Alternative ceiling material

[chaos]

When we got our bus the original ceiling had already been ripped out. We attempted to put it back up but to be honest it was a major pain and so decided to look for an alternative. Do you guys have any suggestions for a material flexible and light enough that won't break the bank.
Thanks

[Mulelover]

Luan is pretty inexpensive and it bends pretty good, so you could shape it to you ceiling.

Just a thought,

Jackie

[GoneCamping]

I guess you could call my ceiling "alternative"...at least for a bus it was. Now I still had the original ceiling in there, but you could do this attaching to the ribs that run across the tops... I used direct mount drop ceiling.

I got all this at Lowes, the first image is the starter strips, I ran the two of them up the bus 1 foot from the center on each side....


Once the strips are in place, you put in the tiles, and snap the "Tee" pieces in place to hold it up there... I had to add a small piece of starter strip on a wood block in the middle of the ceiling to make the Cross Tee pieces hold...


Along the sides where the cabinets are, I used simple "L" pieces...


I also wanted to keep the coach interior lights, so I removed them from their mounting spots, and relocated them so that they dropped down even with the ceiling tiles...



I started in back and just kept working my way forward...


Since the ceiling curved but the tiles would not, I just let them follow along at what ever angle they had to go in order to follow the curve of the bus ceiling...


From the front looking aft...


And from the back looking forward...


Trim pieces along the edges simply went in like this...



I had to keep the data plates above the drivers seat so that they had access, so I built a flip-up door for that...


Lastly, those ugly half round electrical runs, I just covered them up with white paneling like this...


The finished product...

[lornaschinske]

Does it make it quieter when it rains? Does it help insulate the ceiling (summer heat)?

[Jarlaxle]

Cliff: great idea! Consider it appropriated for my Genesis!

Seriously: did you have any problems with the lights affecting the ceiling? I know they can get pretty hot.

[GoneCamping]

No issues with the lights, but I digress... I rarely used the coach lights.

And someone above asked about insulation properties... It does indeed insulate against heat in the hot sun, and I believe it worked well helping to hold the heat in too. Sound? I don't know how beneficial it was on that, the windows didn't do much for sound so it was hard to say.

Total loss of ceiling height was only 1.5" in the very center. The inch and a half is minor in the overall grand scheme of things, but considering how low the bus ceilings are this may be a problem for you. This didn't affect me much since I'm relatively short at 5' 7" but for those of you that are NOT vertically challenged this could be an issue.

Two caveats...
ONE- It looked great, but you must remember this is going into a bus that will move down the road. You MUST keep very tight tolerances so that the tiles fit in there nice & tight, otherwise you could have them falling out from vibrations as you go down the road. I only had one fall down on me, and I wound up fixing it so it fit tighter.

TWO- The ceiling did make a few noises as it rolled down the road, nothing major... but I could hear some mild or muffled squeeking as it rolled down the road. My bus was built more for use as a live-a-board and never intended to do a lot of hiway use, so this wasn't a problem for me.

[chaos]

Thanks for the replies. It has helped so much. We decided on a modification of the ceiling tile idea. We are in a time crunch. Looking forward to our new adventure. Thank-you all