Our Bus, Our Home

[eyedeal.ink]

Originally Posted by HolyBus

Love it! That ladder looks like it was built for that bus. Its a perfect fit. Where did you come by that? I have looked at rv ladders but not found one that will look correct with my setup.

Thank you, my father and I built that ladder using 3/4" heavy wall black pipe, bent the pipe by hand (took both of us and a cheater bar). We used 1 inch pipe for the coupler above the door and the 6 cleats that attach it to the bus. Between getting the 3/4 inch to go inside the 1 inch, getting two pair of ladder legs that matched, and getting all the treads mounted square, it was quite a bit of work. Treads are 1x3 angle, top half is stationary, bottom half is removable so the door still opens.

[eyedeal.ink]

Backup camera mounted and wired, needs a switch in the panel, works great.

[nat_ster]

As always Great craftsmanship and creativity.

Nat

[eyedeal.ink]

Originally Posted by nat_ster

As always Great craftsmanship and creativity.

Nat

Thanks man.

[ElizaHasAPlan]

I'm no slouch in the vocabulary department, but all I could think while reading this thread was, "Wow, ooooh, wow, OH wow!"



Stunning sums it up for me.

[browncrown]

Man, your bus is spectacular!

[sojourner]

Nice work!! As always, love what you've done with the place .

[Tango]

Nice craftsmanship! --- And it definitely looks sturdier than the typical cheap aluminum RV ladders

[REDD]

Looks great, love the open concept and all the natural wood. I would like to do something similar as far as the ladder goes, might have to go off the side....would like to build a deck up top for watchin' the drag races.

What colour is your bus? On my 'puter some pics look med. blue others look teal/aqua kinda thing.

[wrhby85]

I just read through this entire build...at work! Love the craftsmanship, you are both truly gifted. I thank you for sharing your vision with all of us. I might not agree with all of your decisions (what the heck is that exterior color) but that's the point isn't it...it's truly your unique design, made to reflect your individuality.

Bill

[eyedeal.ink]

Thanks everyone for the compliments and encouragement, color is Caribbean turquoise, kindof a late 60's ford color, like my grandfathers 69' F350, we were shooting for a classy unique color, it's not blue and its not green but somewhere in between.

[Bryce]

I'm verry impressed! Just scrolled through the whole topic!
Do you have any idea about how much you've spend in total?

I'm planning to buy a bus myself and ship it to The Netherlands (where I live) to convert it into a permanent living space.
But I have no idea how much €€ will be needed to accomplish this dream.

[empresstheinsect]

@eyedeal.ink I haven't had time to read all of this yet but y'all are a wealth of information! Thank you for documenting so well! your bus is beautiful.

[SpudLime]

Wow. This is the first thread I read the whole thing.

[Tango]

Now THAT...THAT is a HAPPY color! Way cool!

[eyedeal.ink]

New front door, seals out the rain/cold/spiders/mice. Removed glass, covered holes with plastic and duct tape. Two sheets of 1/2" exterior grade plywood cut to within 1/4" door size screwed together to get 1" total (original bus doors thickness). Traced windows onto plywood then drew a cut line 3/4" inside of that. Cut out window openings and routed them on both sides with a 1/2" round bit. Plywood unscrewed, retrace windows on the inside and routed out half window thickness out of each side with a straight bit, check fit. Windows were cleaned and covered on both sides with contact paper and set aside at this point.

Now the fun part: cover both sides with cloth and epoxy, hence the rounded edges on the window openings. After both sides were coated with cloth and four additional topcoats the windows were inserted (after removing a 3/4" ring of contact paper that would be inside the wood) and the hole thing was screwed together with 100 3/4" screws and glued with a healthy coating of epoxy and thickener (makes glue). Couple more coats of epoxy makes the screws disappear.

Tarped the front end of the bus and removed doors to see exactly what the frame looks like and to get my hinge. 1 1/4" angle on the hinge side, screwed and epoxied (sealed) with 1" screws on the face and 3 1/2" screws on the edge, all other edges clothed and coated after cutting door to exact size. This angle was drilled and tapped for (20) 1" 1/4-20 bolts (same as the original steal doors). After a few coats of paint, caulking was applied around the windows and the door was mounted and weather stripping and door hardware added. Given that the door is only 1 1/8" thick overall, we were limited to storm door hardware but we found a fairly secure set with a deadbolt. The air actuated door opener was removed, makes a perfect spot for the 20 ton jack and some gloves, etc, just need to make a latching door.
Yeah, if a window gets broken it'll be no easy fix, gotta roll the dice sometimes. 3 weeks and $300 worth of wood, epoxy, cloth, steel and hardware.

[eyedeal.ink]

Added a second ecofan to the back of the stove, works great at dispersing the heat more evenly and doubles as a dehumidifier.

[eyedeal.ink]

[eyedeal.ink]

Some coat hooks up front, should have done this a long time ago.

[eyedeal.ink]

Needed a way to vent the range when we're cooking. Stainless steel hinge and screws ($30), 1/8" aluminum plate with welded piece for rain protection from the local fab shop ($50), black Plexiglas ($25) 10 computer fans from the local junkyard (they had half a garbage can full of them, needed 10 grills - $2), had a piece of black walnut left over from the dash, some shrink tubing, two switches and a grommet ($20), two spring wheel catches ($10). At around $150 I'm pretty happy with the result, most of the time one switch is fine, turns on fans 2 and 4, boiling spaghetti we'll have the option to turn on all 5. Still need to add a catch to keep it in the window properly.