The Dominic

[desrtdog]

Recently completed solo build…will start posting what pics I took along the way with some commentary…stay tuned.

[desrtdog]

For me, this bus thing grew out of a trip to California in the spring of 2020. I headed out there to see my son play a couple of spring break rugby matches, and also for a surprise visit to my brother on his 50th. On the way out, I lugged my bike in the back of my Tacoma, and rode in Death Valley, San Jose and Joshua Tree. The Death Valley ride was something else, and I thought it would be really nice to go there again, only not have to sleep in the backseat of a truck.

I began the search for a bus after deciding that towing a trailer was not really something I wanted to do, and buying a kitted-out Sprinter van was just too expensive. After looking at some buses in Illinois (lots of rust), I happened upon what would become "The Dominic" on a trip to Colorado in the fall of 2020. Looked at the bus in Lubbock on my way out; had a mechanic inspect/drive it; and on my way back home purchased it....a west-Texas bus with 195,500 miles...and no rust!

Here are the before and after pics... subsequent posts will include more on the build process, but because this was essentially a solo effort, there are some gaps in the photos - so if any questions, ask and I'll fill in what I can...

[desrtdog]

Some specifics about the bus itself:

• 2010 Bluebird Handy Bus (6 window, with working wheelchair lift)
• 195.5k miles at time of purchase
• Cummins 6.7 ISB (pre-DEF engine - yes!)
• Allison 2500 transmission w/ 5.29 rear end
• Overall Length: 25'
• Available interior length behind driver's seat: 16'
• Interior Clearance: 75"
• Air brakes/suspension
• Rated GVWR: 23,500 lb

At time of purchase, I had the bus serviced, the power steering hoses replaced and the front and rear A/C units repaired (seals and recharged)...That's it - everything else was in good working order.

[peakbus]

Wow- I like what you've shown so far!

[desrtdog]

So, first thing to do was get all of the insides outside - starting with the seats. Fortunately the bus seats were all bolted internally to an L-track system, so no seized or rusty bolts to deal with. Unfortunately, the L-track was laid on top of the plywood floor, and riveted through the galvanized bus floor...every 2"...with hardened steel rivets... Eight "tracks" in total; somewhere around 600 rivets.

Initially tried drilling them out, then grinding, before settling on cutting/removing the plywood around the track, chiseling out the remainder of plywood, then taking a sawzall to the rivets (between the track and floor - worked like a champ).

Next task was to remove the rear heater, cockpit (which included the driver's seat and front heater/controls panel), and entry floor.

Left the wheelchair lift in place for a couple of reasons: (1) wanted to be able to demonstrate that it was functional as I was going to sell it, and (2) I did not have room to store it (also, it weighs close to 400#)…Took 4 months to finally sell, so work on the passenger floor section was on hold during that time.

[desrtdog]

Before buying the bus I watched a number of YouTube videos of other bus conversions. All seemed very organized and methodical - which could also be in part due to the editing process - working a section at a time (at least that's what I recall). My process was a bit looser, with multiple projects in play at the same time...for example, interior demolition and build out...

With work on the rear floor on hold due to the previously mentioned wheelchair lift, my focus was on completing the front floor and cockpit so I could actually drive the bus in and out of my storage unit. After stripping the floor area, I primed with a Rustoleum product meant for aluminum and galvanized metal, then painted with several coats of Rustoleum oil based paint. Next was a layer of Kilmat for sound/heat reduction and a 5/8" sheet of plywood, and more paint...

While waiting for coats of paint to dry, I took to removing and insulating the side walls, and removing the ceiling. I have seen some builds where (presumably for cost reduction?) the bus sheet metal is left in place, but wanted a cleaner look. The fiberglass batts in the walls were nasty...ceiling was better, but in both cases not very thick. Removing the sheet metal from the walls and ceiling proved to be another chore. In true Blue Bird fashion, all panels were riveted into place, which is where my new favorite tool - a pneumatic chisel procured from Harbor Freight - proved its worth. Along with all of this work, I also removed the roof escape hatch (surprisingly NOT screwed into the bus roof; repainted for reuse), the front and rear bus A/C evaporators (to clean and repaint), and the rear end-cap panel...the front cap panel proved to be more than I wanted to tackle, so it remained in place.

The final piece to this phase of demo was window removal - pretty easy once you break the caulk seal...

[desrtdog]

...Forgot to mention on the previous post, that when using the pneumatic chisel, I used a punch bit to get drive out the rivet core, before using the chisel bit to cut the heads off...

