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Old 12-23-2011, 09:28 AM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

We operate a large haunted attraction in Indiana. After renting several buses in recent years to attend conventions and other events, we decided it was time we had our own. We searched fora while and found a good deal on a former prisoner transport bus from a Sheriff's Dept in Ohio. This thread will follow the conversion of this prison bus into the Fear Fair party bus.

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Old 12-24-2011, 03:08 AM   #2
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day one, December 15, 2011

Today we picked up our new bus. We sat in the lobby at the Butler County Jail for about 30 minutes, the office manager checked my ID, took our check and directed us to the rear of the jail where our new bus was idling. We hopped in and drove her back to Indiana without incident.


Ours is the one on the right. Not sure why one had a nameplate with Genesis spelled with an 'e' and one ours it's Gineses spelled with an 'i'?

It's a 1993 Genesis by Amtran. The DT466 Diesel only has 137000 miles on the clock and has had maintenance every 5000 miles. She's really in great shape. Good bones as they say...




Driver and two guard seats are air ride.
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Old 12-24-2011, 03:10 AM   #3
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

The bus is equipped with heavy wire mesh cages in front and rear of passenger compartment and on the roof hatch, rather than remove these, we are going to keep them and design the rest of the interior around the same theme. These old seats are another matter, though. They have to go.

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Old 12-24-2011, 03:17 AM   #4
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day two - December 17, 2011

Let the teardown begin. The first order of business was to remove the old seats. They just won't work for our plans. We will strip off the covers and foam and haul the metal frames off for scrap.



We also did some general cleaning and checking out the old gal. There is a small leak in the bottom tank on the radiator. We will be pulling the radiator and either having it replaced or hopefully repaired.


One thing we didn't expect was the toilet. It's properly installed with the tank underneath and it seems to work fine, so we will be keeping it. It will save us a lot of rest station stops along the road.
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Old 12-24-2011, 03:23 AM   #5
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Year: 1993
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day 3 - December 18, 2011

We were fortunate to find some Church bus seats on Craigslist in Indianapolis. We picked these up for $450 which seemed pretty reasonable at $35 per seat. The plan is to run them lengthwise down the sides of the bus with a bar in the center at the rear. It would have been nice if they were black vinyl, but grey cloth will have to work.



There is not a single tear on any of the seats, they have some dirt, but we think they should clean up just fine.

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Old 12-24-2011, 03:27 AM   #6
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day Four - December 19, 2011

Now that the seats are out, it's time to get to work on painting. We scuffed the ceiling and cages with Scotchbrite pads and masked off. The ceiling and cage mesh will all be red, the frames and below the windows will all be black.



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Old 12-24-2011, 03:37 AM   #7
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
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Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day Five - December 20, 2011

We have also been planning and ordering in parts for the audio video installation. There will be four 12" subs built into our bar, three sets of Alpine components down the sides of the ceiling in the passenger compartment, two 26" lcd televisions on the front cages facing the passenger compartment and some really cool led lighting. The speaker boxes for the subs have sound active lighting as well. Our seat frames are also going to be pretty cool, we think. They will mimic the design of the cages and have two cupholders (led lit) and a 12 volt outlet between each set of two seats. Seems a common complaint on our bus trips has been wanting to charge phones, so we are going to take care of that.

The audio system will run off two gel cell batteries of it's own in the base of the bar, and we are using a battery isolator to prevent the main bus batteries from being run down. We will be running a small Generac generator with 12 volt out while parked to maintain the gel cells.

These bandpass boxes will be incorporated into the bar. There are two of them, four 12" subs total.


These Seasense led cupholders will look cool between the seats.


I am running one of these 16 foot long sound active led strips down each side of the ceiling and one under the seats on each side, they are amazingly bright. One strip totally lit my family room.
http://www.twitvid.com/J0QP4
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Old 12-24-2011, 03:41 AM   #8
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
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Year: 1993
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Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day Six - December 21, 2011

Our seat frames are coming along well. We plan to get them primed and painted this weekend. Did I mention we plan on our first outing in this bus on New Year's Eve? Nothing like a little pressure to keep things interesting.

