The Black Plague II (The new Jacuzzi Bus)

[lapeer20m]

I have ADD lol....i seem to change my mind a lot.

Considered the limo idea for this skoolie, but i don't think i could pass inspection. The biggest factor being no emergency exit. Not that i couldn't overcome the obstacle if i really tried, but i think i lack the desire.

I think i may design and build the new coach bus to be used as a limo. Probably not so i can use it as a buisinesss but to help the resale value of that bus.

I should be working on the bus right now....but the truck project has gotten me sidetracked..

[captainkf]

thanks for the update. So the new bus would also be a "party" machine? Are you planning on putting in another hotub?

Very interested in your progress.

-Richard

[lapeer20m]

I am getting old and lame. That's what my young hot g/f tells me. the past few summers i've taken the bus out pretty much every weekend...sometimes multiple times during the week. This year the bus has mostly just been sitting since new years.

The past couple of weeks was spent getting the bus all cleaned up and ready to go again. I let the jacuzzi freeze which ruined the pumps, so replaced those. also wired my inverter and house batteries to my starting battery with some 00 guage welding cable, reupholstered the furnature, cleaned, repainted the jacuzzi, built a new smaller version of my flame thrower that can be fired from the drivers seat

Took the bus to the annual Woodward dream cruise yesterday. this was my 4th year. For those of you who don't know that Detroit is (was) the motor capitol of the world. There is a HUGE classic/exotic car cruise where car owners drive their vehicles up and down about a 10 mile stretch of woodward avenue . WOW! it's the most fun i've had on the bus in a long long time! I have a donation jar, and got over $120 which was more than enough to replace the 1/2 tank of fuel i burned on the adventure. I wish i had photos.

I decided it would be fun to use the flame thrower while driving down teh street. Average speed is slower than walking. After a few puffs of fire a very angry police officer lady on a bicycle came riding up to the bus. I was already a little nervous about the flame thrower and figured that now i was in for a ltitle trouble. Afterall, there might be soemthing illegal about shooting fire, especially in this post 9/11 eara. The officer very rudely yells somthing at me......I was expecting the words "flame thrower" to come out of her mouth.....It took me a few seconds to comprehend what she was saying. Had nothing to do with fire, apparently someone had tossed an alluminum can out of the bus window. I was very appoligetic even though i was completely oblivious to the incident. For the rest of the day i shot flames out the roof of the bus and not one single officer said a word about it.

The flame thrower was a HUGE novelty. People were lining up along the street with their cameras to take pictures. There must have been a least 100,000 photos taken of the bus yesterday. It was a non-stop rolling party. Some hot host lady and film crew from speed network came on the bus for a while and shot footage of the pretty girlies in and out of the jacuzzi. Then they tried talking me into going to mami.

Everythign worked perfectly....the engine/drivetrain, jacuzzi, flame thrower, electrical. I didn't have to stop and "fix" anything yesterday. I have been trying to get a lot more professional when i build things. I used to just have wires and hoses ect strewn all throught the bus and nearly everythign "almost worked" I've spent a lot of hours trying to undo that crazyness and do things right.

burningman is only a few days away!

[swinada]

thanks for that update.
I'm sure there should be at least a few pictures of your flame trower be popping up on the net in the next few days.

[phillbus914]

Did you change the rear diff fluid yet? I wonder how much sea water was in there.

What speed network show was on your bus? Do you think you'll be on tv? That would be very cool.

[lapeer20m]

no haven't changed it yet....i would immagine zero sea water got in though. if fluid doesn't leak out, i don't think water should get in.

i don't know what show the film crew was from. I'd be suprised if a snippit of the bus doesn't show up somewhere....but i really have no idea

[lapeer20m]

i changed the oil, fuel filter, and checked all the fluids today. The gear lube in the rear end actually looks suprising good. I decided that finding a method of sucking the oil out of hte diff is too expensive/time comsuming for now.

I measured the oil that came out verses the oil that went in. I thought to myself "wow, i was down almost a half gallon" It's been a little under 6K miles sicne her last oil change. Then i realized that i hadn't measured the oil in the two large oil filters. It takes about half a gallon to fill the new filters with oil. I'd estimate that she didn't even use a quart of oil in all those miles.

i worked 12 hours on the bus and other burningman things today. I have tomorrow (wed) to finish everything up then i hit the road early thursday morning.

[lapeer20m]

well, i returned home from another successfull 5K mile journey. I love this bus! She just keeps running and running and running. The only hiccough was a loose fan belt slipping on the alternator.


Now it's time for extreme skoolie makeover.

tomorrow i plan to start prepping the exterior for new paint. The current paint job is good, but there are a few scratches and other blemishes that i'd like to fix so i'm gonna repaint the entire bus.

then its onto the interior......Gonna redo pretty much everything from the ceiling to the floor.

i'll post photos of the progress

the goal: to sell her on ebay before the end of the month. Reserve price is gonna be $10K, I want everything to be nearly perfect so whoever buys her gets his money's worth.

