Early Crown Pics : Volume Four

[Sharkey]

The first installment of this series is: Page One, the second is: Page Two and the third is: Page Three

<table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#FFFFC0"><tr><td>So, the old walls and roof framing are off, the new framing is up, and it's time to get busy enclosing the interior of the bus.


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Before the Fall weather went completely T.U., I managed to cut the roof rafters to length, weld them to the plate and fabricate gussets to fill the little wedge-shaped gap between the bottom of the curved rafter and the horizontal surface of the plate. Everything was painted with primer/sealer as I went, and surfaces that still required welding were masked off and left bare steel. The plastic sheeting and blue tarps were pulled back as time permitted and work moved forward between periods of wet weather.

The plywood jig that I made to erect the vertical pillars was modified to serve as a rafter-setter, it held the to outside walls at a preset distance, determined what was square in relation to the sides of the bus, and set the vertical rise of each rafter. In the end, there were only very small differences in a couple of the rafters that required shimming to make the roof surface a perfect arc from side-to-side and flat front-to-rear.


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Eventually, the weather in 1995 deteriorated so much that work on the bus was stalled. The framing made a stable support for the tarps with the help of some 2x4's, drywalls screws and C-clamps. I also fabricated dozens of makeshift C-clamps by cutting sections out of 3" PVC and ABS plumbing pipe, slitting the sections once lengthwise and spreading them over the framing to hold plastic in place. They are visible all along both sides of the bus in this photo.

The amazing part is that this whole mess survived one of the wettest winters that Oregon has seen since I've been here, and the inside of the bus stayed dryer than it ever did with the factory roof and windows!


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Yes, it even went through snow and wind. Check out the hay bale twine and bungee cord hold downs for the top tarps!


<center>Continued below...</center>

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[dadeo]

damn! quite professional! No clandestine in this one! Even if the world runs out of diesel, this rig will be a nice house for many years!

[Sharkey]

<table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#FFFFC0"><tr><td>Over the winter, I made some designs and drawings, and came up with an eve design that could be used to join the roof and walls. I knew right from the start that I wanted the roof and walls to have a crisp intersection, an actual eve that would prevent water from the roof from simply running down the sides of the bus, and one that would allow me to have rain gutters when the bus is parked stationary.


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The profile of the facia/eve is straight from the Grace bus, although the material and dimensions were worked out to suit my construction. In the end, I had eight ten-foot sections of 16 gauge cold rolled steel formed at a specialty sheet metal shop, four for each side of the bus. These allowed a 2" lap at the roof, so that the roof aluminum had a structural surface to rivet to, and 2" vertical at the top of the walls for the same reason. The facia is welded into place on the rafters and pillars, and adds structural rigidity to the framing, as well as creating the design I wanted. I completey enclosed the top plate steel, and as an added bonus created a 5x2" chase the entire length of both sides of the bus, a feature that I was able to put to good use later when I started installing electrical wiring.


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This photo also shows the steel tubing that was welded in between the rafters at the center and to each side to provide stiffness, and to give even more surface to rivet the roof sheathing to.


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With the facia installed along the sides, I spent the spring constructing the compound curves at each end of the bus roof. These were built up using custom jigs and templates from flat and straight sheet metal and square tubing. When I began the first end, I had no idea what I was doing, I just started sculpting the metal, imagining the end result, and adding pieces as I went. Whatever I did, I knew that it had to be repeatable at the opposite end, and reuse as many templates and materials as possible.

The 2x4 scaffolding here was a custom job to allow me to get close to the work without teetering on a ladder.

I remember well one incident while this front work was being done. I had taken down the plastic sheeting on the front wall to do some welding, and after one session with the MIG welder, I raised my welding hood to find that the plastic sheet I was sitting on was afire between my crossed legs. My first reaction was the same as I would have if it had been a sheet of newspaper on fire, I slapped it out with my right hand. BIG MISTAKE!!! Unlike newspaper, there was a big puddle of molten plastic under the flames, plastic that immediately adhered to my bare skin and began burning the crap out of my hand, in spite of the flames being extinguished by the impact. I grabbed the plastic and pulled hard, and was horrified to see my flesh peel off with the now partially solidified puddle of plastic. This was a nasty 3rd degree burn that took many weeks to properly heal.

