2006 Ford E450 Collins - Mr. Stay Puft

dan0 · 03-09-2017, 06:26 PM

New to the short bus world. I picked this up a week ago and drove it 1300 miles home. Nicknaming it Mr. Stay Puft due to its white color and largest vehicle I've owned yet.

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Rusty · 03-09-2017, 09:50 PM

1300 miles, no issues? Name it Lucky !

I bet you were glad to get out of the saddle after such a long ride !

Congrats !

dopamine16 · 03-09-2017, 09:57 PM

Sweet, auction, private party.?

dan0 · 03-09-2017, 10:03 PM

Yup no issues.

I split up the driving a bit. Started out last Monday leaving my house for the airport around 6 am. Flew into Rochester, MN at 12 pm on Monday, met the seller at the airport and started driving. Cruised 60-65 mph. I had kind of wanted to visit AT&T Plaza in Chicago to see the bean, but just wanted to keep moving and was a little worried about navigating the city and parking the first day with the bus. So I kept going and would take a 30 minute break every couple of hours. Finally stopped at 4 am and slept a little under two hours. Back on the road, I made it to my Rochester, NY where a friend of mine lives around 2 pm Tuesday. Spent the night there at my friends house. Made the last 300 miles back to CT on Wednesday morning.

Seeing some of the other build threads I'm debating how involved I am going to go. My initial plan was to live out of the bus for about a year, saving up some money for other toys and house improvements (currently own and living in one unit of a two family house) and plan to buy a Sprinter or similar high roof cargo van. So the plan wasn't to spend too much on it, but I love seeing what can be done.

dan0 · 03-09-2017, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dopamine16

Sweet, auction, private party.?

eBay auction from a used vehicle dealer in Minnesota. They bought it at auction. They made a few hundred bucks off the deal, but it didn't go as high as they or I expected. If the auction had jumped higher I probably would not have bid more. Even my bid in the the last 30 seconds was only $100 more than the current top bid was, I was almost expecting that I would have been automatically out bid.

sdwarf36 · 03-10-2017, 05:56 AM

Where in Ct are you Dan?

dan0 · 03-10-2017, 07:17 AM

Torrington for now.

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Goatherder · 03-10-2017, 07:50 AM

Hey! That's just like mine!

Nice bus.

dan0 · 03-12-2017, 07:40 PM

Thanks, Goatherder. I'm liking the size and getting used to it. Backing out of places was down right scary the first few days. But now I'm getting used to it. Still going to be adding a back up camera to it for a little added safety and parking precision.

Work has been busy so progress has been slow. Got all but one of the seats out and got all the decals from First Transit off.

I've been trying to clean out part of my house to do some work on it as well so a couch made its way to the bus today.

Planning now for what I want to do as far as the interior. Thinking of starting with the flooring and working up from there. I've seen a lot of people pulling the roof panels but not sure if I want to go that route yet.

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Schwalls · 03-16-2017, 02:39 PM

Get the bus from Jones Auto in Hallandale? I bought a 2002 E-450 from them. Far better than I expected it to be. They scrap hundreds of busses and have a huge yard full of busses. I went back and got parts from them later too. Really nice people. I look forward to seeing what you do with your bus.

Robin97396 · 03-16-2017, 03:18 PM

Nice deal DanO.

No planned insulation? Why the floor first? I'm not trying to be insulting. Just wondering. There's always more than one way to skin a cat.

dan0 · 03-16-2017, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwalls

Get the bus from Jones Auto in Hallandale? I bought a 2002 E-450 from them. Far better than I expected it to be. They scrap hundreds of busses and have a huge yard full of busses. I went back and got parts from them later too. Really nice people. I look forward to seeing what you do with your bus.

Yup. They had it listed on eBay. They drove the bus to the Rochester MN airport, gave me a temp registration and off I went. Great people to deal with.

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dan0 · 03-16-2017, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robin97396

Nice deal DanO.

No planned insulation? Why the floor first? I'm not trying to be insulting. Just wondering. There's always more than one way to skin a cat.

I wasnt originally looking for a bus. I had searched for them in the past somewhat but I was more settled on an extended Ford E-series van to base off of then transition to a Sprinter or other newer high roof van. This just came up and was a great deal.

