Well, California's drought is over. It's been raining out here for weeks, so I've taken shelter inside. Even got some work done.
First up, paint. I just could not live with that "middle-school locker room green" so I bought an airless sprayer and went at it.
I spent a solid week sanding and cleaning and masking for prep. In the end, it came out "OK" ... but honestly I was hoping I could get it smoother, especially in the back. But at some point, you just gotta keep moving forward.
I didn't do the rear escape door yet, so here's some contrast between the colors
Next, I insulated the walls below the windows. I used rigid foam for mold resistance and so I can disassemble things later if I need to rewire or rust-bust or anything like that.
I was torn here. I really like this textured chromed wall stuff, but it was in pretty bad shape (darn gum-chewing kids again) and riveted to the structural wall like crazy. That, plus the lack of insulation led me to this plan of attack. I made furring strips by tracing the curve of the bus walls on some cardboard with an improvised divider -- a sharpie duct-tapped to a stick -- and then cut the curve with a bandsaw. I also pulled out the floor-to-wall curve, so I'll be able to build the final wall square to the floor, gaining a bit of space and making fitting furniture easier.
I used R-5 xps 1" thick (aka "the pink stuff", aka the "blue stuff"). It comes in 4x8 sheets. Four was plenty for me. It's much easier/less horrible to work with then fiberglass batts imho.
Lastly, I scored this EPA-certified wood stove from the Habitat for Humanity Restore for $100!
Big enough for a house, but I don't care. To me, it's not home without a woodstove.
Forgot to take a picture, but I was also gifted a massive, RV-style, fixed propane tank that I'll mount once the mud drys out a bit.
Next up is getting all this big stuff in the bus! My crown is most-defiantly NOT ADA compliant. Both the front and back doors are only 22" wide... too narrow for either the wood stove or the cook stove I have for the project, and probably the shower pan, and other big furniture items i want inside.
I have a few ideas on how to get stuff inside. I could pull one of the windshields... but the consequences if I break the glass in removal are pretty expensive. And I dislike working with auto-glass anyway.
I thought about reworking the rear door, making it into a double door. That could work, but getting the hinges and hardware to work seems like it'll be time-consuming.
So my leading plan is to cut out the rear metal where the "bad-kids" seat all the way aft is. The "trunk" on the crown is massive -- I think I've read that school districts could order buses with a rear-mounted engine -- and all that separates it from the main passenger compartment is this sheet metal. I've looked closely, and it's not structural. So I think I could cut it out, bring the big stuff in via the "trunk", and then re-weld it into place, or rework it anyway, so that the bikes fit better in the trunk.
Crown owners, how did you get the big stuff in?