The last video of a 14-inch roof raise documentation.

[rossvtaylor]

Last night, I finished editing and uploading the clips I shot during a roof raise documentation project.

In this episode, I show how I put the final skin over the windshield and then we show the final product. There are brief cameo appearances by my wife, Kara, and Ginger the Black Mouth Cur. A porcupine also adds a bit of nail-biting drama at the end...or, maybe, he just looks at us slowly.

I'll also be making some videos about the installation of 1000W of solar on this bus...and making a custom one-piece entry door. I hope to have those up in the next week. This all takes me longer than I expected, since I'm new to the YouTube thing. But it's fun and a bit addictive and we hope they inspire and help guide others.

https://youtu.be/1opfximP17w

[indigo_k]

That's a great video! Love the clean look of your raise, reusing your rivet holes and everything.

[rossvtaylor]

Originally Posted by indigo_k

That's a great video! Love the clean look of your raise, reusing your rivet holes and everything.

Thank you! I do like reusing the existing holes, but that comes with a price if the factory holes aren't very even...like over that windshield. But after doing this a few times, we've settled on that system where we can. You can drill the factory holes out for 1/4-inch rivets and the rivet heads are almost exactly the same size as the factory bucked rivets.

I appreciate the kind comment!

[balconio]

First off- I love your videos and have followed the whole set on your roof raise. Thru that series I've learned a lot about structure, rivets, jacking, and the importance of having a solid plan. You obviously know a lot about bus bodywork so I wanted to pick your brain a bit.

My question is this, why don't I see more people just remove the rivets along the roofline above the windows and raise the literal roof? Is it because everyone wants the windows higher too? Is there a disadvantage to raising the roofline and leaving the windows at their current height? It seems more economical to raise just the roof since you're not losing any sheetmetal in the process. Also seems simpler since there are no cuts to the body just the hat channels, and the rear door isn't affected either.

[rossvtaylor]

Thanks, Balconio, for the kind comment.

It's certainly possible to remove the rivets and raise the roof above the windows, but I've not yet encountered a customer who didn't want the windows raised. We've done two kinds of roof raises - below the windows (as in that video) and "at" the windows (where the windows are deleted and replaced with solid side skins, in which RV windows are installed). Oh, and we did a trolley top raise once...and have another one in the queue.

As far as the rear door goes, it's pretty easy and common to raise "around and above" the door...leaving the rear door in place and the same size. You don't have to make it taller, like we did in that video series. It's just something we include with the cost of a roof raise, but it's not necessary.

While you can certainly do what you're asking about, I don't think you'll really gain much in savings or making things easier. If you're removing the ceiling skin anyway, that might be a wash, but you'll notice we only removed the wall skin below the windows...which is pretty easy. So, while noting that it's your bus and I support being creative and doing what's right for you, I don't think you'll save much time or money doing that...and you may grow to hate stooping over to see out the windows.

[balconio]

Thanks so much for the reply, and you confirmed what I needed to hear... That it's purely aesthetics but also there's no real practical upside to raising just the roof. Plus doing it like in your video is very well documented by lots of builders. Also I have access to a plasma cutter so the actual cutting is not a huge concern.

There's a shot in one of your videos where you show a rack of like 7 angle grinders, and I used that shot to convince my wife that I need at least a 2nd one and probably a larger one too... Changing between cutting and grinding wheels is a pain, plus redundancy etc.