PePe's Family bus

[pepepito]

Hi Guys

New in the Bus conversion business but not new to the car restoration , bodywork, engine mechanics, welding and general DIY construction guy.

New to diesel engines so I'm learning now about my 6.5L and some people in the forum already gave me some light on this and I'm getting the shop manuals this week to learn more.

The Bus is a Bluebird Chevy 2002 Detroit diesel 6.5L with a 4L80E trans.

PO put like 20k on this bus to maintain it up to code/regulations valid until January so it has quite a few things done, some of them are :

New injector Pump
New Injectors
New glowplugs
New PMD module ( high performance and relocated)
New Battery
New alternator
Transmission rebuild 10k ago
An many other things.

On Monday I went to the pick and pull and got some bits of trim that were broken and some dash parts.

Yesterday and today I have been working on taking the seats an floor and here are some pictures:

PePe's Family Bus

Next steps for me are :

Take all the F'ing rivets out and try to fix the leak from the roof, any advice ?

poor15 the floor after a good cleaning
work on framing, piping and cabling.
Find some golf cart batteries, Server powersuplies for 120v/12-24v
Find some inverters ( any recommendations? )
Research about RV type connections for piping, power, gray and black water
Define a layout
Build bunk beds and rest of cabinets accessories

And then wait for the summer to get it insulated and then put together

Future projects :

Solar panels
Veggie Oil conversion
A/C
Diesel heater ( find a used one)
Paint
Engine swap if I found a deal ( DT466, 6.6 duramax)
and others.

[Piersg]

If your roof is leaking the most likely source is the emergency roof hatch. Both of mine leaked like sieves, I tried patching them various different ways, but ended up taking them out and covering the holes with 14Ga galvanized steel.


Whatever you do, don't take off the rear wing, it keeps the bus glued to the ground when you are going over 90 Mph!

[pepepito]

Originally Posted by Piersg

Whatever you do, don't take off the rear wing, it keeps the bus glued to the ground when you are going over 90 Mph!

Are does spoiler of any use ?

if they supposed to make a draft of air to cleanup the windows then they are useless....

[Piersg]

I have no idea if the spoiler works or not, I was just being sarcastic!

[pepepito]

Originally Posted by Piersg

... I was just being sarcastic!

Ohh yes I know in fact I was thinking to paint the bus blue metallic so it looks like a WRX

[CaptSquid]

The rear spoiler DOES keep the rear window clear (or so).

[pepepito]

I'm going to get a Chevy express 3500 for parts at a good price that is the same my bus is base of and has a blown 6.5L so I might get some spare parts but I was thinking if I swap the dually axle with the one in the Van the gear ratio should be higher therefore RPM should go down and I could go a bit faster and be able to talk to someone while doing it ?

is that feasible ? have anyone done it ?

Any advice is appreciate.

PS : I will no be hauling anything only very few times to move cars around in the city but that is about it so this is not a hauling machine for me.