Gypsy Ceramic Shop Bus

[Gypsy_Kid]

Thanks guys!

It's pretty much all cleared up now.

Sorry I don't have pictures, but I do have a progress report! I Ripped up some of the plywood floor and cleaned up all the rust with a wire wheel on an angle grinder (Just cleaning up 8 feet by 7.5 feet ate up my entire $13 wire wheel!). I ended up with one hole you could lose a tennis ball through, and one you could lose a chiauahauaha (one of those yippy dogs) through. I put down one coat of rust-ol-eum primer and then layed down some plywood slats. I filled all the small screw holes in with caulk that says it's good for 25 years (some sort of roof caulk) and covered the bottoms of the plywood covering the big holes with the caulk as well. The slats were roughly 8-12 inches apart. I put down foam insulation board that I rescued from a campus dumpster and then overlayed the whole set-up with 1/2" Pine wood. It was formerly pine shelving that was in a shoe store for like 60-80 years. It's good and cured. I think I'll have to be careful with it. I have two sheets of plywood that I plan to lay down as the bathroom floor, that way the clawfoot tub will be supported.

I found out that an electric stove uses 40 amps of power, so I'm gonna have to forgo that idea. I'm still trying to find a camper to strip, since I still need holding tanks and an RV toilet. If I can't find a good RV stove, then I'll have to install my wood burning stove

I have a huge metal tube that was made out of some pretty thick sheetmetal for the theatre department. It's all welded and strong. I think I'm going to have some end caps welded and then turn it into the vegetable oil tank. I'll have to do more research, because originally I was gonna have two tank; one for dirty oil and one for filtered. I thik I can make a filter that will clean it as it goes into the tank, and then I'll have a 90 gallon fuel tank! That's in addition to the 60 gallon diesel tank.

I re-routed the heating hoses so I could remove that annoying heater in the back, and was proud of myself, but then I realized I disconnected the defrost. So now I have to put most of the hoses back... Oh life!

I gotta finish putting in the floor of this bus, and then I can work on the understorage cabinets. I have three old filing cabinets. I plan to throw all the drawers away, lay them on their sides, cut out the posts, and then make new "doors" for them. Then I can just cut a bit of the bus side out, slide them in, and weld them in place. They fit perfectly!

My real problem is having a place to work. I have it parked in a church parking lot, but the pastor has become quite cross with me the past two days. He hauled off half the sheet-metal I had for no reason, which was stored in a warehouse, and has told me I can't work on it anymore. I found a hippie (who lived in a bus at one point) who was telling me he was moving into his mothers barn. He offered to get me a free bike, and I gave him my bunk bed set that I didn't want anymore, and then he mentioned having this garage he wanted to clean out and put a metal shop in. He mentioned he had a MIG welder but wanted some more practice. I happened to mention my bus, and I think he may do all the welding for me in exchange for my help... Probelm solved, hopefully. But I still have the problem of where I'm going to park the bus. I think I have a couple of jobs lined up in the area where the church lot is, and I'm heavily involved in a lot of different ministries that are right there, so I really don't want to move. The pastor is practically threatening to have me towed... Anyways, there's an empty lot about 5 feet from my bus that i'm trying to have donated so I can turn it into a garden (one of the ministries I'm involved in) and if I get it donated then I can just park my bus there. We'll see what happens with that.

Oh yeah, I still haven't gotten the title for my bus yet, isn't that crazy? I gotta call them and see what's going on, it's been several months now.

Peace out,

[speakeasyglass]

You and your fiance have a very similar plan as me and my girlfriend. We are putting our glass blowing shop on the back of our bus. I am doing a sheet metal floor for the easy cleanup and it won't burn. As for our kiln Im using a paragon f-230 mounted in the left rear corner and designing a box to hold it tight for driving. We are in lawrence ks sounds like you guys are close. I have some friends that are skoolie kids in the ozarks that have a campground/canoe rental on the nyagua river called mountain creek campground if you end up around there on your trip for the tenth you should try and meet them their names are Star and Laura he bows glass as well and they are throwing a festival in sept. Hope all is well and you get that title soon.Peace and blessings.

[Gypsy_Kid]

Sweet! As far as the floor goes here's a trick for you. It's already sheetmetal! Just rip out the old floor, sand down the metal and seal it.

