| Author | Message | ||
| Bob Oakman (Bobsbus)
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Oh no... another Newbie on the board. Actually I have been working on the conversion of my 1978 Eagle 05 for over a year, but just haven't taken the time to sign up. Now that I'm settled in my new home, I love the idea of being able to chat with like minded bus folks. It's good to be here. I bought the Eagle in Portland, drove it down to Houston, where we started tearing her apart. Shortly after that, we drove it up to northern Minnesota, where we stayed for 1 year during my transition from corporate employment to freelance. (long story) During our stay, I raised the roof and re-skinned her... new caps, windows, etc. June 1st we drove the freshly painted, empty shell to our new home in Nashville. The newly rebuilt 8V71 and Allison tranny performed perfectly. Now she is just waiting for a fresh influx of money, which won't happen until I pay some back-taxes off. Hopefully that will be soon. Photos here Bob Oakman | ||
| Robert Wood (Bobwoodsocal)
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Wow, Bob! Nice work! Bob | ||
| TWODOGS (Twodogs)
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DAMN..... you have done a good job... | ||
| John Rigbyj
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Yes great job, done right. John | ||
| Gary McFarland (Gearheadgary)
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Yeah, nice work. Also the "Busses can hurt you" is a nice touch. Gary | ||
| Greg Roberts (Gregeagle20)
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Very nice work. Good to have another smart Eagle guy on board! | ||
| SkipEagle20
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Indeed a job well done. Thanks for sharing your progress and creativity with us. Having recently purchaced my bus I find your photo's inspirational and at the same time, a bit overwhelming to see what I have ahead of me. Your pictures and those that others have shared are great for us beginners to develop a game plan by. Please keep them coming. | ||
| Larry Bennet (Eurof3)
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WOW man what a buzz ! And nice lure on the finger, looks like you could catch fish with the hook. Ouch I agree, nice work. Sure glad I did not have to raise my roof or do caps. I would have probley cut my finger right off. Gotta beleive the inside will be kill when your done. May you find the bucks to keep up the good work. Welcome ta BNO ya bus nut. Larry | ||
| Bob Oakman (Bobsbus)
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Thanks all! I had a terrible time finding details about raising the roof and doing the caps, so each evening I spent in the garage working on her, I would set aside about an hour to just stare at it and think about possible problems down the road. A few injuries and lots of welding burns later, it seems to be turning out quite well. My biggest screw up so far was an error in measurements for the windows. Two of them did not fit. Thus the plywood you see. Note: I was quoted about 20K to have the roof raised professionally. I did it for 5K, including all materials except the new windows and windshields. I ruined the perfectly good, original ones with sparks from the grinder. It was painted with Emron, which cost me about 4500... Great deal, but I have yet to fork out the bucks for the detail paint.... The top of the roof is silver to deflect heat. The pins in the finger DO look like they would double as a rather effective lure. :-) When I was skinning the new door I got one hooked on a rivet cap when I was turning and pulled it out. I didn't have the heart to push it back in, so it went in my Bus Converters Bible for keep-sake. | ||
| Marc Bourget Rating: N/A |
"Didn't have the heart to push it back in, . ." And I always thought it took testicules! Gosh, just the fact that you were thinking about it shows you got lots more than me! Good solid work, good solid planning. I appreciate and compliment you on your diligence in the floor R&R. Keep it goin'! Onward and Upward Marc Bourget | ||
| vern rainville
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Bob, Just checked all the photos. Nice job!! Did not have the heart to show the wife "all" the photos. Vern (in RI) | ||
| Bob Oakman (Bobsbus)
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I must say that my little bus project has become quite the hobby. I can't wait to finish it up, so the wife and I can get away on some more adventures. I always have to be in the studio and available for those emergency projects, so vacations are difficult. Our idea is to put a small studio in the back, where the bedroom would normally go, with a satellite uplink. That way we can bum around the country and I don't loose any clients. I am building in over-kill in the AC & heat department and planning to be more careful with sound proofing as well. As if all the remaining work wasn't enough, now I have my eyes on a 45' MCI102 EL3. She's a beauty with a burned out engine compartment. it's in Portland, so we could have it towed to Southern Oregon Diesel to get re-wired, etc. I must be crazy. This bus bug has really bitten me. Oh well... I still have 9 good fingers to go. | ||
