I'll show you mine if you show me yours! Refurbished drivers area

[Oldmopars]

So, I am not totally done yet, but I have the front drivers area of my bus mostly redone. I took everything out and cleaned it up, painted it and put it back. New laminate floors, and I dyed the drivers seat vinyl and painted the frame.
Not too bad for an old 80's bus. I still have some more to do, but at least I can handle driving it now. I have a new stereo for the hole in the side console and will be adding some kind of pad or maybe carpet to the flat area by the driver under the stereo to keep things from sliding around.
Show me what you did to yours, I love to see what others have done, it gives me ideas.

[Piersg]

That looks great, nice work!

[milkmania]

Omg, look at that driver's room!!!
My doghouse is so big, my seat has 2 sets of slide rails... 1 fore & aft slide and 1 left & right slide. My right knee rests against the dog house when I drive, so there's no chance of swiveling my seat.

[cadillackid]

looks great!!!! in my old 86 I made dashboard air conditioning into the driver heater console ..i could twist those round vents around and get cold air.. in my carpenter io had to do full custom driver A/C... not sure what I'll do in the 2000.. I reallty miss the older pre-95 setup like your bus has!!! wish i could find someone who had ripped theirs out...

what you have done looks awesome
-Christopher

[Oldmopars]

Thanks guys, it has been a lot of work. I would love to add A/C, but here in the Pacific NW the amount of time I would need it, would not justify the cost and time to install it.
I love the older bus, I am sure I rode to school in one just like this in High School back in the 80's.
It just feels nice to have a nice place to sit and drive the bus from.

[cadillackid]

mine in the DEV from a couple months ago... ive done a couple things since...
I completely gutted the driver heater unit and imstalled a combination heatand A/C unit that handles driver heat and dash A/C.. then a dedicated defroster heater.. in the same box... theres a couple vents you cant see..




I was building that box out.. it has standoffs underneath so the heater hoses for the rear units dont get crushed..





and a nice seat was in order.. since I have great A/C the cinyl isnt hot




-Christopher

[plfking]

Originally Posted by Oldmopars

So, I am not totally done yet, but I have the front drivers area of my bus mostly redone.

Totally diggin' that......fantastic job, sir.

[Carytowncat]

Beautiful work Oldmopar. Guess i better show off my emerald green glass doorknob shifter

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

[REDD]

Originally Posted by Oldmopars

So, I am not totally done yet, but I have the front drivers area of my bus mostly redone. I took everything out and cleaned it up, painted it and put it back. New laminate floors, and I dyed the drivers seat vinyl and painted the frame.
Not too bad for an old 80's bus. I still have some more to do, but at least I can handle driving it now. I have a new stereo for the hole in the side console and will be adding some kind of pad or maybe carpet to the flat area by the driver under the stereo to keep things from sliding around.
Show me what you did to yours, I love to see what others have done, it gives me ideas.

Looks good man!
A coat of paint, some new vinyl for the seat and some new flooring makes a world of difference.

[REDD]

Before...

https://imgur.com/sopOqW5


After...

https://imgur.com/QNSTEIb

...still have a few things to adjust/fine tune.
Pass. side seat on the way, Sterling air ride capt. chair.

[warewolff]

We are in the process of deleting the entire heating unit underneath that master switch panel next to the captain seat that you cleaned up. It is useless to us as we are going with a vented catalytic heater and will mostly be sitting around boondocking. It will free up a LOT of space and give us some extra driver side storage. Just an idea. My whole drivers area is a freaking mess right now as I'm in demolition but I'll be sure to post the "after" photos in a few weeks on our build thread. You did a really nice job refurbishing everything.

[cadillackid]

warewolf,

you might want some type of defroster if you plan to drive at all... if you get caught in the rain you will have fogged up windows period... that big box under the switch panel is not only your heat but the defrost for the driver side of the windshield... the right side heater does not push any air to the left side of the windshield...

-Christopher

[warewolff]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

warewolf,

you might want some type of defroster if you plan to drive at all... if you get caught in the rain you will have fogged up windows period... that big box under the switch panel is not only your heat but the defrost for the driver side of the windshield... the right side heater does not push any air to the left side of the windshield...

-Christopher

I had researched some 12v dash units that will use a lot less power and should get the job done as far as defrosting. I think we will really benefit from the extra space and clean look when we remove all the blower junk.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by warewolff

I had researched some 12v dash units that will use a lot less power and should get the job done as far as defrosting. I think we will really benefit from the extra space and clean look when we remove all the blower junk.

the carpenter bergstrom box is one of the worst for sure... its a very poor design.. you cant even replace the fan motors without removing it from the bus....

as long as its a coolant heated coil you can do good with a smaller defroster.. if its electrically heated.. good luck..

I used a hot-rod aftermarket heater for the defroster when I rebuilt that box.. i kept the box but now have A/C, heat, and defrost out of it instesad of just halfass heat and worthless defrost
-Christopher