I'm not sure what to do for the floor in the ceramic shop yet. I was thinking about actually putting in a ceramic floor. hehe. Perhaps I'll make it sheet-metal as well. Yeah, probably.

So I was supposed to of been done with this project in May, but a lot has happened since then. The good news is that I have my bus full of stuff to build it with, I've almost finished the legalization, I have insurance on it (700 a year through progressive. I know it's steep but oh well), and since winter is coming up it should get done rather quickly.

So I've been making plans for what it should look like, and keep changing them. I think I've found a winner though.



If it shows up, it looks like a picture of a bus with a deck and little "house" on top. Actually what it is is Noah's Ark.

I was riding my bicycle around and found a free camper that I plan on stripping out At first the guy was all like "a hundred dollars and it's yours!" But I was like "No man, I just want a few parts off of it." So he was like "If you haul it off my lot you can just have it for free." So then I was like "Well, I guess I could think about it and see if that's feasible."

I toured the camper and found a small inverter, a large converter, a bathroom complete with toilet shower and sink, a kitchen with stove and sink, an overhead air-conditioner unit, big RV windows, sheetmetal, a swivel chair (drivers seat that swivels!), And cool gadgets here and there. Oh yeah, and the holding tank and fuel tank.

So here's the plan. I've already built the kitchen unit complete with a large utility sink, washboard, cabinets, electric stovetop burner ("hotplate"), a ceramic counter-top, a refrigerator, and a couple hidden compartments. One compartment holds 30 arrows, the other holds random stuff. I've also got the clawfoot bathtub. So I'm going to put in the swivel chair, a bathroom, a closet (the old bus doors will be the clost doors), and depending on measurments a dresser. The sewing machine might also go in the cabin. The last six windows of the bus will house a seperate section, which will be the ceramic studio. To accomplish that feat I got a job at the universities ceramic shop so I could learn how everything works. I'll be a "student expert" in charge of firing kilns and what-not.

So now that my living space has decreased to that of a mini-bus, I plan to put a "house" on top of the bus. It's going to be built in two pieces. When the bus is mobile it will stick up 3 feet, and when parked it'll stick up 5 to 5.6 feet. That should make the bus around 12.6 to 13 feet high in total when mobile. That little house will be the bedroom, and depending on how things go there may be a dresser up there.

Now that school is back in session, I should be able to post actual pictures of the process/progress.

Oh yeah, I've been living in the bus since May 16, and will continue to do so at least through the school year!

Josh

[Gypsy_Kid]

Oh yeah, I have a wind generator I need to put together, and I have 150 3x6 soler cells to make solar panels out of. I also have a 2500 watt continuous 5000 watt peak inverter, and a 160 amp charge controller. The bus is electric!

[Gypsy_Kid]

I drew up plans on paper for making the rooftop. I believe it will be 10 foot long, by 8 feet wide. The bottom section will be 3 feet tall, and the upper section will be 4 feet high in order to add a 6: peek. So when in motion it will be 4 feet high, and when parked it'll be around 5'8" or so.

Progressive dropped my insurance policy, so I have to find a new insurance provider, but I finally got everything straightened out with the DMV so I could register it as an RV. I'm still waiting for them to send back the title though.

After driving my bus two miles, I found out why the brake fluid reservoir kept draining. One of the brake lines was rusted through. Luckily it's only a 4 inch section for the front brakes. No harm done. However, my entrepreneurial mind was turning and I thought "brakes are important, and brake lines are really thin. Why would someone make them to rust, and place them in a place where they will have massive exposure to salt from the roads? I think that if I manufactured brake lines that were rust resistant, they would last a whole lot longer, and I'd make a killing. Feel free to steal my idea. For sure though, whenever I replace brake lines, they're getting a heavy coat of rust-ol-eum paint and will be coated in electrical tape or encased in PVC or something. Crazy.

At least I take good enough care of my bus to of noticed the problem in advance.

So after 6 months of ownership, I've finally moved it 2 miles! YAY!

So did anyone have any comments about my rooftop bedroom?

