My new skoolie!

[lornaschinske]

Try using the hammered with a paint brush. You can even touch up and it looks good. I painted our rub rails & bumpers with the brush. Sand out the drips and touch up with the brush. You will be surprised at how good it works out.

[somewhereinusa]

I don't think you'll get Bus Kote through a HVLP gun, it's pretty thick. I used an airless, and it still plugged up the nozzle occasionally. If I had to do it over, I would probably
roll the Bus Kote on.

[Tool Amour]

Originally Posted by somewhereinusa

I don't think you'll get Bus Kote through a HVLP gun, it's pretty thick. I used an airless, and it still plugged up the nozzle occasionally. If I had to do it over, I would probably
roll the Bus Kote on.

The plan is to roll on the Bus-Kote on the roof, paint the upper part of the bus white, and rails and below will be green. I haven't gotten the Bus-Kote yet but don't think I'd even try to spray it.

[Tool Amour]

We painted the bus this weekend-what a job!
A friend offerred us the use of his sprayer and compressor, so Saturday I got some industrial/commercial vehicle paint. Supposed to be very durable, high gloss, doesn't need a clearcoat. Definitely not cheap, but I don't want to do the prep work more than once, that's for sure!

Came home, started removing the lights, grille, and sanding the painted out lettering on the sides, hood and back corners. I decided to leave the flashers in place for now, until I can find some clear 7" lenses and figure out the (removed) flasher wiring.
I took off the brake, turn and backup lights, as well as all the lights on the top of the bus. I need to buy a splice kit, as all the upper lights seemed to be hardwired in and I had to cut the wire to pull the lights. I think when I re-attach everything I'll solder and shrinkwrap all the wires.




Washing the bus was fun, but was it dirty!! I'd guess the previous owner never washed it in all the time he had it. The paint is oxidzed in places, and there are a few rusty spots, but overall the paint is in good condition. There are a couple of little dings on the sides, but no major metal damage. I was concerned about leaky roof and windows, but only a little of water got in near the bottom step. I'll need to look at the seals on the door to make sure they keep the weather out.

The bus has drawn blood. Lots of sweat, now blood, so far no tears...


My son took the rubber off the door and removed the metal strips on the bottom, then I had to disconnect the door from the electric opener. I sure hope he remembers how to put it all back together, as I was taping windows and masking the engine.


Saturday night I built a ladder to get up to the top of the bus. My 10-foot stepladder was too short. It was quite a thrill standing on top of the bus. Surprisingly sturdy, too!


Here's a few more pics of the taped up bus.




Sunday morning bright and early I was outside taping the windows, then wiping the roof with a degreaser/wax remover that the paint place recommended. I used this on the rest of the areas we painted, however sanding was limited to the roof, the few rust spots I found, and the sides where I sanded out the school district letters and numbers. The old paint was pretty oxidized, so I'm hoping the new stuff will stick to it.

Our friend showed up with his sprayer, air compressor and girlfriend, mixed up the first batch of paint, and tested the spray pattern, then went to work on the back corner.


After watching him a while, I started painting, and soon found out that auto paint is quite a bit different from the sanding sealer I sprayed in a furniture factory 30 years ago. My first efforts had a lot of paint runs, which I'll need to sand out. After a while our friends left, and I continued painting in the 95-degree heat.





You can just barely see the lettering on the front where I didn't sand it out. Another project for a later day.


OOOOPS!


I masked off the Bluebird symbol and top stripe--thinking of what colors to use. Maybe a gunmetal gray. I also need to pull the headlights and paint the grille and headlight holder things. AND get all these lights back on and working--2 weeks until our camping trip!

The door with removed rubber--I wanted to replace it with an RV door, but this plan has been vetoed, so I want to figure out how to block the center hing and make it a one-piece door. I'd like to remove the electric opener but will need to do some searches on other people's buses to see how the open/close/doorknow/lock setups have been done. I'm not comfortable with a battery-driven opener being the only way into the bus--we are in deep $#@!@ if the battery goes dead and the emergency door latch is strapped to keep people from getting into the bus.


