And Betsie Bus was born....

[rv8flyboy]

or is it ... resurrected??

My son and I bought a school bus to convert into a camper. It's a 41 pax, Bluebird on a International chassis, sprouting a DT466 in a conventional configuration.

After loosing 4 tents this year and 2 tents last year in storms, having slept through countless thunderstorms and Wisconsin Summer Monsoons, we decided that we needed to upgrade our camping quarters. So a search was started along the usual lines such as eBay and Craigslist. Turns out a local school district here had excess buses stored in a field. Been sitting there for over year. They had five 41 pax buses, 4 Thomas with DT444(?) and the Bluebird with a DT466. The Thomas build bodies all had moderate to severe Wisconsin Cancer, the Bluebird seemed ok, started right up too after sitting there for over a year. Had a few problems though, tires were slicks, crevasses the size of the grand canyon in the side walls, cluster was missing too... and last but not least, it blew a brake line when we pulled it forward a bit

However the guy representing the school district was amicable to our plight and installed a cluster for us, fixed the brake line and had the shop find us reasonable tires and a deal was stuck.

And so it came to be that Betsie Bus is now adorning our driveway.
Did notice the coolant container was empty, when i got home,a quick look in the oil did not show coolant though. That started the search for approved coolant for the DT466. That was a learning experience all by itself.

insurance was a breeze through GMAC

We have since started the removal of the seats, pulling and replacing of the floor is next.
scrounging of RV parts has started with the find of a LP fridge and a Inverter. more to follow. Oh yeah, i managed to procure two sets (read rows) of leather clad airline seats when Midwest Airlines went belly up, so they will find their way onto the bus too post-haste.

We're planning on 4 bunks, gas stove, running water, fridge, dining area, 120 volt & LP gas to comply with the Wisconsin conversion requirements.

our next hurdle will be painting, temps have dropped considerably, so no painting outside, spray roll or brush...

So this leaves us in a catch 22 situation, we need to register the bus as an RV to drive it with our regular license, we need the bus to get the building materials to be placed in the bus so that we can register it as an RV, according to the DMV we will need to present the bus to an Officer of the Law to sign required DMV paperwork, and without the paperwork we won't get license plates.... oh well, another conundrum to solve.

At least, here i know I am not alone

More to follow,

and before I forget, one of the doors has rusted away around the hinges, at the bottom.... how does one remove those doors??
anybody has one for a Bluebird they wanna depart with??

Cheers

Gert

[Six Four]

sounds like you are off to a good start.

[eyedeal.ink]

I dig the name, good luck with your build. Looks like you got a good one, just get out that fine tooth comb before you really test her. Wisconsin? brrr...you need to find somewhere indoors for your conversion,...what are you planning for heat?

[sdwarf36]

Oh sure-name a bus after my ex-wife. My you have better luck than I did.

[travelinwithus]

Originally Posted by rv8flyboy

or is it ... resurrected??

So this leaves us in a catch 22 situation, we need to register the bus as an RV to drive it with our regular license, we need the bus to get the building materials to be placed in the bus so that we can register it as an RV, according to the DMV we will need to present the bus to an Officer of the Law to sign required DMV paperwork, and without the paperwork we won't get license plates.... oh well, another conundrum to solve.
Gert

Remember the old saying, it is not what you know but who you know. Registering the bus as a motor home in Wisconsin is a pretty easy process. As you stated it just takes the signature of a local police officer. In my case I am friends with the Police Chief in my town. Even if you aren't personally friends with a police officer chances are someone you know might be. I looked online for the form that I needed when I registered my bus but couldn't find it in a quick search. I know they are available at the DMV office. Get the form and fill it out so all the officer needs to do is sign it. I had mine registered as a motor home when it was just an empty shell. Just remember if pulled over there is a possibility you could run into problems.

Good luck on your conversion, it is really worth all the work the very first day you go on your first adventure. We are 17 days into our first trip and have saved a substantial amount of money in hotel stays and food by not eating out. I look forward to seeing your project progress.

[lornaschinske]

When we registered our Eagle in TN as an RV, we simply put in the stuff "required" by the state. We had a portapotti (toilet facilities), gas grill (cooking), air mattress w/ sleeping bag (sleeping facilities) and a jug of fresh water (water supply). Then we had an affidavit notarized at the bank stating we had complied to state requirements. Just because it is a requirement, does not mean it has to be a permanent thing. Get the exact state requirements (usually a "3 out of 6" type thing) and put in the absolute easiest/cheapest that can be removed.

[rv8flyboy]

Thanks Guys, for the kind words of welcome!!

We really dig our bus, and luckily, so do the neighbors. It was some concern when we spotted him walking up the driveway, however, the neighbor showed us a stack of Skoolie pics he had found and said that we should painted flames on the side facing his house....showing us one of the pics he found YEAH!, gotta love a good neighbor!!

We spent the afternoon getting the seats out and cut up for scrap, we also got the starter battery door latch working again, the latch had rusted solid, but nothing the sandblaster could not handle.

Tomorrow we will start tearing the rubber out and hopefully remove the smelly wooden floor.

We also need to get one of the doors off, but, we have not figured out how to do that yet

as for form, I am not sure it is available on their WIS_DMV website, i had sent them an email and a kind lady from the DMV replied with the requirements and posted the form to sign in the mail to me.

[sdwarf36]

Great sized bus !

[Shadoll]

AZ Requires them to be permanently installed.

