The Bus  

I have finally gone and done it.  Purchased a School Bus.

This will document its conversion from School Bus to Motor-home for our camping needs.  Look for us on the Crafting and Campground circuit once it is finished.

Details of bus:

1988 Chevrolet S6000 66 Passenger School Bus.

8.2L Detroit Diesel with 4-speed automatic transmission.

Plans for conversion...

Convert to run off of WVO.  Currently the bus gets ~10 MPG, by converting to run off of Waste Vegetable Oil, which you can usually acquire for free from restaurants, this will dramatically reduce our fuel costs.

Add Master bedroom with Queen size bed.  Provide twin bunk beds for the kids and guests.  Build in an enclosed bathroom with chemical toilet and eventually a shower.

Build in cabinetry and kitchenette with running water, 2-burner propane cook top, and refrigerator.

Build in seating, capable of supporting child safety seats or seating 4 adults plus driver.

Exterior will be painted, currently thinking a lighter hunter green with oak accent rails running down the sides of the bus.

Here is what she looks like on the day we brought her home from Akron, Ohio to Buffalo, NY.

As you can see she still looks very much like a school bus.  It belonged to a church and had "Church Bus" Painted on it until they went to sell it.  Someone has already ripped out most of the seats so only 4 remain, those will be the first thing to come out of the bus.

First thing to do this week is get the windshield replaced, it was rocked in its previous life and has several large spider chips in it.  Then it can be NY inspected and registered.

Update:

5 May 2007...

This has been a busy week for the bus.  The new windshields were installed, it was inspected and passed, the title and registration work was done so it now has NY Commercial plates.  This weekend I started painting her.  It was decided that the best approach would be to roll the paint on the roof and then air-spray the sides and hood.  We have decided to go with a white base color and paint the hood a metallic blue with a metallic blue stripe down the side, how it gets terminated in the rear is yet to be determined.  According to all the forums it takes about 5 gallons of paint to cover the bus.  I picked up 3 gallons of Rustoleum Gloss White at the local HW store (all they had in stock) and I already have the metallic blue from another car paint project.  Here are the pictures of the painting in progress. 

There is still some touch-up work on the roof to be done with spray paint and a brush is needed to run down the drip rails along the top of the windows.

2 June 2007...

We have chosen a name..."Monkey Bus-iness" which will soon be painted on the sides of the bus. 

Lately we have secured a source for WVO, all the components for the WVO conversion are almost here, waiting on the fuel line that had to be special ordered. 

Today was painting day.  Started at about 7:30am and put tape and sheeting on all the things that didn't get painted, like the lights, windows and mirrors and then started spraying Rustoleum gloss white.  3 hours of spraying later and she looks good.  My hand will probably be stuck in a claw like shape for a week and I doubt I will be able to lift my arm for a week or so...

3 June 2007...

Finished painting the hood area.  Metallic blue on the hood and then stripes down the sides eventually (if I ever get motivated again).  Also mounted the bench seat I got for free off of Craigs List.  This came out of a GMC full size van and already has the seat belts and everything, one of the arm rests is missing but for free, who can complain?  Thanks to my Dad who made the steel brackets that it mounts to.  These got bolted to the floor, let's just say putting the seat over the fuel tank does not facilitate getting the nuts and washers on the bolts from underneath. 

20 July 2007...

Well I had to take a week of vacation and take the bus up to Cranberry Lake in the Adirondacks so I could get away from the house projects and work and actually have some time to work on it.  Great progress was made.  I built the camper door and installed it.  All of the framing got done, the bunk beds are in, the queen bed is in and the bathroom is in.  Some final wood-work remains, curtains need to be made and the counter-top needs to be made and installed.  Electrical system is installed and works great.

Also in Cranberry we stumbled upon another bus converted to a boat house, thought that was pretty cool...

Stay tuned for further developments.