After I used up the first batch of paint, I stopped for lunch and a long Gatorade break. I hadn't realized it was so hot, and was starting to get funny-headed from the heat. When I went back to work at 5 pm, it was cooler, and I felt comfortable going on the roof to paint. I ended up mixing up 2 more batches of paint, using all of the first gallon of paint and the two bottles of additives that came with it. All in all, I'm pleased with how it came out. Now, instead of an aging short bus, it looks like a Wonder bread truck!

[bansil]

wonder bread truck...good job

[bansil]

Is it missing half of the lugnuts or is it really a 5 lug

[Tool Amour]

Originally Posted by bansil

Is it missing half of the lugnuts or is it really a 5 lug

Something to do with the duals on the rear and being able to use the same wheels on the front. There aren't any missing lugnuts.

[Accordion]

All white is alright.

[chev49]

lug nuts are correct for the front.... that kind of bus you can use various size wheels as long as the centers are the same... i have 10 of those wheels with 20 inch tires on them, going to the scrap.
Have seen another bus in oregon where they changed out the 17 or so wheels for 20 inch ones to go faster...
the 96 or so temp in oregon here right now is a bit bad for painting even with slow reducer...

[Tool Amour]

Originally Posted by chev49

lug nuts are correct for the front.... that kind of bus you can use various size wheels as long as the centers are the same... i have 10 of those wheels with 20 inch tires on them, going to the scrap.
Have seen another bus in oregon where they changed out the 17 or so wheels for 20 inch ones to go faster...
the 96 or so temp in oregon here right now is a bit bad for painting even with slow reducer...

This bus has 8R 19.5 tires. I've been looking around on Craigslist, and will make some trips to wrecking yards, since a couple of the tires are starting to look like they need replacing. 6 new tires will set me back $1800+, so definitely looking for used-but-in-good condition rubber.

I'm trying to find gaskets for the 7" lenses for the back lights--several of them broke. It looked like they were the originals, since they were pretty brittle. I stopped at an auto parts shop and got a tube of clear goo which should work.

[chev49]

I think they have the gaskets at the truck parts house, at least the one in salem. They are also quite easy to make out of gasket material sheet.
The 19.5 tires wheels and tires should be at wrecking yards who have some motorhomes, there should be lots of them in the portland or eugene area.

[Stuff]

yay progress!

[Tool Amour]

This has been a busy month--lots of things kept me from working on the bus.

First thing was getting gravel down for the parking spot beside the driveway. That is done (12 yards of gravel later!), the excess gravel carted off to other parts of the yard or given away.

(Aplogies in advance for the crappy pictures..my phone doesn't take good pics at night for some reason...)

Saturday I moved the bus, had a Tygercub moment and backed over the mailbox. At least in our case the mailbox post is metal and I was able to ratchet it back into position.
Scratched the new paint though...





The bus in its parking spot:


The van seat/bed is reinforced with metal rails and ready to bolt down--when I got it there was a lot of side-to-side racking and it felt too flimsy for use. Now it's solid and ready to go. I bolted metal brackets to the floor for the seat belts, but one of the brackets is directly above the battery box (d'oh!) and I couldn't get a wrench into that space. I'm thinking I will need to pull the battery box or possibly come in from the other side, since the end of the van seat will bolt to the floor in that same area--about 6-8 inches behind the base of the driver's seat.

Van seat in reclined position:


Seat in upright position:


View from the stairs:


The driver's side:

A bunk is planned for the space to the left of the folding van seat. I've been thinking, measuring and drawing out some ideas. If my plans work out, there will be room for 2 people on the lower bunk, 1 on the upper, and 1 on the van seat. I may go so far as to put another bunk above the van seat. We'll see.

I still need to fix a radiator hose and get the wiring thing with the tail lights figured out. One of the reverse lights works, the other doesn't, so that may be a bulb problem. One of the front turn signals needs a new lamp as well. Neither of the brake lights work, neigher of the rear turn signals work--in both cases I think it's the rusty grounding strip that's causing the problem.

It's always something, but I'm sure having fun with this!!

[chev49]

reminds me i drove over my cane with my 49 chevy yesterday doing some burn outs...
but... that's what hammers are for...

[GreyEagle]

Looks to me that the mail box was in the wrong place to begin with.... nice job....
might want to move it to the other side of the drive way.....

