Gilligan Phantom (1987 Gillig Phantom School Bus Full Time Conversion)

[Juicifer]

Hey guys. I have installed a sun sail, made removable reflectix panels, and am in the process of blacking out windows that we'll cover up. Video coming soon.

I have also installed the ceiling (1/4 birch) and it looks great! It could look better. My seems don't line up perfectly in some areas. I will either attempt to epoxy them together, or will cover with trim. I think I could have almost avoided this problem if I had used more furring strips. I used 6. I think if I had used 10(!) then I wouldn't have had that issue, but who knows.

My question: I'm moving on to framing interior walls (bedroom, bathroom, fridge cabinet etc.) and I want to lose as little space as possible. I'll be using 3/4 birch as my finished walls. Have you seen solutions to creating essentially frame-less walls? I have a couple ideas, but I'd like to hear how you built or recommend building walls if you have a moment to share it with me. Thanks!

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Juicifer

Thanks Chris. I may go for trim to cover the seems. I feel like I see people pull off the seamless/trimless look somehow...

Tongue and groove plywood is the trick to look seamless..

[Juicifer]

Hey Mark. Totally. But I couldn't find tongue and groove in 1/4 inch birch ply. I'm going to use 1/4 inch thick, and maybe 1.5 inch wide strips of birch as trim. I've warmed up to how that will look and as many have said: wood is going to move around in a bus so getting things perfect might be only a temporary reality.

Sorry I've been neglecting to update you! Here is my video all about getting some shade for the rest of the summer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpcCOaMuyH8&t=19s

and here is me ceiling install:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEdhixFo1hU&t=67s

[Juicifer]

Okay so guess what. My windows are still leaking!! They are NOT leaking where the window frames meet the bus frames but they are likely leaking where the glass meets the aluminum window frames or into the aluminum seams in the actual window frame. If you watch this and you've got some tips for me please let me know. Rick: maybe you can put your mind to this one for me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yafX...adpgxbk0h00410

[EastCoastCB]

You can tape off the edges of the area that leaks, run a thin bead of seam sealer and then spread it gently and smooth it out. Then take off the tape and your leak should be gone.
Get the color you want if you aren't painting over it. Looks like black would be the way to go for yours.

[Mark carr]

I just watched all the videos in this thread!! Love the bus and your progress
Keep up the good work

[Iceni John]

Sorry for my late reply about interior walls, but you may want to hear how I'm doing mine. Instead of a traditional house-type wall with studs, I use 3/4"-thick walls sitting inside 7/8"-wide 6063 channel (that's 3/4" internal width). The channel is riveted to the ceiling and screwed to the floor and side walls, then the walls simply slide inside the channel. If the ceiling channel is accurately bent to match the exact curvature of the ceiling, there won't be any gaps at all - I HATE gaps! My shower's side walls are 5/8" plywood with 1/8" Celtek facing the outer (non-shower side) surface, and the other walls are 1/2" plywood with Celtek on both sides. The shower has 1/16" Parkland Poly-Wall as a waterproof membrane on the shower side of the walls, glued on the plywood with Roberts carpet adhesive and extending down into the shower pan to prevent leaks; over the Poly-Wall will be Armstrong vinyl Peel & Stick floor tiles, then I'll have a faux-marble shower for a fraction of the cost/weight/complexity of the real thing! Should look good, especially with the Delta Vero stainless shower fixtures that give a very clean modern look. (I also plan on having a frameless glass bi-fold shower door to complete the Euro-look - I really don't want crappy plastic shower curtains. Yuk!)

By using 3/4"-thick walls I will save 5.25" inches of internal length. Big deal, you say, but every inch or fraction of an inch counts. I even spent ages working out how to save 3/4" internal width below the windows!

John

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by Iceni John

Sorry for my late reply about interior walls, but you may want to hear how I'm doing mine. Instead of a traditional house-type wall with studs, I use 3/4"-thick walls sitting inside 7/8"-wide 6063 channel (that's 3/4" internal width). The channel is riveted to the ceiling and screwed to the floor and side walls, then the walls simply slide inside the channel. If the ceiling channel is accurately bent to match the exact curvature of the ceiling, there won't be any gaps at all - I HATE gaps!

I'm not sure I'm up to date on videos or this thread even but do you have pictures of all this channeling? Your riveting AL channel to the OEM steel hat channel of the bus? There's no thermal break at all?


While trying to recreate the front end of my bus for the roof raise, I've found that duplicating curvatures ain't so easy. Mine will all be hidden and I could have taken more time and gotten it much closer but it would cost a lot more time.

[Juicifer]

Hey guys. Sorry for my absence. I've still been bus-converting and making videos, just haven't also found time to write about it!!

Following is my video dump with a short description so that you can decide before watching if a video will be of value to you.

Thank you so much Iceni_John for all of those details. You've created a great way to install just 3/4" walls and I like it a lot! You'll see in the following videos that I decided to use 3/4" plywood with pocket screws. While probably not as excellent of an install as yours, as long as there are shelves tying wall panels together, I believe them to be stiff enough, but I haven't had this bus on the road, so WHO KNOWS! I've just learned to live with the unknown while turning a school bus into a tiny house...many of us don't have any other choice. Hehe sometimes the blind lead the blind.