The worst part of all of this was that on my other hand I was still wearing a thick leather welding glove with a cuff that went up my arm well past my wrist. If I had used my left instead of my right hand, I would have suffered no injury.

Moral of the story: Make sure that in an emergency, even a small one, that you have a response instead of a reaction.


<center>Continued below....</center>

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[Sharkey]

<table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#FFFFC0"><tr><td>OK, there you have it so far. The dissapointing news is that there are no additional photographs of the bus construction until those you'll see below. During the time that I prepared the framing for sheathing and installed the roof and wall aluminum, I had a roll of film in my 35mm camera. Normally, I purchased 12 or 24 exposure rolls so that I would not have to wait so long to fill up a roll before having it developed. The particular roll of film under discussion went past 12 exposures. Then it went past 24. No problem, I thought, I must have purcahsed a 36 exposure roll this time. When the counter rolled over 37, 38, 39, I had the sinking feeling that something was wrong. I opened the case of the camera in a dark closet to look inside, thinking perhaps the film had come loose at the end of the roll or broken in half partway through. What I found was that the film had slipped off the take up spool before the first shot and all 38 or 39 exposures were on a single frame. A year's worth or photos ruined.

What didn't get preserved for posterity was the application of many strips of 1 1/4" aluminum. These were contact cemented on most all of the primered steel framing to separate the steel from the skin and more importantly, to remove any "steps" in the framing that would cause the skin to have wrinkles, dips, or bulges where the framing changed levels due to being built up of layers. Hard to explain, but many of the joints were lap joints between framing and rivet plates, etc. The aluminum strip, applied over the lower of the two pieces of metal would give a single plane for the sheathing to cover, so no variations in the surface to account for.

The roof was applied as a single roll of aluminum 40 feet long and 108 inches wide. It was intended as a replacement roof for a mobile home, and had to be custom ordered. In addition to the cost of the material and shipping, there was a "cutting charge" of $70 or so. I rented a crank-operated material lift and secured the help of a friend to hoist it up to the top of the bus, where we rolled it out carefully over a wooden framework that I had rigged up to allow it to lay flat until it was all entended, at which point I removed the wood and the aluminum laid down to cover the arc of the roof.

The roof was caulked all around the edges and literally ~thousands~ of holes drilled through it and the framing underneath so that I could set closed-end pop rivets. After it was all secured, I scribed a line all the way around and used my new pneumatic shears to cut the overhang 1/4" from the facia, leaving a small overhang of aluminum. The finishing touch to the roof was the application of five gallons of "Snow Roof", a white elastomeric coating that sealed all of the rivets and prtected the new aluminum from corrosion.

The sides were a bit easier. Sheets of aluminum 60" wide by 12 feet long were positioned three per side, caulked, and riveted in place, after of course, drilling thousands more holes...


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A view to the rear, the back end was left unframed for the winter, with just some 2x4's and plastic to keep the weather out. You can just see the aluminum furring strips between the framing and the skin...

A couple 2x3's span the walls to hold up a shop light. It was very good to have a solid roof on the bus so that rain, snow and particularly, wind were no longer a problem.


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View to the front with some clamp lights added for illumination. A 4x8' sheet of plywood formed a work surface. The next task was to fabricate up some steel rivet plates for the front wall and install the aluminum sheet there too. After this was done, I began installing rigid insulation in the roof and walls, eventually installing wood furring strips on both the ceiling and walls, and installing a second layer of insulation over the top of the first to eliminate any interior-to-exterior heat leaks.

And so, that's really about it. The rest of the project from here is contained in the "Photo of the Day" archives on the other part of the site.

<center>That's all Folx...</center>

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[sdibaja]

wonderful pictorial!
back on page 3 you say "...wall framing had stress fractures at the level of the bottom of the windows..."
do you know if this is at all common with Crowns?
do you have any detail photos of the fractures?

I am ambitiously looking for tandem and would sure like any pointers on the weak points.
thanks, Peter in Baja

[Sharkey]

I haven't heard of the stress fractures being common. My bus came out of the Mohave Desert in Southern California. It ran 609,000 miles, probably much of it over washboard-rough back roads. I grew up in LA, and spent a lot of time in that area, and the unpaved desert roads all get corrugations in them from erosion and vehicle wear that will jar the fillings right out of your teeth. My bus had hundreds of pounds of desert sand packed into every nook and cranny of the body and frame, so I know it spent a lot of time off road.

