Butt Crack and Therapy

For the past 40 plus years I have done my very best to keep the white fleshy part of my back side covered and not out for display like the underwear from some prepubescent skater dude. As time has marched on my efforts to keep the east west divide that is located south of my Mason-Dixon Line covered has become more then my Levis can handle.

So I have been dealing with snide comments from my kids about my alternate life as a plumber, moon coming out in the middle of the day, good place to put a screw driver… etc. And then I got a neighbor that likes to honk when she drives by and my fair skin back side is reaching for light from the dark recess of the dungarees, yea you know who you are.

What then does a middle aged guy do that just wants to get some work done and occasionally reach down below the knee? Well I got a neighbor that works for the railroad and he swears by his Carhartt overalls, so I gave them a try. No I am not talking about the seersucker overalls railroad Bob wears with the red bandana these are nice blue overalls that fit over your boots, great pockets up front and the fly has got to be 9 inches long, they can’t be beat.

Now my kids are telling me that I am causing them irreparable damage by wearing these magical crack hiding wonders in public. They tell me they are going to need therapy to deal with the damage I am causing. My thoughts are if I am building a bus into a motor home and they are living with a big yellow bus parked next to the house my choice of pants will not send them straight to the bell tower their sophomore year of college.

Besides that I rock these overalls.

Let there be light

This weekend I finished up installing the recessed lights.


I put a total of 14 recessed lights through the bus.

This year at the SEMA show in Las Vegas there was a company that sold a tool called the Bad Dog Biter. This attaches to a drill and cuts metal like it was nothing. This tool was great to cut 14 of these small holes and then run the wiring.

Juice Box

Today I worked on getting the electical panel installed in a corner cabinet. This is one of the key parts that need to be done so I can lay out the rest of the electrical.

You can see in the picture I have ran the 50 amp cord up to the box and ran then other end out to the left rear of the bus. My plan is to use a 50 amp extenstion cord and hook to shore power.

This is also where I will put the inverter and converter.

Last week I also scored a new seat for $43 off the local classified ads. The seat is in good shape and I was able to connect it to the base of the original seat. The steel is a little weak and bent so I will need to beef it up a bit but it is quite an improvement from what I had. After riding in the stock seat it felt like someone took a 2X4 to my backside for a couple days.

New Floor

This week I got the floor installed in the bus and boy what a difference it makes.

I was thinking of installing the floor on my own but have never laid vinyl flooring before and when Randy came out and installed the floor I realized I would have done it all wrong.

This was the best $150 I have spent in a long time.

Floor, Fridge and BOOM!

Today I soldiered on through the blustering 23 degrees getting the floor preped to lay the vinyl flooring this week.

Last week I built the frame for the fridge and the furnace. Building this was a challenge because the roof curves and with limited space I want to put the fridge up on top of the furnace.

I have had an idea on what I want to do as far as a stereo/video in the bus and last Saturday I was able to finally put my plan in motion. I found a young couple that was preparing to marry and the bride to be was more then happy to sacrifice her future husband's stereo in lieu of an engagement ring.

So for $300 I got a Jensen stereo/DVD player with a 7" retractable screen, a 600 watt Alpine amplifier and two sub-woofers in a lighted enclosed box built by Duel. We tested the stereo out in the garage and I was a little startled how loud it was, Hayden was very excited, Jen was not. The stereo has an output for a monitor so I can run a DVD and play it on another flat screen. Another great option that I really wanted was the ability to run a rear view camera to help backing up the behemoth and this stereo fits the bill.

Some Final Parts

This weekend I had to finish getting two big pieces, the fridge and propane heater.


Let me give you the breakdown on how Saturday went down.



Me in a bus, all day. I drove to Springville to look at a propane tank, that didn't work for me, and get the furnace for $150. Springville is an hour and a half drive south from my house. I was able to look through three very wrecked $300,000 plus motorhomes.

Then I was able to drive north to Ogden which is 40 minutes north of my house. So I was able to put some quality time behind the wheel of the big empty bus. In Ogden I found the interior panel for the AC and a nice fridge for $350.

I decided to use vinyl flooring in the front of the bus and carpet in the back.
Well vinyl flooring can be really expensive I found out. Two places quoted me $350 and the other $569. Well guess what I did? I found a designer that did the flooring for a larger builder who was clearing out some overstock. So I got 26 sq yards of vinyl for $62.

Couple weeks ago I bought 8 lights, an outdoor shower and two windows shipped to my house for $80.

Then I changed my mind. I decided not to use RV windows.

So I sold the two windows for $80. Guess I am just lucky that way.

Last week we went to Habitat for Humanity and scored a new sink for $25.

The facts don't lie

As I was researching before starting this project I found it frustrating that I could find how to do just about anything to the bus but no one would give a list of the actual costs involved.


Now if I was going to be doing a real high end conversion I may not want to share how much I am into the project when it was finished. But I am trying to keep the costs in check. My goal is to use recycled items where possible and do as much work as I can by myself.


Before I go too far I need to tell the story about purchasing the bus. The bus was purchased through Public Surplus back at the beginning of November. The auction was about three weeks long and I was dying for most of that time waiting for the auction to end. I searched for a long time to find a low mileage, good condition bus. This auction was for a 1992 Bluebird from Tempe Union High School with 63,555 miles. There was a question made on the auction site asking if the mileage was accurate and the school district confirmed that it was so I was in it to win it!


In the end I won the auction with a bid of $3,150. After taxes and buyer premium I paid $3,758 and went out to Phoenix to get the bus. I picked the bus up around 4:00 p.m. in Phoenix and headed home leaving the 91 degrees of Arizona. The first leg of the drive I made it to St. George Utah and got 11.5 MPG. The next morning as I drove north towards home enjoying the cooler temperatures and dreaming of a radio that worked a little better I studied the worn writing just below the radio. I could make out an “S” and below that a 15. Through my incredible deductive reasoning and nothing else to do I came to the alarming conclusion that the speedometer may have been changed at some time. When I left Tempe I stopped by the transportation office and asked if they had the service records. I was planning on reviewing them in detail when I got home. Turns out McDonalds in Cedar City, Utah made a great place to delve into the maintenance records of an 18 year old bus. Well the records don’t lie; the speedometer was changed at just over a tick of 151,000 miles.


My first call was to the school district. They said they didn’t know about it, they would make it right, they were sorry… The short version of the following month is that they first said I bought the bus “as is” and they were not going to do anything. My good friend Dave from Jr. High is a lawyer (more pit-bull then bloodsucker) and was willing to work on getting this resolved and hopefully not having to go to court. Dave did a great job and when everything was said and done I ended up paying $368 plus my expenses to go get the bus in Phoenix.

So now that you have the background, here are the current costs. As a disclaimer these costs are based on finds I have made, you may be able to do better. I will keep this list updated as I go along.