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted by ol trunt

The space constraints are just too great to consider anything other than a combo potty/shower in the shorty SKOOLIES. Fulltiming in a shortie would probably get to you sooner than the combo pottie/shower anyway Like Tango I'll be using a combo--I just won't shower that often PEE U!

I have seen 18' trailers with separate showers! It CAN be done. (This is one reason I DIDN'T convert a shorty!)

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted by bansil

Is it missing half of the lugnuts or is it really a 5 lug

GM uses a weird setup on P30 chassis and C3500HD trucks: 10-lug wheels, but the front only uses 5 lugs. International did the same on hydraulic-brake S1600's for a few years in the late 70's. (Don't look at me, I didn't design it.)

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted by Tool Amour

This bus has 8R 19.5 tires. I've been looking around on Craigslist, and will make some trips to wrecking yards, since a couple of the tires are starting to look like they need replacing. 6 new tires will set me back $1800+, so definitely looking for used-but-in-good condition rubber.

I'm trying to find gaskets for the 7" lenses for the back lights--several of them broke. It looked like they were the originals, since they were pretty brittle. I stopped at an auto parts shop and got a tube of clear goo which should work.

Tire stuff...
245/70R19.5's will work in front. (They will NOT work in back without new wheels, duals will rub.)
225/70's will work in front or in back. Note: they are a bit (~1") shorter, which might be a benefit. What's your rear axle ratio?

As for the back, here are tires for $109 each: LINK.

[Tool Amour]

My poor bus has been ignored all winter--it's so sad
On the good side, I checked it regularly for leaks and it's dry as a bone inside.
On the bad side, it's time to replace the battery--I started it periodically over the months and the last time it was dead, Jim. Once I get a license plate on it I'll be taking it out on the road once or twice a month.

Spring is here, time to start working on it again!

I FINALLY got the title from the state of Washington--it only took 3 months!! Turns out it got here at the end of February, and my better half put it away with other mail, then was able to find it yesterday. Good thing, as we would have had to send off ANOTHER "lost title" form, do the notary thing, etc etc etc etc. Could they make it ANY more of a hassle to get this done??

At any rate, I can now go to the Oregon DMV and (so they say!) it will be a simple matter to do a "change of class" from being rated a bus to being rated an RV, or maybe just a regular van--I guess we'll see.

Time to get cracking! Another camping trip is in the planning, need to have the bus ready to use this summer!

[Tool Amour]

I've been thinking about this for the last year--finally got a chance to do it.

The issue--the folding door, opened and closed by a noisy electric motor. I wanted to put a standard RV door on the bus, but my better half is attached to the original door, so we decided to keep it. However, the noisy motor had to go. After doing a lot of reading and planning, I decided to take the door off, cut the center hinge out, splice the two halves of the door together, and then re-hang it.

This has to go!


The bolts holding the door on the hinges came off easily enough, but the center hinge was riveted! At first I tried to grind the rivets off while the door was in place, but I ended up with sparks in my hair and all over my arms, so I decided to take the door off. Actually this worked much easier and got the sparks and noise outside the bus.

The door was pretty heavy, but I was able to get it onto sawhorses and grind the rivets off.


One side free of the center hinge.


I'd bought a strip of metal 6 1/4" wide at a metal yard. I primed and painted the metal, then after drilling holes in the door, clamped the metal in place and used the drilled-out door as a template for drilling the expansion strip.


Because the door weighed so much, I then unbolted the expansion strip from the first half of the door, and repeated the process with the other half of the door, which I'd re-hung in the doorway to check measurements. Of course, I had to remove the half of the door I'd re-hung, then measure, drill, bolt the expansion strip to that half of the door.


I didn't want to try to move the entire door + expansion strip as one piece, so I rehung the door with the expansion strip, then bolted the other piece on. Made sure all the bolts would fit, then tightened everything down. It looks pretty good, although the new paint on the expansion strip got a little scraped up and I'll need to do some touching up. Now for a lock!



I used 12 guage steel--does anyone have any experience with doing this? I'm tempted to put a few cross braces one the inside just to be sure it's completely stiff. I also need to put up something for the door to close against, with some weatherstripping or rubber backing to keep the door-slamming down. I also need to add a metal strip to the bottom of the door, to replace the rubber sweep which is going away. I'll be interested to see how much wind noise I get the first time I drive down the freeway with this setup.