Tag: #bustorv #busadventures #sixwheelsofadventure #makingmemories #skoolieconversion

Categories
Stage 1 rebuild

End of Year Update

Another week of roof raising prep.

After the removal of a portion of the roof last week, we started to cut the front part that will stay where it is, from the back that is getting raised. We removed window bracket coverings and then cut the horizontal roof support bracket on the driver’s side. Once it came loose, the front windshield compartment moved forward about 1/8 of an inch. Oopsy! We realized that the front window, as well as the entry door, would stand all by itself if we would cut the other side the same way. This is not a good situation since worst case the entire windshield and door could fall forward without being able to stop it!

So we installed two braces. One in the center of the bus, holding the front window compartment from falling further forward and one brace on the side to keep the door in place.

With that all secured, we figured that we might run into another issue with the roof buckling once we raise because there will be no support underneath the side door openings. So, with help from R and N, we shored these up with 2×4’s and connected the door frames. Problem solved.

Now to the back of the bus

We proceeded to the back and unfastened many more screws to take off the side support rails at top and bottom. Next up was removing the back windowsills. We did a little extra useless work removing door screws before realizing they should stay. We want to keep as much of the structural integrity of the bus intact as possible when we raise. Fortunately, R has been helping out at the bus a lot. Otherwise there was surely no way to make the roof raise deadline.

Christmas surprises

And then Christmas happened. Lo and behold what a treat! The one thing that all internet skoolie converters seem to have that we did not have – shiny DeWalt tools that you don’t have to fix twice a day! We have been messing around with screwdrivers that had insufficient power, saws that stop halfway during the job due to overheating, oscillating tools that start smoking after cutting one bolt and drills that don’t have enough punch to make a hole in a sheet of steel.

Santa surely pulled her magic! Ho, Ho, Ho, we have just become professional bus converters! Thanks Santa!!

Sides of the bus

After all that excitement, we measured the bus to see how much steel we need to order to re-skin the 24 inch gap we are about to create.

Two quotes later, we seem to be able to do it all for about $500. All we need is a fire blanket, steel snips and a steel bender and we are good to go. Fortunately, that can all be bought at harbor freight as rental cost more than the tool.

A few more cuts to make and roof raise here we go!!

Categories
Stage 1 rebuild

Week #20

Finally tackling the little things

Last week we finally managed to get all the remaining chairs disassembled so we could get some of the inside roofing and chair frames to the scrap yard. A small trailer load of 500lbs of steel gave us a whapping $30.- of income…

The last of the scraps from the back yard

Final driveway prep

Later that week we brought the bus into the driveway to pressure wash it for storage. We also grinded some of the roof rivets off. We then marked the cutting line so we can determine what exactly needs to be dismantled for the roof raise.

Sunday was finally the day we have been waiting for; our enclosed storage unit was ready! Now we have two months to get the roof raise as well as the skinning done before storage get too expensive. We loaded the bus up with all the tools and material we will need, including the raise insets and raise supports that have been in our bedroom for the past six months.

Prep work is underway

We had some happy helpers this week. R started to take out the windows while N collected all the screws, bagged them and marked them. The driver side window took us a while to take out since we have not done that before. In the end, we did get it out

We took off the doors, which were much heavier than anticipated. After that, the door jams were removed.

Then we removed the emergency roof hatches and dismantled the air conditioning from the roof.

Learning all sorts of new skills

We placed the floor jacks with the premade frames to make sure they will work.

Cutting has started

Then it was time to take out the front section of the roof. This will become a transition section. Even though we measured, once we started cutting, we noticed we had hit the fiberglass of the front roof cover. Can’t really change our minds at that point so we completed the entire cut. Now we have a little less than two months to figure out how to mount the transition piece without creating leaks. It’s a future problem.

Transition panel at the front of the bus

We figured that when the rivets were grinded off and the front cut was made, we could just easily lift the top section off. That was not the case. It took hammers and crowbars to get the roof section parted from the glue.

Now at least we are sure that any leaks we had were all related to the rivets and not the caulking cracks of the adjacent roof sections. It will take a while to clean all the glue remains off so we will have a proper welding surface…

For the coming days we have more dismantling to do, followed by measurements so we can get the skinning steel.

