Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 12-22-2014, 04:12 PM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
The Soup Bus

This will be my first bus conversion. I am converting a crown bus to use as a mobile soup kitchen to serve the Homeless people in the DFW area of Texas. The name of our organization is Metro Relief.

Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-22-2014, 04:48 PM   #2
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
This is what our current bus looks like. The new conversion will look the same but we plan on incorporating some of the things we've learned on this site. A BIG THANK YOU for each of you that have shared on this site.
Attached Images
 
Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-22-2014, 04:55 PM   #3
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
Bus Layout

The front of the bus will have seating for about 15 people. We will use this section to transport all out volunteers to each site we take the bus to serve. During the transport we play worship music, pray and get to know one another. There are usually new volunteers each week that we take the bus out.

In the back of the bus we will utilize that section to serve soup and drinks out of to the homeless population in the DFW area(s) of Texas. We will have to cut a hole in the floor of the bus that we refer to as a "pit" for our volunteers to stand in while they serve food. We like to be eye-level when we are serving those who come to our bus. We also will be adding a concession window, a three compartment sink, bathroom, generator and a couple ac units to cool the bus down.
Attached Thumbnails
16.jpg  
Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-22-2014, 05:20 PM   #4
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
The Project Begins

The first thing we did after we had an idea of what we wanted to do was to tape off the bus using some painters tape to get a better visual of how things would flow together. I learned this from some of you and found it to be an excellent idea worth putting the effort into.
Attached Thumbnails
14.jpg   8.jpg  
Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-22-2014, 05:27 PM   #5
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
Taking out the seats

Decided to take the seats out and have them replaced with something different. I am in the process of refurbishing some old church pews to be used along the sides of the bus in the front. I have no idea how this is going to turn out but thought it may be a cheap alternative that would give us a custom look to match our color scheme vs using the old bus seats. the nice thing about using church pews for us is that there are no seams which allow for more comfortable seating since no one is stuck sitting on a seam like before when we used bus seats pushed together. Another benefit for us is the church pews allow for better storage space underneath. We will be using the underneath of the benches to store plastic totes which will contain clothing, hygiene, bibles, etc. that will be distributed on each of our outings.
Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-22-2014, 05:45 PM   #6
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
New Seats (New to us at least)

Here are some pics of the church pews that are being reupholstered to be used on our bus. We purchased a 54" x 45' roll of orange marine vinyl on Ebay for less than $100.00. We painted the sides and the support pieces gloss white to match our colors. This turned out to be a bigger project than imagined since we never reupholstered anything before. Used lots of staples and learned a trick when covering the bench with the vinyl to get the wrinkles out and to make it a tight smooth fit. We ended up using a 2x6 the length of the 15' bench. We laid the 2x6 on top of the vinyl and used it to push all the wrinkles out while staples were placed in an even line on the underside of the pew bench. Before doing this method I would use one hand to pull a section tight and the other hand to staple it. This kept causing wrinkles like you see in the pic attached. they now look pretty good with no wrinkles this time around.
Attached Thumbnails
7.jpg   25.jpg  
Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-22-2014, 05:51 PM   #7
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
Preparing to Paint the Bus

Painting is now underway. We sanded down all the rough areas in the metal on the exterior of the bus. primed and sealed each area and then started masking the tape off. The color scheme will be the same as our first bus that has a white base coat with blue on the bottom sides and an orange stripe going down the center.
Attached Thumbnails
23.jpg   24.jpg   29.jpg  
Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-22-2014, 05:56 PM   #8
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
Design Change

This is the newest layout. We are trying to incorporate a bathroom in this bus that doesn't take up a lot of space nor is in the way. These crown busses have a lot of cargo room in the rear of the bus. My idea is to have everything that has plumbing to be on the back wall of the bus to keep everything together and then to place the holding tanks directly below the restroom and sinks in the rear cargo area. We also plan on using the rear cargo area to house the generator if it's decided we can afford to put ac units on the bus.
Attached Thumbnails
26.jpg  
Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-22-2014, 06:22 PM   #9
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
Painting the Inside

After much debate, it was decided to paint the inside using ceramic paint in hopes of providing better insulation and to dampen the sound. After much research on this site and others we narrowed the selection of paints down to a couple. The one is called Lizard Skin and the other one comes from a company called Hy-Tech. They carry a product called SC-1000 that supposedly accomplishes the same that the Lizard Skin product but at a significant less cost. To put things in perspective, The Lizard Skin was going to cost us around $10,000.00 to paint the entire inside (walls, ceiling, floor) of the bus. We ended up going with the SC-1000 from Hy-Tech and was able to paint the entire inside for less than $1000.00. However, I did break down and purchase a Lizard Skin Thermal Paint Kit off of Ebay that contained 4 gallons and a special spray gun. I paid around $300.00 for this kit. The Lizard skin will be used as an undercoat below the bus in certain areas and cargo space. I wanted to compare the two to see if the $$$ difference was worth it. Just finished using both products today. the main difference I can tell you is that the Lizard Skin Product was much thicker. Seemed like they had more ceramic crystals, etc. mixed in than the SC-1000 stuff that I went with. All-in-all, I think going with the cheaper SC-1000 paint was the way to go due to the cost difference.

FYI - If you're wondering why I covered the driver seat with aluminum foil it's because it's the only thing I could find once I ran out of masking tape but I found it not to be such a bad idea. Was quick and easy to put on and found it better than taping everything off like I had planned on doing. I guess you could say I got a little redneck in me...
Attached Thumbnails
28.jpg   22.jpg  
Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-22-2014, 06:28 PM   #10
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
SC-1000 Hy-Tech Thermal Paint

This stuff goes on white and leaves a finish like you'd expect from an undercoating paint that you'd use on the bed liner of your truck. Nice thing about it though is that it's latex and easy to clean up. Since it is latex, you can also paint over it with whatever color you want. We are thinking about painting a blue or orange stripe down the center to match the paint scheme used on the outside of the bus.
Attached Thumbnails
44.jpg  
Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-23-2014, 04:59 AM   #11
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: DFW Texas
Posts: 12
Year: 1986
Coachwork: Crown
This is awesome! Just let me know when you're ready for me to help.
Metro Relief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-23-2014, 10:04 AM   #12
Bus Geek
 
EastCoastCB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Eustis FLORIDA
Posts: 23,764
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: Freighliner FS65
Engine: Cat 3126
Rated Cap: 15
Excellent thread!
Beautiful bus
EastCoastCB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-23-2014, 05:00 PM   #13
Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 170
Very cool. I'm all about skoolies, and all about helping people. Nice to see people helping a skoolie that helps people.

Later next year I'll be touring around the country visiting various permaculture oriented intentional communities to volunteer my time and take video about what they're doing. Then at some point I'll try to compress all that footage down to 90 minutes. I'd love to do a segment on what you're doing should we cross paths. Though I'm not sure if I'll be making it to texas.

Anyway, good luck with your build, hope you can achieve your goals, they are indeed noble.
__________________
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9883 - 7.3L 4x4 Shuttle Bus Toyhauler conversion
headinthetrees is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
crown bus conversion

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:14 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.