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My Project

Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 8:41 am
by SkoolieDude
Hi folks, I found a couple photos of my long time project, My other computer crashed so until I recover the data these are all I have.
So I bought this bus back in Albuquerque when i was in my late teens. It was around this time that I had discovered the awesome online compendium known as MrSharkey.com and was super stoked about seeing what people were doing with vehicular construction. I worked in a co-op as a cashier so I had a lot of customer interaction, and it was through this that ma guy ended up giving me a copy he had of Rolling homes (which i naively lent to another bus couple and of course never got back.. i'll never forgive myself!) which further let to my inspiration. It was also through working at this co-op that I came across a fighter jet cockpit canopy, which was the center point of my bus conversion. I had a welder, a great source of new metal stock, and a friends yard to store and work on my project. And project it was! It wasnt enough to merely remove the seats and fill it in.. no, i took off the entire inner sheet metal skin, all the factory insulation (what a joke that was!) and proceeded to cut out a large section of roof, including the support ribs, which go between every window, creating a roll cage. I then created what you see in the photo, which I'm hoping to have more photos of it up eventually so you can see the framework i welded. It was quite a task, and i had exactly no outside help whatsoever. Hoisting the canopy alone was an exercise in leverage ingenuity, as it weighed about 150lbs.
My bus by the way is a 1985 Wayne/Lifeguard body on an International chassis with a 345c.i. and 4 speed manual trans.

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Thanks for lookin, feel free to give your feedback! =^)

Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 10:07 am
by dadeo
Totally cool! That's just the size bus I wanna get next. I hope you can get hold of your other pix. I'm curious, How did you get the canopy up there?
Also, do you know what the total height was?

Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 10:59 am
by SkoolieDude
haha yes getting it up there was something indeed..after having to do it prolly 20 times i got it down, but it would consist of hoisting half of it up on the hood, crawling behind it to hoist the back of it fully onto the hood, then climbing back up to the roof and hoisting one end up again (you might notice how most of the upper middle running lights have broken lenses!) and then trying to climb around it to hoist the back end again. fun times! another fun project was fabricating the continuous saddle for the canopy to sit on. the canopy curves in/out and up/down, and i wanted it tight for weather proofing. So i took 1" square stock and made kerfs it it so it would bend, then re welded the kerfs. I was pretty proud of myself for discovering that idea!

As for the total height, to the top of the very back (the front end sits slightly lower, so it gives it a slight stink bug stance) is right around 12'6"..

=)