[behappystupi]

Are you keeping the flames?

[lapeer20m]

yes, i'm keeping the painted flames....but not the flame thrower.

today i got her all masked and sanded. They were calling for a chance of rain so i didn't paint her today. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and she'll be painted by the first of next week.

i bought a pair of drywall stilts a couple years ago to use for a frankenstien costume at halloween......those are really handy for masking all the windows!

[lapeer20m]

i'm really excited about that 60 footer. I think i'd try and repair the existing a/c system rather than tear it out. I just spent another 2 weeks in the desert in a black bus without air.

hopefully everything works out.

just druving the 1,000 miles to LA and checking the bus out is a big adventure. It's kind of like getting to base camp below mt everest. It may be that after checking her over real good that i'm not interested. My primary concern is that i'll purchase the bus then something really expensive is gonna break ie: trans, engine, pivot joint....if any of those three give out when i'm halfway home the bus is only worth whatever the price of scrap metal is that day. That's the risk we all take when purchasing any bus, skoolie or not.

would you say she seemed to be in excellent shape mechanically on teh drive from minesota to lousinia? except for the few connections you had to stop and clean?

if all goes as planned i would like to come look at her and most likely purchase her by the end of september. Things could get delayed by a couple weeks. I'm sure you know how that is.

[Steve]

If you want to take the bus with it's new paint job out for one last party, the Iowa - Iowa State game this weekend I expect there may be up to 200 skoolies in attendance and one heck of a party at tailgating.

[lapeer20m]

as much as i'd love too, i am already committed at a chairity event. some beer for boobs fundraiser for breast cancer. I'm all about supporting the boobies! i am taking a busload of women out on a bar crawl.

this will be the first time i've been busless in several years, but it's only temporary.

[lapeer20m]

tomorrow (wednessday) my bus building buddy jim is joining me a little after 6am. Now the rebuilding process is gonna get serious! Jimbo and i built all three of my jacuzzi buses together.

I need to get some photos....

so far the outside has all been prepped, masked and repainted black. Tomorrow i need to repaint flames and clearcoat, then unmask and re-install all the lights. Later this week i need to go to the glass shop and replace a few broken windows. I'm hard on windows. I bet i replaced at least 6 in my old skoolie over the couple years i had her. I think i have 5 broken windows right now. They're not broken out, just cracked.

The big project tomorrow is gonna be gutting the interior of the bus and cleaning so we can start over. I'll leave the jacuzzi inside, as well as a few other things that are bolted down. All of the other seating, the freezer, rugs, tools, ect will be removed so we can spray her from the ceilign down with a garden hose and pretty much start over on the interior. I think the paint on the ceiling is in good enough shape that i won't have to re-paint. I'm gonna repaint the walls, add some cool lighting, tidy up the electrical, make sleeping for several adults, create a toneau cover over the jacuzzi, blah blah blah...

i'll take photos of the process, and more importantly of the finished product.

i'm trying to do all of this within the next 10 days, and with spending under $1K. Already spent about half that budget just on paint and a few other things. Then it's off to EBAY so i can get the $$ to buy that 60 footer of mac's.

[bdavis441]

Good luck on the sale Jason. I hope it works out for you, I can't wait to see what you do with the 60footer if you get it.

[lapeer20m]

today was really a lot of work!



phillbus stopped by, and so did my buddy jimbo. we went to town on the bus shortly before 7am. Removing all the stuff from burningman, then to removing/dissassembling EVERYTHING inside. The bus is a lot more roomy when there is nothing inside (except jacuzzi) Even removed the drivers seat.




To my suprise, the floor i had installed didn't do it's job in regards to the water and it was all wet. i used osb, and it doesn't do well with water. We tore out the entire floor. That was a huge unexpected project. The stock bus floor seems to be doing just fine.







I went to home depot and bought some vinyl flooring in 12 foot rolls. We were able to get the walls inside all re-painted, and the new flooring mostly installed. I ran out of glue, but we laid out the flooring and got it all cut to size. That vinly flooring is really easy to work with, and i think it'll be an excellent floor for the jacuzzi bus.



the list of things to do is too long to post, but the bus has to be back in service for the gig i have planned on saturday nite.

tomorrow i should finish up the exterior painting and re-install all the lights. Then get the floor finished, drivers seat/seat belt installed. Re-install all of my florescent lighting, do some electrical, buy the steel for the new seats, blah blah blah...i'll post photos

[lapeer20m]

I need to post the new interior photos.....she's looking better, but still has a long ways to go.

here's a video i shot yesterday of the exterior of the bus. it's my first attempt, hopefully the video's get better as i get more practice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMAYLrcEnZY

[Steve]

Great video, makes me want to buy it.

[Abbott]

Heh, good job!

[KC10Chief]

WOO HOO! The exterior is looking pretty good! I loved the video. My wife was like "WTF are you watching now"? She just doesn't understand.