Categories
Stage 1 rebuild

Week #19

Banner

As mentioned in the last post, we thought it might be a fun idea to hang a banner on the bus with the website information as we get asked all the time about our project. The new banner arrived since our last posting and looks great on the bus

Progress

After a few work trips, we got some more basic work was done. We caulked the gap between the plywood and the steel side of the bus. This was done so that when we start welding during the roof raise, no sparks will fall between the steel and floor. Even though the floor will be covered, we want to err on the side of caution. We also used plastic wood to fill the gaps in the plywood to ensure the floor is as smooth and level as possible.

Prep work

Next up – marking the cut for the bus and getting to a covered storage area so we can raise the roof in January.

Before that point, we still have to:

  • pressure wash the roof and bus
  • load up the roof raise cradles that were built earlier
  • take out all the windows (again)
  • take off the emergency escape hatches
  • take off the doors
  • unscrew the door posts
  • remove two of the window posts
  • grind off all the rivets on the back off the bus
  • unscrew the AC
  • drop all the wiring and protect it
  • get the filler steel ready
  • pre-cut the front roof of the bus
  • get the side of the bus sheet metal precut.

A lot of work in the next few weeks! But it will be a fun part of the project! Especially since we are merely a bunch of amateurs doing this 😊

Categories
Stage 1 rebuild

Week #17

Picking up where we left off

Work has resumed and we are back making progress. We kept the bus in the driveway for the week to allow us to put back the various components removed for the engine repairs. The bump guard was cleaned up and put back and fan coil spindle re-installed.

Welding practice

We also had to replace/repair the engine hatch. This took some time to weld together. Part of that was because of a malfunction of the weld spool and part of it was figuring out the correct weld settings. But at the last few inches, we finally managed to get a good bead. Good practice for when we raise the roof. A little paint and some insulation and it is ready to go for next time we need engine access.

On Halloween, Cindy came up with a few good ideas; first one was to put some lights in the bus during trick-or-treat time. Once it was lit up, we suddenly had a lot of visitors who wanted to see the inside.

Our own version of a haunted house

Which led to the idea of making a banner that we can put on the front or back of the bus that has this website on it, making it easier for people to follow along in the adventure. The banner should be ready next week.  

Meanwhile, a lot of time is spent watching the various roof raises to figure out what the best way for us is to accomplish the raise. So many options, we just have to find the most convenient and safe way for us to do it. We also started looking at solar panels and roof decks, since we want to make sure we have those brackets in place before we start on insulation.

Next up is cleaning off more of the reflective tape so we can mark the cut for the roof raise.

Categories
Stage 1 rebuild

Week #15

Batteries…again?

From the no start a couple of weeks ago, there had not been an opportunity to investigate the new electrical issue. Which is a shame since we really were hoping to get a good start on the roof raise with some help from Holland. But that did not happen.

Older brother disconnecting batteries

After a lot of investigation, jump starting battery, recharging battery and having batteries tested, it appeared we needed to replace the batteries that we bought only a few months ago. So, we went to back to the store where we bought them.

Fortunately, they were still under warranty.

It wasn’t just the ones we have

Unfortunately, when they tested the batteries available in store, they showed to have faulty cells as well. They advised us to go to a different store location, which we did, the next day. One more day added to our timeline.

Batteries at Store #2

At that location they tested their batteries… and they showed bad as well! Mind you, these all seemed to be from the same batch and with the same manufacturing date. In any case, I was referred to yet another store.

Batteries at Store #3

That store only had two in stock, again from the same batch and manufacturing date. Also showed to have faulty cells. Rather strange… In any case, we were sent back to the first store to get our money back for the batteries we bought just two months ago. One more day added to our time line.

Batteries Back to store #1

When coming back to the first store one day later, the manager claimed to have found two new batteries that were just low, but would be fine once charged and that the problem was that the employees just had no idea how to correctly test them. (in three different stores ?!? sounds like an educational issue to me) In any case he would charge them but that would take one day… One more day added to our time line.

