"Farther" conversion progress

[soused moose]

I used 16 gauge galvanized steel sheeting on our Bus and riveted them in.
At each corner of the sheets I used a metal screw for some added safety.
Here’s our page…where you can see how I did it…
http://www.mobilehomestead.com/newbus/latcho1.htm

Michael

[Jerry Campbell]

Hi Les,
A couple more things about the windows I got from NW RV Supply. First, They were made to mount vertically, meaning, the drain holes are in the sliding end of the windows. To lay them on their side, which I did, you need to drill drain holes in the side that will be down. This is no big deal, it’s easy and it works well. I know because it’s rained quite a bit since I put them in. On the last window, the bathroom window, when I was drilling the drain holes, I just barely touched the glass with the drill bit. It shattered like tempered glass does. Bummer, I’d already cut the hole in the sheet metal. This was the only window this size I could find. SO, I had to order one to fit the hole from Peninsula Glass in Vancouver, Wa. It was at this point that learned what a good deal these windows were. 16�X16� Cost me $225 and I had to drive up and pick it up because they wanted hundreds of dollars to crate and ship it.
Second, They are bronze tinted. You can barely tell that they aren’t gray. I like it but you may not.
Just wanted you to know all the facts.

Hi JB, and Michael
I don't know what guage the metal was, It was about a 1/16 th" thick. I don't know if you would want to go any thicker. What I used was pretty heavy. I had it bent on the bottom to match the way it comes out at the bottom of the old window opening. It fit under the rain gutter at the top. I could only get 10 foot pieces because no one could bend any longer than that. I secured it with sika-flex and rivits and then had a buddy come and weld the peices together vertically. I had to take it off once and let me tell you sika-flex does not come off for any reason. You have to cut it off with a razor sharp knife.
Ps. I put the solar panels on the roof today. I need to bolt them on and wire them. I put a couple of pictures on my bus page.
YEEEEHAAAAA
Jerry

[J.B.]

Hi Jerry , I appreciate the info on the windows. With your info and experience it looks like all I am lacking for the trip to the window place is some money. This sounds like it is very do able. How thick is the collar that is used to sandwich the windows together?

Later, J.B.

[Jerry Campbell]

Hi JB,
I don't know exactly. BUT, they go thru the sheet metal, thru the wall, thru 1/4" plywood on the inside wall, ( thats as far as I've gotton on the walls) and will go thru 3/8" knotty pine. At this point it looks like I need another 1/8" for the window rings to be tight up against the inside wall after the knotty pine goes in. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. I'll worry about in the spring.
Good Luck

[J.B.]

Hi Jerry . The reason I am wondering is because I think I know how you did the skinning. You came down under the drip lip and made a 90* bend to rest on the window edge then 90* down to the extruded portion under the window area. If you are short in window depth to seal from the inside then maybe it would be better to come down from the drip lip (on the outside under the attach screws) and run straight onto the extruded portion to gain a little bit more space for the sandwich ring to attach. What do you think? I know this is a pain to answer and reanswer but you really are a big assist and you do have the same bus.

Thanks, J.B.

[Jerry Campbell]

It’s only the typing that’s a pain in the ass. I could talk to you about this stuff all day.
First I took off the rain gutter, then I fastened on the sheet metal, then I had it welded.
If you do what you suggest, then you would need a spacer on each upright support. Which would be fine, but I don’t quite understand about the attachment at the top on the drip lip. Here’s a picture of a bus (you have to blow it up quite a bit) . It looks like he did the same thing as I did with the sheet metal but his windows are larger. Which makes them in at the top under the rain gutter and out farther at the bottom. It looks like he has a triangular shaped spacer to fill in where the windows attach. If you look closely you can see how they stick out at the bottom. I have seen another, better picture of this bus but I can’t find it.
I decided to do it the way I did because I thought it would be easier to do and it would look better. So far I am happy the way they look and having the lip at the bottom gave it a place to sit while I attached it. No need for a bunch of clamps or other people. I just wish I had a paint job.
I was not interested in the wall thickness because I plan to use wood for the inside rings. The windows are glued in from the outside.
Which ever way you decide, you’ll be happier doing it your way.
There is an awful lot of learning to do to convert a bus. Let me know if you get by this way. You can come see what I’ve done so far.
See Ya
Jerry

http://buskidspage.tripod.com/robhuntercrown1.htm

[J.B.]