Here's a thought. I'm a gardener and I've decided that if I use all organic and biodegradeable soaps, cleaners, and hygeine products, I should be able to recycle almost all of my drain water. I'll have my sinks and tub flow straight into a "garden barrel" which I can then use to water my plants. That way I don't have to keep going to the RV station 60 miles away.

My fiance left me back in May, and I've been living in the bus ever since. I just finally got it emptied out so I can finish stripping the interior. Hopefully I can get it done before winter.

Keep on skoolin'

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Gypsy_Kid

...whenever I replace brake lines, they're getting a heavy coat of rust-ol-eum paint and will be coated in electrical tape or encased in PVC or something...

Not to rain on your idea but...why not just replace them with stainless steel lines (readily available nationwide)? Just a thought...a little pricey-er, but worth the investment.

[Sojakai]

I was thinking of a can of "Handle Rubber". Just dip the piece into the rubber to coat the outside and let it dry. Clean the ends up so they look nice. Should last for the life of the bus.

[Gypsy_Kid]

Why? Those new lines will outlive the bus by decades. Put them on & forget about 'em, the bus will be scrap long before the lines cause you any grief.

Being ignorant of many things, and keeping in mind that you more than likely know what you're talking about, I pose two questions. 1) If the lines would last as long as you believe they will, then why am I having to replace them? 2) Why do I keep hearing about people always needing to replace brake lines?

I really like that someone is manufacturing stainless steel brake lines. I think I'll have to invest in those. Thanks for that tip-off

I think that maybe I will wait until after winter to put the deck on top of the bus, seeing how I really won't be sleeping in there in the winter anyways. That's a really good idea.

I think I'm gonna try to get insured through GMAC tomorrow. So bad news. The place where I had my bus told me to find a new home for my bus. They told me that 6 months ago, and I never did find a place for it. So I may have to put it in storage tomorrow after class and live on the street for a while. I may end up moving into the art studio on campus... But I'm determined to live in a skoolie, so I'll make it work somehow.

[Gypsy_Kid]

Well Smitty, that makes sense to me. I'd probably better make some calls later and find someone to fix my brakes and replace the tires Oh yeah, I also need to call GMAC and get insurance.

Some of my college friends have agreed to let me park my bus at their house for a month until I find another place to keep it. Hopefully I'll get some work done on it.

I'll try to post pictures soon.

[Gypsy_Kid]

Hooray for progress!

The front door broke on a recent road trip. It was all glass. The wind caught it when opened and it busted against my mirror. That's alright though because now I have a solid core door with deadbolt, doorknob, and a big ol' window in it.

I got the back all grinded out, so now I shouldn't have to do any more grinding, except for the underside of my clawfoot bathtub... I also got all of the wall panels removed, and some of the windows. A lot of the outside windows have been covered with sheet metal. The holes in the floor have been patched, the kitchen is installed, and I'm getting ready to insulate and board up the walls. Hopefully I'll stop being lazy and put up pictures.

Update. I got a boat today that I plan to attach to the roof. How cool is that? It's an interesting areodynamic way to raise the roof. 17' boat about 2.5 feet deep. Not big enough for a loft (drat) but big enough for headroom and possible some overhead storage. I may put windows in it to be a sunroof.

[Gypsy_Kid]

Hellow Skoolie-ers.

Don't mind the typos, I'm at a "prestegious private university" which means that everything is jank, including the keayboards. I rarely find one in good working condition. Do note that I was homeschooled, so I definetly know how to spell

