Bunk bus build - Page 3

Rovobay · 04-01-2019, 10:35 AM

better prep makes for a better paint job. looks great. sanding, washing, wiping with acetone, masking. all very time consuming. bus was fun, my huge house.... not so much. luckily I have tons of painting gadgets around to do the bus because of past paint projects around the house.

Frochevy · 04-01-2019, 09:05 PM

That looks great! So glad to see this color. My wife and I have agreed on about the same color and will leave the top white, and black lines on the side. Looks very good!

musigenesis · 04-01-2019, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rovobay

better prep makes for a better paint job. looks great. sanding, washing, wiping with acetone, masking. all very time consuming. bus was fun, my huge house.... not so much. luckily I have tons of painting gadgets around to do the bus because of past paint projects around the house.

I'm finding that I have lots of gadgets now from my bus project that I can use to help out my brother and parents around their houses. My bro needed to have his metal basement door repainted, and he was amazed to see how fast an angle grinder with a flap disk took care of the prep.

E450Shorty · 04-02-2019, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frochevy

That looks great! So glad to see this color. My wife and I have agreed on about the same color and will leave the top white, and black lines on the side. Looks very good!

thanks. I wanted to go with a color that wouldn't stand out too much and wasn't hard to look at. This one definitely fits the bill.

EastCoastCB · 04-02-2019, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E450Shorty

thanks. I wanted to go with a color that wouldn't stand out too much and wasn't hard to look at. This one definitely fits the bill.

Its a nice change from the universal "conversion blue".

E450Shorty · 04-02-2019, 07:21 AM

That was another thing... I live in nj and didnt want the 1000's of questions about taking it to football games for tailgating (not a fan)... so that ruled out any shade of green or blue for me.

EastCoastCB · 04-02-2019, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E450Shorty

That was another thing... I live in nj and didnt want the 1000's of questions about taking it to football games for tailgating (not a fan)... so that ruled out any shade of green or blue for me.

We're probably going with a football theme on our bus. But not the usual football- The wife and I follow Scottish Fitbaw.
Hard to tailgate 4000 miles away!

Frochevy · 04-02-2019, 08:01 AM

We're going to tailgate out of my bus. Kansas State Wildcats! (Purple) I decided not to go purple because I want more of a crowd when I go to sell it some day. I want it generic enough anyone could buy...

EastCoastCB · 04-02-2019, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frochevy

We're going to tailgate out of my bus. Kansas State Wildcats! (Purple) I decided not to go purple because I want more of a crowd when I go to sell it some day. I want it generic enough anyone could buy...

Ah, we've got easy team colors to work with.

I don't have to worry about resale value, we live in Florida!

That sure is a nice shorty you got there.
I like that you mention future resale value. That's VERY smart to think ahead. If properly built and marketed you could actually turn a profit on a nice bus like that if you decide to sell one day.

E450Shorty · 04-03-2019, 06:16 AM

Well I put 40 miles on my bus yesterday. It runs great, but goes nowhere fast. Unfortunately I am used to driving my powerstroke trucks, which are tuned and much lighter. That said I am ordering a tuner for my bus to hopefully help with EGT's and get some more oompf to help it out at highway speeds.

Ravendancer · 04-03-2019, 06:25 AM

Hey, great idea. We are keeping our windows so was looking at a couch/bed futon set up for one side. Love your idea though.

Frochevy · 04-03-2019, 06:30 AM

I went and looked at a 7.3 power stroke shuttle bus before buying my Duramax. The bus was very cheap but needed lots of work. I decided not to buy it and sometimes regret it now...

cadillackid · 04-03-2019, 06:58 AM

1. WW2 wheel the turbo... that will help with EGTs and a little better low end spool up..

2. bully-dog tuner is a nice little addition to the computer.

