Bluebird Skoolie Build: Custom Windows, Solar Roof Deck, and DIY Upgrades

[AlphaHare]

Nice work! That's a really interesting take on the windows.

 

[MechanicGuy24]

Wow good job dude that is looking awesome. I just bought a bus and I'm starting to plan out what layout I want. I really like the roof panels and the walkable deck portion you did. Thanks for sharing all the pictures, it's cool to see other peoples builds and what unique things they do, those windows are killer!

 

[peakbus]

Looking great! Nice work!

 

[Rucker]

Great build. I like your uncle's gizmo, and want one myself!

Great attention to detail. You've been working on it for a dog's age, have you been able to take the thing out for a spin or camping trip yet/lately?

 

[chumcity]

Thanks for the replies everyone! Was beginning to think we weren't special I will keep posting updates soon. Weather has been good (for a canadian winter) and we have been working like crazy!

 

[chumcity]

Great build. I like your uncle's gizmo, and want one myself!

Great attention to detail. You've been working on it for a dog's age, have you been able to take the thing out for a spin or camping trip yet/lately?

Its a wonderful gizmo.

Haven't been camping in it yet, but yesterday it was 40 degrees so we fired it up and dragged it out of its parking spot with a tractor. The snow was super deep and we had to tug so hard that it deformed the bumper a bit... oh well I'm still glad we were able to drive it around, thats always fun.

 

[chumcity]

Here is a little bracket I made to hold the fridge, it is screwed into the wall framing with a bunch of wood screws (would have preferred a stronger connection to the metal hat channels but I think this will work out fine).
The fridge slides back and there is VHB tape (super strong double sided tape) that keeps the fridge stuck in.

Didn't take pictures but on the bottom of the fridge it had threaded feet that I unscrewed and found bolts with the same size and thread count and used them to bolt a plywood rectangle to the bottom. The rectangle sticks out the front just enough so I can access it to drill a hole and run a bolt all the way through the steel floor. Luckily there was a little removable vent cover thing on the bottom that hides the plywood and bolts perfectly!

I should have done the same bolting system on the back of the fridge but I was feeling very rushed to get this secured and decided to skip it It should be safe but I kind of like to overbuild things... soo I might be coming back to this later to find a place to throw a few more bolts.

Heres what the whole fridge looks like. I think its from the 70s

 

[chumcity]

My desk area.

My desk has a removable top and there will be a piano keyboard underneath. The tall cabinet thing on the left will be a guitar rack (i am really into music). The guitar rack will make more sense once it's closer to completion.

You can also see some of curtains that we sewed.
Off to the far left you can see the base to one side of the kitchen cabinets.

 

[chumcity]

Here is that same kitchen cabinet now semi finished. In order to have a really flat and square place to start with we made a base out of planed dimensional lumber and then set up a laser level in the middle to mark out a line where everything is in the same plane. Then all the pieces got taken out and cut on that line with the track saw. Those pieces get screwed in and a piece of plywood screwed on top and now you have a perfectly flat surface to work off of. Works out really well because it also takes care of the toe kick at the same time --no need to cut a weird notch at the bottom of all the vertical cabinet dividers.

The toe kick base area thing also holds some ducting for the diesel heater that is mounted right below the floor. FYI we used home depot vent covers that have plastic flaps that can block the flow (a useful feature for us because our diesel heater output is split into two vents), but recently I noticed the flaps are melted grrr what the heck... thought they were made for this or something....

Also wow look at the pretty curtains!

 

[chumcity]

First set of cabinets I made! I think they look super cool.

Yes those are screw holes on the front of the middle one lol, I labeled all the doors before they got poly'd but I forgot to look at the labels when I installed them and it turns out I put that one on backwards... A few years ago I built a tiny travel trailer and the upper kitchen cabinets have a few very similar holes on the front...

 

[chumcity]

Lower kitchen cabinets on the other side. This side will have the sink.
The newly built storage solutions quickly become used for tools and materials.

Also there is the first of two booth seats! It is very comfortable. There will be a big drawer under the seat for extra kitchen storage.

 

[chumcity]

I have a few more pictures to take tomorrow and then we will be completely up to date on the forum!

Hopefully my next posts will start to utilize the problem solving ability of this community rather than me just posting a bunch of pictures and showing off!

 

[nikitis]

What materials did you use for your walls and ceiling?

 

[chumcity]

Its called hard board, basically a slightly denser MDF that only comes in thinner sheets. We used 1/8".
Definitely use something thicker if you want more solid walls, but it was dirt cheap and easy to work with, about $15 CAD per sheet from home depot.

 

[Bjorkinman]

Looks good! Clever way to route your diesel heat on the outside, I hadn't thought of that.
i just built cabinets under the sink almost the same as yours, with the hole for a pull - also Baltic Birch, its amazing how much more solid and heavy that stuff is compared to other plywood.

 

[chumcity]

Yeah drilling a little hole in the doors and drawers will probably save me a couple hundred bucks in hardware lol. Those things really add up.

Baltic birch is amazing... yep as much as Chuck Cassady annoys me, I've never regretted following his advice

 

[chumcity]

Im getting ready to install my EG4 mini split unit soon and I am kind of stumped. I bought this thing a while ago thinking the pre charged quick connect lines would make things easier. Turns out the lines are like 16 feet and I only need them to go like 1 foot from the outside of the rear wall above the bed. Worst case I guess I could just coil it all underneath the outdoor unit? Really would rather just be able to cut the lines shorter and do all the vacuum stuff myself at this point, but I went through a lot of trouble getting this thing into Canada and I'm pretty much stuck with it at this point.

 

[jocyt]

Next up was the roof rack which would hold our 5 solar panels and 16 foot long roof deck. I made this with angle iron, steel plate and unistrut. Most of our materials are off cuts, scraps or bought from wholesale distributers. We have been working on this conversion on my families farm/truck shop near Toronto, so there is an abundance of materials around.
View attachment 2409061
Painted it black and used stainless steel machine screws to bolt through the roof. I made 28 brackets total, one per hat channel. They are mounted just in front of each hat channel because its the sturdiest spot to put it without being on top of the rivets.
View attachment 2409063
The roof was painted with dicor and sealed with dicor lap sealant over the seams.

Next up was the roof rack which would hold our 5 solar panels and 16 foot long roof deck. I made this with angle iron, steel plate and unistrut. Most of our materials are off cuts, scraps or bought from wholesale distributers. We have been working on this conversion on my families farm/truck shop near Toronto, so there is an abundance of materials around.
View attachment 2409061
Painted it black and used stainless steel machine screws to bolt through the roof. I made 28 brackets total, one per hat channel. They are mounted just in front of each hat channel because its the sturdiest spot to put it without being on top of the rivets.
View attachment 2409063
The roof was painted with dicor and sealed with dicor lap sealant over the seams.

If you don’t mind me asking, how much paint and lap sealant did you go through?

 

[chumcity]

We used 1 and 3/4 gallons of the dicor roof paint and probably 6 tubes of leveling lap sealant and a few more tubes of non leveling for some more angled areas. All the dicor products are surprisingly cheap, and so far perform really well. I got it all on Amazon.