This is a detailed log of everything we did to our bus.
Click here for a list instead of text.
We saw a bus for sale from a church in Columbus, Ohio. We went to look at it
and found it did not run. They claimed that it was running when they parked
it, they changed the coil, and it wouldn't run after that. All the bus tires
were either dry rotted or had the cords showing through the walls and had
rubber chunks missing. We convinced them to throw in four more tires and
sell it to us for $350.
After messing with the bus for five days, we decided to have AAA tow it to
a mechanic's place. Although he did not do most of the work, he had the tools
we could borrow whenever we needed them.
We kept messing with it, drained the gas, and managed to get it to start for
a while, but it kept stalling when we tried to move it. Then it started back
firing. You have not heard a back fire until you have heard a bus back fire
and blow a muffler off! It sounded like a hand grenade in a land mine
factory!
We re-mounted the muffler and checked the coil wires. We found of the coil
had two wires to each power post, and two of the wires seemed to be reversed.
We changed that, and the bus started just fine. It ran, it drove, and it was
fun! We drove it about 60 miles home, and it developed a miss. We took the
seats out and stored them in my garage. So much for parking my car in
there anymore!
We changed the oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, and plugs in an
attempt to fix the miss. It seemed to run better now.
We cut the legs off of one of the seats to give to a friend with a pickup
for a seat for the bed. We also put in the table seats, built the tables, and
found someone getting rid of a bunch of wood and two cabinets for free. Of
course, we grabbed those.
We found another 1977 International Model 1703 bus for $500 with good tires.
We bought it, switched the tires on the two busses (not to hard!), and drove
both busses back to Steve's house. This second one, though, was an actual
school bus.
We gutted the second bus. We took the muffler system, fans, lights, light
covers, windshield washer motor, and a few other things. We didn't get the
alternator (it was a 120 amp, ours is only a 55 amp) because it was on too
good. Oh well. We then took the gutted, no muffler, louder than heck, piece
of junk sChOOL BUS over to the scrap iron yard. It weighed 6.82 tons (only
5 seats in it, many parts missing). They gave us $357 (after taking some off
for disposal of each of the tires.)
The dash lights got fixed (we used contact cleaner on the headlight switch)
and also fixed the turn signal light (new bulb), emergency brake light (removed
shorted wire), and put in the new windshield wiper motor. I also had to
promise my wife that I wouldn't work on it on Tuesday and I'd spend the evening
with her! (Her nickname, by the way, has become "The Bus
Widow")
Today we got ready to mount the futon and couch permentantly. We used 3
inch screws up through the floor into 2x10's inside the bus. We could then
mount what ever we want to these. For the futon, though, we had to build a box
11 inches high to attach it to since it is above a wheel well. The good thing
about the box is we have it set up to store extra bus parts (alternator,
starter, coil, fans, lights, etc...)
Ok, so Kathy was happy that I took yesterday off, even though I didn't get
all the work done in the house she wanted. Today we put down the carpeting
and mounted the Couch and Futon to the supports we made. The carpet tape
we used (Double Sided tape) did not stick to well since the floor was cold.
Even when we warmed it up, when it cooled down, it quit sticking. I'd
recommend glue if we did it again. We also hooked up the CB radio.
I know we worked on the bus, but I can't remember what we did. I think I have sucked in to much exhaust and killed my brain cells from today.
Today we got ready for the test drive road trip to Dayton, Ohio (about 225 miles). We cleaned up the bus and painted the tables light green so they matched the inside of the bus and tried to get tags for it. We had a slight problem because the title said the vehical was a bus, and its actually now a motor home. We'll have to get a new title Monday, but for now we'll drive on the temporary tags. We also found the license plate we want for the bus: "COOL BUS".
The bus faired well on its first trip. We got about 5.4MPG averaging 60-65 miles per hour. The bus is quite rough in the back, probably because we need more weight. We may later change the springs or shocks or add weight some how or another. Also, before we left, we put 85W-140 oil in the pumpkin ball (part of the drive shaft) and that helped IMMENSELY. The bus is quite a bit quieter now and goes faster. It did leak some oil, but we think a new oil cap will fix that.
We got a little more done today. We put in some extra dome lights, hooked into the original dome lights, above the tables. We also put some higher wattage bulbs in those light fixtures (we got the bulbs from scraping the other bus). We put a new ammeter in and found that with all the heaters and lights on, the bus draws about 50 Amps. Considering we have a 55 Amp alternator, and didn't turn on the 400 Watt power inverter (which draws 39 Amps at max load), we decided we need the larger alternator. Definitely something to look for in any bus you buy!