Added to this, school bus roofs are over-built to the nth degree to protect the passenger compartment in case of rollover. Couple this to a lower body that is welded directly to the big-truck frame and something has to give when the vehicle vibrates or twists on uneven roads.

The windows are the only area in the entire body that have no significant diagonal bracing, I assume that any torque difference between the frame and the roof was absorbed by the window pillars.

Why only the right side of the bus? Not a clue, maybe the students all sat on that side, or maybe it has to do with the curb door being there, or the emergency door being on the left, IDK...

I would think that tandem axles would make the ride more comfortable, but because of the balance beam action of tow axles on a pivot, it might be that the actual spring rates are higher, meaning that more shock is transmitter to the body? I know that there seems to be a lot less pitching from road surface irregularities with tandem axles.

[sdibaja]

thanks for the insight...
most of the Crowns I see out there have a high mileage desert history... I will just keep my eye out.
Peter
... heading for the Darien Gap I hope.

[Jones'n4chrome]

Hi Sharkey,

On your vertical wall beams/studs, how far apart are they from each other? they look about 32" to 34" Are they the same span as the original bus beams? Also how thick is the aluminum roof, can you walk up there if you have to?

Thanks. Chuck

[Sharkey]

Chuck, the studs were simply placed where the original bus framing had been. Spacing varies, things like the emergency door and the last window at the rear had differing dimensions. To add to the confusion, the left and right framing wasn't always directly across from each other and for some reason, the left side of the bus is one inch longer than the right. I had to add in some steel on the stud behind the driver's window to make the front framing square with the rest of the bus body. There is also a "bend" in the bus, it curves slightly to the right, as if it had been wrapped around a very large telephone pole. If you sight down the right side or pull a string line, there is about a ½" concave bow evenly distributed along the 40 feet of the roof and belt lines. The same amount of convex bow exists on the left side ??? I gave up trying to figure it out.

I can't remember how thick the roof metal is, I can measure it tomorrow. It's not all that strong, I can walk on it, but have to keep my feet directly on the metal framing underneath. I built 8 or 9 carpeted pallets out of 2"x2" cedar and plywood so that I can throw them down on the roof and create catwalks for times I need to be up there running around. The 2x2 runners are carpeted, as is the top of the plywood, which makes them non-slip and pretty comfortable to use as a platform. The 2x2's are long enough to span two or more roof rafters to distribute the weight to a structural member at each end. There is enough length of pallets to run the entire length of the bus roof, or I can group them together to make a larger surface to hold tools and materials.

[Jones'n4chrome]

So you found surprizes all over that bus. It always seems to be more hassle to work around something someone else built. I was just wondering what would be good spacing when building with steel, is it still recommended to space the studs 16" on center?

[Sharkey]

I would think that 16" centers would be excessivly close for steel framing unless you needed it for material attachment (3 x 16" = 48"). The framing on the Housetruck is on 24" centers. Since I never have attached paneling, etc. directly to the studs, but use a horizontal lath on the interior, spacing has never been very important.

[GoodClue]

Hello Sharkey,
Your bus reminds me of the joy of the project, with all inherent challenges.
I'm very impressed with your bus, and anxious to see how your rear deck or porch comes together. That's the next project for my ol' 46 Chev.
I am taking a different tack on plumbing ... incinolet electric toilet, and thinking of moving my interior shower to my planned rear deck, with a demand type water heater. I use the interior shower space as a closet now ... one disadvantage of a short bus ... my new line of thinking is a trailer for all utilites ... generator, solar, bath/sauna facilities, tool and shop space, finishing it to match the bus .. the incinolet can be put back in the bus for travelling.
I have gotten several inqueries on my bus and tho some don't say where they found it I give you and your site the credit and direct them to you for info and a good time. Thank you for your presence,
GoodClue

[Jones'n4chrome]

I would think that 16" centers would be excessivly close for steel framing unless you needed it for material attachment (3 x 16" = 48"). The framing on the Housetruck is on 24" centers. Since I never have attached paneling, etc. directly to the studs, but use a horizontal lath on the interior, spacing has never been very important.

I was leaning towards 24" I was just wondering if that was overkill? but I'm thinking it might be just about right.
On Damien's truck, I counted 30 studs in the blueprint, if his truck is 40' then he used 16" spacing. Strong for sure, but I would agree, that seems excessive.