Anyway, on to a little divergence here to talk about what I did with everything that came out of the bus:

• Seats: I have seen a variety of comments re: disposing of bus seats. Fortunate for me, I only had 6 seats to get rid of, and also fortunate, they actually had 4 proper legs (unlike some that are bolted to the side wall with a shorter set of legs). I advertised these on a local marketplace, and they turned out to be hot items, used primarily for jump seats in the back of ranch vehicles. Price for these was $25-$30 each.
• Front Crossing Mirrors; W/C Harness Systems and Rear Heater: All advertised and sold on eBay.
• Wheelchair Lift: Advertised locally and on eBay, Craig's List...I thought this would go quickly, but it didn't...not even when I offered it free to a non-profit. In the end, it was purchased by a guy who was going to convert a van for his handicapped wife.
• Sheet Metal (sides and ceiling): I kept most of this for use in building the window blanks, shower overhead raise and a few other interior items, then hauled the rest to a scrap yard...got all of $17 (including the two pads that were at the front of the seating area).

What I am currently left with are:

• Three of the original bus windows (two 28" from the bunk area, and one 33" from the shower area), plus the slider portion of the 28" behind the driver's seat.
• A bunch of the L-track from the floor.
• A couple of wheelchair tie-down systems.

That's it...After shipping costs, I netted about $800 on sale of the innards.

[ewo1]

You're rockin n rollin!

Helpful tip, don't cut/remove any wires if you can help it..
If and when you do, immediately try to start the bus and make sure it goes into gear.

Lot's and I mean lot's of nightmare stories here about this issue!

For example, wheelchair should have a transmission/brake interlock circuit that prevents the bus from moving when wheelchair lift is in operation.

Best time to catch any potential issue is right at the moment when you mess with the wiring!

[desrtdog]

Originally Posted by ewo1

You're rockin n rollin!

Helpful tip, don't cut/remove any wires if you can help it..
If and when you do, immediately try to start the bus and make sure it goes into gear.

Lot's and I mean lot's of nightmare stories here about this issue!

For example, wheelchair should have a transmission/brake interlock circuit that prevents the bus from moving when wheelchair lift is in operation.

Best time to catch any potential issue is right at the moment when you mess with the wiring!

Thanks...I am actually writing this after the fact to document what I did, so am way past that. During the process I managed to get my hands on the wiring schematics, which helped to identify the bits. On the W/C lift, there is a brake override that will allow the bus to move if the door is open ... think it was also used if the lift was down so driver could reposition the bus slightly if needed, but never tried that. Lift is long gone, and I was very careful about what I disconnected at the time...

[cadillackid]

I left the wiring in the ceiling for my school lights.. those wires have proven useful a couple times when i needed a wire that went from front to back.. I disconnected the power leads from the weldon flasher controller in my switch panel but left the light wires hooked in their positions.. so I know where the wires go.. they are labelled front left, right rear etc...

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by desrtdog

Thanks...I am actually writing this after the fact to document what I did, so am way past that. During the process I managed to get my hands on the wiring schematics, which helped to identify the bits. On the W/C lift, there is a brake override that will allow the bus to move if the door is open ... think it was also used if the lift was down so driver could reposition the bus slightly if needed, but never tried that. Lift is long gone, and I was very careful about what I disconnected at the time...

Oh, I didn't catch that , thought you were building a new bus.

What part of Tx are you at?

I'm over by Fort Hood/Cavazos.

[desrtdog]

Originally Posted by ewo1

Oh, I didn't catch that , thought you were building a new bus.

What part of Tx are you at?

I'm over by Fort Hood/Cavazos.

I am in Magnolia area...actually drove through your neck of the woods on my way to CO in September.

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by desrtdog

I am in Magnolia area...actually drove through your neck of the woods on my way to CO in September.

Oh, not too far away!

Next summer I was planning on going over to Sam Houston national park, maybe i'll swing by!

[desrtdog]

One correction to post #6...I actually removed the front and rear A/C blowers (not the evaporators)...Here is a pic of the rear with end cap panel out after removing the rear ceiling panel...

[desrtdog]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

I left the wiring in the ceiling for my school lights.. those wires have proven useful a couple times when i needed a wire that went from front to back.. I disconnected the power leads from the weldon flasher controller in my switch panel but left the light wires hooked in their positions.. so I know where the wires go.. they are labelled front left, right rear etc...

There are a lot of wires in the bus...Fortunately they are all numbered , so with a proper wiring diagram, it's possible to sort them all out. I spent about 28 hrs (yes, I tracked all my time and expenses on an excel sheet) going through the wiring - removing ones that were not needed (some bus safety stuff and the rear heater) and repurposing others. I don't remember exact ones that I removed from the loom along the left ceiling, but some were removed and made sure along the way that the bus would still start.

