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The After School Special
by Merkley This page is devoted to my conversion of a retired school bus into a tour bus. I'm planning to build it on environmentally sound principles and hope to create a sustainable 'vehicle' for my music career. I'll be approaching a variety of companies along the way to barter products and/or services in exchange for promotion of the companies. The time line below will chart the progress and highlights of the project. Thanks for visiting!
(not to scale)
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October 26th, 2006
 
I found the bus I was looking for down in the hills of Kentucky. For the next couple years I'll be turning it into a much different vehicle.
Scroll down to see how the project unfolds...
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November 1st, 2006
 
No more seats!!
Not only do I now have a nice empty bus to work in, but I also earned 72 cents, 5 pencils, and a couple matchbox cars in the process.
| Having all the seats out was the first exciting step in getting a feel for the space I'm working with. I'm doing my best to plan ahead and have a lot of different things I'd like to incorporate into the bus. Although it's probably a gold mine to a 2nd grader, that 72 cents probably won't get me very far so I thought it might be a good idea to look into my credit situation to see where I stand in the big bad world of interest rates and bank loans...
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November 12th, 2006
Fortunately, it turns out that I don't have bad credit. Unfortunately, I don't really have good credit either. The truth is, I don't have much credit at all. I'm a pay as you go type of person and have never had credit cards, loans, or anything that goes along with those types of things that help or hurt peoples' credit.
To help improve my score, and qualify for a nice low interest rate, I've teamed up with the good people of a company called Veracity. In the coming months, they'll be working with me to improve the grade on my credit report card.
Click on their link below for more information about their services:
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December 7th, 2006
 
After a lot of planning and squinting I managed to raise the roof a total of 18 inches. While doing so, I learned how to weld and escaped with only a few minor cuts, burns and bruises.
The Crooners have some touring planned for December so I'm going to take a break for a while. I still have to install the windows, and do a lot of body work, but a LARGE portion of the exterior construction is behind me.
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May 18, 2007
 
Right now, I'm working to remove all the interior metal paneling so I can get all the original fiberglass insulation out. The walls are done...the ceiling is not. I need to strip everything down to the bare skeleton so I can insulate this thing properly and live comfortably in whatever climate my travels take me to. Ideally, I'll just follow around 70 degree weather with very little humidity but, given the current global trend, I think it's best to prepare for the extreme ends of the spectrum the best I can.
Lots of heat transfer research going on...
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  There will be an additional chapter added to the story of the bus now. I decided I want more space for the layout of things so I'm planning to install slide-outs. Remember when I said that a LARGE portion of the exterior construction was behind me? Well, that wasn't exactly accurate.
I need to take care of a few things before I can chop big holes in the side of my bus, so you're looking at freshly sanded and painted walls that will hopefully resist rust for years to come. If you look closely at the picture on the left, you can see the faint image of a new washtub bass in the making...
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October 8, 2007
 
One down, three to go.
The planning stage of the slide-outs is over and construction is underway. The first slide didn't put up too much of a fight and came together fairly well. It's a whole lot of square, square, weld, check, weld, weld, grind, grind, grind...and it's actually a lot of fun if you can believe it.
 
These images are the start of a second...
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October 23, 2007
 
After a lot more cutting and grinding... ...and a lot more welding...
...the main structures for all four slide-outs are now complete.
 
The next step will be to assemble the slide mechanisms themselves...large steel tubing that slides in and out of larger steel tubing. After they're done, I can put everything in place and start to think about finishing them.
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November 2, 2007
A lot of people have been curious about the slide-outs so I thought I'd post a picture of my layout plans. When extended, the four slides will open up a total of 52 square feet of floor space inside the bus...well worth all this time and effort in my opinion. Have a look see...
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November 19, 2007
So far so good with the installation of the slide outs...
 
The front two went in... ...and slid back out as hoped.
  
The rear slides are going to be installed directly over the rear wheel axle. I'm thinking that should leave enough room between the front and back slides for some wings...
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December 24, 2007
Construction of the slide-outs continues...
 
All four slides are now in place. The rear two have been mounted with ball bearings in a couple key locations but I still have to install the bearings on the front two. After that's done, I'll have to install angle iron around the perimeters and mount my seals in place so it stops snowing and raining inside the bus.
 
This is an interior view of the back of the bus where the two rear slides are now installed. The ball bearings make rolling them in and out effortless. To view a short video of them in action click here (file is about 8MB so it may take a while to load).
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March 17, 2008
Sealing up the slides...
 
Extended... ...retracted.
This is a view of one of the rear slides with the bulb seal in place around the outside perimeter. When the slides are pulled into the bus, the seals will press against the gray angle iron to block out air, rain, snow etc... I needed a little over 200 feet of the bulb seals to cover all four slides in the extended and retracted positions so I raided the local scrap yard and pulled out about two dozen cars worth of trunk seals...one of my better scores to date.
The
outside seals are all in place and I'm working on preparing the inside
of the bus for installation of the other set of bulb seals right now.
These seals will be mounted around the inside perimeter of the slide
outs, facing the wall, so that the slide outs are sealed in the
extended position.
 
The picture on the left shows where I sprayed foam insulation into the cavity of the wall around the slides. I'm also running caulk into all the cracks and crevices to make sure these things are air tight. I installed strips of 1/4" plywood batting around the perimeter of the slides to give the seals a nice flat surface to press against. The wood will also provide a thermal break so the metal framing of the bus can't transfer heat or cold inside the bus as easily.
After the interior seals are in place, I'll need to install locking mechanisms for each slide out before I can consider moving on. I'm also thinking about a motorized rack and pinion set-up to automate the sliding process...we'll see what comes of that thought soon enough...
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April 29, 2008
While looking into a rack and pinion system for the slides, I came across a great company to add to the list of sponsors. It's a welding supply company, called Welder's Warehouse, that just happens to be located a few minutes down the road from the bus on Main St. in Homer, NY. I'm currently in talks with them about what it would take to put together those rack and pinions I mentioned in the last update. More on that soon...
In the meantime, if you're planning to take on any welding projects of your own, or know someone that is, the link for Welder's Warehouse is below:
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May 6, 2008
 
The first two windows are installed!
I'm doing what I can to keep moving forward so I'm installing the windows while I investigate the rack and pinion set-up for the slide-outs. I found two of these large sliding RV windows at the local scrap yard for the front slide-outs as well as a variety of other windows for the rest of the bus...an even better score than the bulb seals that I found. Once all the windows are in, I can think about insulation...
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For more information about becoming a sponsor for the After School Special please refer to the contact page.
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If you'd like to receive occasional updates about the bus, upcoming tours, or shows in your area please sign up on the mailing list below.
(Please be sure to include your e-mail address, city and state)
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