Got our bus, build thread begins!

[AlwaysSunny]

So we searched quiet a bit and found not one but two busses that we thought were the one, however, due to mechanical issues with both we pursued another lead and this weekend purchased and drove home in our new home!
It is a 2003 Bluebird TC2000 6'3" with Cummins 5.9 24v and an Allison AT545. The bus has all new tires and brakes as of last fall and came with a full tank of fuel for $3000. We had hoped to spend less than 2 but after seeing what was out there for that price we eventually looked higher and negotiated this one down a fair bit. The only mechanical items to address will be preventative items: a new fuel lift pump, new oil pressure sensor, oil change, brake fluid service, and a coolant flush once we remove the rear heaters.
We drove the bus home with no issues and the odometer reads just 62,000km (but the owner believes and I agree that is probable missing a 1 in front of it...) but she drives like a dream. Fit past the house into the yard with no problems and in our first afternoon we got the seats removed by cutting the floor bolts and removing the wall ones by hand, then did some extensive cleanup in preparation to measure out our floorplan before we strip the floor, walls, and ceiling.
The bus does have some underbody rust but that cannot be avoided on the East Coast of Canada so we will be scraping and pressure washing the undercarriage before we have it soaked in rust-check, something we will then do annually. Inside once the floor and panels are stripped we'll use a wire wheel to remove rust and seal it all with rust preventing paint before we insulate. We'll continue to post pictures here as we progress!

[EastCoastCB]

Very cool, I just love getting a bus home!
Your location and pic makes me think of Stan Rogers every time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1IvV6qAWY

[BurlKing]

sweet looking bus, great find. i love the heavy duty look of the freightliners.
love your name too - reminds me of its always sunny in Philadelphia. Great show.

[AlwaysSunny]

Originally Posted by BurlKing

sweet looking bus, great find. i love the heavy duty look of the freightliners.
love your name too - reminds me of its always sunny in Philadelphia. Great show.

Actually I just updated my avatar to suit the new bus, we had bought an FS65 but it fell through based on some mechanical issues so we ended up with a (nicer) Bluebird TC2000. Our Boat is named Always Sunny (after the TV series) and the bus will be named Still Sunny to match!

[AlwaysSunny]

Update on stripping the bus, it's been cold the past few days but we now have all the vinyl flooring removed to let the plywood dry before pulling that up. We've also made gradual work of the wall panels using an angle grinder to shear off the rivet heads and a crowbar to pop off the panels. We hope to have the walls and ceiling stripped fully plus the coolant heaters removed by the end of this weekend so we can begin insulating. The last thing we remove will be the plywood flooring and depending on what condition the floor is in we will either hit it with a wire wheel and just paint over with rust blocker or we may have to do some cutting and welding...

[browncrown]

Nice bus...have fun with the build!

[AlwaysSunny]

All the wall panels, conduits, heaters, and flooring have been removed! (Except the raised driver's area which is staying and same for the driver's heater + defrost because Canada...)
It was a lot of work stripping the bus but very rewarding to have it done in just over a week since purchase and now we can get the rewards of seeing our build take flight. Once everything was out we did our final measurements and final Floorplan to scale, only the bathroom left out because we need to check out the obstacles under the floor to determine which ends of the room to put the toilet and shower on for ease of plumbing.
We also sourced a great find for all our appliances and tanks in a larger, newer, and cheaper travel trailer than what we just sold out old one for so we are in $$. This one has a 3-way fridge, propane oven and range, propane furnace, double stainless sink, water heater, inverter and two batteries, toilet, shower (we'll steal the plumbing but build our own shower), loads of 12v lighting, and our fresh, grey, and black water tank all for $1000... plus after its stripped I can lay down decking and have a 24' double axle car hauler/utility trailer or just sell that for close to what I paid...
We decided that the furnishings in the trailer are worthless to us since we want to build our bus in modules: bed unit, kitchen unit, bathroom, entertainment and electrical cabinet, couch... we plan on a semi floating floor attached to the walls with furring strips to avoid any holes in the floor, insulating and paneling the walls and ceiling and then just sliding each module into place and bolt them down. That will allow me to use the gap under the lower chair rail to run all my wiring and plumbing and then if we have future issues or want to switch up the layout we can unbolt each unit and slide it out of the way.
Does anyone have experience doing a build in this manner? Is there anything specific I should look out for?

[AlwaysSunny]

Forgot to add pics!

[Robin97396]

Nice job, and on such a large scale. That's a lot of damn seats, isn't it?

I haven't heard of anyone else building modules for interior stations, except for myself. I came to realize that I change buses fairly often and moving modules to a different bus would be highly advantageous. The modules are also excellent for moving to one end of the bus so you can work on the other end of the bus.

You're talking about something like fresh water, grey water and a sink in one module? I also have a cooking module and a smaller coffee/oven module. The rest of my rig is tools and building materials for now.

I'm guessing you're planning for a heap of insulation in your near future. It looks great and you're making excellent time. Keep it up.

[AlwaysSunny]

Today was the two week anniversary with our bus and we've finished pulling things out and started putting things back in! Charlotte mixed epoxy and covered the smaller floor holes with resin while I cut out patches from the sheet metal we stripped out to cover the holes that were cut out larger due to rust. Once finished we rolled on a thick coat of rust paint and took a cargo van to the hardware store. While we were waiting for the paint to dry we bought all the materials needed to do our floor, walls, and ceiling and then did a few outside jobs. We straightened out some of the body from a few small dents and previous mishaps, and removed the stop sign and crossing arm so our new home is starting to look less like a school bus and more like a coach/RV. We then laid the 1" high density foam insulation starting in the rear and got this completed without issue.
Tomorrow Charlotte will be covering the seams with tuck-tape and we'll start laying the structural board which will float on top of the insulation. Both layers will be bonded to the floor and each-other with acoustical sealant to reduce squeaks and prevent movement.