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Old 02-28-2016, 01:13 PM   #1
Almost There
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Corvallis, OR
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Year: 1991
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How do you handle odd, round, non-square corners?

There are three spots on our bus that vex me a bit when it comes to how to finish things off: The back corners on either side of the back doors, and around the driver's door. In both cases, there aren't square corners, or even walls that are perpendicular to the floor.

Here for example is a back corner...



Not only is it curved and not perpendicular to the floor, but there are tail lights that need to be accessed at times. Right now I'm thinking of simply boxing it all in, but with a short bus, space is tight so I don't want to waste much.

I'm interested to see how others have solved finishing off odd spaces in their conversions, so am throwing out this post hoping that others might share pictures of how they have handled this.

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Old 02-28-2016, 01:32 PM   #2
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Location: Farmington Hills, Mi (Detroit area)
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Coachwork: Eldorado Aerotech 24'
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Almost every surface in my bus had at least a slight curve to it. I made patterns out of cardboard then cut my wood pieces about 1/8th bigger. For the final fit I held the piece up to the wall, scribed the curve onto the wood with a pencil held against the bus wall then sanded to the line with a belt sander.

Another trick I learned was to glue thin carpeting to the wall then press the cabinet edge into it for a nice tight fit. Another tack is to just build cabinets to hide the corner.



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Old 02-28-2016, 02:15 PM   #3
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Hey Puggy, you're pretty close.

Don't you usually access tail lights from the outside?
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Old 02-28-2016, 06:06 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by Robin97396 View Post
Hey Puggy, you're pretty close.

Don't you usually access tail lights from the outside?
Actually I haven't totally checked on this, but there are wires etc. that I kind of hate to totally block off from access. They also stick out a wee bit.

Like the other reply suggested, I'm pretty tempted to just box off that area, and maybe use it to frame a tall, narrow set of shelves. Imagine something like this on each side of the door, with some curved sides to match the door shape...



And yes, hello neighbor!
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Old 02-28-2016, 06:14 PM   #5
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Join Date: Oct 2015
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Year: 1991
Coachwork: Collins
Chassis: Ford E350
Engine: 7.3L diesel
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I'm definitely liking the cabinet idea to box off the back corners especially.

Thinking that this is a problem which boat builders often deal with, some web searching got me this post about how to scribe some curves. Nice approach...

Scribe-fitting Difficult Profiles

Love the carpet trick by the way. Never thought of putting it up but it's an interesting idea!
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Old 02-28-2016, 08:35 PM   #6
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The carpeting also helps cut down on the cabin noise, and there's plenty of that with that big noisy diesel up front.
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Old 02-28-2016, 10:32 PM   #7
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I was just wondering the same thing. Based on your picture above, we have exactly the same bus and it looks to be in close to the same state at the moment. I'm curious to see what you do, we are planning on putting our bed in the back, raised up about 2 ft for rear access storage underneath. So those rear corners have to be covered and hold some sort of bed framing. Keep me updated!
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Old 02-28-2016, 10:56 PM   #8
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Puggy, that's a pretty big engine in that little bus. Why does everybody seem to have a bigger motor than I do?

Roach... damn! That doesn't look like a bus inside anymore. Nice job. If you've got that all wrapped up and you need another bus to work on...
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Old 02-28-2016, 11:22 PM   #9
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Ok so in mobile version the site doesn't show me all the info, but now that I'm on regular desktop mode I can see that we have the exact same bus. Same year and everything. And we are about 45 mins from each other.

That corner is leaky for me, right at the rivets along the door and the lowest rivets along the wall there. Have you had a problem with that?
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Old 02-28-2016, 11:40 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Maffei View Post
I was just wondering the same thing. Based on your picture above, we have exactly the same bus and it looks to be in close to the same state at the moment. I'm curious to see what you do, we are planning on putting our bed in the back, raised up about 2 ft for rear access storage underneath. So those rear corners have to be covered and hold some sort of bed framing. Keep me updated!
Exact same thinking - bed across back. Right now I think that the best thing might be to box in that area a bit, and just move the bed forward about 8-10 inches. Maybe some little open shelves? Also the boxed in corners can become the supports for a shelf across the back door.
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Old 02-29-2016, 05:31 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Robin97396 View Post
Roach... damn! That doesn't look like a bus inside anymore. Nice job. If you've got that all wrapped up and you need another bus to work on...
If you guys were a few miles closer (well, maybe 2000 miles closer) I'd be happy to help out.
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