Totorhome bus build

[dubj]

Well. Its official, Im "that guy"
I had been looking into new tow rig options and was nearly committed to buying a 6.0 powerstroke. But then Tyler gave me a call, about one of his clients getting ready to sell their old fleet of school busses. Now when it comes to commercial vehicles, Ive always thought that if their cheap, theres a reason. Cause who sells something that is making them money for cheap. But these werent old clapped out busses, the distric had simlpy bought an entire new fleet. And with busses, theres a lot of supply, but not much demand. so their cheap. Well I did some research and talked with the girlfriend and she was on board. So we drove out and did a test drive, decided on a price and waited for the distric to call saying they were decomissioned and ready to sell.

So I'm now the somewhat proud own of a 1992 71 passenger 38' blue bird bus.

The plan is cut the rear wall off and move it to about the rear axle and flatbed the rest, much like this.

Then turn the front into a "full time" living area, we wont actually move into the bus, but it will be homely. It will have a Sower behind the driver seat that will have a door or something that will have a cassette toilet in it, so you will get in the shower and open the door and pull the toilet into the shower for use. then next to that will be the sink. I have a 46 gallon fresh water tank coming and will use a 55 gal drum as grey water for now. No black water. It will have two water pumps, one for the cold water side, one for the hot water heater loop. we will have cabinets going about another 5' to the rear. after that it will be an RV style bed/booth table combo. the passenger side will have a tall linen closet and then be cabinets with a counter going over two 110v mini fridges. The fridges will be ran off the smallest inverter i can get away with that will be wired with a relay off the fridges thermostat to only turn on when the fridges temp reaches the set thermostat temp. I will be running golf cart batteries for power and eventually add a small generator. will probably use a propane camp stove for cooking for now. I have picked out an indirect fired diesel heater that will be plumbed about and 1/8 from the bottom of the fuel tank for heating.

here she is

backed into the shop while we dynomatted the floor





the seats ripped out


junking everything at the scrap yard. got some very weird looks


The weight while gutted. a lot lighter than i expected for a 31k gvwr


5/8"plywood over the fatmat


cheap peel and stick vinyl. you can also see how I took the rear stubby seat and modified it to work in the front. these seats are temporary


planning on installing the shower this weekend.

and look! one with a zj onboard!

[JohnBoulderCO]

Damn that’s a project! So when will the WJ be on the back of the “bus”?

[dubj]

Damn that’s a project! So when will the WJ be on the back of the “bus”?

well I think ive already made this lie like 3 times, sooo. By GSW?

[K2]

well I think ive already made this lie like 3 times, sooo. By GSW?

3?!!? I've heard it more than that!

Awesome bus!

[Yjsaabman717]

Great score! We just had a mid length flat nose bus at the boss had bought with intentions to ship it to Haiti until he found out shipping it cost more than he paid for the bus. It was an ex-US Marshall's bus and had bars over all the windows, though the cage had been cut out. We sold to someone looking to turn it into a motorhome. The Cummins engine was probably worth more out of the bus than in the bus. IIRC he paid around $2500 for it at auction.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[dubj]

Update, got the shower mostly installed. still need to get material for the roof and put the curtain on (will be getting a door, but it came with the curtain). then plumb and vent it. Unfortunately the insert we bought is supposed to have all the walls put together and then be put on the base. and we don't have the height for that, so the rear wall is installed wrongly. Gonna use caulk and secure it more, results are not great, but oh well. the walls are attached with L brackets and wood/self tapping screws. need to figure out what im doing with the hole were the light was. And the water tank came on today! So plumbing should begin soon.

[yellowty]

Any update on this build?

[dubj]

Any update on this build?

Yes! Im just awful at keeping threads current


The heater came in and I tested it all ghetto like outside. It puts out way more heat than expected and is very quite, unfortunately the thermostat is very difficult to use. But oh well.


Then we scored a crazy deal on cabinets, they were paneled together back to back to make a kitchen island so they were discounted. just had to pop some staples off and had two nice cabinets. Also found 2 nice solid doors without any holes that made great counter tops. The cabinets have a 2x4 frame built underneath that they screwed into and then screwed into the walls. We cut one of the cabinets in two to make two smaller cabinets.



Here they are with the counters




We got our sink installed. trying to fit it into the one small cabinet wasnt easy, its not centered and sticks into the next cabinet, but it clears the drawer so its all good. Also lacquered the counter tops.




We also got the cabinets painted, the pulls installed and put the door catches on to everything stays closed.




Other big news is that Its officially registered as a motor home now, It passed emissions and had the vin verified and I took everything to the DMV, besides a small hiccup with the classification of the vin verification it went smoothly and is now a "1992 Blue Bird 3800 motorhome", so no more issues with CDLs and other nonsense.

weve also changed the layout of the rear section. I am building a tri-fold futon frame that will have a queen mattress and that will go against the drivers side wall. and the passenger side will have have a flip up table (maybe re purpose the stop sign?) and we will keep some nice folding chairs to sit at that, and keep some folding stools so guests could eat at the coutertop. This will make it more open inside and give better access to the rear door.

[yellowty]

Wow the cabinets look great!

[Kraqa]

wicked!!!

please keep the pics flowing. i love shit like this.

nice ZJ too.

[dubj]

Well I haven’t updated this in a while, lots of good progress.

just dove right in to the chopping, used a demo saw with an abrasive disk, cut right along the internal runs, screwed up and the roof is a little off, I’ll make a patch panel out of some of the left over materiel.

over all wasn’t too bad, cut the rear, cut the middle lift it off and reposition it, and weld it back together. Unfortunately we had the rear door leaned against the fender and it shifted when we lifted the body and it fell and cracked the glass. I’ll need to replace than now.






I was using the welder at work to weld it together and it has .035 flux core in it, so I’m waiting to get some gas .020 wire before full welding it. I plan on wiring the lights back up and using the old red and yellow lights off the front of the bus to recess into the rear bumper.

for the deck I used 2x3x3/16 angle for cross beams and /x3 box on the sides, then used 2x6’s for the decking, also added a 2x2x1/4 tube across the frame at the axle 4’on either side to help with flexing. I kept some of the skirting and will add t back to the bottom later. Also need to build wheel wells.

These aluminum ramps from my work are great for loading and un loading, tested everything out with the 4Runner I built for a coworker.


And took it on it’s maid voyage, did fantastic, even held its speed through the passes, engine got a little warm on occasion but nothing concerning.

[JohnBoulderCO]

Damn that’s cool!

[OverkillZJ]

That looks awesome!