Wayne the Short Bus

[WayneTSB]

I Posted all my pictures a little while ago but figured I should run through on a thread what all my Wife an I did to our little short Bus.

We bought our 7.3 Powerstroke Ford E350 Short Bus in August of 2020. I came painted the color it is now and had the start of a "camping" conversion.. The nice part was we didn't have to tear out the seats, the bad part was I had to tear out the previous owners conversion (which was glued in many places to the body with construction adhesive).

Here Are some Images from when we first bought it.



The first thing was gutting the previous conversion. We additionally tore out the remaining metal sheeting on the walls and all of the ceiling.

After everything was cleaned out, I started on electrical. I removed a TON of unnecessary wiring, Like the flashing lights, ceiling speakers, wiring for the heater, and other junk like that. I am not experienced in this and I read that if you cut the wrong wire, sometimes it can kill your starter. So this probably took 100+ Hours. Also fixed both AC units during this time, replaced the fan, and compressor, and a couple O rings that were leaking. During the AC Fix, we accidentally tripped the front breaker (that I didn't know existed) It kills the break lights and a lot of auxiliary electric components. 2Planker helped me solve this after searching what was going wrong for about 2 or 3 weeks..

Again... Im not too good with electrical

After that, we jumped into some body work. Ground down and patched the holes from the upper flashing lights on the front and back, the stop sign holes, and some holes from where we cut off metal to mount the side table.
The Bus was rattle canned, so it was easy to cover these up after that.

Most of that was done in the Fall of 2020, then we did a Kitchen remodel in the winter and spring.

In March of 2021 we got a these few things done.

Ordered a cheap light bar, some pods, a back up camera, and a max air fan from amazon and put those in next, Also did the cedar side table and solar panels around this time.

Here are some pictures of those things.



The ladder came later.

This brings us to the beginning of June of this year. The Kitchen is finally done, and we have roughly 3.5 months before our wedding thats 2000 miles away and were ~driving~ the bus to it...

I'll be doing the rest of our conversion in the next post or two. Please let me know what I have done right or wrong so far, and if you are building a bus, ask questions. Im no expert but I'm happy to share my experience....

My two biggest resources for my build was the forum and Youtube videos (mostly Navigation Nowhere)

Thank you everyone on here the contributes your valuable knowledge and experience.

[WayneTSB]

After the sh*tty Electrical, and the exterior accessories, we started on the inside. Welded the holes on the floor, then laid 3/4 inch foam insulation with a bit of 1x2 for some structure. Went to the home depot to buy some plywood subfloor and sh*t myself when I saw the current wood prices.. Made the terrible decision to try half inch subfloor because of how expensive the 3/4 was... Then three weeks later, tore out the half inch and put in 3/4 because there was too much flex. At least most of the 0.5 inch was ripped down and became furring strips.

Framed out squares around the wheel wells, and put furring strips and insulation on all the walls and ceiling. Also did the Black pipe roof rack and Rear Ladder right before the Ceiling Insulation went in.

The floor has 3/4 inch insulation, I think R5. The walls have between 2 and 3 inches, depending on the spot, and the ceiling has about 2 inches.

I know it is not the correct way, but the windows we covered up, I just calked shut and put foam on the inside of them. I would have preferred to do it the right way, but again, a 3.5 month timeline that only consisted of evenings and weekends.

After furring strips and insulation, I did the electrical rough in.


I put enough of the lower side panels to get the solar and water setup. We used half inch baltic birch for all of the walls, and quarter inch baltic birch for the ceilings (it had enough flex to curve around the ceiling) We will be lining it with tongue and groove cedar in the future.



This was the electric setup before I added a couple of recommended 150 amp fuses and an inverter. We don't have much as far as power needs so the 200 amp hour battery powers our fridge, water pump, lights, and chargers. I Have the inverter wired into an outlet that will we rarely use and is normally not running. The highest draw is the dometic fridge and that can run for 5+ days with no sun and we live in AZ so that will hardly be an issue.

The water tank is on the opposite side from the battery, but I don't have any pictures of that after it was installed.

It was around this time that I recruited my cousin to help with the deck, This was an incredibly fun project for me as I have very little welding experience. We Installed three hitches on the bus, welded to the bumper and at the front end, to a cross strut that was welded in between the two sides of the frame. I will probably hear something from someone saying I shouldn't weld to the frame, but oh well....

