Jeremy's conversion project

[swaflyer]

I recently purchased a Carpenter Crown 9 row flat nose school bus. It's a 1998 with only 54k miles, air brakes and air ride front and back.. It spent the first part of its life at a school in Texas and is in excellent shape. I have no idea what I am doing but I'm having fun. If anyone has suggestions on what I should or should not do please let me know. I have been looking around the site for a while but am just now joining so I can submit some pictures. Hopefully I'm doing this right.

[Tango]

Howdy Jeremy...and Welcome to the Madhouse --- Hey, if any of us had any idea what we were doing...we probably wouldn't be doing what we are doing. But you do seem to have the most important part down...have fun with it! Just take your time and do it YOUR way. You might check out Google "SketchUp". Free download for a pretty easy to use 3-D drawing system. A number of folks here have had good luck working out their floorplans with it. Powerful enough that you can rotate the drawing in real time and see it from various angles. Pretty nifty...and FREE.

BTW...what engine/tranny came with with your unit?

[gbstewart]

one of us one of us one of us one of us
welcome
gbstewart

[Deezl Smoke]

Air ride front and rear? Now I'm jealous.

[swaflyer]

Thank you for the nice welcome. This rally seems like a fun supportive community and I'm happy to be a part of it. I started sketching out my floor plan about a year before I bought the bus (I was pretty excited) the good old fashioned way- pencil and graph paper. I even tapped it out on my living room floor back then. I've made some changes since then as I was originally going to get a Thomas 8 row but decided on this one because of low miles, air ride front, higher ceiling and a couple more feet of length. I don't have pics of the air ride at the moment but I'll take some and post hem soon. It's a 5.9 Cummins and , I think, an Alison automatic transmition.

[Tango]

What a sweet find! --- Great engine & Allisons are tough units. Try to nail down which model tranny as there can be big differences. Some lock up, others don't. And are the brakes air or hydro?

PS...and roger the air-ride envy!!!

[juliol]

Hey, are you planing to remove the playwood floor?

J

[swaflyer]

Originally Posted by Tango

What a sweet find! --- Great engine & Allisons are tough units. Try to nail down which model tranny as there can be big differences. Some lock up, others don't. And are the brakes air or hydro

I've been happy with the engine. It runs beautifully. The transmission is good too but I don't know much about it yet. I need to look into it. Brakes are air.

Originally Posted by juliol

Hey, are you planing to remove the playwood floor?
J

Because the plywood was in such great shape I decided to leave it down. I put a product from HD called "Floor Muffler" down for a moisture barrier and for sound/temp insulation. Then 1/4" luan.




[
I don't have any pictures of the suspension at the moment. I just got back home from a business trip but it's dark. I will take some pics and upload them ASAP.

[swaflyer]

Air ride fore and aft.

Driver's side looking forward


Passenger side looking forward


Rear axle looking aft

[swaflyer]

Building the walls out and insulating.




Also trying out some window framing in red cedar.

[White99z]

Nice work! I like how you did the wall insulation and have been considering a similar method myself!

[juliol]

Thank you for the pics, you got a jewel, my playwood floor is in good shape, so I willd do the same as you are doing, and again, thank you for taking the time to post your work in detail it helps., BTW, did you remove the side panels or just cover them with insulation board?

J

[Diesel Dan]

I like the wood framing around the windows! So what are you going to use as your final flooring?

[swaflyer]

Originally Posted by White99z

Nice work! I like how you did the wall insulation and have been considering a similar method myself!

Originally Posted by juliol

Thank you for the pics, you got a jewel, my playwood floor is in good shape, so I willd do the same as you are doing, and again, thank you for taking the time to post your work in detail it helps., BTW, did you remove the side panels or just cover them with insulation board?
J

The insulation was super easy. I didn't remove the side panels. I measured how much the lip the seats mounted to protruded from the side walls and then ripped some cedar to the same width. Screwed that at the floor and flush with the window lip. I had about 1 1/4" of space to work with. My HD only had 1/2" and 3/4" rigid foam insulation. Sandwiched together it was perfect. I made sure not to undercut them so they'd fit tight. Each set of 4'x8' was perfect to do 16' of wall. For the wheel wells I measured to the edge then matched up the sheet on the inside of the wheel well to draw the radius to cut. I put vertical cedar supports at 8' centers (or anywhere else a seam would be) to attach the paneling. I was going to go with 1/4" oak paneling but decided to go with luan since it is more moisture resistant, cheaper, and most of it will be covered. Besides, you can actually find some pretty nice grain if you are selective.

[swaflyer]

Originally Posted by Diesel Dan

I like the wood framing around the windows! So what are you going to use as your final flooring?

Final flooring is vinyl composition tile (VCT) same as used in schools and retailers. It's available in any color you can imagine (special order) from HD for $.79/sq ft. We finally decided on "Kickin Kiwi."

[swaflyer]

Started to lay things out to make sure the floor plan is going to work. It looked like it was going to be fine when I taped it out but I wanted to double check. The bed will actually be on the other side so the build out will cover the fuel filler cover. I already removed it and cut it down quite a bit before reinstalling it.

[swaflyer]

Decided on this rolling work bench (without the wheels) for the kitchen cabinets. Might do 2-4 more matching cabinets from this same series for other areas of the bus. There are a bunch of different cabinets some of which are available at Sam's Club (where I bought this).



Installed a sink and faucet from IKEA and a cooktop from Amazon.

[swaflyer]

I had been looking for a stove that wasn't too big for quite a while. This one is about 32" tall and 16 inches at the widest point. Bought it eBay but it was "pickup only." It was in L.A. and I live outside Tampa. Seller agreed to drop it off to my hotel while I was in Burbank on a business trip. I took it back to Tampa with me on the plane. It weighs about 100lbs. It went smoother than I would have thought.

[browncrown]

Love the workbench counter! You're making great progress and the bus is looking good

[Tango]

Killer Cabinets!!! --- And a great looking little heater/stove. It's all coming together really nicely, keep the pix coming.