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Old 08-28-2007, 11:03 PM   #1
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1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

I finished gutting the old (partial) conversion yesterday. I still need to take a few loads of scrap lumber to the dump. I also need to find a home for a 120-volt/propane refer that came out of someone’s old travel trailer (it also came with the bus) it’s free if someone wants to stop by after Burning Man, (I live 4 or 5 hundred miles north of the event on highway 97). I plan to run a small 120-volt refrigerator with an inverter.

Today was spent finalizing the floor plan. To my surprise it took all day to lay it out with a 25-foot tape, a 4-foot drywall square, a felt-tip pen and a roll of masking tape. We changed this and that around, brought in a few pieces of furniture, and arranged and re-arranged until we finalized what we think will fit our needs. My wife and I will be using the bus most often ourselves but sometimes we will have company along.

The floor plan will sleep six, a dinette that folds into an almost double bed 40” X 75”, two single-racks (bunk beds) 30” X 75” and a queen size futon in the rear of the bus 60” X 80”. We settled on a futon as the main bed because it will be able to be folded up into a couch during non-sleeping hours, which will allow the bedroom to also be used as living space. This will keep the center aisle of the bus completely open from front to back and leave the rear exit unencumbered while driving.

A decent sized bathroom, galley with 7-feet of counter space, a dining booth that will seat four and a wardrobe closet will round out the set up. My wife and I enjoyed ourselves very much while designing the floorplan today, now the real work begins!


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Old 08-29-2007, 04:25 PM   #2
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Re: The conversion begins on “The Revenuer”. 1990 International-

Food for thought:
1) The front door is nothing but a space hog, so take it out. Go to a junk yard and find a bus that is the same manufacturer as yours, drill out all the rivets in the size panel you need, take out the front door and rivet in the panel, fill in the window with an old bus drivers window. We did and it works even better than you can imagine plus you can look the passenger/navigator in the eye when you are talking to them. Buy a nice RV door, cut a hole in the middle of your bus and screw it in. My bus has something like 27 or 28 inches between studs, the same size as the door we used, it fit like a glove. then you will have to build a set of stairs and weld them in. You just saved a foot or two of space that can be used somewhere else and now you can have a proper conversation with your passenger, or in my case, they won't get car sick.
2) Everyone told us that the only thing you do with the sink in the bathroom is brush your teeth, LEAVE IT OUT, you can use that space for a lot more things than brushing your teeth.
3)If you don't mind using a plastic tub to wash dishes and the sink for rinsing them then put your bar sink in the kitchen and gain some more counter space, you will need every inch you can get. A big old kitchen sink steals too much space for as little that it gets used for.
4) my shower is 24x30 and is big enough to get the job done, you could make yours smaller if you wanted but you will probably have to make the pan. An old SS countertop from a junk yard works nice. If it has a backstop then that is what you use as a step over to get in and out of it, bend the other 3 edges up about 6", weld it up, cut a hole in it and your done.
5)Make as much storage as you can, every inch you can steal, you can't get enough STORAGE!
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Old 08-29-2007, 06:30 PM   #3
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Re: The conversion begins on “The Revenuer”. 1990 International-

Thanks for the tips Rick! I have already purchased an RV door and plan to install it where the old bi-fold door is located. I like the idea of having an exit up front and one in the rear for fire safety. We discussed the bathroom sink in depth, keeping it or deleting it, we decided to keep it but that may change. We also discussed many different options for the shower, 32" X 32" is the base I have installed in my shop and we like it but a 30" base may work just as well.

My wife likes to cook and keeps an extremely clean house. In her spare time (while I will likely be out early in a boat fishing) she will be cooking or cleaning, she enjoys it. A decent size galley is a big plus to having her on board with the conversion project and I like her attitude about that very much.

I agree that storage will be a concern but it will most often just be the two of us vacationing, camping or fishing it shouldn't be a large problem. When we do take longer trips I plan to tow a duel wheeled enclosed trailer (6' X 12') with my bike inside and a 12' boat on top. The trailer will have quite a bit of extra storage if we find ourselves short. I am also in the process of raising the roof 16", that will provide room for a long upper bank of good-sized cabinets that should help immensely with the storage concern.

I am working up a small website to document my Skoolie Conversion, it is still very rough, the conversion itself has limited my time for working on the website Photos. There are a few pictures there including one of the door I will be installing after I complete raising the roof. I stripped all of the upper sheet metal panels inside of the bus today. I plan to try and remove the windows and loosen the front and back caps in a couple of days. If all goes well I should have the roof raised within the next couple of weeks. I then plan to skin the bus, weld in a new door frame and install the new RV door.

