Random Thoughts

[o1marc]

So ever since finding this site my mind has been racing with ideas for a build. I definitely want a 40'er so I can utilize the back 7'-8' for motorcycle storage/shop with a wall with a door to end the cabin. Then a full build of the left over available space. I have been considering making the back door a double door to open the whole back end. Was contemplating a wide ramp to enter the back door. Also looking at options for a partial raised roof. So I decided to drive the 30 miles today to go to Wades School Bus Graveyard to up close check it out and take measurements. It turns out all my ideas are doable. The back end can be stripped and the door moved to the right to make room for a left hand door. With my fabrication skills I can frame in a second door and move the hinges and handle to opposite sides. I would cut out the hand recess and turn it 90° to make the handle swing correct. I am imagining a stow away ramp like on UHauls truck. It turns out the frame rails behind the bumper are a perfect width to slide a ramp in and lay on the bottom rungs of the frame channels. Would probably do an 8' folding ramp because an 8' ramp won't go all the way in the frame due to a crossmember in the frame. Maybe that could be modified to accommodate a full length ramp. All that is needed it to cut a slot in the bumper. With double doors I would need to move the lights down into the bumper.
I'd like to do a raised roof from the rear for 8' up to the front of the emergency windows I can have a ceiling in the shop and a bed above. Right inside the door from the shop I could have bed/couches over each wheel well that would slide out to make a full bed for more sleep area. The whole shop door ideas could change if I find a bus with a wheel chair lift, in which case I would leave the back as a single door and extend the wheel chair ramp to accommodate the bike lengths.

3rd pic is a shot of the grave yard and how the buses are stored. There are about 50 buses there, none that I saw looked like good running candidates for build, but a great place for me to get doors and roof skins . They were closed today, but most of the buses are stored right off the side of a dirt road and not in the fenced business part.

Anyone see any issues with my ideas?

 

[Rusty-SKO]

Man, that looks like a fun place to poke-around.


Wade's

 

[Robin97396]

Ramps are great for getting a bike out, but hitting a ramp to load up can end bad. Wheel chair lifts are the favorite means of getting bikes in and out, especially if you're alone. A used liftgate might be a contender in your rear doors plan.

 

[o1marc]

Man, that looks like a fun place to poke-around.


Wade's

I need to go back when they are open and see what else is hidden there. On the way out I saw some buses up on the hill along side the road,2 of them with Corvairs on the roof, lots of old junk cars there also.

 

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Need to look at the total height of an 8' roof raise? (In your post)
Unless your only planning to follow/use something like a truckers GPS and a well advanced signal vehicle to precede/help you in your travels.
A normal height and some lower on the back roads is around 13'6 total from tires on the ground to the top of anything attached.
Another option for a bike ramp.kind of like a UHAUL is to build a flat deck off of the back of the bus wide enough to open the doors and store the longer ramp sections (built the width of the bus) under there for travel? You would have to put sections together but it would not be as steep of a ramp.
Nothing is ever easy or simple in a custom build?
I built some ramps to load a 16'000 pound excavator onto a normal 20' flat bed truck.
They were heavy and did the job with only one bolt holding each ramp on but it took two people to handle each one.
Ideas are a plenty and your choices are what can make you or break you?
Not wanting or trying to be rude
With FAB skills you already know SAFETY FIRST

 

[o1marc]

I should have taken a total height measurement while I was there. I see a common lift is 3' and I'd like to not go that high, but if I leave a decent head room in the shop I'll need all of that 3' lift to have enough room for a loft bedroom. At best with a decent height ceiling I'll only have about 30" of loft.
I'm used to building stuff like this, which BTW my friend, the car owner and I built in 2.5 months from scratch and went to Bonneville and broke a 14 year old record over 265mph. Tech was in awe of my fabrication on this car. I also build custom vintage motorcycles and do custom powder coating for a living.

 

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Also o1marc?
If you will help by giving us a general area of where you are and what you are ultimately wanting to find and build then the people (men&women)can & will help you succeed in your dream,idea,knowledge in hopes that you can learn from us and we can learn from you.
Kind of like?
I am in the middle of creating an old Blacksmith forge using a foot operated leather bellows?
Anyone will give an opinion but you have to figure it out on your own? Even with advice?
You either pay the (supposed expert) or YOU do it yourself?

 

[o1marc]

Sorry, forgot to fill out my profile, have edited it. Live in North Georgia. Dawsonville, home of the Elliott family of NASCAR fame, home to some of the original moonshine runners that became Nascar drivers.

 

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Bonneville race fiberglass is might work good and look good on top of a SKOOLIE hauling one. For garage headroom.
There was another member here that put his CADDIE CTS in the back and used it for strip?

 

[o1marc]

Bonneville race fiberglass is might work good and look good on top of a SKOOLIE hauling one. For garage headroom.
There was another member here that put his CADDIE CTS in the back and used it for strip?

There's a funny story on the fiberglass nose on the Metro, the only part of the car that is glass. When we went to Bonneville someone came up and asked how he designed the shape of the nose. He said "I took 3 big pieces of styrofoam and glued them together, drew the shape of the firewall on one end and then got out the chainsaw and cut off everything that didn't look like it would go 300mph."

He actually made it that way, used the styrofoam shape and just laid fiberglass over it, then sanding and bondo to get it's final shape.