The whole idea wasn't to spend a lot of money/time on the van.

Floor first? Idea is so I can get the base down, have some things in the van bed, part of table, etc then move them if needed if I start working on the sides and roof.

Plus I kind of like the tin top, so if anything I would be interested in keeping that and maybe only adding in additional insulation.

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Robin97396 · 03-16-2017, 08:53 PM

Nice. That is pretty much what most of us do, at least after the first winter in a bus without insulation. I wasn't planning on insulating my bus with foam, but the noise reduction alone was worth it not to mention a significant reduction in heating costs. I was planning on heading south for warmer winter temps so I didn't have to insulate. A year and a half later I'm still working on it. It all depends on how you plan to use your bus.

dan0 · 03-17-2017, 06:03 PM

I don't mind pulling up the floor potentially but don't want to really pull down the roof.

Did you insulate via spray foam for the roof or do a new roof?

Robin97396 · 03-17-2017, 08:04 PM

It comes down to how long you plan to use your bus and if you plan on using it during cold weather. The more you insulate, the less you have to put into heating. I did most of the insulation process this past summer and fall. Removed rivets, panels and old rockwool insulation. Got it commercially sprayed with foam then trimmed it up so I could put up another layer of plyable rigid insulation up as a thermal break so the ribs don't directly touch the plywood interior. I'm almost done with the last few pieces of plywood interior now.

I haven't insulated my floor. This bus has the aluminum L-trac strips pretty much throughout the bus floor. Those L-trac strips are bolted to the steel subfloor and noticeably transfer outside temperatures making the floor cold. Also my factory puke mat isn't black, it's light to medium brown and is the toughest material I've seen on any floor. I wanted to be able to anchor heavy items, including interior furnishings, so the floor stays. Still my feet get cold during the winter even when it's 70* in here, and that's why I plan to insulate the floor specifically without removing the L-trac or factory flooring.

I can get spray foam insulation sprayed onto the bottom side of the floor, or install an insulated floating floor inside the living area of this bus.

It's a lot of work to install foam throughout but it's very easy to keep this bus warm now. Then the sound deadening effects are remarkable. You know how a bus sounds pretty loud inside while going down the road? Basically all of that rattling goes away with this foam insulation. It's much quieter while driving and it also eliminates much of the outside noise when you're parked. Depends on the bus and what you're going to use it for as always.

dan0 · 03-19-2017, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robin97396

It comes down to how long you plan to use your bus and if you plan on using it during cold weather. The more you insulate, the less you have to put into heating.

Planning to use it at least one year. After that I don't know whether I'll be looking for a Sprinter still, want to do more work on this bus, or maybe look at another bus?

So for now as tomorrow is going to be the first day of spring, insulation is low on the priority list.

I want to get it checked out mechanically and see what I may be up against. It drives well but I'm sure there are some things it needs. I used to be a service writer for a couple Volkswagen dealerships and still good friends with some of the techs, some of them also ditched VW at times to work for bus companies, so they have the specific knowledge I need.

The blower fan up front doesn't work, I'll try my best on sorting that out myself.

I did remove the arm for the passenger door, and will remount the switch box soon or possibly make a new panel as about half the spots are empty now and I may eliminate some of the other items on it. Makes it a lot easier to get into the bus area from the driver's seat. I can also more easily access the radio and now have access to all the cup holders in the center console.

Robin97396 · 03-19-2017, 05:13 PM

Cup holders? My bus didn't have any cupholders.

EastCoastCB · 03-19-2017, 05:26 PM

I'm thinking about picking up a few of these-

these folding ones look nice, too-

Robin97396 · 03-19-2017, 05:51 PM

dan0; I'm sure that'll work, especially since you're still thinking possible Sprinter. Please don't get me wrong, I'm never trying to argue with you. Just trying to see what you see.
I like the Sprinter idea because it's a very convention machine to drive that gets excellent mileage. Just in my head I can't possibly see including what I consider essentials, but I have a different plan than you. Good luck with yours, Sprinter or bus.

EC; That's a good idea. I haven't poured any coffee down the dashboard yet but that day's a coming. The second cup holder breaks quite easily in my experience, but I'm sure plastic is tougher now days. I was eventually going to build a wooden structure over the doghouse with a few cup holders in it, like the snazy buses.

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