The two outside ones are for the the deck, and the center is for a bike rack or whatever else if the deck isn't on. Also welded a hitch to the deck. It is 1 inch Cedar boards and there are tie down points on all four sides, some Harbor freight reflectors to make it visible. I don't know if it is legal in every state, but it is legal in mine!



As for the weight test.. I didn't plan to, but we took it through a fundraiser car wash and 13 high schoolers got on the deck for a picture... So it passed with flying colors! When we drove it to Michigan, it had about 400 lbs on it and did wonderfully!

[BarnYardCamp]

Your work looks great. Please post a pic of the table unfolded from the side of the bus, that looks interesting.

[Buster Junior]

Very nice work. Love the deck...legal or not! Congrats, Elizabeth.

[WayneTSB]

This is the part that I didn't have to research or youtube every step of the way. The other super fun part for me! Building out the inside...

I started in the rear with the bed, It is about 6 inches narrower than a queen and that cut off in width was added at the foot for length. The frame is built in three pieces, all removable with just a couple of screws. Aside from the wall supports, there are only two vertical 2x4s that support it, one each side of the front edge of it. Each platform shares a 2x4 with its neighbor.

I looked at a ton of different styles of beds and couldn't find one I liked, so I kind of winged something that fit what I was looking for. The actual platform is kind of like a torsion board, just a grid of strips of plywood pocket hole screwed together, and a half inch piece of plywood on top. I was really trying to make something that was strong enough for two adults and two dogs and fairly light. I can remove the largest platform by myself.



After the Bed was done, we started on the cabinets. I had rough Ideas for the cabinets and then just took measurements and moved along the wall. Started with the sink cabinet, moved to the stove cabinet, then to the closet. I went with frameless to save room, as well as they are easier. The closet on the end was sized to fit some drawers, that I had left over from our kitchen remodel. Three drawers down low, one hidden dog bowl- toe kick drawer, the closed, and a little snack pantry up top.

There is a double USB/cigarette lighter charger in the top of the closet. The butcher block above the stove is removable, and the sink is on a pressure activated pump. Below the sink we have our garbage and recycle, the propane tank, cleaning supplies, grey water, and other random junk. Below the Stove is dishes, pots, pans and other kitchen utensils. The three drawers are for dog food/harnesses, Pantry goods, and a junk drawer (headlamps, batteries, and other things of that nature). Closet is clothes and toiletries.

[WayneTSB]

After the Cabinets it was onto the bench. Just a simple design, basically two boxes with folding tops. There are two seatbelts on the bench as well that are bolted into the metal U channel of the bus. I added a simple armrest/cupholder on the end that the light switch is installed into and it was done!




A couple of the last things to do. Install the flooring, then add the Plywood divider under the bed, install the fridge drawer, and slides. I don't have pictures of the fridge right now, but it was basically just an eight inch tall drawer mounted to a some L braces made from 3/4 inch ply. The drawer had a bunch of holes drilled in it where the fridge needs to vent. It is the Dometic 55.



That brings us to where it is roughly at right now. There are still a few things that need to get done (tongue and groove cedar on the ceiling and some small odds and ends) but that is low on the list.

I will post a few more detailed pictures once I can take some.

[Kentucky Dreaming]

Very nice bus!!

[Rucker]

I have almost exactly the same color cabinets! Good taste!

[Alleigh]

Absolutely loving your set up so far! Thats an awesome deck aswell. Cute little pups aswell!

[WayneTSB]

Originally Posted by BarnYardCamp

Your work looks great. Please post a pic of the table unfolded from the side of the bus, that looks interesting.

Here are some more of the table.

[WayneTSB]

Thank you everyone for the kind words!

Here are just a couple more from the inside. The curtains my wife made! The hidden toe-kick dog food drawer. The slide out fridge. Above the dash storage (it was about a week before our trip and all I had was walnut veneered 1/4 ply) So that became the back of the dash storage.

Don't mind the gaps in the ceiling, that will be filled in with T&G Cedar.

[peakbus]

Looks great! nice work!

[Oldyeller]

Looks like you've built a home.

Very nice. Well done.

[Gwozdz]

Hi WayneTSB, Howd you put in the seat belts?