Diesel Dan's Skoolie

[wtd]

Great shots of your bus 'peopled'.
Getting everything stained really made the whole interior come together nicely. Good looking bus.

Tom

[gbstewart]

bus looks great Dan , keep up the good work. Its nice to get some passengers in for a ride, now they know just how nice everything is, and its a motorhome instead of bus. at first my dad was a bit negitive about my bus conversion, now that he has spent so much time in it, he bugging for another trip somewhere! hes hooked. and thats what will happen with your family and friends they get hooked!!

great work Dan

gbstewart

[Diesel Dan]

Thanks for the comments everyone! I'm really excited to finally be using the bus for some of it's intended purposes!

[browncrown]

Those are some great pics Dan...congrats on being able to enjoy your bus with family

[Diesel Dan]

In my ongoing quest to eliminate further head injury from whacking my head on low hanging objects, I tore down the AC duct I had made and redesigned it. I had to eliminate the flaps that close the air vent so I could shave off a couple inches of protrusion into my head space. I then used the material from the old padded wheelchair rails that came on the bus to make a little bumper around the periphery. So far, so good. I still have to duck slightly but it's much better than it was before, and the air flow seems evenly distributed between the living room and the bunk room:



I also applied one coat of satin polyurethane to everything made of wood. I will add a second coat to the backsplash areas. I also finished making the cabinet doors. I'm not sure how I feel about the color. I was attempting to match the maroon of the curtains that hang in the bunk room door, but my wife says the doors look like a dark pink. Damn! The color is called "cranberry". Anyway, in these dark pictures and in dim lighting the color looks maroonish red to me, but when I used the flash on the camera it looks pink. The paint looked pink when it went on wet, but then reddened as it dried. Oh well, it looks fine to me and I'm happy to have that job done so I can put my pots & pans and dishes/cups, etc up there:



I was actually feeling rather pleased with myself and decided to celebrate my reddish cabinet doors with a glass of red wine. Cabernet Sauvignon, or as I called it that night: Cabinet So-frickin-done

[Accordion]

Dan, the cabinet doors look good. Colorful. I am a little color blind so I don't know if they are pink, purple, or maroon. They are a pleasing color to me though.

Fortunately, I did not try to "colorfy" my bus. The curtains that I got for free are kind of brown. The ceiling carpet is grey. I did not necessarily like those colors, but they are bland enough to blend in with the wood.

I would have preferred to do some different colors, but I had to use the free stuff that I had received.

By the way, I do like your curtains. Your bus looks very nice.

It appears that you have the same cabinet door knobs that I have. I got mine from the Dodge Class C that I disassembled.

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by spencerforhire

Hey Dan
... The Doors are going to be constructed out of 1/3" fine grade plywood...

If staining, don't forget to use Wood Conditioner. If paint. Use a washable paint or enamel. I will use an exterior enamel. When painting doors, apply the same number of coats on the front & back.
1st coat primer, thin if desired.
2nd coat primer tinted to shade of finish coat. if gloss finish, mix equal parts flat primer & gloss enamel)
3rd coat apply paint as it comes from the can .

Or do what you want.

[Diesel Dan]

I would have stained those doors if they were bare wood, but I was reusing cabinet doors from my house's old kitchen which were already painted, and there was no way I was going to try stripping them. The red paint really did not cover well. I used a tinted primer and then three coats of the red paint, and there are still streaks where the primer shows a little. Crazy. I did use wood conditioner on all the plywood that I stained - it really makes a difference in terms of the wood taking the stain evenly.

[lornaschinske]

Red is translucent. Only colour worse than red is yellow. Yellow & red on our food cart is up to 6 layers deep over white primer.

[MikeyBskunk]

Haha good call with the wine to match, i think they are looking great! keep it up, and sorry to here about the ongoing head injuries. Im glad im only 5'3

[thommassey]

Hey Dan,
Any problems with moisture build up using ducts? I would like to use that idea... How tall is it from the floor to ceiling? (at the duct)

[Diesel Dan]

Originally Posted by thommassey

Hey Dan,
Any problems with moisture build up using ducts? I would like to use that idea... How tall is it from the floor to ceiling? (at the duct)

I haven't used the AC since the duct went up other than brief testing to check the air flow, so I really can't report on moisture issues. The ceiling is 78" high off the metal floor (high-top Thomas body), but my flooring takes up about 1" of space (1/4" insulation + 1/2" plywood + 1/8" vinyl flooring) so the ceiling ends up being 77" high and the duct hangs down 2", giving me 75" clearance. I am 76" tall, so I still have to hunch a little to get under it. I figured I needed 2" of air space inside the duct, though I'm still considering taking the additional 1" off so I can walk under there without hunching. Anyone have any thoughts about that? The duct is about 6" wide.

[lornaschinske]

As they age, a lot of men get shorter...

[RavensOracle]

Before you just cut the duct down maybe you could put some cardboard or some other block in it to simulate having the smaller duct. That way you can see if there is any difference in airflow.

[thommassey]

Wouldn't you get same air mass with a 12" duct at 1" tall (cu. in. would be same?) ... I am no hvac expert though (could cause too much resistance)...

Thanks for the height info... guess being 68" isn't so bad. Mine is a 76 1/4" (BlueBird Tall?) with wood floor still in. the duct system would definitely be more efficient, maybe even adding a damper at exhausts for adjustments? ... anyway, good idea.

[Diesel Dan]

Lorna: I've probably got another 15-20 years to go before I start shrinking, though I'd love to be a few inches shorter than I am!

Thommassey: I thought about making it wider, but the curve of the roof would mean that it would have to be scalloped at the ends, and it would intrude even further towards the sides of the bus in the very area where I would be standing the most (the kitchen). Plus, the intake vents on the sides would be even smaller which might impair the functioning of the AC. Had I thought of all this ahead of time I might have considered a different floorplan, but oh well...

The only other option I have thought of is to recess the vent into the ceiling, but I would have to cut through one of the roof ribs to get the vent into the bunk room. I still haven't ruled that out, and in fact the more I think about it, the more I like that idea.

Okay, now all you structural integrity fanatics can come and clobber me over the head!

[chev49]

One duct cut in one roof rib wont make much difference. maybe if its a two feet wide, and you are walking on that exact spot on top of your bus, then a big dent might magically appear. After all, these are just truck with a bus body on them, and way overbuilt.

[lornaschinske]

How about running your duct on top of the roof (outside of the bus) and dropping a vent (hole) thru the roof. I dislike putting junk on the roof or popping unneeded holes. No ribs to cut. You apparently already have a huge carbuncle up there (roof top AC unit). just a thought.

[Diesel Dan]

Lorna that's an interesting idea, and certainly viable, but I'd have to put two additional holes in my roof for the two vents, plus raise the AC up several inches to allow the vent to run underneath, and... yeah, I don't think I'm up for all that. Cutting the one 14" hole for the AC and mounting it was traumatic enough!

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by Diesel Dan

...Cutting the one 14" hole for the AC and mounting it was traumatic enough!

I wasn't real happy when David popped a hole in the roof for the black tank vent. We are putting the A/C unit under the floor a sot hat it will use the ducts the heater will use. Looks like we will be turning a rooftop unit into a "basement" unit. It's the biggest A/C that I can get that still runs on 110V