Luna Bus

[HeartBeet]

Hello there!
We bought a 1992 E350 7.3L short bus. The engine is in great shape. The power steering needed a bit of repair, but other than that she's a beauty.

We are planning on:
- Tearing out the seats / wheelchair lift
- Adding an additional front seat
- Redoing the walls/ceiling/floor with better insulation
- Adding solar power to the roof
- Painting it
- Adding a bed, a kitchen and a bathroom

Without further adieu, here are the before pictures

[Puggy]

Looks fun!

I gotta say there must be thousands of " C OOL BUS" buses out there ;)

[HeartBeet]

Yeah, we have happily removed those decals. The previous owner did that so it was slightly-legal.

We have removed a lot of the walls / ceiling / seats now. Glad we got rid of that fiberglass insulation.

We are having some trouble with some of the bolts in the floor. The nuts do not seem accessible, some are even hidden behind the A/C and the frame. Seems like we can drill the bolt heads off, but we would like a cleaner solution, anyone know?

Also, anyone have tips on disassembling the wheelchair lift? I was going to just remove piece by piece trying to figure it out, but I fear I may get stuck at the hydraulic pump and not want to spray fluid everywhere.

Similarly with the A/C. I think there is one compressor for both the front and rear A/C, and I want to remove the rear A/C. So if I just cut the line, then the front A/C will lose all pressure. I think I am just going to take it into a mechanic to have them investigate and probably cap that line.

[uhlhazard]

I've only seen dual ac busses that had 1 compressor per side. However suburbans and tahoe's with rear ac run everything off of 1 compressor. Just pop the hood and have a look. The auxiliary compressor (for rear ac) will likely have a dedicated belt off to the passenger side to the 2nd compressor.

[TAOLIK]

Originally Posted by Puggy

Looks fun!

I gotta say there must be thousands of " C OOL BUS" buses out there ;)

my bus also came as a " C OOL BUS" until we painted over it, my mom loved to call her the cool bus, as many times as possible.

[HeartBeet]

Making great progress. The seats are all out, most of the flooring is. All of the side panels are gone. But best of all... The ceiling is so clean now. Paint scraper + Goof Off are a god send.

[Tango]

WOW! --- Never in my life have I seen such a clean ceiling! Nice job!

[uhlhazard]

Man that looks so good like you painted everything!

[roach711]

Man! That looks like a new roof!

My air conditioning was set up with an engine driven compressor up front and another roof mounted compressor/condenser/evaporator in the back. Both used the same refrigerant. I removed the rear compressor and evaporator units then pulled the hoses back to the engine. I had to install a condenser coil up front and a few hoses (available from Ford parts) then charged it up.

If you have the engine mounted compressor and a condenser coil in front of the radiator you may just have to replace a couple of hoses and recharge that sucker.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Tango

WOW! --- Never in my life have I seen such a clean ceiling! Nice job!

I didn't know what I was looking at, it was so clean!

Makes me a bit envious!