Author Topic: Jake's School Bus Conversion Project  (Read 4351 times)

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Offline Chris_

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Jake's School Bus Conversion Project
« on: February 14, 2008, 06:38:22 PM »
In 1982 I was a sophomore at a small college in the Midwest. It was the beginning of second term and I was again standing in line at the on-campus book store waiting to pay for a too-heavy stack of text books. The line was not moving at all so I put my books down on the floor and started flipping through the coffee table books on display. The book I chose to pick up first was titled Rolling Homes - Handmade House on Wheels by Jane Lidz. Thus the seed was planted.

Sometime in late August, 2004 this seed suddenly germinated and I started researching and preparing for this project. I located several good on-line sources of information, ordered a copy of Ben Rosander's Select and Convert Your Bus Into a Motorhome on a Shoestring, made some sketches of floor plans, started collecting materials and fittings, and researched the cost of insurance and registration.Above left you see the raw material for my school bus conversion project it's a 1989 Thomas Saf-T-Liner MVP with a rear mounted CAT 3208 engine.

It was originally built for 75 Passengers with a GVWR 30,000 lbs. It's got about between 80 and 100K miles on it and originally came from Montrose, NY. The interior dimensions are 35' x 7.5' x 6.5'. I bought it on eBay for $2031.00.

Over the next several months I will be converting this old school bus into a family camper and documenting each step of the conversion process here.

Now the project has begun! Herein you will find the details of each step of the process of my school bus conversion into a family camper. This is a low-budget project, wherever possible materials will be re-used and recycled.

Before:





After:








This guy did an amazing job.  He's got another site with more projects... a passive PC cooler (no fans or motors) and a VW Type-1 (Beetle) based 1929 SSK Mercedes Gazelle replica car.

http://www.vonslatt.com/bus-main.shtml

http://steampunkworkshop.com/index.shtml





If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline Chris_

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Re: Jake's School Bus Conversion Project
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2008, 06:39:24 PM »
 :o
If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline mamacags

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Re: Jake's School Bus Conversion Project
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2008, 07:00:40 PM »
That is amazing!
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Winston Churchill

Offline jtyangel

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Re: Jake's School Bus Conversion Project
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2008, 07:00:46 PM »
that's really quite impressive.

Offline Chris_

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Re: Jake's School Bus Conversion Project
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2008, 08:09:58 PM »
If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline Chris_

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Re: Jake's School Bus Conversion Project
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2008, 08:13:53 PM »
If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.