Derelict, but lovely nonetheless

We are nearing the end of demolition. The outside of the bus is fully painted and looks great, but the inside seems to be looking less and less inviting...however, we have finished removing all of the interior panels and old insulation and can now think about new insulation and paneling options. Now that all of the panels are removed, the interior wiring is a bit of a free for all, but at least it is now all out in the open for us to investigate more thoroughly. It's getting a bit cold and has already snowed here in Saratoga, and working with wires requires the precision of un-mittened fingers, so our progress has slowed temporarily. We are using our time indoors to draw out floorplans and contemplate interior colors, furnishings, and perhaps even a wood-stove (the stove is not only inspired by the snow but rather by the fact that I have been living for too long in an apartment that averages 80 degrees and I might die if on our travels we encounter a climate that averages anywhere below 70).

Painting Begins!

It's the little yellow school bus no more! It's certainly sad to see the yellow slowly disappear, but also very exciting to be moving forward with our project. In lieu of painting it a solid color, we think we have decided to just prime the entire outside and then slowly paint a mural across it with friends and throughout our travels. It will definitely require a few coats, and a very long roller for the roof. Clearly we have done quite a bit of work to the inside as well. Well, Zach has, I have sort of fallen down on the job after a full day of grinding bolts. We've removed all of the inside wall panelling and started in on the roof paneling as well. The metal used on the walls was clearly destroyed in the removal process, but the ceiling panels can be removed and later screwed back on. The plan is to put in new and more efficient insulation and perhaps some semi-tacky wooden paneling to finish it off. We have also begun to rip up the subfloor. Goodbye plywood, hello opportunity! My aunt and uncle very generously offered up some wide-plank wooden flooring on their recent visit to Saratoga (thanks Carol and Richard!). We are at a slight standstill on demolition at the moment because we are, obviously, running out of space to put all the scrap that we are ripping out of the bus. But soon we will make a dump run. Bus seats are still up for grabs, in case anyone was wondering. Taking apart the side paneling has revealed the hundreds of electrical wires that run throughout the bus, but we were thrilled to discover that they are each labeled with their function so we are slowly but steadily able to disconnect those auxiliary features that we no longer need. We'll miss the flashing lights, but the stop sign has been reinstated in the living room of my apartment as an homage.

More Destruction

After a quick trip to the hardware store to stock up on more grinding blades, Zach and I continued with some serious demolition. Some preliminary power washing, more sticker scraping, and then we ripped out all of the seats. We were able to undo the bolts holding the seats to the wall with a wrench and ratchet, so we only had to grind off the heads of the four bolts securing the seats to the floor. Hurray, only 40 bolts to grind instead of 60!

Several hours and lots of lower back pain later, we had removed all of the seats, which are currently piled in the driveway and up for grabs, but just the seat parts, the legs will be converted into our roof rack. We are definitely sad to see the seats go--sorry friends, all joy rides in the bus are now byoc (bring your own chair)--but the amount of space we have is fantastic and now we can begin ripping out the floor, hooking up the vegetable oil kit, insulating, and making plans for where to place all of our furniture and appliances.

Hmm, apparently we don't quite understand how to use my camera, so all of the videos we took of demolition are on their sides, but that might actually add to the entertainment. We worked out a technique for ripping out the seats that made the whole process a bit faster, and Zach taught me how to grind down the bolts successfully (Zach looks really cool in safety goggles, I look like a large beetle...) so we could take turns and save each other a little bit of back pain....oh the lower back pain. But it's completely worth it.

Demolition Day

And the destruction begins! First we peeled off all of the numbers and emergency exit stickers, although we left behind the "Don't Lose Your Riding Privileges" bus rules sticker because it's just funny. Rule #2: No cursing allowed (we broke that rule the first day in the parking lot of the rest stop in Jersey when we couldn't figure how to shut off the alarm). 

Then we ripped off the pop-out stop sign. We technically could have left it on as long as it didn't say stop. Someone suggested having a pop-out quote of the day, which we considered, but ultimately decided on simplicity and just tore the thing right off. We did, however, use it to stop Zach's mom once on her way to work. She took it pretty well. We also tore off the crossing arm that swung out from the front of the bus, and pulled out the wiring for the mechanism. We are still deciding what to do with the passenger door. Really, it would make more sense to replace the double door with an actual door that could be locked and that could be opened from the passenger side of the vehicle, but we get such a sense of satisfaction from using the lever to pop open that door from the driver's seat that we are feeling a bit conflicted. And then we ripped out our first two seats! 

It took two grinding blades, and my deluxe ratchet set that is kept in the trunk of my car (thanks Dad!) and a whole lot of brute strength (Zach's and Cory's, my brute strength really didn't do a damn thing), but we finally got the two back seats out, and in less than an hour. Then we admired the beautiful space where the seat used to be, and Zach demonstrated where our kitchen cabinet and refrigerator will go. 

Magic Bus

We had to paint over the school bus signs to make it legal to drive the vehicle privately (I'm not sure why, perhaps because if we hadn't covered the signs we could easily kidnap small children by luring them towards the bus), but then the spray painting went a little further....

Inspection Day

More joy-riding with Cory and Sean, obviously, because how could we not? And then an inspection, which we passed, for only $20, and then celebrated by ripping out the first panel. 

Zach and Cory did most of the grunt work, but I assisted by unscrewing the railing so we could rip the seat-cushion right off. It actually looked surprisingly nicer beneath the grey pleather than we had expected. We also removed most of the child safety locks from the windows and discovered our first piece of artwork for the inside of  the bus-- a beautiful crayon drawing done for the bus driver and that had been tucked away for safe-keeping in one of the overhead compartments. We think it's a picture of a turkey, or a dinner roll?

Then we picked up all of our friends....

In celebration of finally finding our perfect bus, we picked up all of our friends, and then just drove around for awhile. We all reminisced about all that we loved and hated about riding the bus to school (well, except for Stef. She grew up in the city and got to use actual transportation). There was a brief adventure on the roof of the vehicle, but it was short lived due to rain. Zach and I weren't sure if our friends actually expected us to go through with our school bus plans, or knew what to make of us, but we all had so much fun and they were all so happy to be picked up and dropped off again in the school bus. 

First we bought a bus....

This blog is about Zach, and myself (Jessica) and our dreams of converting a short school bus into a waste vegetable oil camper in which we plan to travel the country. It's about our adventures, and perhaps misadventures, and all of our wonderful friends and family who definitely think we're crazy, but who are all still pitching in to help us realize our dreams.

After a 3 hour drive to a salvage yard in New Jersey, and then another 3 hours of wandering around a school bus graveyard with Jose, a whole lot of broken spanish, and a little bit of haggling, we had finally found our bus! It's a four window, 20 person capacity, Ford Power Stroke Diesel, although it is soon to become a veggie oil conversion. There was a brief moment of panic halfway back to Saratoga Springs when we discovered the child safety feature installed to make sure that the bus driver will walk to the back of the bus once the engine is shut off, check every seat for sleeping children, and press the trip button for the alarm at the back of the bus. Since we were unaware of this alarm system, Zach and I had to instead take turns sitting in the bus with the key in the ignition while the other went into the rest stop because each time we took the key out, we were horrified by the flashing lights and beeping that ensued about 40 seconds afterwards. We finally just opened the fuse box and ripped the alarm right out. Problem solved. The trip button at the back of the bus was conveniently pointed out to us the next day by a friend.