Day 29 - Christened "Good News" | School Bus Conversion

Today we officially christened the bus "Good News".  It, of course, is not ready to sail yet but we went ahead and named it. We were honored to have a very good friend and avid supporter of the bus project suggest the name and we ran with it. Why Good News? The inspiration for this can be found in The New Testament in the book of Luke Chapter 2 (Along with many other places in the New Testament).

 It reads; "8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."

The good news is that Jesus is real! Jesus conquered death and so we could share in that life! Jesus is alive! Jesus can heal any hurt, free any bondage.  Jesus said; "Repent". What did he mean by that? There are things we all do in our lives that are wrong. God, in all his love and compassion, provided a way for all the wrong we do and have done to be forgiven. He provided a way for those bound with addictions and sorrows to be set free. The best part about it all is it is free. Repent means if you are going one direction in life that is leading you down a path that takes away from God, to turn and stop doing those things and walk towards God and follow His ways. All we have to do is ask Him to help us! Ask Him to make himself known. When we ask Him he can change us permanently. Is life still life? Sure it is. Do we become perfect. No we don't. But it is wonderful to know Him and see a life changed by Him. That is the good news!

Ok...so here is the front of Good News!



I had a friend of mine that is a graphic artist do the design. After he emailed the design to me I took it to a local sign shop that a friend of mine owns. They cut out the lettering in Red vinyl. We cleaned the glass and they applied the letters on the inside of the glass. Then they cover the lettering with white vinyl for the white background. It turned out great.

Here is a pic of the back:





After installing the Good News logo we finished our furring strips.

After the furring strips were done we went ahead and starting framing up the back wall where the master bed room will be.

First I laid the bottom plate and the a vertical stud on the passengers side.



And a vertical stud on the drivers side.





Now came the tricky part of putting up a top plate against the arched roof.

We had purchased some wood strips that we thought may just bend into place but it do not work out that easily. I put a center piece in first then the passengers side and the drivers side.



Now the rear wall is almost done. More tomorrow!

Good Night!

Day 28 - Drivers Side Paneling | School Bus Conversion

Today we got more of the foam and paneling up.







Tomorrow we may actually start on the framing!

Bus Conversion Day 27 - More Furring & Paneling

You will notice that we jumped from day 22 to day 27. That is because we had been working so late on the bus every night that I did not feel like doing the blog because it was to late.

Today we finished all the paneling on the passenger side. We decided to also go ahead and frame around, insulate and panel over the last window in the back on the passenger side.



We also started installing furring strips on the drivers side.

Now all the lights on the rear of the bus are reinstalled.



Here is a close up of my refurbished tail/brake light.



Will not have much more done until Sunday.

Bus Conversion Update!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, there is a lot to report here so I will try to make this quick.

We decided to sand down and repaint the front and rear bumper. They turned out great!



Being that the rear of the bus is going to be a storage area we blacked out the rear windows and the two rear side windows.

The glass was already removed so that we could paint the bus so I figured this was the best time to do it.

I removed the rubber trim from around the rear windows and cleaned the glass...



And then spray painted the interior side of the glass with flat black paint.



From the outside it appears as though the windows have a really dark tint. You would never know it was spray paint.



Re-installing the windows could be one of the hardest things I have done so far on this bus. They come out pretty easy but they go back with much difficulty.

I tried to find some info online of easy ways tricks to re-installing them but had no luck finding any thing. After struggling with the windows for hours a new method was discovered. This is how we ended up doing it and it did save a lot of time.

First we took the surrounding rubber off the windows and cleaned the rubber. I placed the rubber back around the windows, then we put some thick string on the inside of the channel all the way around the window leaving the two ends hanging freely out the bottom.



We then slid the bottom of the rubber over the bottom metal flange. With some down pressure on the window and lots of soapy water around the string and the rubber, we pulled the string slowly around the window and the rubber pulled outward and popped into place.



Hope all that made sense.

The last thing to be done is put in the little piece of rubber stripping that prevents the window from popping back out of place. I am sure there is a tool out there somewhere meant for doing this but I had to settle with a paint can opener for this job.



These are the tail/brake lights. I was just going to throw them away and get new ones because they looked so bad. I was in the mood for saving money so I decided to try refurbishing them.



First I sanded them.



Then I wiped them down with thinner..



Then I primed them with X-I-M.



Then painted them with ACE Gloss Black Rust Stop.