For the "school lights" mentioned above, I removed all the "control" features that automated the flashing with stops and door opening, but kept the "power" wires in place…Reversed the positions of the lights on the exterior (so now ambers outboard and reds inboard), and hooked them up as auxilliary turn signals (front and rear) and brake lights (rear) that are controllable by switches on the driver's side panel...My plan is to also hook-up LED light bar(s) to the brake light switch.

Along with stripping some of the wires out, I removed the associated relays and harnesses in the wiring panel. I kept the warning buzzers associated with the roof hatch, emergency exit windows and rear door. I also kept the original bus cabin lights, incorporating them into the new ceiling (to be discussed in a later post).

Finally, I fabricated a new aluminum cover for the area where the school light controls were...should be enough space to slide a radio in here at a later date - for now it's Spotify and a Bose bluetooth speaker.

...and "reorganized" the driver's side switches to be more "logical" in terms of layout...

I've probably forgotten a few items here, so if any specific questions, please let me know…

[ol trunt]

Nice work. Remember, amber only to the front and/or red /amber to the rear.
Jack

[desrtdog]

Originally Posted by ol trunt

Nice work. Remember, amber only to the front and/or red /amber to the rear.
Jack

Thanks...yeah - got the ambers working both front and rear, and reds rear only. I left the front reds (inboard) but not hooked up...

[desrtdog]

Couple of other prep things that I did while trying to dispose of the wheelchair lift:

1. Prepare the ceiling for the eventual finished interior: I wanted to preserve the interior height (maintain ~75" when all finished). Additionally, since I decided upon a cedar ceiling, I needed a way to fasted the boards fore and aft. To accomplish this, I cut 3" sections of 2x2 blocks, and screwed them to the front side of the ribs. Used the canned spray foam (yellow stuff) to insulate between the blocks and metal roof, as well as filling the hat channels.
   
2. Fabricate window blanks for the shower and bunk areas: Not really keen on trying to weld thicker sheet metal, and given that I had a bundle of sheet metal from the bus ceiling, I opted to create window blanks from plywood, and glued the ceiling sheet metal to the outside.
   

These panels were eventually taped/caulked and held into place with 4 #10-24 machine screws from the outside.

[desrtdog]

Four months after purchasing the bus, I finally disposed of the wheelchair lift. This had been the sole impediment to me getting to the floor build...

Very lucky that this West-TX bus had virtually no rust on the interior floor...only a few areas of surface rust, which I wire-brushed with an angle grinder, then sprayed with Rustoleum Rust Remover.

Next was the primer coat - a Rustoleum product made for galvanized and aluminum (can is holding the A/C lines out from the wall)...

...Followed by 3 coats of Rustoleum gloss gray enamel:

Prior to putting the final coat on, I needed to fill the nearly 600 holes left from the seat rail rivets. For this, I used 8mm plugs from Widgetco...siliconed them into place, then painted over:

Next, the entire floor was covered with Kilmat:

I used 3" wide strips of 3/4" plywood as furring strips, screwed them to the floor using the self tapping screws salvaged from when I pulled the original plywood up, laid 3/4" R-Matte foam insulation down, and covered this with 1/2" plywood...and several more coats of primer/paint...

[desrtdog]

Among the things that I absolutely wanted to include in the bus were a good vent fan, and a shower. For the vent fan, I chose a MaxxFan 7500, and for the shower, I was determined to have something that I would not have to sit or stoop down to use. Both of these required cutting new openings in the roof since I was going to keep the original roof escape hatch (as an access to the planned roof deck), and ... well ... I'm not 4' tall.

Always a bit unnerving cutting into the roof - only one chance to get it right. The vent fan was relatively straightforward as it would go directly in front of the escape hatch.

The cut for the shower raise was a bit more tedious, as it was on the side along the curve of the roof directly next to the escape hatch.




Because there was still a slight curve to the roof where the fan was going, and to ensure a good fit, I ended up gluing a 2x2 frame to the inside of the roof, which effectively flattened the curve (sorry, no pics of that).

I got the idea for the shower raise from an outfit in Vegas (MyBusHotel) that builds smaller busses...originally thought I'd find someone to weld a steel frame for the raise, but galvanized metal and all...eventually opted to build the frame from 1" 8020 aluminum extrusion. Fastened it to the bus frame (ribs) with 1/4" machine screws, and used a couple pieces of the scrap from the interior ceiling to skin it - fastened with 3M panel bond adhesive and stainless steel sheet metal screws.