The Interior

This page describes the evolution of my interior. This page is probably going to develop slowly over a long period of time. My usual M.O. is to get the drive train in good working order, before moving to the interior. Fortunately, the exterior is in very good shape.

July 1999
When I purchased my bus, the previous owner had done very little to the interior. This appealed to me. I have very definate ideas on how I want to layout my living space.

The living space in the bus was divided into two sections. The front 2/5 of the bus retained the original bus seats. The were two rows of seats on the passenger side and four rows of seats on the drivers side. The passenger portion and the sleeping quarters were divided by an overlapping wall.

The sleeping quarters occupied the rear 3/5 of the bus. There were three crudely made cots, one on the passenger side and two more cots on the drivers side. The original bus bathroom remained in the rear of the bus, and there was a flat area beside the bus. I'm not sure what this was. Perhaps it was a cot for a small child. Here's a picture showing the very back of the sleeping quarters.

First thing on my list was to remove the original bus bathroom. This proved to be a bit of a challenge. It only took a day to remove the walls, fixture, tanks, and plumbing. At the end of the day, this is how my bus looked.

The big round pipe coming out of the corner of the floor was the bottom of the toilet. This pipe was welded to the top of the holding tank. Getting the holding tank out of the bus was one of my biggest challenges. Part of the transmission was directly under the holding, so that meant that the only way out was up. I cut the plywood floor around the holding tank back to the floor framing. With the floor out of the way, I was able to lift the toilet tank up into the bus. I made a patch for the hole out of exterior grade plywood and sprayed the underside with automotive undercoating.

With the hole in the floor patch, I turned my attention to the hump over the engine. I stripped all the trim and insulation from the engine hump. I found a hole in the firewall. Looking through the hole I could see the radiator fan. I'm guessing that at some point one of the fan blades must have been thrown through the firewall. I cleaned up the area real good and applied several layers of duct tape. I'll have to come back to that one.

I had a trip coming up in mid July 99, so I shifted gears. I removed the two overlapping walls. I measured out where a queen-sized bed would lay and then added about four additional feet. At that point, I consturctd two new bulkhead walls. For now I put one of the cots on each side of the sleeping quarters. I put the third cot on the other side of the new bulkhead wall, on the driver's side of the bus. It fit perfectly between the bulkhead wall and the fourth row of seats. With only two rows of seats on the passenger side, there is now quite a bit of room in the passenger compartment. I have a 1.7 cu. ft. fridgerator and a small microwave, so I'll probably put a temporary kitchenette there in the near future.

July 2000
Well it's been a while since I've updated this page, but I have made a little progress on the interior. Lack of documentation is mostly do the fact that my digital camera died.

A couple times I've seen where owner/converters have said that they would have done things differently if they knew then what they know now. To avoid making similar (and costly) mistakes, I have decided to make some temporary modifications to the interior and then camp in the bus for a year. I'm hoping that this will help me plan the finished product a little better.

I started by completely removing everything from the rear of the bus. Next I built a temporary platform for a queen size mattress out of 2x4's and 3/8" plywood. I used the 3/4" bottom of one of the cots that came with the bus, to make a headboard for the temporary bed. The way I figure it, if you're on vacation you've got to be comfortable.

With the sleeping arrangements done, I turned my attention to the front half of the bus. I removed all of the bus seats. Keeping one left and one right, I reinstalled them on the right side facing each other. When Camping World had one of their sales, I picked up two 25 1/2" table poles and four surface mounts. I'm going to use the two bus seats to make a temporary dinette. I also started removing the heater channel and the wall covering behind the driver's seat. I want to replace the insulation and panel over the wall with plywood, so I can mount the Flexsteel couch I bought last year (it's taking up too much room in my family room).

I've also started to mount the Flexsteel captain's chairs in the front. After a lot of careful measuring, I located and installed the co-pilot's chair. There wasn't much in the way if structural stability in the area immediately in front of the right front tire, so I had come up with a way to add rigidity to the area. I bought some 1/8" x 1 1/4" angle iron from Home Depot. I cut two 10 3/4" pieces and angled one of each of the ends at 45 degree, so there was no chance that the right front tire would hit a sharp edge. Next, I drilled the holes to match the pedestals and painted them with satin black Rust-oleum paint.

Now that the brackets were fashioned, I bolted everything together with four 7/16-20x2 1/2" Grade 5 Hex head Cap Screws.

That's all for now. More to come later.....