New Member w/ Crown 1950 Bus

[mdlynch]

Hi we're Mike & Debbie from WV.  We just purchased a 1950 crown bus that had been "roughly" coverted into an rv.  We would like to have ideas how to take it back to at least l/2 (to seat 10) original to travel w/ entire family with the luxury of toilet and sm. kitchen.  Especially interested in ideas for seats, paint and body ideas.  Thanks for your assistance.
m&d

[NewbeeMC9]

Congrats and welcome to the World of Nuts!


Take some pictures and post them, we will be glad to see them.


Some use the seats to make dinettes too.

[mdlynch]

thank you.  We look forward to the challenge and input from veteran bus owners like yourself.  have a great weekend
m&d

[HighTechRedneck]

Welcome!  I enjoyed talking with you on the phone and I am glad to see you join in the forum.

I am sure you will find much bus wisdom and friendship here.

[NJT5047]

Post some pix of your bus.   
What sort of "body ideas" are you looking for?
Any good automotive paint will work great.  That's an easy one. 
That many seats almost require some sort of OEM seating.  Especially if you wish to seat 10 adults.  There are probably some OEM Crown seat frames floating around for cheap.  Easy enough to rebuild if you can find the frames.  Utilizing OEM seat mount points would be advantageous.   It ain't easy to safely mount seats in some coaches.   
Some states require seat belts for all passengers.  Not sure about WV.   
Other than the seats, look at RVs for ideas.  There's an RV for every possible use.   If you want to seat half the coach, then find an RV layout that will fit into the remaining sq feet.   Easy.  You could even strip an RV for a donor to complete your coach.
Be sure you only carry family members.  The seating capacity of ex-motorcoaches can get to be an issue in some states.  Your "RV" insurance will not allow you to haul the Sunday School class on the proverbial hiking trip.
Good luck, JR

   

[plyonsMC9]

Greetings Mike & Debbie!

Glad to see you on the board.  I've enjoyed our email conversations as well.  

On a whim, I tried a quick search for Crown bus seats & found these on Craig's list.  They are from a later model Crown - don't even know if they'd fit, but they're not going to break the bank @ $5 p/seat.  I think since most people w/ the buses are taking the seats out you folks will be in a good position to get some reasonably priced seats.  

I think you can also post in our "Spare Tire" board that you are looking to buy some Crown bus seats - maybe offer $5 a seat or so to see what happens.  Someone may even be glad to have you haul 'em away!  Who knows...  

Best of Luck!  We look forward to more adventures & questions.

Here is the link to the Craigs list listing:

http://wenatchee.craigslist.org/mat/1387220376.html

Kind Regards, Phil

[zubzub]

welcome.  re the seats I wanted to maximize the seating and sleeping possibilities as well as making the space multifunctional; so long couches that can turn into beds (with even a section that pulls out and makes the center alley a same level bed)  with storage underneath are what I decided on.  You of course will do it your way...have fun and post pics.

[John316]

Mike and Debbie, Welcome aboard. Sounds like you all have an interesting project on your hands. Hope it works out well for you.

Not to hijack the thread, but I am curious about the seatbelts.

We don't have any in ours right now. The law of our state says that we don't have to have seatbelts in RV's. What happens when we go into other states? Does that mean that we would have to have them in other states that require them? Or just whatever our law says in our state?

God bless,

John