We finally got the title straightened out. We had to tell both the title office AND the license department that this is a CONVERTED MOTORHOME. This makes all the difference in the world. Do this, and it will save you some time standing in line and some money paying for things twice! We also made the power inverter to draw its power from the ammeter so we could monitor the load on the bus. That power inverter can draw quite a bit of power! We also built one side of the sound reduction wall. We'll have to pick up more plywood from the shipping crates here at work to build the rest of the walls.
Things went quite a bit quicker today. After we picked up a bunch of plywood from some crates at work, we built the two remaining wall pieces, the two doors, and the spacer for the bathroom wall. We also got all of the walls panted a light green color to match the bus.
Since the paint was dry, we could put the walls up. We used L brackets
about every foot and for the hinges, we put two spring hinges and two normal
hinges on each door. We took the bus for a test drive, and this seemed to
really reduce the noise in the back.
We've decided to go to New York this weekend, so we've got to get the
bus cleaned up. We put a light in the bathroom by using an old yellow marker
light. Its pretty cool. We also started putting the tools away.
Its time to head to New York, but first I had to realign the front right
tire. Not a problem, just loosen and tighten the nuts on the tire. I also
had to tighten the bolts on the rear left tires because the tire was slipping.
Make sure you place your valve stems in the center of the lugs, that way
if it moves, you know you don't have the lugs on there tight enough. I used
all my weight to tighten them (210 lbs standing on a 1 foot long driver).
The trip proved that the bus was pretty good. A few things we noticed, the bus gets really cold, even with an external heater running. We'll put fans up on the ceiling to shoot the hot air down to the floor. Also, it doesn't have enough storage and sleeping areas, so we'll redo the tables, and then add some shelves in the back and above the driver. Plus, our muffler came off (not all the way, though!) We'll have to fix the remaining 3 hangers that broke. (This will mean all hangers have been replaced). We planned how we were going to do everything and just relaxed tonight.
We put up L brackets on the walls for the shelves in the rear and also one
in the roof in the center to support the middle of the shelf. Remember, that
the bus bounces quite a bit! We also cut and painted the shelves and the
support.
Today, we put the shelves up and re-hung the muffler. We might try to go on a trip tomorrow, so we'll need everything in working order.
The trip for today was canceled due to lack of snow. So, instead we
took out the tables and began to re-mount them for use as sleeping areas too.
We also put in a 134 db air horn we got from JC Whitney. To redo the tables,
we are going to have L brackets up to set the table on, and lower we will
have a 2x4 to rest the table on for when its a bed. We'll also take the
2x4 support out by the aisle way and replace that with a metal receiving
unit to which we can put in one of two different size tubes to support either
the bed (lower) or the table (higher).
We continued on the tables today, but its going slow because, since there are no real trips right now, we don't really care if we finish soon! Anyway, we are using the old gas line pipes from my house to mount the tables. We drilled 4 holes in the floor of the bus in order to mount the gas pipe. On the underneath side of the table, we'll have a 2x4 with a hole drilled in it big enough for the gas pipe to fit in. That way we don't have to have unnecessary parts or screws on the tables. I'll have to get a picture of this to fully explain how we are doing this.
I have no idea what I have done for the past few days, I just know I didn't work on the bus! Tonight, though, we manged to finish off the tables and put in the ice box. One piece of warning, we got an inexpensive ice box from JC Whitney and the conners are cracked already. Its pretty cheep. If I were to do this again, I would either get a real HOUSEHOLD icebox or a real fridge!
We cleaned up the bus and permenentaly put in the cabinent which houses the fridge. Once again, we used L brackets and sheet metal screws.
Ahh, a new alternator. Its an old 55Amp rebuilt to 100+ amps. We really don't know how many amps it is, but its rebuild larger. Its not hard to put it in either... much easier than a car! We also ran the speaker wire for the TV (so we can have speakers further back in the bus).
We decided to try to weld a hole shut that was from rust eating through the metal. Unfortunately, the attempt didn't work and we have a larger hole now (about 2" in diameter). We'll attempt to fill it with body filler later. We also built some bunks for the bus. They are just 2x4 reinforced plywood that sit on the top of the seat backs above the tables. This allows 9 people to now sleep in the bus comfortable. Two more places and we'll be happy.
I've always wanted to have the web site address on the back of the bus, so I made some stensils on my computer and cut them out of heavy paper. I then taped it on there and lightly spray painted the cutouts. It really turned out good and I've heard from a few people saying that is how they found my site.
We discovered that its really hard to hear the TV, so we installed a 110 watt Amp (Thanks Keith!). But, now when the TV, VCR, Power Inverter, and amp are all on, and there is a loud noice (base beat or something like that), the AMP is drawing to much power. We'll definately need a second battery for the system.
Its not that I havn't updated this page since August 28th, its just that we havn't done any work on the bus since then. I'm sure we'll get back to work on it when we come up with another cool trip to go on!