3. be careful of the transmission.. that becomes your weak spot when you pump up a 7.3 van
4. eliminate the EBPV and put some bellowed up pipes on, your exhaust will flow a little better.

the bus looks great!! Love the color scheme!

as for colors and attention.. it seems to me and my experiences. that anything that is nicely painted and still looks like a bus gets zero attention from authorities..

anything where the whole sides have been skinned over and all windows deleted, and RV windows installed and therefore looks like a regular RV gets zero attention..

some of the tailgaters here claim they get "harassed" by authorities.. when I look at their busses, some of them have peeling or cracking paint jobs and a few windows here or there skinned over...

-Christopher

Ravendancer · 04-03-2019, 07:34 AM

I used Progressive also, no problems!

E450Shorty · 04-03-2019, 07:51 AM

When I rebuilt the turbo I went with a billet version of the stock 9 blade wheel to try to keep the noise down. My truck has the WW2 and it screams on the highway. I also installed bellowed up pipes and an exhaust is on the way. If i can keep egts around 1150 at 65 pulling hills i will be happy. But last night on a longer hill i had to drop to 55 to keep egts below 1200. I am kind of regretting not upgrading the exhaust turbine but it is relatively easy to do in the future. I have been looking at the exhaust turbine from the guys at KC turbos their testing shows huge improvement in drivability and egts.
as for the trans it functioned well using forscan i monitored the torque converter slip and it was in spec. temps never got out of hand, but i am going to add a bigger trans cooler to further help keep temps down. Also planning on doing a fluid and filter change in the near future.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!

E450Shorty · 04-10-2019, 01:04 PM

Just a quick update... This weekend i put a new exhaust on the bus. I went with a full 4 inch from diamond eye. that dramatically improved my egt issues. I can now cruise at 70 on flat ground while maintaining 950 egt. Before i could barely reach 70 and the Egts were over 1100. I took it in to a trans shop to get the fliud changed and a checkup. Got a clean bill of health! The trans was my last worry point. So now its time to rack up some miles and finish welding up the bunks (pics on the way).

E450Shorty · 09-04-2019, 07:09 AM

Well I'm sure by now most of you have thought this is just another failed build... I'm happy to say that is not the case. I went thru about 100 design changes while making the bunks, by far the hardest part has been getting the couch mode seating position comfortable. I have also had to rebuild a high pressure oil line fitting. So the turbo had to come out again. Thankfully its really easy on the econolines... the next few posts will detail some other stuff that I have accomplished.

E450Shorty · 09-04-2019, 07:20 AM

Now for some style/functionality upgrades... My brother made these really nice wheel well covers out of aluminum that we bent and had welded. With the summer came the need for cooler temps inside the bus and a 5k btu unit fits nicely in the window. This brings temps down to a comfortable zone even on the hottest days.
I tinted the windows with limo tint, so its probably equivalent to 1.25% tint... I realized that I need lights inside, even during the day. So I added RGB LED strips placed down inside ztrack aluminum screwed to the wall. I 3d printed some junction boxes to hide the holes for the wiring. The picture is really hard to see but it is actually really bright inside with these lights on.

E450Shorty · 09-04-2019, 07:32 AM

Now the last update of the day. I finished the first of 3 bunks. Hopefully the last 2 go quickly... I just finished priming them but didn't take pictures. They are mostly welded but bolt together in 3 different pieces, Sides, top bunk and bottom bunk. I went with 5/8th and half inch hardware. I know these things are overkill... but I'd rather be safe than sorry... The top swings down and rests on a stop that sits against the frame. These will be bolted to the floor and wall of the bus so it will be solid. Hopefully by this weekend I will have pics of both modes with finished cushions installed. They are really comfortable when I tried them during prototyping.

musigenesis · 09-04-2019, 08:03 AM

I had a crazy idea for bunk beds last night. My thought was to create two beds that stack on top of each other to create the base for a sofa. For sleeping, the top bunk would be raised up and hooked to the ceiling by cables.

I'm probably not going to do this, because I don't think anybody I know would ever want to sleep in my bus so it's not likely to be necessary.

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