Tour Buses

Rudy · Post by **Rudy** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 10:41 am

Does anyone want to see what the interior of "famous people's" tour buses look like? I have LOTS of photos and I would be glad to show you all of them, and explain what you are looking at. Building these interiors is what I do as my day job.
I won't need much prodding to start this new thread. I will not, however, start it without the request of at least two people.
What a snob, I am! Rudy

Rudy · Post by **Rudy** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:02 am

I just discovered that the photos of the tour buses have been shot with a LARGE resolution. Many pixels. There is lots of work to be done to reduce their sizes. It may take three requests to see the goodies. Make some replies. Rudy

dburt · Post by **dburt** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 2:34 pm

Consider this one response two requests! One for me and one for the wife!

Post by **stuartcnz** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 2:48 pm

Add mine too.

Rudy · Post by **Rudy** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 3:06 pm

OK, you're on. The process of formatting the photos to the correct size for the forum is some intensive work for me. I am happy to do another thread. So, it will soon be coming. Remember, that I mentioned in the Blue Bird posts, that perfect teeth are never pretty. I intentionally built the inside of the Blue Bird bus to convey a homey atmosphere. The pictures that I will show you, of the tour buses, are of interiors that resemble pristine mansions, where you aren't even allowed to sit on the furniture. I still don't get it. I have been working here for eight years, and no one has asked me what my design ideas are. Fools they be! I have been living in these machines for over thirty years.
I am content to put the icing on THEIR cake. I must say, though, our company ranks very high in quality ratings in this industry.
Photos will be coming soon. I think that the regular forum visitors know, by now, that I am enjoying making these postings and that I am also fanatical about my involvement.
Way cool! I get to make another thread!!!! Coming soon to a location near you. The Rude One.

dburt · Post by **dburt** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 3:24 pm

Rudy- my guess would be that the buses you do at the factory are alot about bling, and the buses you do for yourself are a bit more practical and, shall we say, more down to earth and user friendly. Now if you had a rock star ego, you too could add more bling to your own mobile dwelling! But then you would probably not be posting here anyway. I think we all like you the way you are.

Rudy · Post by **Rudy** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 3:53 pm

DB, you are absolutely right about the "bling factor". We recently built a bus for BB King. Talk about blingness! There were four guys who came up from Florida to install a Crestron system that controlled all electrical, audio/video systems through computer video screens throughout the bus. I am not sure if I can divulge how much that three miles of wire, and the five foot tall rack of controlling gear as well as the operating screens cost. Just think BIG. Now, that is not even mentioning, how much the interior of the bus, that we built, cost. Let me say that it was one of the biggest jobs we have had. I will have pictures for you.
I can only hope that the modest bus people, who may view this, will forgive me for posting such "perfect teeth".

Rudy · Post by **Rudy** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 4:54 pm

Wow! It is fun to post pictures for you. The tour bus pictures have just taken a back seat to the photos of my brother's machine. Go to Phil's Military Volvo. I have about 50 more photos to post. Phil's machines rock. I'll be on the "stars" bus pictures after that.
Long live rolling homes. Viva La Casa. Bon soir mes amis.

Rudy · Post by **Rudy** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:15 am

Well, Now we begin.
Here are some pictures of the inside of the tour buses we build at our shop. I will start with Dave Matthews' bus. This is the galley top. The countertops and tables, as well as the roof air vents and windowsills are the things that I fabricate out of solid surface material.

The table slides forward or backward.

This is the "bar" in the middle of the bus.

In case you are wondering, I light the insides of the roundover edge of my countertops with 12 volt LED rope light. If anyone wants any technical information on the building of these buses, please be sure to ask me. For now, this will be a picture show. Here is the bathroom sink in the rear of the bus. There is also a shower opposite of this sink.

Rear bedroom area with two children's bunks suspended above the big bed down below. Looking towards the rear.

Laying on Dave Matthews' bed looking forward.

Another view of the rear lounge.

Rudy · Post by **Rudy** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:38 am

I should give you a description of how we do some of this stuff. All the walls and cabinets are built with 3/4 inch Birch plywood. (Expensive stuff, as you may well know!) Some of the walls are doubled up plywood. Once the cabinet makers glue, staple, router (1 1/2" roundover bit) the edges, and finally screw those joints afterward, it is time to take a sanding block to the routered roundover in order to make that surface an even plane. The reason for that is because the next step is to spray the wood with contact cement, and also spray the Formica laminate, that you have prepared to fit on your surface. You need a clean and even roundover, or your laminate will have some air gaps, which translate to areas of the laminate cracking. This is an exacting technique.When gluing the two together, we use an 8 foot bending table. It is an electric rod on the side of a bench. If you don,t heat it, it will crack when you bend it.
The Formica laminate comes in 4 by 8 sheets and is about 1/32 inch thick. It comes in hundreds of colors. The customers always spend a couple weeks picking out laminate colors, upholstery colors, floor granite, carpet, vinyl, leather, AND solid surface color. (That,s the stuff I work with).

Rudy · Post by **Rudy** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:59 am

A couple shots of an upper galley top, having been built and ready to install. When they install those cabinets, They use L brackets on the inside of the wood. Then they use a 19/64ths drill bit through the metal surfaces of the bus, so they can use sheet rock screws to secure the cabinets.

Oh yeah, usually those big microwave units also are convection ovens, so we build in hidden exhaust vents for that. They are made of 3 inch pvc pipe.

I will give you an idea of how I tool the materials I work with later.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 9:55 am

Rudy wrote:...It may take three requests to see the goodies. Make some replies...

Deal me in, I'm havin' a blast!

Rudy · Post by **Rudy** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:01 am

Well, fellow bus people, the time has come for this one to go home. Mr. Wizard is about to transport me to the land of comfort. (I'm gonna take a nap!). I think that this "tour bus" thread may take a while.
Once again, if any of you visitors should have any questions about the building of this stuff, please post a response on the forum, and I will gladly answer it. That doesn't necessarily mean that I know a lot.
Long Live The Nomads. Rudy

Post by **stuartcnz** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:04 am

It looks like these buses would be like living in a mobile hotel. All of that bling probably looks nice on first appearance, but I agree with you Rudy, in that it would be a sterile environment to live in. Which incidentally is how I find hotels to be.

dburt · Post by **dburt** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:46 pm

Rudy- even tho the "bling buses" may not have alot of personal soul in them, they are still very interesting to see and for the rest of us to learn how you put it all together. I'm sure much of what you learn on the job and do for pay bleeds over into your own projects, which is somewhat like recycling knowledge. And we all know that recycling is "green" and green is good, is it not? So we are therefore good for the enviroment and are helping to stop global warming plus we can save a multitude of helpless critters in the process. "Recycle a bus, help save the world" or something like that, eh? DB

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