Pony Express ~ bus conversion

[Quincey MS]

Hey there! This is the story of Pony Express. My wife and I have a love for traveling and so do our Boxers. One of our Boxer babies recently passed away so we named the bus after her. We started out in a 1975 19' rv then bought/upgraded to a 2000 Blue Bird School Bus. I started the conversion in June of 2013. I worked on it on my days off of work and we moved into it full time October of 2014. The winter was definitely a challenge but we survived. I did a few things inside over the winter and now that spring is right around the corner I will be finishing up the conversion. What's left is the outside paint job, an RV Door installed, roof deck and then the WVO kit installed. This is my first go at anything like this but, my construction experience definitely helped. All of the wood work was done with repurposed pallets from my job and I'd say about 80 percent of the other things were purchased from habitat for humanity, lowes, amazon and friends. So far the cost is around $9,000 including the bus purchase. There are a few other minor kinks to work out inside from the winter beating we got. over all we are happy withe the out come. We own a vegan cafe and have a passion for food so I designed the entire conversion around the kitchen area.

I will find a place to post all the pictures of the conversion from start to finish sometime this week. Here is the link to my Album of pictures that I uploaded to the Skoolie site.

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/member...albums663.html

Feel free to say hi, add comments, ask questions.

Quincey

[Tango]

Howdy & Welcome to the Looney Bin! --- I like your economical approach and the "pallets" look great. Nice rustic feel that makes it real homey. Keep up the good work and keep the pix a'comin'.

[Quincey MS]

Lol! "Welcome to the Looney Bin!" people think we are crazy for living like we do so we will fit right in. ;) I worked at a printing place so we had lots of really nice pallets. I didn't have to do much work with them so that was a plus. It definitely does give it a rustic comfy feel to it. Thanks for the compliments and I will definitely be posting up more of the conversion process. It was a lot of fun and rewarding. I might even start flipping busses. We travel a lot so we are excited to hit the road again this year. We already traveled across the US 4 times. We call it Wanderlust!

[Chuck Galyean]

Hey-hi,

Your pic's were great! I think some of them were loaded sideways, but I'm half blind so, it's questionable--lol!

I wonder if flip'en buses could find a market?

Welcome,

Anndru & Chuck

[bansil]

Looks great!

[MuddaEarth]

You've done some great work on your bus....Thanks for sharing!!

[nat_ster]

Great job for what your working with.

Looking forward to more pics.

Nat

[Quincey MS]

ok so here is more pictures of the conversion process from start to finish.
enjoy!

STORY VIEW
Pony Express - Skoolie Story by QuinceyMS | Photobucket

SLIDE SHOW VIEW
Pony Express - Skoolie Slideshow by QuinceyMS | Photobucket

[Quincey MS]

thanks for all the compliments!

[Chuck Galyean]

Hey-hi Quincey MS,

Nice pic's, a very handsome conversion! The refurbishing of the pallets does create a solid, industrial feel. Your set-up offers the statement that everything has its place and it's going nowhere until you use it.

It also reminds me of an old barn or rustic cabin; very nice. Your pic's taught me how to work with the wheel fenders (on the inside). Thanks for the tip!

Andru & Chuck

[REDD]

Good job, how long did it take you to get to this point?

[Quincey MS]

Andru & Chuck ~ Thank you. I'm glad that you are able to take some ideas/tips from my conversion. I started out with the kitchen countertop and worked everything else out around that. I honestly changed the plans/layout over a dozen times while doing the conversion. it was really fun though.

if there is anything I can do to help feel free to ask.

Quincey MS

[Quincey MS]

REDD~
it took me a year and four months. that was just weekend work and not working on it over the winter months though. so I probably put a total of 2 months of solid work into it all combined. I did it all by myself too except for the electric panel hook up and some minor welding. it would go by far easier and faster with a helping hand.

I still have to paint the exterior, instal an rv door, roof deck and a rear rack to put on. then I have a few things to finish up on the inside. the drivers switch panel area, bluetooth stereo, removing the flooring and installing a better quality of flooring. the winter causes the current flooring to buckle up a bit. that's what I get for going the cheap route though.

trial and error.....

not too bad for my first conversion though. it was a lot of fun for sure!