Hi the4englands newbies in Nc!

[the4englands]

Hi, we are venturing into the land of bus conversions or skoolies. Not sure what to call us as of yet.
We are in process of buying our first bus she is a stinky but beautiful corrections bus from VA. Stinky because apparently they left about 20-30 lunches on the bus when they retired her, I've smelled worse. Lol I'm a 46 year old mother of 2 now adult children. Married to my BFF for 20 years. I have been a photographer for over 10 yrs and out of a local need a school bus driver now for 5 years. Hubby is a C&C computer programer since forever. We are excited and ready to make our bus a home on wheels. We look forward to learning about and seeing the conversions.

 

[Robin97396]

Welcome the4englands
I'm sure you'll find plenty of information here to do just about anything you can think of.
So what kind of stinky bus did you get? Most of them are pretty nasty anyway with old gum, bottle caps and assorted memorabilia. Not to mention the dust bunnies built up under things, and years of finger prints built up on top of every surface.

 

[the4englands]

It is a 1996 Safe-T-Liner engine pusher, flat nose with a Catapillar Diesel engine. Corrections bus stinky because they just left the inmates sack lunches on the bus and it's gets hot in VA. We also have an 80's winniebego that we got a great deal on its got motor issues and the body is too far gone to redo. But as for the interior being dated looking, it's in great shape. So our plan is to use the workable parts we can use from the RV like the bedroom wardrobes, kitchen, fridge, stove, sink cabinets, bathroom shower/tub combo and toilet and the water tanks for the plumbing. And the dinette booth that converts to a bed, and jackknife sleeper sofa. That's part of our goal to save some renovation costs by using up what we can from the RV.

 

[Robin97396]

That's a good start. There's basically all the parts and pieces there to make your bus livable. Nice bus too.

 

[the4englands]

Thank you, just nervous as taking it all apart, dismantling the RV carefully enough to not basicly destroy the items we need out of th RV and the taking things out like the seats, flooring and walls to run the wiring and then doing plumbing. Excited but nervous!

 

[Robin97396]

Break it down into individual task and the tasks into individual steps. Just keep plugging away at it. Do you have a schedule?

 

[the4englands]

We wanted to use the bus for a trip this July so if we can get it completed enough for a first voyage north that would be great! But other than that July trip no not really. But we plan on giving it our best go of it to at least have everything installed and worry about the decor, paint, colors and such later. As most of the interior items we will be installing are coming from an old Winnabego RV/motorhome they are just plain ugly in the way of out dated... I love a good retro style but I think I would enjoy a 50's to 70's look rather than an 80's and I grew up in the 80's so it's not like I really wanna relive that! I mean the best thing out of the 80's has to be the music by far. Oh and how exciting talking about 80's the bus is equipped with a radio sporting a fancy cassett player!

 

[sdwarf36]

To disassemble an RV, start at the ceiling + work down. They are built from the floor up-with everything overlapping.

 

[the4englands]

Good to know! Thank you, I was looking at my school bus I drive daily and with 35 kids screaming I was invisioning where I'd set up my interior items and I though I was a little nervous about trying to take the RV/camper apart. Sigh... So glad I found this forum, I think we will have access to some very informative info. Thank you again!

 

[bansil]

Where in NC? pm if you want to not post public

Welcome:welcome:

 

[the4englands]

Goldsboro, Near Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

 

[bansil]

I have a friend that just retired from Seymour last year, and lives in Goldsboro, he builds Isuzu's...If you need some stuff fabbed he may be able to be of assistance he builds bumpers,sliders, drop diff brackets and general engine tranny swaps

 

[the4englands]

Ohhhh that's awesome!