engine: 7.8 Ford/New Holland
Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Quote:
Originally Posted by crazycal
Cool bus. It looks like my 1986 Intl. Your roof is taller than most. It's got that 4" section between the roof and the body.
Thanks! That's what I was thinking too. It was one of the main reasons we decided to look at it.
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Old 09-06-2014, 10:44 AM   #15
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

So...... now how are you going to heat your bus?
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Old 09-07-2014, 07:23 AM   #16
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Year: 1989
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Engine: 7.8 Ford/New Holland
Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Quote:
Originally Posted by opus
So...... now how are you going to heat your bus?
Wood heat and I'll have propane backup. I may put one of these back for when we are on the road, but they had to come out to rip up the floor. Plus the front heater will definitely still be there.
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Old 09-07-2014, 10:36 AM   #17
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Most factory skoolie heaters are very efficient not to mention expensive. Not a bad idea to keep at least one in the plan.
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Old 09-08-2014, 04:04 PM   #18
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Year: 1989
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Engine: 7.8 Ford/New Holland
Re: Department of Corrections Bus

We worked on the bus a good bit this weekend, but not much that you can tell from pics. I scrubbed her down on Sunday, which took a pretty big part of the day. She cleaned up pretty well! However, I did find a leak in the front corner. I pulled some of the metal down on the ceiling and removed the wet insulation. That will have to be taken care of for sure.

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Old 09-08-2014, 05:33 PM   #19
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Re: Department of Corrections Bus

Oooooohhhh Opus.....lots of good lovin!!!!!!

That's how Clint & I are planning on keeping warm, as we just removed our heaters last week. That and plans to stay in warmer climates. Most likely, we'll be doing more searches for warm weather than the later at our ages. LOL!
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Old 09-17-2014, 03:29 PM   #20
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Year: 1989
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Chassis: Ford B-700
Engine: 7.8 Ford/New Holland
Re: Department of Corrections Bus

I believe my wife and I have decided on a name for our DoC bus. Due to my wife's Norwegian roots we went with the Norwegian word for prosperity which is Velstand. Since we have decided on this name we have taken to calling her V. (We love the movie V for Vendetta, btw.)

I haven't had a lot of time to work on V yet, but I did get some work in on this past Sunday. I was able to pull up all of the aluminum trim on the floor, pull the back seat out, remove the barriers at the front of the bus (one of which was welded in), removed some of the ceiling trim, removed the hand rails from the ceiling and pulled up some of the flooring. So at least I feel like I am making SOME progress!

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