Hi Everyone , Let me take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very happy and safe Thanks giving. I hope you all celebrate this wonderful holiday in your own special way.

I have reached a milestone(for me at least) in my conversion of my Crown bus "Farther". I have just built the queen rear pedestal bed for the master bedroom.My goal was to have a rear queen. Since the Crown was not intended to be a motor home by the manufacturer it took a little bit of planning to place a 60" W X 80" L bed in the rear and still have some room to move around. I used a pedestal design with an 8" toe kick on three sides. That way you can stand next to the bed and not have to turn your feet sideways I will also have to cut the rear sheet metal on the rear seat area so that instead of a slant for the original seat back area it will now be a staight up and down 90* bend. This allows an additional 4 1/2" rear movement. A piece of sheet metal with a 90 * bend to it , a touch with the welder and were done. It sounds all so easy. It is not. The planning is the hard part. Each of us has different goals or ideas and that is what makes it interesting. At this point I have 20" from the entry wall to the bedroom to the end of the bed and 15" on each side. Not a lot but surely more comfortable than climbing on and off of the bed. I still have room for the 100 Gal water tank under the bed. I should be finished with the bed by Thanksgiving and then on to the relocation of the floor heater to the closet which will heat the rear of "Farther" on the road. then on to the diesel Dickenson heater, and the on to the, ....... Well you get the idea. I am still working on pictures as I am not too great with the picture posting thing.

Later, J.B.

[J.B.]

Hi Again , I made an error in my previous post. The side clearance on the bed is 12" (not 15") but is still room tp move around.

Later, J.B.

[J.B.]

Hi There , Last week I did get the area over the left front wheel well framed for the Dickenson Antartic diesel stove and put it in place. I bought a 10 CF refer at Home Despot for a really cheap price (Last One type of thing) and placed it in it's location in the bus.. The tag on the compressor say's it uses 1.2 amps. This week I will try to move the 8 - 6v Dyno house batts into the spare tire well (my new battery box) and maybe get the battery boxes located. Once that's done maybe a clean up and try to secure the galley cabinets in place. I have been screwing 3/4" plywood down on the floor as I go along. The Crown has 3" of plywood under the form fitted rubber mat but I want to install hardwood T&G floors. the rubber was not stable enough for that type of install. I also have to hook up the rear bus heater that I moved to the hanging closet. At this point I have a lot of stuff in place and most of the framing is done but there is a ton of work to finish the installs. The weather here has been pretty crummy. 29* last night, and tonight Rainy and cold. It's hard to get motivated when the days aren't much better. Oh well, a little at a time.

Later,J.B.

[J.B.]

Hi All , I took a week or so off. I did intend to work on "Farther" but was delayed by the install of my wife's new kitchen cabinets and tile install.(somehow that took priority) I had a great stroke of luck this week. I was at my favorite boat surplus place in Bellingham a town just north of me when I spied a pile of new surplus windows that had just come in.. All brand new with screens and openers. It seems they were surplus from the Nordic tug factory near where I live. The price was very, very, good. Best of all they fit the rather weird sized openings of the Crown. I bought 8 windows which leaves me just two short of the full compliment needed. Just next door to the boat place is a salvidge place named The Restore. They had new maple T & G flooring still in 80 sf bundles for the unbelieveable price of $1.50 per S.F. I bought enough to finish the floor of the bus. It was my lucky day. Now I will have to get back on the bus and work on getting some pictures to the board.

Later, J.B.

[Les Lampman]

SCORE!

[Now get to work! ]

[J.B.]

happy New Year all . Well it's been a few days since I posted any progress on "Farther" my 78 Crown. I needed a C.B. so I took the one out of my old truck. I hadn't used it in 10 years but it still worked. C.B.radio places that work radio's are hard to find.(Radio Shack did not have the answers by the way). I finally found some one to tweak the old C.B. up to some decent output and modulation. Next was the research for an antenna. I settled on a 2' Firestick and an 18' cable. I went inside the Bus and cut a 5" hole with a holesaw on the first panel in the roof that was flat. I drilled a hole through the metal roof skin, drilled another smaller hole through the top of the bus roof and mounted the antenna with a spring on the roof side( just in case I hit something the antenna will bend a little). This will give a very nice plane for the send and receive mode. This also places the top of the tunable antenna at about 12'6" or so above the pavement. I then ran the cable down towards the front of the bus between the double roof to the dash. Sounds pretty simple but it took about two weeks to research, gather the parts and do the job. My new power mike will be here in a week.I don't have a permanent place for the C.B. yet (haven't decided on the in dash, above dash or on dash?) but I will hook a power source to it tomorrow. The big thing now is to have it tuned with a SWR(standing wave ratio) meter so you can tune the system to the bus. This is the part that most c.b.ers don't do but it is very neccessary for max sending and reception.

