My Project
Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 8:41 am
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.
Thanks for lookin, feel free to give your feedback! =^)
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.
Thanks for lookin, feel free to give your feedback! =^)