Trip 3 to store #1 – same batteries

Next day we went back and low and behold they had two charged batteries. However, there was no manager in the store. Being rather weary at this point, we asked them to re-test the batteries in front of us. First battery passed, no issues! We are getting somewhere! Second one.. failed again. So being done with it we asked for our money back again.

Connecting batteries once more

They stated that they had one good battery and they would give money back for one battery and give us the only working one as a replacement for the second battery. Yeah no. Then they claimed we had already turned in one battery so they would only refund one. Right. With the back of our car open showing two batteries sitting there?!?!

Little more hassle but ended up with a full refund. Then went to the competitor down the street who had two batteries in stock, tested in front of us and found in good order. Finally!

Now to install them and hope she starts…

Categories
Demolition

Week #3

With life getting back to normal and being respectful of our HOA, work on the bus is limited to after hours at storage or weekends.

Wiring

The bus we purchased was a handicapped bus with fully functional wheelchair ramp. Though when we purchased it, the wheelchair ramp had been partially removed and fully disconnected, it meant all the wiring for said ramp was still in place as well as various wiring required for the school bus lighting.

The pre-installed bus items we wanted to keep were the dome lights, speakers, door opening/closing, the driver seat fans, the front heater and the air conditioning. All other school (safety) gear, wires, fuses and solenoids were removed. If we were not sure of the function of a wire, we started the bus after disconnecting it. At some point we lost the upper running lights, but fortunately we managed to trace those wires back and get them reconnected.

Luckily, this was something that could be done at the storage yard in the afternoons. Wire removal in this bus is a very long and tedious process. It can be done in two different directions, but we preferred to start from the source and work towards the fuse boxes instead of the other way around.

The removal requires a few simple tools; a box cutter, electrical tape, crimp tool and some connectors. We labeled the wires we wanted to keep with their function, that way we don’t have to search for them when we re-assemble the bus. We cut the wires we did not need and coiled them up for re-use in the future.

Cleaning up the auxiliary fuse panel was a day’s work in itself. Trying not to cut or remove anything that could affect the bus operation was a bit nerve wracking. The cleanup of this fuse panel was completed, but the dashboard to main bus fuse panel cleanup still needs to be done.

All in all, we now have 20 lbs pounds less wire in the bus then before we started.

Flooring

Ivo’s younger brother, Niels, came to town over the weekend with his kids. Originally, we were going to go to Galveston for the day to play on the beach, but he brought the pacific northwest weather down with him. Since it was too cold for the beach, and the kids were having a blast just playing at the house, he offered to help with the next phase of demolition.

Flooring was the plan for the day. The linoleum and plywood were dirty and worn. Even with the current cost of plywood, we decided to pull it all up and discard it to ensure we started with a clean bus.

We were very happy with how easy the floors came up. It required disassembly and re-assembly of the driver’s seat to get the flooring from underneath, but for the rest – two crowbars and some muscle did the trick.

All nails stayed in the floor, so after removing the plywood we still had to get rid of those as well. The first nail we pounded through with a hammer, but that left a nail head which may be in the way when we put the new plywood in place. Instead, we decided to grind off the remainder of the nails. This would leave less holes to fill and a more solid floor.

To make sure the bottom of the nails would not fall out after cutting the tops, with risk of puncturing tires during a drive, we checked if we could push the cut nails through the floor with a hammer and a punch. All that hammering and pounding proved the nails would all nicely stay in the floor after grinding but…. when we looked under the bus, we noticed all the washers that were not removed after the chair removal nicely lay on our driveway….

We also tried to cut the bolts of the last remaining wheelchair track with an oscillating tool. (Advice from up north can very occasionally be taken seriously) It worked like a charm until the cheaper version of the tool we purchased started smoking. Cheap is not always good, but we simply cannot afford all this pretty new DeWalt stuff we see in the do-it yourself videos. Now we need to buy the same tool twice though.

By the end of Saturday, all the flooring had been removed with the flooring smooth.

For the coming week, we have remainder of the wire cleanup and a bus deep clean on the schedule. We’ll see what we can get done.