Next on the schedule was the install of the side exhaust pipe. This was necessary because the original Crown exhaust pipe exit's to the rear and I could not see my exhaust when driving. I happened to picked up a polished stainless steel 4" through hull exhaust pipe with a flange mid way on it. The flange is on an angle so that I was able to rotate it and make it point down and to the rear. I took a 4" holesaw and cut a circle just in front of the drivers side rear bumper. Next was a trip to Motor Truck a parts place for a 90* 4" elbow. Remove the exhaust pipe from the muffler. Now the tricky part, The angle from the muffler to the new angled exhaust tip is not 90*. Measure, Measure and measure, Now take the chop saw and cut a wedge out of the 90* elbow and bend it to the proper angle. weld the elbow together. It's cold and wet but I am on a mission. After relocating the muffler hanger bracket and cutting an extension piece to fill the gap between the muffler and the elbow, dropping numerious washers and bolts into the wet grass( yes it's raining and 39*) success. It fits, Well sort of. A little grinding on the bumper so the new flage on the exhaust tip goes in smoothly and a few clamps to hold the pieces together and it's done. The new SS exhaust tip is bolted to the Crown skin with 4 5/16th bolts and it looks good. These two projects took two 4 hour days to install. It's a good thing I don't charge me for my work. the rear heater has already been relocated inside of the rear closet .So, back to the holesaw through the floor down to the heater hoses under the bus, a few feet of hose some clamps and maybe the heater will be hooked up in the next day or so. I will be glad when this is done as I can move back inside of the bus to work out of the weather . A little bit every day.

Monday the 3rd I will order the 18 GA galvenized metal for the window skinning.

Later, J.B.

[J.B.]

well it' s tuesday the 4th of January 2005 . guess what? things did not go as planned . I was supposed to order my window skinning metal yesterday but it did not happen. the weather was/is very cold for us here in Washington state Brrrrr. It was 26* yesterday morning and the high for the day was 35*. Today it was 26* again in the morning but about 39* for the afternoon. I did work on the rear heater install yesterday but ran into a problem of sorts. My holes for the heater hoses from the underside of the bus to the inside will have to go through part of the frame. No big deal just more planning and making sure that is the way I want to go. after being under the bus for the better part of an hour I decided the decision could wait until later. Sometimes it is best to not rush a situation.

Today I worked on my plan for the window skinning. It is to place the 18 GA galvanized metal between the rain gutter and the bus skin. I will let the metal come down from the gutter to the window ledge. A 90* break of 1/2" will let the bottom part rest on the window ledge and then the new metal will be sandwhiched between the rain gutter and the bus skin. It will be reattached with the original rain gutter screws on the top side.(drilling new holes in the galvanized metal but using the original rain gutter and body holes). To accomplish this required the removal of the crown rain gutter screws. There is one screw every 8 ". Wow, guess what?. They were not easy to remove . It was very important to not strip the Phillips screw heads as I do not want to drill new holes for the re-install. After 2 1/2 hours of standing on the ladder in the cold I did manage to remove the screws from the mid entry door to the rear of the bus on the passenger side, about 12'. This was enough to allow an acurate measurement from the top to the bottom of the window ledge. Thank goodness for the Gulmite Crown sockets as they were invaluable in removing the metal panels between the windows Tommorrow I WILL order the metal skinning.

A little every day

Later, J.B.

[J.B.]

Well,Well. Another day and at least more good than bad as I continue on my way to the great bus land in the sky.(where ever that may be) I decided not to drill into my frame for the heater hose relocate. Not that I was worried about structural problems, It was just to difficult. Instead I used the hoesaw and relocated the waterline entry holes to the very forward area of the rear emergency door. I then extended the hoses under the bus to my new 3/4" pipe hook-up from under the bus to inside the bus. Once inside and through the floor I ran the 1" I.D. hose through the back of my hanging closet and hooked up to the heater. A little tip for those of you who have not done this before. Use a heat gun and heat the end of the hose until it is soft. Place hose clamp on hose, Spray inside of hot hose with WD 40 or similar and the push hose onto the barbed area of the pipe. It will go on easier and not have a tendency to leak.

