1999 Bluebird aka The Roaming Castle

[djthe3rd]

Hey everybody, my first post about my abode in progress. Not much done but the demo(what a pain in the ass). Thankfully I'm finally done with the teardown. I finally get to start creating!! I have to thank you guys for the posts that helped steer me in the right direction with this project. Cheers !


The Beauty !

Shes an International 3800





Seats disappeared !

Here they are !

$%^# the floor !

A million rivets... almost complete.. Ceiling grind time after bottom rivets

Aftermath of cave in !

The right side rail grind beginning

Right chair rail removed !

Right chair rail removed !!

Time to bang out the left side

Halfway

Movinnn

Nasty Rust !

End of demo !!!!

[headinthetrees]

My knees and back hurt just looking at that montage. Bet you're glad its out of the way. Now the fun part begins. I'm happy for you and your find. Good luck and welcome to the skoolie forum.

[EastCoastCB]

Very nice. Where are you located?
Excellent choice of bus, and I'm glad to see you decided to do it right the first time and totally gut it.
Keep the build going, and keep us updated.

[djthe3rd]

So I'm working on electrical right now, if anyone could check my logic for me I would really appreciate it. I've bought a 100 amp breaker box I'm wiring inside and a 50 amp plug I'm wiring into the undercarriage storage unit. So I have questions about hooking up the 50 amp plug box to run to the breaker box. I'm essentially running the two 120's from the 50, the ground and the neutral to the breaker box from the plug box. I'm using #3 guage for the 120's as well as the neutral and #4 for the ground. I'm wiring most of my setup as 15 amp breakers in the box on the two legs. I'm going to be splitting the amps on the legs to try and balance out the usage on the two hot lines going into the 50 amp plug I'm installing in the storage undercarriage.
Does this sound right?

[djthe3rd]

starting to work on her again !
























Tiling begins soon, gonna use epoxy mortar should be interesting. Putting wood grain 6''x24'' tiles, hope the epoxy keeps em from breaking.
Gotta hookup the on demand w/h for the radiant heat, and putting 3.2kw solar on the roof 32 ft of panels, literally my whole cabin roof. Making a custom rack a foot above the roof to add shade to my inches of tiger foam, should be cool during the summer hopefully. Got a victron quattro 48v 5kw inverter with tesla car batteries for 300 AH of lithium. Hoping it's gonna be enough to have the ac/heat on if needed, stuff is expensive! I bought 11 guage rectangle steel tubing for the rack and gonna butt weld/bolt sections. Damn thing is gonna be like a wing for the roof so I'm most likely going to take sheet and build a wall around the entire roof to protect from wind/theft, make it equal to the height of the panels to look like a box truck. The journey continues! Thanks for everyones projects\posts, I've read\looked at all of your wonderful creations and all of your work has been an immense help ! Cheers !

[Tango]

Good luck with the tiles. They do not have a good history in RV's or buses. Especially anything larger than a couple of inches. Given that the entire chassis & body twists and flexes a lot and ceramics don't respond well to such forces, they can easily break up. But I have seen some small tile (like 1")/small area installations applied with epoxy grout that seemed to work ok.

[djthe3rd]

Well, I guess I'll see. I'll cut the tiles @ the concrete boards edges to add another grout line to flex if the boards decide to move @ all instead of cracking the tiles @ the board joints. Using 100% black silicone flex-tile grout that's supposed to always remain flexible. Was going to use flex-tile for adhesive but he recommended laticrete 300. Hoping for the best, don't really want little tiles but definitely would make sense to reduce torsion breaking the tiles. Thanks for the luck, I'll need it !

[djthe3rd]

Well I'm making a unique solar rack 23.5'' on the sides and 12'' in the center of space below the panels for camo/protection/storage/shade/ventilation.
Quarter inch angle steel and rectangular tubing leveled and mounted flush with the sides of the roof, with just enough space to enclose with sheet steel to cover the frame/edges of panels for no shading as well as create a flat roof on my bus that will look like a box truck when done.
My 12 260w panels weigh 590lbs, I wanted a rack that would protect them completely from wind while driving/storms etc mainly to prevent micro fractures while also giving complete shade for the roof. Gotta say 1/4 steel is some strong stuff I'm amazed how beast it is

[djthe3rd]

Getting it done !

[Carytowncat]

Good gravy that rack will hold my bus! I like it! Makes me want one too; an upper deck patio. Oh life could be so good



Good work there, inspiring.

[yellowxj]

Sweet inspiration for mine!

Jeep, bus, repeat.

[djthe3rd]

Cheers guys! Can't wait to get it done. Crossmembers tomorrow !

[oredigger]

Can't wait to see the next steps. Great work!

[Tango]

Nice! I am going pretty much the same route on my shorty.

[djthe3rd]

Time to put sheet metal on the sides and seal up the box !
Lotta work making everything from scratch but damn it's strong !
Can't wait to slap all the panels on

[BurlKing]

thats sweet man, cant wait to see more pictures. i'd like a nice little roof deck about 8' long, so im just kinda wondering a good way to fasten the feet of the deck to the bus. Did you find a good easy way to do it?

[djthe3rd]

Well I used 4''x4'' quarter inch thick angle iron steel and cut custom brackets for the feet, torqued em as hard as I could to the frame. They work great, just siliconed all around the bolts and the bracket. No leaks and it's solid. You have a great build btw, looks beautiful. Wish I did a roof raise. Maybe one day !

[djthe3rd]

250's are finally out from Victron

[-cycosis-]

Where are the connections on the inside of your bus for your roof deck mounting brackets? Are there bolts sticking out your bus ribs on the inside now?? Im lost how to approach this step.

[djthe3rd]

Originally Posted by -cycosis-

Where are the connections on the inside of your bus for your roof deck mounting brackets? Are there bolts sticking out your bus ribs on the inside now?? Im lost how to approach this step.

Yeah slightly, but my insulation hides them mostly, I'm sure when I decide what to put on the ceiling I'll have to route some countersinks into the wood for the bolts.

Hard work getting that steel up there by yourself !