I have them pictured here hanging to dry.



They turned out looking brand new!

We went ahead and decided to touch up the inside of the bus where the "Emergency Exit" stickers used to be. When we removed them they took off some paint and left some sticky residue. We rubbed the area with some paint thinner and lightly sanded the metal down.



I had a can of Rustolium Almond Gloss paint sitting around. It seemed to match good.

Here it is done.




At this point we were ready for our framing package for the inside of the bus. We went to Lowe's and the bill was almost $800. HOPEFULLY we got all we need to frame up the inside.

Here is what we got. (Should be able to click on this image to make it bigger)



A few highlights from our purchase.

Lowe's had a solid wood bi fold door on closeout usually $160. We got it for $22.07. I will be able to take apart this door to make two 12" closet doors.

Due to slight imperfections in the wood:
All the 1/4" oak plywood they discounted from $21 to around $14 per sheet. Also the luon usually $10 a sheet we got for $5 a sheet.

We also purchased 1 sheet of 3/4 oak plywood for the kitchen cabinets usually $47 a sheet. We got it for $27.

Many times it is worth asking for a discount. Ask and you just may receive. We did!

Now we have started on the interior.

First we put furring strips on the passenger side.







There is a metal flange that runs down the length of the bus that the seats were bolted to. I put the middle furring strip about an inch above the metal flange. This gave me a channel that runs the full length of the bus that I can run any electrical wiring in. We ran a couple strings in the channel so we can pull any wire through that we may need.

Before we laid our bottom furring strip we installed window flashing where the wall meets the plywood sub floor. In case water ever comes in through an open window or something, water will not be able to get under the plywood and foam.



Next we filled the space in-between the furring strips with 3/4" R-4 Construction foam.





Now we are ready for the wood. All visible wood will be the 1/4" Oak plywood. We will be using the Luon in places like closets, compartments and behind the cabinets.

Here is the first piece of Oak Plywood.



We are attaching the plywood by applying liquid nails to the furring strips and then using a brad nailer to secure it in place.





In the next pic you can see the vertical piece of Luon (a closet will be here) with a hole and string coming out of it. The string will make a way for me to pull electrical wire to the inside of the wall that is yet to be framed up.





We have ordered our A/C roof unit! We found one on ebay for $325.00

More work tomorrow!

Bus Conversion Day 22 - Paint & Touch Up

Everyday I think; "Ok, the paint will be done today." but my gosh it takes a long time. Maybe we are just being picky.

Today we got all the rub rails painted. They turned out great! After they were mostly dry we removed the no-stick blue tape. Lets just say it is not all together non-stick. There were a few spots where it pulled up our nice red finish.





So we have been touching up all day. We have also been doing touch up on all spots where the white bled onto the red.

I am going to try to get my last coat of paint on the roof tomorrow.

Here is the passengers side done aside from touch up:



And the drivers side:



I was also able to get the rear door mounted again.



Slowly but surely!

Bus Conversion Day 21 - Rub Rails

Today we did not get much done because the weather did not allow it.

I was able to get the headlights and blinker lights reinstalled on the front of bus. I also have the grill in place. Here is what it looks like:



Next I taped off all the rub rails on the passenger side of the bus so that we are able to complete the white paint on them.

Here is the first run of tape.



Here is the passengers side all taped off.



More to come probably Saturday.

Bus Conversion Day 20 - Paint Almost Done!

A couple weeks ago I had only put one coat of paint on the roof so I figured it was time to blend the roof with the rest of the white paint on the sides. I got my sander and lightly sanded the entire top of the bus and where it begins to slope down towards the sides.

After that I got my rag with paint thinner and wiped down the entire surface that I had just sanded.
Next I rolled on the paint. I was really happy with how well it looked after it was done.

One more coat on the roof and I will be happy.

While I was working on the roof some other members of our team were installing all new self stick window/door weather stripping in all the window openings. This bus is 14 years old and the original window stripping was dry rotted.

After I finished the roof I went around and touched up every spot that looked like it needed more white paint. Now we were ready to take off all the plastic and tape.

Here is the front of the bus with all the plastic removed. (There is still some tape left on the bus for touch up work.)



Aside from a few spots that needs to be touched up this turned out GREAT! Can't wait to see it with the lights and grill installed.

Here is the passengers side. We have applied only one coat of paint to the white guard rails.



And here is the drivers side.



Hardly looks like a school bus any more!