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08-11-2018, 10:02 PM
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#1
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New Member
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 7
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Newly to the Skoolie
Hello everyone been looking into the skoolie world for awhile now and have been craving to build one. Unfortunately building one and living in one is not in the cards right now but we’re doing the next best thing, building a short bus for our camping adventures. Been searching for the right one for awhile now and finally found one pretty much in my backyard. Picked up this 2002 GMC Savanna 3500, 5 window built by Blue Bird. It’s got a 5.7 small block V8, auto.
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08-11-2018, 10:14 PM
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#2
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New Member
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 7
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First thing to go was the carpet which was very easy being not tracked down or glued. We got it as you see pictures so the seats were already removed which was nice. After carpet was the linoleum which wasn’t to bad to remove but made me sweat a bit haha. Then we proceeded with removing the plywood, which was the hard part. Not only was it screwed down from the top it was screwed from under the floor up into the plywood, made for some serious work. The goal is to remove all old wood and lay down foam board insulation the all new plywood on top of that.
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08-11-2018, 10:18 PM
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#3
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New Member
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 7
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Some more pics
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08-11-2018, 10:24 PM
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#4
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Skoolie
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Chattanooga, TN
Posts: 233
Year: 2000
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: Genesis
Engine: DT466
Rated Cap: 84lug
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hatt0710
Hello everyone been looking into the skoolie world for awhile now and have been craving to build one. Unfortunately building one and living in one is not in the cards right now but we’re doing the next best thing, building a short bus for our camping adventures. Been searching for the right one for awhile now and finally found one pretty much in my backyard. Picked up this 2002 GMC Savanna 3500, 5 window built by Blue Bird. It’s got a 5.7 small block V8, auto.
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Sounds like a great start. Good luck on the build and welcome to the skoolie family.
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08-13-2018, 06:16 PM
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#5
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Mini-Skoolie
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Kansas City, MO
Posts: 18
Year: 1998
Coachwork: Girardin
Chassis: Ford E350
Engine: 7.3L Powerstroke Diesel
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Awesome start, congratulations! Looks like you have a similar mess of wires above the driver side that we do. Do you have any plans for changing out the ceiling?
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08-13-2018, 06:34 PM
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#6
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Bus Geek
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Dawsonville, Ga.
Posts: 10,482
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Genesis
Chassis: International
Engine: DT466/3060
Rated Cap: 77
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Hard parts out of the way. Floor screwed from below would have ruined my day in full size.
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08-13-2018, 07:04 PM
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#7
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Bus Crazy
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: Ashtabula, Ohio
Posts: 1,494
Year: 1996
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: International
Engine: T444E 7.3L
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Coming along! Looking forward to more updates!
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08-13-2018, 07:19 PM
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#8
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New Member
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 7
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The wires not looking forward to cleaning up and figuring out what I need and don’t. I can do electrical but takes me much longer then it should haha. As far as the ceiling I’m going to leave it alone, if I were to be living in it I would pull all of it out and insulate but since we’re just going to use it for camping I think we’ll manage. We’re use to tent camping all the time so hopefully we can handle it haha. Have you tackled the wiring mess I yours if so what did you do?
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08-13-2018, 07:21 PM
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#9
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New Member
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 7
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Yeah I was scratching my head when I had all the screws out from the top and the plywood still didn’t budge haha. Life saver and a great tool was the 48” pry bar I bought at Harbor Frieght, highly recommended.
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08-13-2018, 07:38 PM
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#10
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Mini-Skoolie
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Kansas City, MO
Posts: 18
Year: 1998
Coachwork: Girardin
Chassis: Ford E350
Engine: 7.3L Powerstroke Diesel
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The wiring is our next project, pretty much the last thing that we'll be removing before starting to build. Neither of us have a strong background but Blue Bird sent us a wiring diagram that is supposed to be similar to our bus; hopefully that will help.
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08-13-2018, 08:25 PM
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#11
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Bus Geek
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: So Cal
Posts: 3,231
Year: 1935
Coachwork: Superior
Chassis: Chevy
Engine: 317 ci/tid / Isuzu
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Looks like a good start. Hang on to that pry bar---sooner than later you are going to want it to beat the crap out of the whole project. Just kidding, it looks like you have things well under control. Jack
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08-13-2018, 09:48 PM
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#12
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Bus Geek
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Dawsonville, Ga.
Posts: 10,482
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Genesis
Chassis: International
Engine: DT466/3060
Rated Cap: 77
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hatt0710
Yeah I was scratching my head when I had all the screws out from the top and the plywood still didn’t budge haha. Life saver and a great tool was the 48” pry bar I bought at Harbor Frieght, highly recommended.
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We used a 40" pry bar on top because most of the screws were fubar. If it were screwed from both sides, Ugh.
Once I had mine gutted and looked at the wiring harness it was not as intimidating as some have made it seem here. Once you have access to the backs of all the lights the wire colors make it easy to decipher. The wires off the big upper red lights will connect into the back up lights and the reds will get driving white lights. Speaker wires will get repurposed with better speakers. Harness runs down drivers side and all the way back up the pass. side mostly for dome lights. A lot can be used and some of the rest repurposed. Wire is not cheap, I'm saving every penny in wire I can.
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08-18-2018, 09:23 PM
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#13
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New Member
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 7
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Update
Good start to the weekend. Brought the bus to my work and changed the oil and ditched the rear heater and the coolant lines running all the way back to it. Oil pan drain plug was stripped so had to get a new one, turned out good. And found a great place to cut out the rear heater lines and loop it back to itself to complete the cooling system.
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08-18-2018, 09:28 PM
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#14
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New Member
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 7
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More update pics
Not sure why my some of my pics are sideways? Sorry. After doing a little maintenance, it was off to Lowes to get supplies. Finished a lot of work this Saturday, very pleased how it turned out.
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