Roof raise amtran

[o1marc]

I'd want to do this on level ground so gravity doesn't want to slide the roof, like one guy had happen here on his raise.

[BusT]

Would it be safe to cut this middle rib and necessary surrounding structure out?
It’s just weird . I’ve never seen another YouTube roof raise done we’re theres a rib between the door and windshield usually there just one at the entry door and one right behind the windshield ? The spacing comes up short also ... I’m also seeing how most people use a cutting wheel to cut the roof panel along the hat channel. Or right before the hat . What I don’t understand is then you’ll be left with the old panel sandwiched between the rivets on the roof. There will be like a 4in strip of the panel you just cut off left in there?
Hope that makes sense

[o1marc]

A WanderLodge by Blue Bird is a bus body with half the ribs of a school bus. School buses are built 70x's safer than cars. removing a rib or 2 for modifications is not going to be an issue.

[GWRider]

To raise the roof on my Crown I did the following. Much of this should apply to others.

Level Bus:
1. I got a 6"x6"x10' post and cut down to 8 pieces of 6"x6"x15" for cribbing.
2. I purchased four 12 ton jack stands from Northern Supply (going to need anyway for servicing).
3. I purchased two 20 ton jacks for front & back (going to need anyway for servicing).
4. Jacked up Bus from the frame and leveled front to back and side to side using a 3 foot level at various points.

Create Jacking brackets:
5. Purchased over 12 feet of both 1"x 1" and 1.25"x 1.25" steel square tubing
6. Purchased 24 pieces of 6"x 6"x .125" steel plate.
7. Purchased two smaller bottle jacks
8. Cut tubing to approx. 36" lengths and cut out notches in plates to fit both the smaller and larger tubing.
9. Slide 1" inch tubing inside 1.25" inch tubing and clamp to outside of one of the vertical supports. Square and spot weld plates to outer (lower) and inner (upper) tubing allowing enough space to fit bottle jacks. Repeat for all four brackets.
10. Using two of the 6"x 6" plates, cut out 3" gussets used to re-inforce steel plate below and above the jack for all four brackets.
11. Using 16 of the 6" x 6" plates, cut 16 plates (approx 3.25" to 3.5") which are the vertical support brackets used to bolt or weld to each side of the vertical supports on the bus and welded to the square tubing.
12. Weld vertical support brackets to square tubing for upper and lower supports.
13. Weld gussets to tubing and plates and other areas as needed.
14. Mount each bracket on the chosen vertical support of the Bus (roughly each corner) and drill two 3/4" holes through both the upper and lower vertical support plate and Bus vertical support.
15. Using quality 2.5" bolts fasten brackets to vertical supports on Bus.
16. Place jack in opening and determine and mark zero position.
17. Remove brackets and slide out upper plate assembly with the 1" inch tubing.
18. Scribe 1" lines in 1" inch tubing beginning at zero position up to 20".
19. Write numbers every 5 inches.
20. Complete by mounting and bolting brackets back on Vertical Supports.
21. Optional -> Use steel square tubing or wood posts as supports on the inside in case one of the jacks fail.



The above jacking brackets should prevent the roof from moving in any direction except up or down. I felt this was the best way to raise the roof on a Crown and do it myself with no assistance. Actual raise time after cutting supports was less than 2 hours. Most of that time was getting the sealant to release in the back and the constant cribbing of the bottle jacks. The scribe marks on the tubing saves alot of time and was very accurate.

For those raising the roof on a Crown, please be aware that when cutting supports prior to raising that there maybe tension that can cause the upper side supports to bow out or in. If this occurs, you can use a come-along to square it back up. Also, the web part of the vertical supports face outward on a Crown (opposite of a Thomas or Bluebird).

[BusT]

Trying to put some structure back together in the corners and have a piece tacked In the middle for now

[BusT]

Here’s how it looks now .
Ordered 2 big windows . And rivets . Might try to get some sheets on during my little winter break.

Also need to figure out if I want to mod both back doors or just the handicap ...
i first planned to have double doors in the back but if I leave the handicap door it’s kind of redundant .

[BusT]

The external tool cage would be cool. Also why is the picture up side down

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by BusT

Also why is the picture up side down

You need to either remove the EXIF data from your JPEGs or convert them to PNG format before posting.

[BusT]

I haven’t updated in awhile on this thread.... I’m all over the place .. should’ve just stuck with one long build thread

[BusT]

Making my way to the front of the bus kind of slowly....
have a few sheets in the back on.... 2 big windows framed .... putting the handicap door on tonight ... or tomorrow ... then some sheets around big driver side window .... thanks for all the help and advice . I’m sure people have took longer to do a roof raise but I’ve been on and off about it since September ... got my hats sometime in November I think and the. Doing a lot of overthinking and procrastinating

[1SkoolieNoob]

BusT,

Looking forward to more pics, especially of the transition! Is she fully skinned yet? I understand a lot of thinking goes into this major portion of the conversion, keep up the good work!

I am currently prepping for our raise. Still debating on where to cut in the front for our transition and adding a window or not. I see you added a window, what did that come out of? Also diggin your welding cart!!

Did you rivet the top of your skins where the existing rivets were/are?? Any issues with the roof panels moving (curling up) when removing those rivets? Did you go with 16 g skins? How did the solid rivets work out for you vs. the pop rivets?? Any fellow AmTran roof raising advice??

[BusT]

Originally Posted by 1SkoolieNoob

BusT,

Looking forward to more pics, especially of the transition! Is she fully skinned yet? I understand a lot of thinking goes into this major portion of the conversion, keep up the good work!

I am currently prepping for our raise. Still debating on where to cut in the front for our transition and adding a window or not. I see you added a window, what did that come out of? Also diggin your welding cart!!

Did you rivet the top of your skins where the existing rivets were/are?? Any issues with the roof panels moving (curling up) when removing those rivets? Did you go with 16 g skins? How did the solid rivets work out for you vs. the pop rivets?? Any fellow AmTran roof raising advice??

Hey check out Trenton s build thread ... this was more of a thinking thread anyways...
the hatch was from a 2001 Nissan Quest or 2000

I skinned with 18g cold rolled and epoxy primered both sides before riveting . I used a mixture of cualking But so real good stuff is Dynatron seam sealer . @ almost 20$ a tube .

The rivets we’re closed end blind stainless . I used those mostly everywhere and didn’t always have my helper there to install solid rivets . Also I bought 18g and 16 and on any bends you could use 18 but I think 16g would be a limitless more stout on any flat area ..
Try to get some custom shaped hat channels and a 4ft or so peice of c channels that sits inside your hats and can be clamped to guide everything up

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by BusT

real good stuff is Dynatron seam sealer . @ almost 20$ a tube .

Autozone has it for $15, although they usually only have a couple in stock at a time. These guys sell 12 for $146: https://www.hillas.com/Categories/Se...-per-case.html. If you think you won't need 12, you will. I think I've gone through at least 20 tubes so far.

[BusT]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Autozone has it for $15, although they usually only have a couple in stock at a time. These guys sell 12 for $146: https://www.hillas.com/Categories/Se...-per-case.html. If you think you won't need 12, you will. I think I've gone through at least 20 tubes so far.

Ohh yeah that’s right ! Give or take 20!
Forsure will use 12

[1SkoolieNoob]

Thanks for the info.

That picture of the transition looks great! I'll check out the thread and look into the seam sealer.