In this video I finally discovered the last source of our window leaks, and ratified it, and wasted some time preparing for a hurricane that thankfully never came! FWIW my previous window sealing efforts were...worth the effort, but I was missing one little "butt joint" underneath the track that the windows ride up and down in which terminates at the bottom of the window...where water pools and splashes while it rains. Not sure how I missed it for so long!! and so I coated it with paintable clear Geocel Proflex: https://amzn.to/2DAp3pC and finally my windows have been leak free. This allowed me to move on to my much awaited interior woodworking. Yay!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Y31lwZZuw&t=59s

[Juicifer]

In this video my brother-in-law Nate starts helping me out when available on weekends (up to this point I've only been able to work weekends anyway) and we covered up a spray foam chase above the windows. I had originally earmarked this area for a big long wiring run for all of my wiring. In the end I ended up attempting to embed in the spray foam in the ceiling of the bus. I wish I had gone with this original area instead FWIW as I often worry about my never again accessible wiring in the ceiling that caused me great trouble in spray foam trimming anyway.

My wife also tries to tie our ceiling panels together where they push out and gap with a narrow crown stapler, but it doesn't work.

TAKE AWAY THIS IF YOU IGNORE EVERYTHING ELSE: Use lots of furring strips in your ceiling if you're running them lengthwise for a thermal break and to install a plywood ceiling! I only used 6! I should have used many many more like Charles Kerns and Skoolie.com does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWqBgEvaFhc&t=58s

[Juicifer]

Next up Nate and I insulated the windows we'll be covering and then covered them with 1/2 inch plywood. Is it stupid to cover these windows instead of removing them and sheet-metaling over? Yeah, probably. The reason I'm not doing it is I like the stock look of the bus. That's also maybe a stupid reason, but hey lots of bus converters seem to get away with it. The good news for me is if I ever decide to change this, my windows are removable from the outside, unlike most school buses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrgt1icr2iE

[Juicifer]

I learned how to copy the arch of the school bus, and did it with varied success. I've been putting the kreg jig to great use at about this point in the build.

This install is not the finished product, as I've got to access this area for my mini split lineset.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZtFQ_miWV8

[Juicifer]

Then I started building my interior walls that run perpendicular to the bus with pocket holes and 3/4 plywood. I probably should be using glue at this point but I didn't. I just wasn't confident I'd get these walls installed right the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvqTXAQAxz0

[david.dgeorge07]

Originally Posted by Juicifer

Then I started building my interior walls that run perpendicular to the bus with pocket holes and 3/4 plywood. I probably should be using glue at this point but I didn't. I just wasn't confident I'd get these walls installed right the first time.

Your dedication to getting rid of gaps is admirable! Fun times! I remember unboxing my units!

[Juicifer]

Originally Posted by david.dgeorge07

Your dedication to getting rid of gaps is admirable! Fun times! I remember unboxing my units!

Thanks! I have gotten more and more dedicated to getting rid of gaps as the project has advanced (and thankfully a little bit faster of a woodworker, although it's still my biggest challenge so far). Although I'm several videos behind, I am close to being done with the woodworking, and have only the couches, dinettes, and maybe some projects in the baby's room/hallway.

Of course every project gets 80% finished, and it will be a while till I get to finish carpentry, and that last 20% tends to take a long time.

Here's the next video: a Q + A I did for episode 30 while the baby and I walk around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI-Qx-NBIMo&t=22s

[Juicifer]

And then I built more plywood walls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zovEGDwSZT8&t=12s

[ComfortEagle]

Lisa just showed me a pic of your king-size bed platform on Instagram; you are getting it done brother. My life and the dashboard have definitely slowed me down, but my goal is for our buses to be side by side, the two Phantoms, at some tiny house festival in 2019 (late summer?). By the way, I crown you the "pocket screw king" (that sounds offensive...).

[Juicifer]

Originally Posted by ComfortEagle

Lisa just showed me a pic of your king-size bed platform on Instagram; you are getting it done brother. My life and the dashboard have definitely slowed me down, but my goal is for our buses to be side by side, the two Phantoms, at some tiny house festival in 2019 (late summer?). By the way, I crown you the "pocket screw king" (that sounds offensive...).

I'm feeling good about progress lately! My confidence is building with the woodworking, and thankfully my wife agreed we could stay home for Thanksgiving and Christmas which I'm grateful for because we had a wedding in September, one in October, and one in November and none of them were within a 6 hour drive of home!

I even knocked out the first couch this weekend. Ever just wake up and wing it? I rarely do that, but it was fun. Photos of that will hit Instagram soon (instagram.com/gilliganphantom

I am very behind in the videos, and am even behind in linking them to this thread, so here's one for you. Surprise surpise: more pocket screws! lol

And yes I'm fairly confident at this point that I'll be done with at least stage 1 by Summer 2019 so we'll see you there! (stage 1 is basically everything is done except for the final battery bank, inverter, and maybe the shower, and maybe some finishing touches like extra shelves or drawers/built ins)

In this video I built the last of our walls that run perpendicular to the couch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVugUBUYZnw

[Juicifer]

Alright with this one we're all caught up! In this video I experimented as I installed wall studs for the bathroom walls. (no plywood and pocket holes this time okay fine there were some pocket holes). The first wall i built with 2x2's and "toenailed" them with framing screws. It didn't feel rock solid so i screwed in a bunch of horizontal supports. Second wall i went straight for 2x4 studs on edge. I used pocket holes instead of toenailing screws because it was just easier to get them to stick where I wanted to. Both walls got sheathed with 1/2 plywood on both sides (overkill in retrospect). Moral of the story is they are both rock solid. If weight is not a concern in your build I say 2x4's are easier. If weight is a concern 2x2's are sufficient. Note that I'm not running electrical lines and probably not even plumbing in these walls so if you're going to do that and you want plenty of space for your runs consider 2x3 studs conventionally spaced. Wow so many options!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK51...f4i45xw03c010c

[EastCoastCB]

man its looking good in there!