| Author |
Message |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 04, 2002 - 9:10 pm: | |
This last week I've been cookin... got the bathroom finished, all the propane things installed and working, the water system finished, and today the wife and I foamed the roof of the cab area, covered it with T&G Cedar I had left over from my house addition 10 years ago, and she stained the oak floors I mentioned last week. Phew! Well, it's close..we roll next Wednesday for a test drive and we officially leave for 3 weeks on the following Sunday..
Here's some photos for the week...
http://heartmagic.com/84busPhotos/
I made my own power panel up over the driver area, using 15 amp dual-pole rocker-style breakers for the AC (from my electronics production stuff) and Heinemann 20 amp DC breakers for all the 12 volt circuits. Came out nice...
There's a photo called "WhatStartedItAll.JPG"... here's the story behind that... long ago a friend of mine came by and gave me these neat vents. I looked at them and said to myself, "Hmmm, these are really big and too big for anything I'm working on, so what can I use 'em for?... hmmmm, maybe I could build another bus and they'd work neat for the A/C"... and truthfully THAT is why I started this bus....you can see them mounted on the new ceiling....
PS on that McMaster froth-pack foam kit, I'd have to say yes it will do a whole bus but no it didn't do mine entirely, because there's lots of areas where i purposely made my foam 3-4" thick. Doing so obviously decreases the area that the kit will cover...
...and grinding the foam... I finally had to break down and make a grinder tool. For almost every place so far, the little bow-saw I made from a piece of 1" square steel tubing and some bandsaw blade has sufficed perfectly. But today I put the front sheet back up over the driver area, and there were just a few too many curves I couldn't get with the saw. So I took an old composite grinder blade and punched three 1/4" holes in it, and stuck in three 14-20 bolts. Worked perfectly!!! There's a photo of it in the directory...
Cheers
Gary |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 09, 2002 - 2:55 pm: | |
Gary;
Thanks again for the great pictures and running accounts on your Crown Super Coach conversion. CROWNS FOREVER!!!! Henry of CJ |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 10, 2002 - 2:14 am: | |
Thanks Henry!
This last few days are seeing many changes, but I'm kind-of hosed as far as documentation because my camera broke. Ugh.
I take off Sunday on the "maiden voyage"...I'll see if I can borrow a camera to document the latest. Basically it's finished as far as functionality goes, all appliances and systems work perfectly and as far as I can tell it's mechanically done too.
I had a little fun with the side-door that I cut in- I realized that due to the curve of the bus that the door would only open 90 degrees unless I hinged the door two places..at the wall of the bus and also in the middle of the door... I was stuck on that one until I suddenly realized that the origional door was just narrow enough that adding a hinged panel to it would make it perfect, and it worked. Hopefully I'll show ya a photo soon..
I primered the bus with some Sherwin-Williams catalyzed type tan primer that actually looks rather nice, certainly better than the "franken-bus" that it used to look like, so at this point it's not even embarrasing to drive around!
The Wednesday "test drive" never happened..hopefully tomorrow...
Cheers
Gary |
William R. Graf (Billfrombrazil) (206.158.10.224)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 29, 2002 - 12:09 am: | |
Hey there, sure would appreciate some pictures of the outside of your Crown and how you laid out the interior. I am working hard at redoing the conversion on a 1973 Crown 40 foot 10 wheeler with NHH-250 Cummins and HT-70 Allison six-speed. Tomorrow I am taking the fuel pump to be rebuilt since it is sucking air and will look for a replacement for the throttle cable. It looks to me like the cable used to shift gears on an outboard so am going to check a boat supply place. Not too many bus conversions here in the middle of Nebraska!
The conversion has been a challenge since my wife is now on a walker full time and everything has to be suited to her special needs. I need to find a reversable 12 volt winch to operate the elevator I made for her to get in and out with. Have been going hard since we want to drive it to Illinois on the 11th or 12th of September.
I would send pictures but I don't have any way to do that at this point.
Bill |
Richard Bowyer (Drivingmisslazy) (66.190.119.82)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 29, 2002 - 9:10 am: | |
Bill, I think you will find the boat shifting cables very expensive and limited to about 25 ft. in length. There must be an alternative.
Regarding the winch, there are many available for installation on pick up trucks. Probably better are the lighter duty ones that are available for installing on off road ATV's.
Richard |
William R. Graf (Billfrombrazil) (206.158.10.224)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 12:30 am: | |
Richard, I ended up getting a cable custom made after going to a local business that sets up and sells feed mixer trucks. Two of my neighbors are mechanics there. With one call to Omaha the cable came made to my specs (allthough there was a failure in communications and it had to go back the first time), cost me $100 with the tax. I got a small winch rated at 1,500 lb pulling load and have the elevator almost completed. Had to make a trip for a week and then have been working on other stuff. Worked all day today straightening out wiring mistakes made by the previous owner. At least now I now the electrical system! Working long hours on the bus and hardly get a look at the computer.
Bill |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 8:54 am: | |
Bill, I'll have a bunch more photos fairly soon. The reason I somewhat stopped is that my trusty Nikon electronic camera took a pooh and I had to get another one (from ebay of course)... it hasn't gotten here yet so I've been continuing the work on my bus at a rapid pace and not taken any more pics.
Keep checking ebay for your winch and you'll probably find a really great unit for a really great price. Virtually my entire compliment of conversion parts for the bus has come from ebay, including the bus! This was my second conversion, and as far as I can see, the ENTIRE process has been far less expensive and far higher quality due to the availiability of good parts from ebay, at amazing prices.
For example my latest scores from ebay: I bought a complete datastorm 2-way satellite internet system for under $2000, (worth about 8K right now) and last week I nabbed a 1 year old onan Marquis 7kw genset with about 10 hours on it for $1800... can't do that at even a used RV store!!! Ebay ROCKS!!
Cheers
Gary Stadler |
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