I don't know what all of my previous posts said, but they were basically me thinking and dreaming, and plotting. Just before Thanksgiving break, all I really had done was the skeleton of a kitchen, half of the floor removed, wire-brushed clean, sealed with rust-ol-eum (nasty stuff), insulated, and covered. and the wall panels were all removed. During the 9 days of Thanksgiving break, I got a lot done. I sectioned off the back "three windows" of the bus and installed a nice padlock on the backdoor for entry. That's going to be my woodshop, ceramic shop, and bike repair shop. I completely finished the floor up to the section, and completed the rest of the floor minus the floorboards (meaning I didn't lay a floor in the rear of the bus, just slatted and insulated it). I removed all but two windows, completely sheetmetaled over the window holes and sealed them. I insulated ALL of the walls of the bus with R19 (man was it hard to get it squeezed in there). I put wall boards up and completely finished the project. I built boxes over the tire wells (the sectioned wall is just behind the tire "boxes"). I built a bed that's conected to the back wall, and runs from one side of the bus to another. Under this is the tire boxes, and storage that can be accessed by either lifting the mattress up and opening the "pirate" doors (metal trap doors salvaged from a theatre set) or from the front as the facing on the bed is hinged. There's a queen sized mattress I found that sits lovely on there, and then a futon mattress (my former bed) and then tons of blankets. Directly in front of this bed on the passenger side is the woodburning stove, which is like 30 inches long and 13 inches wide. I purchased a very nice unit with a window from menards that was more efficient, had a blower, was half the size, and only $50 more due to a sale. However, Menards gave me the wrong stove when they loaded it up. They were closed by the time I got back to my parking lot, and I had a very narrow window to work with, so I just set it up anyways. On the other side of the bus, the drivers side, directly across from the woodstove is a window. Under it is my beautiful clawfoot bathtub which is currently being used as a place to store lumber for the woodstove. It serves that purpose well.

Back over to the passenger side, about 2 feet away from the stove is where my kitchen unit starts, which runs the rest of the length of the bus. It contains a deep sink, cupboard to house my washboard and toxic chemicals (I'm going to switch to purely organic and biodegradeable materials as soon as I get everything hooked up) including break fluid, anti-freeze, and oil for the bus (until I get an outside box built for them). In addition to the sink and chemical cupboard, I have three drawers and a lot of cupboard space. There are two huge cupboards, one for food, and the other for gallon jugs of water. I have to buy my water by the gallon anyways due to my body's intolerance to tainted water, which Decatur definitely has, so I figured I could easily bypass having a filtering system or anything like that. I also have a hotplate burner (one of those electric coil things that are normally on stoves, which are electric and heat stuff up) for cooking in the summer, and a refrigerator. I had a microwave, but I removed it due to power consumption and space. I also have a coffee maker to get hot water. The counter surface is ceramic tile that's normally quite expensive. I purchased it from Lowe's for $10, as it was a display model (fully put together alrready!) that they were throwing away. It was 8 feet long and three feet wide when I bought it, and weighed around 200 pounds. I placed it on my bike handlebars and seat and walked it home on the highway. Lowe's is in the next town over from Decatur. It took me all day, but was worth it. (I didn't have insurance on the bus at that point).

The entire interior, including the bed, all the walls, floor, and kitchen unit, are all faced with 1" aged pinewood that used to be the shelves in an old shoe store. They're about 50-60 years old, and for the most part nicely darkened. There are a lot of seems that need filled, and they need sealed, but it'll look nice when they're done. A lot of people mistake them for ceder.

The front door is an actual house door. It stared as bus doors, then turned into a double-pained glass door from a hospital (which broke because of the wind), and is now a solid-core wooden housedoor with a big old window in it.

I have my power inverter hooked up, and have one marine battery thus far. Hopefully I can get my solar-panels and wind generator up in the Spring.

For the drivers seat, I use a two-door kitchen cupboard. I really need to get a better seat...

I hooked up one of the big theatre speakers, and have the old cassette deck from my Suburu hatchback which I hook my CD player into, so it's got some real good noise coming from it all the time!

What I'm working on now is finishing up the back. And I'm contemplating the toilet, and putting in a secondary propane furnace. Air conditioners will be addressed in the summer.

Also, I was given a really nice fiberglass boat, that was 16 feet long by 7.5 feet wide. I cut it completely apart so it's just the shell, and am going to spend all winter contemplating how to utilize it on the roof. I really wanted a loft, with a garden, and solar panels, but then decided to just cut a huge hole in the roof and throw this boat up there to raise it up. I could easily do that, but I decided to wait until summer so I could REALLY think things through. By the way, yes, I did DESTROY a perfectly good fiberglass fishing boat, compplete with a really nice enginge. THere was absolutely nothing wrong with it, but the owner wanted the trailer and not the boat, so I took advatage of that situation. The boat will make a very aerodynamic "whatever" that will be on the roof. I just have to figure out how I want to utilize that space.

