The build, or the ride?

[lostagain]

I have never built a bus conversion from an empty shell like some of you, but I have rebuilt engines and modified all sorts of components upstairs and downstairs. It is a long winter up here, and I really enjoy working on the bus. And nothing beats the satisfaction of driving it in the summer, savoring all the mods and tune up that make it run so well...

It would be interesting to hear how some of you are more drivers, and some more tinkerers/builders.

JC

[belfert]

I started working on my bus simply as a vehicle to get a group of guys to one or two rocket launches every year.  Along the way I found I really enjoy working on my bus (most of the time at least).  I've put a lot more time and money into my bus in the last five or six years than I have into my rocket hobby.  I've put less time into the bus in the past two summers due to moving and working on my new house.  I'm mostly maintaining the bus for the moment and keeping it road worthy although it still needs a lot of work to fully finish it.

I still go to rocket launches all the time and enjoy them.  I am just not launching any rockets at this time.

[daddyoften]

Finished project? ? ? I thought that was just a myth!

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[Jon]

I've had three professionally converted almost new coaches and have never been without a project on any of them.

[gg04]

ROFLMAO.....In our fourth and final conversion...at least that is what my wife says.. Currently need to weld up all stainless exhaust, do front brake job, take some of the slack out of the steering, replace flooring in bath,etc....never ends ......rdw

[Scott & Heather]

We now own two buses. Our 1984 mci 9 which is nearly completed. We converted it from a seated coach, raised the roof 9" ourselves and have done all the conversion ourselves. The new bus is a 1992 mci 102c3 just an empty shell with an 8" roof raise ready for us to convert. Won't start that until next summer. I enjoy the process. There are days I hate it, but for the most part it's fun. Because we are full timers, it's more necessity than anything


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[TomC]

If you're mechanical, with decent understanding of electricity, and can read about how plumbing works, conversion is relatively easy. Making cabinets can be challenging, but as like all skills, you can't learn until you get your hands dirty. So roll up your sleeves and get going!  Good Luck, TomC

[Oonrahnjay]

Finished project? ? ? I thought that was just a myth!    

     No, no, it's not a myth at all.  I'm planning to have three "Finishes".

1)  The first finish will be when I have a place to sleep, a bathroom with a shower, a kitchen with fridge and a place to cook and wash and it rolls down the road reliably,

2)  The second finish is when there is a nice upholstered dash and instrument panel, curtains in the windows, and carpets on the floors,

3)  The third finish is when I die.

[lvmci]

Hi All, I finished a redo modernization  of the 5A, when we finally decided to go fulltiming upon retirement. Sold it faster than I thought, hunted for another proconversion on a C3, to get a headstart on a 40 footer, but every bus we found had more rust than steel, so decided to get a seated bus and do it from scratch. Been working on it since December,  mechanical, utilities, woodwork all designed by me and my dear wife, functional and working, only drawers cabinets, left till finished, except for floorring, bedroom cabinets,  3rd AC, bigger generator, better insulation, stereo, fix cameras, other than that really nothing important, HA! lvmci...

[Iceni John]

Like Bruce H., I have an interim deadline  -  next year at our Crown group's annual get-together over Memorial Day weekend I've promised the others there that my bus will have the beginnings of a functional interior.   I also made vague mutterings about painting it, but who knows if I can also get that done by then.   At least I've completed all the essential life-support systems:  both water tanks and the gray and poo tanks are in place, the loo is now sitting in glorious porcelain splendor in the middle of the bus, the dump valves will dump if I had anything to dump, the water pumps/manifold/valves/etc are just waiting for PEX to be connected to each appliance, the propane cylinders' slide-out tray and manifold is done, and most importantly the solar panels are in place and the charge controllers and inverter are now just waiting for some electrons to flow.   In other words, all the grunt work is done.

My GF wants to go with me to next year's Buses Gone Wild, as long as there's somewhere to eat, sleep, $hit, shower and shave (OK, not the last, I hope . . .), so making a bed is the next project, then making the shower, then walling in the crapper so the world at large can't share the joy when we use it.   Pretty it won't be, but it will be the beginning of turning the bus from a construction project into something functionally usable.

While I've been busy doing all this work for the last six or seven years (in an RV yard, using only a few basic tools inside the bus, essentially making everything by hand like some medieval craftsman), I've never lost sight of the eventual reason for doing it at all.   It will be something for short trips, for longer journeys, or even able to support off-grid full-timing if that's in the future.   Higher ground clearance than a road coach means we'll be able to reach places that MCIs and GMs fear to tread, maybe even south of the border?   I don't plan on putting on the thousands of miles a year that some folk here do with their road coaches, but instead spending a few weeks at one location, then moving somewhere else depending on the weather and availability of affordable locations to stay.   At least, that's the plan.

John