| TWODOGS (Twodogs)
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buses are like prunes...is three enough....four too many ???? | ||
| jim wilke (Pd41044039)
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Two Dogs, four is fine if you have sufficient bathroom capacity! | ||
| David & Lorna Schinske (Davidschinske)
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Bob, Welcome to TN. We live about 2 hours south of you. Just stripped the floor out of our Eagle yesterday. I told David he had to decide by New Year's what he wanted to do on the bus. He decided (same day) that we would not do slide outs or a roof raise. And he decided the last floor plan I drew up was the one we would use. Now why couldn't he have did this 2 years ago??? MEN!!! Maybe by spring we can get the bus finished enough to drive it home. | ||
| Bob Oakman (Bobsbus)
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I remember tearing the floor out. Every screw rusted in place. Just removing the old seat rails was a major pain. A large air chisel did the job, but our fingers were bloody before the job was done. I chose to raise the roof (I am very tall), but that was about as big a challenge as I wanted to tackle. Slide-outs were outside the realm of my engineering skills. Good luck with the project. You guys feel free to email and call or visit with any questions. | ||
| Bob Oakman (Bobsbus)
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... or perhaps this isn't your first bus and I need to ask the questions. :-) That's cool too. | ||
| David & Lorna Schinske (Davidschinske)
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David & I are both on the short side. We used a 6 ft pry bar to lift the plywood after loosening the edges. And this is our first bus. David remodels/builds homes for a living. Lorna | ||
| Bob Oakman (Bobsbus)
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I did the same with the pry bar. We spent a lot of time just cleaning, grinding & painting after. After removing the interior skin and rails all the aluminum fetched me about $175 at the junk yard. It went into the fuel tank. Drop in the bucket.  | ||
| Bob Oakman (Bobsbus)
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Just a note about the joy, or obsession (choose your own word), of bus conversion. My wife and I have no other family members or acquaintances that have been bus folks. When I first brought it home and began talking about our plans, everyone looked at me like I was nuts. They'd giggle about my apparent madness or shake their heads in disbelief that such a thing could actually be done by a married couple and some power tools. As the project began, some friends helped and were quickly won over to the idea. When we left Houston and moved up to hide on the "Iron Range" for the year following my defection from corporate America, the bus was a topic of conversation in the local gin joints and most people thought it was a stupid idea. One by one they would brave the sub-zero temps, visit the garage, see what was transpiring, be wowed by the size of the machine and leave actually considering doing the same themselves. Everybody wanted her for Deer season. I am not surprised by my own passion for the project. As long as I can remember, I wanted a Silver Eagle to play with. It just hasn't been until recently that I've had the time for one. Now that I have an Eagle, I want a Prevost, but that's another story. Now that we live in Nashville, we fit in much better. Everyone has busses around here. I see at least a half-dozen on the road on any given day. Most are expensive customs used to cart country stars around, but many are Vietnam war era, painted with roller, garden variety tour busses, with drapes in the windows and Volkswagens in tow. I love it! This is a great hobby that could become a lifestyle if I am not careful. | ||
| RussB Rating: N/A |
Welcome to Nashville! I've been here about 14 years and even though a few corporate companies were shot out from under me I decided to stay in the area. Part of that reason is my conversion. It takes time to make the contacts, and there is no place better for busses than where you are. Also for me to construct a bus barn and work on my project off for a few years really plants your feet deep into the TN clay. Looked over your bus album, great job so far, keep it up. I'm about an hour South of Nashville, maybe we'll meet sometime at Eagles Nest, Hemphill Bros, Prevost, Pro Bus, etc, etc. | ||
| Bob Oakman (Bobsbus)
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I have yet to visit any of the bus places around the area, but I see that there are some big ones. I need to go out and rummage around for some body panels, etc. Now that I am starting up on the conversion again, we may run into each other. It's great chatting about the conversion process with another victim. The dash, steering wheel and the great pain of re-wiring, is next on my list. I'm hoping to have her ready for the bus convention in April, or whenever the Laughlin one is. My Mother and Father in law want to take a trip out that way and we thought we'd take the bus, complete or not. |