Our Victory Lane.

 Here's to Us! That first sip tasted so good! We put in 10 weeks of hard work, and now it's time to relax.

Camper line-up at the speedway. There was no shortage of Skoolies.

 From very low budget...

 To super nice...

 And everything in between.

 Here is the view from our site, looking toward Turn 3. We plan to build a deck on the roof similar to the one on the bus behind me in the future.

 The site is 19' x 40', so our bus with the awning was a perfect fit.

 You can see the improvements to the awning from here. I permanently attached the conduit to the roof, and the rest of the awning frame attaches to it with pins. The spacer blocks are redwood.

  Wifey scored a nice banner from Ebay.

 Curb appeal! Wifey got the flame sun shades from the dollar store.

 You can see my HF antenna atop the flag pole, or rather, you can see the flag attached to my antenna mast!

 The bathrooms and shower trailer were just a couple of rows over.

We could see the cars come off the backstretch, through Turn 3, and into Turn 4. The Sprint Vision took it from there, so we had a great view all the way around.

 Smoke rolls past during practice.

 Junior, too.

Skoolie got a tramp stamp while we were there.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

 We aren't finished yet, but the race weekend at Michigan International Speedway is here. It doesn't have to be finished, it just has to be functional. We loaded up our gear, and headed out.

At the stop for lunch, I was finally able to get the whole bus into frame.

 It looks awesome from every angle.

 Lights on for safety!

With the bed folded up, the back bedroom had plenty of room for our camp chairs, bikes, gas grill, and much more.

Made In The Shade.

 

 We wanted some sort of awning to keep dry, or for shade.

 We bought a bunch of 1 1/4" PVC pipe, some fittings, and a 10' x 30' tarp.

 

 I assembled the frame on the ground. We hadn't yet purchased bungee balls, so I laced the tarp to the frame with paracord.

 I attached a few 1/4" - 20 eye bolts above the windows and lashed the frame to them.

The PVC was a little too flexible, but it proved the concept.

 I ended up replacing the PVC with 1" aluminum rigid conduit, with PVC connectors on the ends, which I drilled holes in to pin it together with the PVC T's and 90's.

I also put eye bolts below the window line to attach the lower supports to.

The lower supports are high enough that we can walk under them without ducking.

Small Jobs, Big Improvements.

 

As a reminder that the clock was ticking, we hung the clock in the kitchen area. The time on the clock is correct. It was another late night.

We picked up some pre-finished shelves from a Habitat Re-Store and cut them to fit the pantry. The mini fridge came from a local online auction. I installed 5 deep cycle batteries in the rear booth seat, and mounted a 2000 watt inverter to the back of the booth. A set of Harbor Freight jumper cables with the clamps cut off provided the heavy duty wire from the batteries to the inverter.

All of the small hardware for the mirrors, surface mounted lights, grab handles, etc. were painted .

I used a heavy duty industrial black paint, and the silver is the same high temp silver we used on the stove top. Two of the black handles were mounted by the mirrors to aid in cleaning the windshield. I bought another pair that were similar to mount on the doors.

All of the clips that hold the windows in were painted gloss white, as were the brackets for the pantry shelves.

Wifey found a local vendor who made vinyl decals. After many unsuccessful attempts for her to find the same font that the bus originally had for the SCHOOL BUS, I ended up designing it in Google Sketchup and sent it to her. They turned out perfect!

We chose "Here's To Us" because of a song by Halestorm that resonates with us. Here is a link to the video: Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC0DNLDXJW8

 

Once the freshly painted hardware was installed, it was time to tackle the front bumper, which had some pretty bad rust, and I didn't have time to clean it up before we painted the rest of the black on the bus.

I used a 4" grinder on the worst parts, and a wire wheel on the rest. I then sprayed primer on it.

I then used industrial high pigment fleet paint, which was very thick, and covered the bumper nicely.

I gave the wheels the same treatment, as they were also pretty rusty.

They turned out just about as nice as the bumper.

It's all coming together, and really looking good!

The Ohio State color scheme was a happy accident.

The actual inspiration for the colors was a shirt we bought Logan for his 6th grade band concert.

The Thomas badge was polished, reinstalled with pop rivets, and then the background was freshened up with a Sharpie.

More On The Floor.

Once all the painting was done, we resumed work on the interior.

The rest of the bead board was installed in the front of the bus.

I placed a string down the center of the bus, sprayed paint over it, and began placing the peel and stick floor tiles diagonally down the center.

Once the center tiles were in place, we filled in the rest.

Seems like a shame that we will cover this beautiful floor with a full size bed.

The diagonal run helps to break up the length of the bus.

With the new floor down, we could install the cabinets and booth permanently.

The swivel rockers fit nicely, and are strapped in for transport. We will unstrap them and spread them out once we arrive at our destination.

The cabinets were anchored to the wall, the counter top and back splash was installed, and then the stove top, which Brandyn cleaned up and painted with high temp grill paint. I also installed the faucet.

We ordered a table pedestal online, and after some modification, it worked perfectly. Brackets also attach the table to the wall to keep it secure

We purchased a few air mattresses to get us by on the first trip. Eventually, we will have some custom foam mattresses made for all 4 bunks.

I installed some carpet transition trim up front where the tile meets the rubber floor, and some stair tread trim covers up the visible underlayment in the stairwell.

Another piece of the stair tread trim was installed at the back door.