Now the big moment, I could start "Farther" and check out my new side exhaust and see if the heater worked/leaked. Guess what? The 671 did not like the 36* weather. After a few attempts and a battery charger situation the 671 stumbled into life. All was well. The side exhaust worked like it was meant to be . I crawled under the bus for a check of the new hose connections. No Leaks, Yeah . I went inside and opened the hanging closet door and there it was. The tell tale color of green anti-freeze . I had tweaked the inlet nipple on the heater core when I installed the 90* fittings and that was all it took to loosen the solder connection to the core. Fortunately the school district had installed a valve to shut the heater off in the summer so I just turned the water off and let the bus warm up. This is not an all bad situation. In 20 minutes I had the heater core out and today I will take it to my friendly radiator shop for a cleaning and repair. Now I will share concerning the cost of a simple heater relocate not counting labor. 13' of 1" I.D. hose $35. Several 3/4" pipe nipples. a numerious 3/4" 90s, teflon tape and 12 hose clamps.$25. A total of $60 and three trips to the parts house. This does not count the time laying under the bus and then inside. not to mention the cost of the heater core repair. No whining, just to let you know nothings cheap any more. Was it worth it well it was to me. The heater was in the middle of the E-door entry and under the Queen bed frame. Now it is in the hanging closet, out of sight and heats the entire rear bedroom and out into the hall. I did order my sheet metal for the window skinning. Hopefully that will be here by Monday or so.

More later, J.B.

[J.B.]

Hi Again, The last couple of day's have been involved with the install of a block heater for my 78 Crown "Farther" The standard bolt in block heater element will not work on a laid on it's side 671 due to the fact that there is a void or an absence of water when the engine is not running right at the stock element install point.. The element is turned on with no water to dissapate the heat and burns out in a few minutes ,spendy at the least..

What to do I called a couple of the local school districts and they told me they use a product called HOTSTART made by KIM, located in Spokane, WA. I aquired a 1500 W hotstart which is a remote inline unit. They are made with more wattage but I have a 2000W gennie so this was the one for me. I looked at a couple of installs and found that the Hotstart was mounted on a floor or pan located in the drivers side engine bay of the Crowns. Wow, guess what, I did not have one on my Crown. I copied the ones in other Crowns by cutting a piece of plywood 29" from side to side and 64 " long. The outer edge is secured by bolts on the inner lip of the outside body panel and the inner edge is secured by allthread from the main floor to the pan. The pan extends from the radiator tunnel back to the battery box enclosure. It took a few hours but it looks as good as the factory install. I have not actually mounted the Hotstart on the new pan floor yet but I did pick up the hardware for the install today. On my engine the 5/8 " hose comes from the radiator to a water filter and then into the manifold. I will cut the line from the water filter to the intake manifold and install the new block heater in between. I will do the actual install possibly tomorrow. Hopefully this will help the 426C.I. Jimmy in starting on those cold days.. Most important is if I am out in the boon docks with no 120 house power I can fire up the gennie and preheat the block..

More later, J.B.

[Firearm]

One word...."pictures". It would be cool to see your progress.

[J.B.]

Sadly I appear to be the only one that unable to post pictures on this website. I have tried numerous times with no success . As I understand it you have to have pictures somewhere else on the web or in the picture book here. ? before the picture will post. When I try to post the picture, the site will not recognize me. I have pictures on other sites but I feel it is not my job to promote other sites while participating in this BB Doing the actual conversion work is easy compared to figuring out the picture thing. I truly am computer challenged.

Later, J.B.

[Demonknight]

Hi JB, guess what?....I just happen to have my own domain and would gladly host your pics for you..just send them to me in a email or five and I will get them up and send you the web address back...ummm, use my mailto_monknight@yahoo.com account and use BUS PICS as subject...the only bad thing about yahoo is by the time you stop getting spam emails a good part of normal goes with it. *S* oh, and hi neighbor.

[Steve]

J.B. all you need to do is upload your pictures first to the gallery and then you can post them in the forum. Go here to upload your pictures:

http://www.skoolie.net/gallery2/