Ok-this proves it--there IS a forum for everyone!
Hi-my name is Sherman-and i have a short bus. 1996 Champion Defender on a Ford e-450 chassis with a 7.3 diesel. It was a former 16 pass. airport /hotel shuttle bus. The wife found it on Craigslist for $1800.
For the last 20 or so years, I've been hauling my race car around in a 14' GMC cube van with a small living area built in (its a small race car) -it worked fine--but gas milage was poor-8.5 mpg.
I needed a diesel so I can run one on veggie oil. (I've got 70k on a VW Jetta on veg-I'm all set up with supply + filtering). The car will now have to be trailered, but I'm leaving the rear 6 ft or so set up for a shop.
Its about 75% completed -and has survived its maiden voyage-a 700 mile ride to Watkins Glen NY Vintage races. It goes down the road soooo nice-it drives like a big car! Heres a few pics--I'll post some more soon.
The awning was another Craigslist find. Notice the 1st window is turned over-so the dog had somewhere to stick her nose out the window.
the hutch-you got it-Craigslist-$50. Underneath is 2 deep cycle batterys-a 2000 watt inverter-a 1000 watt amp for the music and power converter.
Those bars under the bench swing out to support the bed. One of the big tricks was to get blinds to follow the contour of the body-it took a couple of tries till we came up with those guides + got the spacing down. The curved white plastic on the ceiling is the stuff you do bathroom enclosures out of-works great!
view from the back.
where it started--well not really-anyone who has started from scratch knows how much work there is in just STRIPPING the van. You want to pull up the floor? Start by pulling down the ceiling + work your way down!