Bluebird Of Happiness

[AtoZ]

Hello everyone! My wife and I just bought our first bus and plan on converting it into our new home on wheels. We have lived in small spaces since we got together almost 10 years ago. Since then we have lived in small apartments, vw van, teepee, and a 26' rv. I've been reading a lot of the other conversion threads and decided that I would post the progress on our bus. I have never done anything like this and would like to get some feedback on it. Work on the bus is planning on starting up this weekend. We had a time getting the bus home because the tenneessee title that we brought back to VA had sold for salvage written on the back and were saying we would have to have the bus inspected by the dmv and so on. The man I bought it from for a duplicate title made up and had the salvage part removed. About 3 weeks later we were able to bring it home in the mountains. It only overheated once and had to rest on a ridge about 20 miles away from home. Most of the seats have already been removed and I plan on taking out the remaining two and then start on removing the floor.

[dond]

Welcome!

No pics BTW

[nat_ster]

Pics dont work for me also.

Nat

[EastCoastCB]

Yeah the getting the bus home is always an interesting experience.
Rest areas or pull-offs at the tops of really long or steep grades are a lifesaver.
Welcome to the forum. Lets work on getting those pics up and working.

[AtoZ]

Take 2 on the pictures.

[nat_ster]

They worked!!

Nice size bus.

Nat

[EastCoastCB]

Good people! ;)

[AtoZ]

We had good weather this weekend in the mountains and were able to remove the rest of the seats and fought the 24 year old glue of the rubber floor and won. We are wanting to do a roof raise and want to get some input on some things before i make my next move. Is it better to skin the ceiling or can i glue insulation to it? If anyone has some advice it would be greatly apprecitated. thanks!

[EastCoastCB]

Everyone has their own take on that.
Lots of us go pretty heavy handed in that regard. I've stripped mine down mostly to the ribs and outer skin. Will paint that then put insulation and then panel over with wood.

[MuddaEarth]

I totally recommend doing the raise.....It's not difficult, just a lot of work. Follow my thread if you'd like.....I'm putting together very simple, informative YouTube videos, and also pictures of the process.

[nat_ster]

Originally Posted by MuddaEarth

I totally recommend doing the raise.....It's not difficult, just a lot of work. Follow my thread if you'd like.....I'm putting together very simple, informative YouTube videos, and also pictures of the process.

I agree. I did a 23 inch roof raise using nothing more than two 5 foot scaffold frames and a few 2x4's.

Lifting it with the scaffold frames required no building special lifting tools, and scaffold is available everywhere for sale and rent. I only needed mine for 2 days, it could have been done in one day. Not that this mattered to me, as being a building contractor I always have scaffold around.

To me a bus is not fit to live in full time without the roof raise. After you lift the roof, you will have room for the following.

- Stand and look out your windows.

- Move your entry door anywhere you like on the bus.

- Move your entry door to floor height. This gains 9 square feet of floor room in your bus.

- Room for proper ventilation. Now heat can escape out the windows before pushing down into the living space.

- Space to install full size upper cabinets for storage space. You can never have to much storage.

- Room to properly insulate the floor and ceiling.

- Space to vault the ceiling. This removes the claustrophobia effect of small spaces. Your living space no longer looks like a square box.

- Room to install counter tops at the proper height without a window in the way. Window bottoms can be raised to 6 inches above the counter top like they are meant to be.

And the list go's on and on.

My thread for reference.
http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f11/th...ime-10138.html

Nat

[EastCoastCB]

Room to properly insulate is a biggie for a lot of us doing roof raises.

[PDBreske]

Originally Posted by nat_ster

- Move your entry door to floor height. This gains 9 square feet of floor room in your bus.

Is there someone looking to build a bathroom in the extra 9 square feet of space in front of their entry door? That space is a loss unless you remove the door and skin over the opening—you still need to walk through the door to a central alley or hallway.

Unless you build all your amenities on one side with a hall on the other side, like a sleeper car on a train. Then I can see why you wouldn't want to step over or into a staircase on your way fore or aft. Hmm....

[nat_ster]

Originally Posted by PDBreske

Is there someone looking to build a bathroom in the extra 9 square feet of space in front of their entry door? That space is a loss unless you remove the door and skin over the opening—you still need to walk through the door to a central alley or hallway.
.

My passenger seat now sits where that awful front mounted stairwell was.

I can have a nice boot rack, and a flat surface to remove them right inside my door.

Also insulating and running in floor heat lines are all more efficient with out the internal stairwell.

Nat

[PDBreske]

Originally Posted by nat_ster

My passenger seat now sits where that awful front mounted stairwell was.

I can have a nice boot rack, and a flat surface to remove them right inside my door.

Also insulating and running in floor heat lines are all more efficient with out the internal stairwell.

Nat

What I meant was, whether you keep the existing door or remove it and put a new one somewhere else, the space inside the door is still an unusable space no matter if it's in the front corner or halfway to the rear of the bus. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Now, freeing up useable space under the bus is another story.

[HolyBus]

An entry over the bed with a fireman's pole to enter. That might save space but I am typing after two many cranberry vodka drinks.

[AtoZ]

Here is a few pictures of the process. We are going to do a roof raise. We really wants to keep all original windows. I have not decided on how high I want to raise would like to leave enough room on the top of the bus for solar panels. If anyone wants to buy a heater core let me know I want to get rid of it.

[EastCoastCB]

if you pop out the center pins on those rivets they shear off fairly easily with a chisel on an air hammer.
Nice pics. Keep it up.

[nat_ster]

Will you be insulating your bus?

If you are, I would get rid of the original windows. They are made of aluminum and transmit heat and cold really bad. They also leak air like crazy.

The were made so poorly they didn't even do the job in the school bus. Something much better needs to be invented for buses from the factory.

Nat

[AtoZ]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

if you pop out the center pins on those rivets they shear off fairly easily with a chisel on an air hammer.
Nice pics. Keep it up.

found an air chisel in our shop and it made a world of difference. thanks for the info.