Thank you for posting, I enjoyed reading your thoughts and suggestions.
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Old 09-09-2007, 11:17 PM   #4
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

Today was the big day! We raised the roof on our bus 14". We are all dead tired but we were able to get it raised and secured for the night. I have plenty of welding to do for the next week or so. I plan to start in the front and work my way back starting with the new windshield frame, door frame, body struts and window frames. My wife took plenty of photos of what devices and tools we used for the lift and I will get them posted to the link in my sig. over the next few days. Other then being a considerable amount of work the lift went very well. Our bus now sports 7' 6" of ceiling height before I frame in a flat drop ceiling and add 3 1/2" of insulation. When finished we will net about 7' of ceiling height.

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Old 09-10-2007, 08:34 PM   #5
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

wow! a photo is worth a thousand words!

i'm feeling left out, i think i need a roof rais in my future
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Old 09-10-2007, 08:51 PM   #6
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

I have some photos of the lift process up and I will add some more photos tomorrow evening.
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Old 09-11-2007, 08:16 PM   #7
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lapeer20m
wow! a photo is worth a thousand words!

i'm feeling left out, i think i need a roof rais in my future
You should buy that 60ft articulated and raise BOTH roofs!!!!
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Old 09-11-2007, 08:47 PM   #8
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

how tall are average skoolies? only about 9 foot i think. that means you could go up more than 48 inches....but that might be a little insane.

i do NOT see a 60 footer roof raise in my future. first of all, that's way too huge of a project, and 2nd, the transit bus probably isn't built as strong as a skoolie and may not handle the extra stress well.
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Old 09-11-2007, 11:53 PM   #9
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.


Very nice, Abbott!
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Old 09-12-2007, 01:54 PM   #10
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.


Mac, please don't tempt me. I have enough on my plate as it is!
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Old 09-14-2007, 08:17 AM   #11
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

good job,looks real good, congradulations
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Old 09-16-2007, 04:38 PM   #12
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

Looks good! What are you planning on doing for windows? Also, I'd agree with a previous poster on leaving that bathroom sink out. We had one in our travel trailer. All we ever did there was brush our teeth. It could just as easily be done at the kitchen sink. I wouldn't use a big huge kitchen sink either. It's a pain in the ass to wash dishes when you're camping. Just add some more plastic plates into the environment!
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Old 09-16-2007, 06:31 PM   #13
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

Yes, I may leave the bathroom sink out due to simplicity of plumbing. I knew when I laid out that floor plan it was rough and would be subject to change. I have already discovered that I will need to transpose the shower and toilet because it will be a bit easier to plumb.

I am driving to Eugene tomorrow to find 3 windows for the drivers side. The past few days I have been skinning the passenger side. It is nowhere near complete yet, I haven't shimmed out the sheet metal, weathered it in or quieted it for sound/vibration. I just have it cut and hung in place with a few screws. My goal is to have the entire bus weather tight by Halloween, that is usually about when the winter weather hits.



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Old 09-16-2007, 07:41 PM   #14
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

Looking great! You and Elliott need to team up and do roof-raisings, you guys seem to have a knack at making it look so-o-o-o easy to do, and it would make it easier for us less skilled folks to keep up with the Jones's (and Naess's, and Abbotts's)! Maybe even start a MBoA ("Monobrow Busses of America") campaign!
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Old 09-17-2007, 12:32 PM   #15
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

i think the proper term is UNIBROW
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Old 09-18-2007, 11:32 PM   #16
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.


Quit browbeating me about Millicent's noble forehead will ya, guys!

Looks great, Abbott. At this rate, you will finish yours long before I finish mine!
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Old 10-07-2007, 06:19 PM   #17
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

WOOT!!! I just finished hanging the last piece of exterior sheet metal! I still need a few days to get everything fastened and weather tight as I only have a hundred or so screws holding the sheets on. Drilling, screwing, riveting and caulking to follow for the next few days. Then re-hang the mirrors, put the drivers seat back in, finish hooking the wiring back up and get the engine ready for winter. I should have new pictures up in about a week!



Picture from about a week ago.
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Old 10-07-2007, 06:31 PM   #18
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lapeer20m
i think the proper term is UNIBROW
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Old 10-07-2007, 07:29 PM   #19
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

You certainly impress me, Abbott. Talk about just jumping right in! Did you find any of those "special" welds that took so many of those Carpenters out of use as you were exploring those roof panels?
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Old 10-07-2007, 09:29 PM   #20
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Re: 1990 International-14" Roof Lift.

Nice! My Carpenter is one of those that supposedly had the faulty roof welds. I've had my ceiling panels off and haven't seen anything that looked bad. I don't plan on rolling my bus over anytime soon, but you never know.
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