Scroll down to see the ongoing progress of a school bus turned environmentally friendly touring bus. A variety of good people are helping out along the way to barter products and/or services in exchange for promotion of their companies. Thanks for visiting!
___________________ 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...
____________________ 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...
____________________ 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:
______________________ 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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May 27, 2007
This is what it looked like when I removed all the ceiling panels. Not only is fiberglass nasty stuff to work with but, after 15 years of being crammed into the 1" walls of the bus, it's practically worthless as insulation.
Down to the bare skeleton...I almost feel like I'm starting to make progress;) I think I'm done destructing things and can start constructing things now. My next task will be to weld in metal strips to reinforce the metal siding and then install the new windows.
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August 15, 2007
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 fairly effortless.
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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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June 15, 2008
Skylights installed!
Yet again, I've raided the local scrap yard for supplies. It just so happens that conversion vans have these small, curved windows that fit the exact contour of the top of my roof. Oddly enough, there also just happened to be an older gentleman (sitting next to the conversion van that I took my last three windows from) who used to install sunroofs for a living. He gave me some tricks of the trade and recommended the best materials to use for long-lasting seals. Sometimes you just get lucky...
As you can see in the picture on the right, the skylights let in a lot of sunshine. That's a good way to avoid using electricity for lights in the daytime, but it's also a good way to let in a lot of heat in the Summer and let out a lot of heat in the Winter. So, I'm planning to create a series of 3 different shades, that retract into the ceiling, to combat those issues and use the sun's energy to my advantage. One will have a radiant barrier to reflect all of the incoming light away from the bus (for daytime use in the hottest climates...like those things you put in the windshield of your car to keep it cool while parked), another will have partial shading to let in some light but block most out (daytime use in moderate climates) and a third will have a black material to convert the sunlight into heat (so I can use each sunroof as a solar air heater in colder climates). That's the plan at least...
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August 31, 2008
Rear windows installed in slides...
The rear windows are now in place and preparations are being made to get the bus ready for insulation. These windows were another great score from the salvage yard and have the added bonus of being double-paned for better performance in the heat/cold.
Before the insulation can be installed, I'll need to seal up the interior and fill in all the seams around the slide outs, windows and sheet metal.
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September 9, 2008
New sponsor!
The picture above shows two great big rolls of Low-E insulation from K 'n A Distributors in Dover, Pennsylvania. I'll get into the technical awesomeness of Low-E insulation when it's ready to be installed but, in the meantime, please visit the K ' n A website for more information...
News 10 Now covers the bus!
Allison Lazarz, of New 10 Now Ithaca, NY, interviews Merkley and talks about the bus, music, sustainability and insulation.
A temporary paint job and a change in locations...
In the time since the last update, the bus was given a temporary coat of primer and then put on the road. There were a number of running lights and brake lights that had to be replaced but, all in all, everything was in good condition and didn't need too much work to pass inspection. It was an exciting moment but also a little bit of a tease since there is still a lot of work left to do.
To make good on a promise I made to my extremely cool and generous friends, who housed the bus for the initial construction phases, I have given the bus a new home tucked even deeper into the hills. From this point onward, I'll be working on the interior and thinking about putting this thing to use...
Well...I haven't forgotten about you. I've been promoting a new album, setting up the framework for a more functional record label and working on a new electric band with Steve Morgan and Dave Salce, called Digger Jones. I'm at a point where I can start putting some time back into the bus so here's an update on the progress...
I was driving up Interstate 81 North a while back and saw this trailer ahead of me with a logo for spray foam insulation on the side. I scrambled to write down the number on a napkin and ended up talking with the owner, Steve, the next day for a nice long conversation about how cool spray foam insulation was. Some time passed before I got back in touch with Steve but I called him up and asked him if he'd like to be a part of the bus project. As a self-proclaimed foam geek, he said his crew would love to add a school bus to their list of jobs. We set a date and, on a chilly Monday morning, I brought the bus up to Steve and his crew in Lafayette, NY...
Spray foam can be a little particular about how it performs in certain temperatures and humidity. It likes warm conditions and low dew points to rise and cure properly so we cranked the heaters and used concrete curing blankets to warm the interior and metal of the bus. We covered all the windows and surfaces inside the bus and Steve's crew set up a ventilation duct out of the back to draw fumes and foam particles outside.
Carl and Matt donned suits and masks for protective measures and went to work. Spray foam mixes two materials together in an air gun and goes on as a liquid...as soon as it hits a surface a chemical reaction rapidly heats the mixture and it expands to 30 times its original thickness. This particular foam is a closed-cell type...open-cell foam expands and performs differently but I went with closed-cell for its higher insulating value and vapor barrier qualities. After it cures and hardens, it doesn't off-gas any harmful fumes and has a Class A fire rating.
Here are some views of the bus with the foam in place. It essentially turns the shell of a bus into a big thermos. After I install the Low-E reflective barrier insulation, I will have basically recreated the travel mug that keeps your coffee warm all morning at the office.
Steve, Carl and Matt (pictured left to right) posing with the trailer. Great guys and a pleasure to work with...give them a call if you're in the central New York area and have anything you need to stay warm, cold, air-tight or sound proofed.
Insulation is almost all installed. Before we rolled the Low-E out, I shaved down the high spots of spray foam and decided to spray all the metal that didn't get covered in spray foam with a rubberized undercoating (black stripes in photos below). I'm hoping it helps cut down on condensation and sweating where there is metal connected to the outside.
Once we started stapling the Low-E to all the wood anchor points, things actually went pretty smoothly. It's very cool stuff...super-lightweight and flexible.
The picture on the left shows the interior pretty much covered in Low-E with reflective aluminum tape sealing all the seams from the rolls. The picture on the right shows the side view of slide out so you can see how the layers of insulation are stacked (the Low-E needs an air space to perform at its best).
It's still a work in progress at this point but the first slide-out is now operating with the help of a garage door motor and rack & pinion. The force of the motor turning the shaft is causing some movement in a couple places so there will have to be some welds put in place and some adjustments made. All in all it seems like it will work well...see below for a video of it in action for its first test.