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by Shadoll

AZ Requires them to be permanently installed.

But not ALL states have "permanent" in their requirements. If you can do a temp set up then it is better to do that than drive around without tags... like we did. By the time we get around to getting NM tag/title the the bus will be mostly, if not fully, complete.

[rv8flyboy]

Here is what the nice lady from the Wisconsin DMV emailed me:

Motor homes require sleeping and dining spaces and must include at least four of the following permanently installed life support systems:

* A drinkable water supply including faucet and sink that is self contained or connects to an external water supply
* Ice box or refrigerator
* Self contained toilet
* Cooking facilities
* 100-125 volt electric power source and/or LP gas
* Heating and/or air conditioning

so our plan for now includes the bunks & dining area, fridge, drinking water, cooking facilities and 125v hook-up

[bansil]

Originally Posted by rv8flyboy

Here is what the nice lady from the Wisconsin DMV emailed me:

Motor homes require sleeping and dining spaces and must include at least four of the following permanently installed life support systems:

* A drinkable water supply including faucet and sink that is self contained or connects to an external water supply
* Ice box or refrigerator
* Self contained toilet
* Cooking facilities
* 100-125 volt electric power source and/or LP gas
* Heating and/or air conditioning

so our plan for now includes the bunks & dining area, fridge, drinking water, cooking facilities and 125v hook-up

If that is how it reads,a cooler(ice box) is covered #1
A $30 porti-potti #2 covered
Bus heating- hydro-heat(or what ever its called)
A bbq propane tank hooked to a burner(covers 4 and 5)
Just be nice and truthful.....no worries

Most states don't actually have a printable law

TN doesn't have one...I got mine passed and "RV'd" at clerks office w/seats etc...still installed

Good luck!!!

[rv8flyboy]

removed the rubber and wooden floorboards. at first we attempted to get the rubber off the wood, however, we quickly decided, why bother....
we ended up scoring the rubber along the seams of the wooden boards and just ripping wood and rubber out together.

To our somewhat surprise, all wood was soaking wet.. we did found a rust hole in the lower kick board, right at the water pump for the rear heating, we also noticed a row of somewhat rust stained rivets, but, interestingly the rusty row of rivets is not at a outside roof seam, they DO line up with the rust hole in the kick board.

I suspect one or more rivets are weeping or leaking.. anybody deal with this, how would one seal the rivets on the roof, ... without removing the inside ceiling, silicone them ???

on a happier note, scrapping the seats brought 50 bucks from the Scrappie

[dirtygoat]

Here in Washington state they require the 4 out of 6 thing and must be permanent... You have to make an appointment with the state patrol and pass their inspection to get the certificate to take to the dmv... It was pretty straight forward and I had no issues passing, but they told me about others that they failed trying to do the cooler and porta potty thing...

Nice bus tho, good luck on the build...

[rv8flyboy]

Soo... Ladies and gents...

Any hints on how to remove a single swing door??, mine has rusted through at the bottom.

Also, my bus did not come (vandal?) locks, any good way of securing, read locking, those doors short of placing a bar and padlock across at the outside??

[Shadoll]

Lorna of 'lornaschinske' who posted up your page earlier had a good door redo she posted to me, but she still hasn't posted the lock. Said regular house type lock. I'm going to try that and save the look of the door.

[rv8flyboy]

can u please provide a link?

[Shadoll]

Originally Posted by rv8flyboy

can u please provide a link?

To talk to her you can look back on your page one and click on her profile. Or search 'door'. Or she posted on my page one of my project near the bottom with her door.

[rv8flyboy]

Thanks!!

I did go to the website and saw how the double door was converted to a single door. I did not find on how to get the door out.

the base of the door frame has a pin sticking up, the bottom of the door hinges on this pin, at the top the door rides in a bearing, kinda hangs from it. It looks like the door has a pin, a boss, that sits in the bearing. tapping the bearing out still won't let me lift the door up over the bottom pin.

almost looks like the whole door frame needs to be removed to get the darn door out.

anybody knows a good source for used bluebird doors??

[lornaschinske]

First off, we removed that cove section directly above the entry door. I later put a thin 110vAC fluorescent light on a swtch in the recessed track. We then unscrewed the hinge (door to body) from the door. Unscrewed all the extra stuff. Used a "multitool" (looks like a trim router and heavy duty cut-off wheels ...not the Dremel stuff) to cut the knuckles off the piano hinge still attached to the body of the bus to make a clean edge to attach the house style door hinges. The door knob is an ordinary house style locking entry from Home Depot. David liked it better than the one I wanted to use... plus the one I wanted to use wasn't in stock at the store we frequented at the time. Metal was cut (from remnants of the landscape edging) to shim out the door knob. I think we need one more shim as its a tad tight and hard to latch... or my rubber weatherstripping is really too fat. The weatherstripping is a temp thing until we get working on the entry steps. I need to use a different weather stripping but will wait until the entry is finished in order to know what thickness of weather stripping is needed. The brown metal on the edge of the door opening is from a metal bed frame. The door is really just finished to the point it latches/locks closed. We still need to work on the opening (minor adjustments, weatherstripping & interior trim). That will be done when we do the finish work on the entry steps. Right now my priority is getting the Galley in (got the "door" walls fitted & painted, cabinet carcases are cut out and painted, materials on hand to insulate and add "nailers" to install the sink side of the galley.... yes, I'm taking pictures of the cabinet build and will post them later).

Here's the door knob....
Outside...



Inside...