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Old 12-24-2011, 03:47 AM   #9
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
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Year: 1993
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Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day Seven - December 22, 2011

The seat frames are done, so we need to get them primed and painted.


We used an etch primer first on the bare metal, then a low gloss black enamel.


Those rivets aren't really rivets. They are welds to mimic the rivets on the cages already in the bus.


The woven wire mesh for the fronts and tops of these frames will be painted red and installed from the back and underneath. That way, it will have the same look as the cages already in the bus.
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Old 12-24-2011, 03:55 AM   #10
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day Eight - December 23, 2011

While we are waiting on the woven wire for the seat frames to be sheared, we decided to move on to the black painting inside the bus. It took about five hours to mask off for the painting, then we ran out of paint at midnight. Ugh... we will grab paint first thing in the morning and finish up, then it's out for last minute Christmas shopping.



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Old 12-24-2011, 04:03 AM   #11
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Year: 1993
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Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus




We also decided to freshen up the driver's area a bit with a coat of black paint. We just couldn't stand how 'stock' this area was going to look with the passenger compartment remodeled.


I had been thinking about a way to control some of the audio and lighting we are installing. Since the audio system in the rear is running independent of the driver area, we needed to use a switch to simulate the key being turned on and off. Plus, I have to be able to switch all of the accent lighting. I stopped by a boat shop and picked up a switch panel. We'll install this in the bar next to the head unit.


The components for the audio system have also been finalized and are on hand, as well. The head unit is a Kenwood DDX-516, the components are Alpine S610's, the subs are two Dual BP1204 illuminite boxes (we really liked the look of these, if the actual subs don't hold up, we will replace them in the boxes) and the amps are all old Rockford Fosgates. We can't wait to get the system installed and see how it sounds.
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Old 12-24-2011, 09:00 AM   #12
Almost There
 
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Engine: Cornbinder 466
Rated Cap: 71
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

WOW!
I want air red seats...Your gonna love that bus. I am interested in how you set up your sound system as far as speaker placement. Keep the pictures coming
Tracy
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Old 12-26-2011, 07:47 PM   #13
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
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Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day Nine - December 26, 2011

Today we finally finished the inside painting. Now on to flooring and getting the new seats installed!!




We went with a low gloss black on the frames and high gloss red on the mesh. It really makes for a dramatic contrast!

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Old 12-27-2011, 07:30 AM   #14
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Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

If your going to use this bus for "commercial or a "private" party bus?
Your going to run into a problem with leaving that mesh covering the escape hatch and the bars on the windows.
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Old 12-28-2011, 04:46 AM   #15
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day Ten - December 27 - December 28, 2011

Today (into the wee hours) we completed the flooring install and got the mesh inserts for the seat frames and bar prepped and painted...





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Old 12-29-2011, 10:59 PM   #16
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Amtran
Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Day Eleven - December 29, 2011

Today we got the wire mesh installed into the seat frames and bar pieces and got those into the bus. We also dyed the new seats black with Duplicolor Fabric Spray which will make those fit in so much nicer!


There are a lot of details to finish up, but it's coming together!


The top of the bar still needs carpeted, etc. but it's definitely coming together.


The seats will look so much nicer in black. I am really impressed with the Duplicolor Product!
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Old 12-29-2011, 11:03 PM   #17
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 61
Year: 1993
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Chassis: Genesis
Engine: Dt40
Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

When we carried the seat frames in to install them, we realized we had a slight problem....


The cupholders hit the wheel wells... ugh.. But this is a party bus, let's keep our priorities straight here folks.. there is 16" from the top of the tire to the wheel well, though.. So we drilled and inserted the cup holders... they stick about 2" into the wheel well, but we will silicone them well and they are very snug in their holes.

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Old 12-30-2011, 07:12 AM   #18
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Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Wow...you all are busy!
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Old 01-06-2012, 10:39 AM   #19
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
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Year: 1993
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Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

I will have another update in a day or two, we're about done...
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Old 01-06-2012, 07:03 PM   #20
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Re: Fear Fair Prison Party Bus

Looking good, I really like the mesh... Might have to incorporate that into my bus, would go well with the materials I'm using...

I used upholstery spray years ago that started to bleed onto peoples cloths in the summer when they started to sweat... Just an FYI...
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