In the summer I'm going to sandblast the underside of the bus (I think) and then seal it with this "RV" coating that's supposed to last for 30 years. Then I will weld in storage boxes, and a battery compartment. My water system will get installed after the roof is done, and I'll complete the vegetable oil conversion last of all. I have two tanks for that now, but I have to convince myself to locate them inside of my bus so they can be heated easily. One is a 55 gallon drum that had laquer thinner in it (I hope that mixes well with Diesel), and the other is a 15 gallon (I think) gas tank from the boat. I plan to put vegetable oil into the gas tank via a pump that will suck it straight out of whatever container the oil happens to be in, which will be located on the outside of the bus. Once it's in the tank inside, it will go through that little device that sucks the water out (that $500 part) and puts it into the 55-gallon drum below. Then it can run straight to the engine via a fuel pump. That's my plan, unless I come up with something better. I plan to keep the diesel tank intact as it is in order to have a switchover system. So the bus can start on diesel, switch to vegetabke oil once it's warm, and then shut-down on diesel to clean the oil out of the engine. That's so in the winter I won't run into any problems. In the summer it should be fine as is.

Maybe I could use the 55 gallon drum, AND the 60 gallon Diesel tank on the bus, as vegetable oil holders, while having the 15 gallon tank be the "dirty tank"? Then I can go over a thousand miles per fill-up. That'd work if I could find a way to keep the tanks heated in the winter, which would be worth it to me. And since I don't really use power in the winter (which is primarily for air-conditioning units), perhaps my electrical system can sustain keeping the tanks heated. Oh what fun projects I end up with. That'd be much safer and funner that having a 55 gallon barrell of explosive materials in my bus.

So betwen the veggie system, the water system, toilet, and the loft on top of the bus, I'll have a lot of thinking to do this winter.

In the meantime, I'm quite enjoying my Skoolie experience. I;ve been living in it since May. Up until now it's been a huge construction zone, which I simultaneously lived in. But now it's an actual home! It's quite nice. I have the woodstove going, some oil lanters and or candles going, pop open a nice can of soup to warm on the stove (which burns pallets and random sticks and logs that were formerly yard "waste"), and relax. I can't wait until I get my sewing machine and everything situated. And also, I'm looking forward to the possibility of having a secondary propane heating system that will stabilize my living tempature, which means I can move my fiddle back into the bus.

I'm gearing up for a trip to Cleaveland, Ohio this weekend. It's 1000 miles roundtip, and I have 6 bald tires. Maybe not the best plan, but we'll see how it goes. One of my hippie friends has a bycycle "car" that he needs to go pick up. Currently, he does his paper route using a pickup, which of course uses up gasoline and pollutes the environment.

Peace out

[Eric von Kleist]

I can't wait to see pics. I like the idea of a travelling ceramics bus, and you could certainly make your own custom tile for it. The boat on the roof is an excellent approach to using a boat hull. You're a busy guy!

[Redbear]

Originally Posted by Gypsy_Kid

The counter surface is ceramic tile that's normally quite expensive. I purchased it from Lowe's for $10, as it was a display model (fully put together alrready!) that they were throwing away. It was 8 feet long and three feet wide when I bought it, and weighed around 200 pounds. I placed it on my bike handlebars and seat and walked it home on the highway. Lowe's is in the next town over from Decatur. It took me all day, but was worth it . . .

This is the kind of determination that enabled the pioneers to conquer the wilderness . . . . Carry on!

[bikeforthelight]

haha....ditto smitty

[newbusser]

I guess you didn't read thru the whole post after all, there darklaw. He posted a pic with his idea for roof rack on it.
Besides, with your vast experience of 11 postings, why do you want to rain on his parade? there is another forum dedicated to people like you, just do a google search on "arkansascajun" and join his forum, you'll be fast friends and buddies for life. He would love the Truth is Treason site, hook him up.

Oh and as whether he really has a bus or not, ask smitty how long he planned and dreamed before finding one. or a lot of the characters we have as part of this family. I myself had been dreaming and wanting for over four years before coming here and then finding my bird.

The point is that whether gypsy has a bus and not a camera, or if this is just a skoolie dreaming out loud......don't come here and crap on it....bad karma has a way of coming back around and slapping you right in the happy sack.

Ok, i'm done venting now. We could sure use a few more pics there Gypsy.

[Eric von Kleist]

hehehe "arkansascajun" roflmao right on!