I am ecstatic to announce that we finally moved our bus up to my relatives’ property and have begun the conversion process! The weather had been warm and dry for a few days, so we moved the bus on Friday. The way James’s work schedule shook out, he got this last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off; so, of course, we wanted to use this opportunity to get as much done as possible while we could work on it together.
We were able to remove fourteen out of the twenty-two seats, plus the two padded panels in front of the two front seats. As I may have mentioned in a previous post, the four 1/2 inch bolts fixing each seat to the floor were reinforced by nuts underneath the cab space. In order to remove these bolts, we had to first remove the nuts, which required one person to be on the floor in the cab (possibly contorted into a painful criss-cross-applesauce position) and the other person to be under the bus; either with one person holding the bolt in place while the other ratcheted the nut loose, or vice versa. There were also three 1/2 inch bolts and nuts each fixing most of the seats to a shallow metal lip on the walls, which had to be simultaneously ratcheted loose from one another; some of which were hidden between a very stiff seat cushion and the wall. Since our bus has an emergency door on the side, the two seats sitting in front of it have eight 9/16 inch bolts each, all fixing the seats to the floor, with no wall lip bolts. (We have yet to remove these seats) Over the three days, we made four trips to Home Depot and spent around $500 on tools.
On the first day, it took us a while to hit a rhythm with removing the bolts efficiently. There was a lot of frustration and swearing throughout the process; though we did our best to joke about it instead of getting upset (mostly successfully). We were so filthy that we each spent probably an hour trying to get all the black grease off our skin at the end of the day, which prompted us to pop into our local army surplus store and get a couple of pairs of coveralls (which I highly reccommend you do).
The second and third days were a bit easier, since we had a better idea of what we needed to do. It helped a lot that seats were actually coming out of the floor and showing us visible progress. Until the third day, we did not have more than one 1/2 inch wrench and one 1/2 inch ratchet, James did a lot of solo work on the wall lip bolts while I unscrewed the panels that transitioned between the wall and the ceiling; as well as the screws fixing a metal border to the floor. I encountered enough stripped screws that I was not able to remove four of the transitionary panels, nor any of the metal border, but I was able to get the vast majority of them out.
From this process, as complete novices to any type of construction or auto work, we learned the following:
1.) A t-shirt and shorts will not be adequate if you plan to do any work under the bus. Make sure you’re wearing clothing that you can afford to get dirty and which will protect your skin from annoying and carcinogenic auto junk.
2.) It’s going to be harder than you thought it was going to be. Don’t let that discourage you.
3.) Removing a single bolt can make you feel like you’re on top of the world.
Keep the following in mind when you are preparing to start your skoolie conversion:
1.) Take breaks when you get tired, even if you think you should be doing more. Wearing yourself out doesn’t help anyone, and will actually make you need more recovery time.
2.) Make an effort to feel good about every little thing you are able to do. Every screw you remove is another step towards making the life you want for yourself. This is especially important when you feel frustrated and like you’re stuck.
3.) Bring foods with you that will both nourish you and make you happy. Construction takes a lot of energy and requires a lot of focus, so it’s really important not to skimp on the quality of the food you bring. It’s important not to bring all empty calories, but it’s also important to give yourself a little treat to look forward to, if you’re at all like me and need to motivate yourself with little rewards. This can mean bringing some protein, some rice, and a vegetable, plus a candy bar, but really the possibilities are endless. You don’t have to get the fanciest ingredients; just foods which will energize you.
4.) Don’t be too hard on yourself if things don’t go the way you were originally planning. If you’re like us, you’re learning this as you go. Mistakes are inevitable, but that’s how we learn and find out what actually works for us.
5.) For the love of kittens, WEAR EYE PROTECTION!
Thank you for reading! I will be posting photos of what our conversion has looked like so far. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment or shoot me a message.
