Updated 1/17/11 (added dash AC information
to page 6)
Updated 2/19/12 (added front jack information to page 4)
Our
1985 Eagle 10 Bus Conversion Project
Page 1
This photo
was taken in Apache Junction, AZ in October, 2006
For those of you who have
followed my bus project pages, it has been a long hard struggle over a five year
period. However, all of that hard work has paid off!! In March of
2006 we took off on our maiden voyage. We went to California for a cruise
that Pat had earned and a trade show in Pomona (FMCA). We also got to do
some sightseeing along the way.
If you want to see what was
involved with this project AND have lots of time to spare <grin> READ ON!
Note: the
remainder of the photos on
these project pages are thumbnail. If you click on them, you will see a
larger view.
Usage
Statistics
Maiden
voyage |
March 6,
2006 |
Statistics
Update |
January 17,
2011 |
Total
nights spent in Bus |
635 |
Total miles
driven |
over 60,000 |
Sates the
bus has been in |
28 |
States
Visited in Bus as of 1/17/11
Project
Summary
Inspection: |
June 2000 |
Purchase: |
October 2000 |
Arrival at our house: |
December 19,2000 |
Hours spent on conversion as of 10/26/06:
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2,350 hours is my best estimate. I am updating
this while on the road and don't have my log book with me, but the
last update had 1955 hours and I have estimated the additional hours.
This does not include all the
thinking, design and parts chasing time!!! |
Last project page update: |
10/26/06 |
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12/19/2000
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8/16/2003
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Background
The
photo, above left, was taken at 9:45 AM on December 19, 2000. Jim had just
driven the bus from Mineral Wells Texas to our home in Evergreen. We first
looked at the bus in June 2000. We purchased it during our sixth Bus Conversion
Convention (Laughlin Nevada - October 15, 2000).
The
photo on the right shows the exterior as of August 2003. All signs of its
previous "commercial life" have been removed. The exterior will remain in this
condition for about a year while we continue to work on the conversion and start
to enjoy traveling. The paint between the ship lap aluminum siding and the
windows is semi-gloss white primer that looks pretty good.
Eagle
buses were very popular as entertainer buses in the ‘70s and 80’s and you still
see them today. They were famous for their rubber torsion springs that gave a
very smooth ride combined with superior handling.
The bus
was originally owned by the Houston Metro Transit Authority. It is a fairly low
mileage bus (<500K miles). It has a 6V92 Detroit two stroke diesel pusher
engine and a Voith automatic transmission. It is 40 feet long and 8 feet wide.
Our
plans are to do a quick conversion so that the unit is fully functional and
comfortable. We hope to have it in use in the second quarter of 2001. We will
then use it in that condition for about two years while we plan the full
conversion and Jim attempts to complete at least one of his car projects!
(Editor's note: YEAH, RIGHT!! - read on
as to how quickly a "quick conversion" goes)
Well,
here it is December 2003 and I am still behind on this project (what’s new?).
Even though I am semi-retired, I have been kept very busy with consulting,
setting up a new business, and various other projects. I have also been pretty
busy with lots of family activities All of that, together with a bit of
procrastination sure adds up to a project that continues to defy the projected
schedule. However, I am making progress and should be on the road in early Feb.
2004.
If you
looked at the bus today you would not begin to think that it had that much work
in it.
Lets
take a look at some of the activity in chronological order:
The project
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Interior as received
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interior stripped
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February 2001.
Stripped out the interior of the overhead racks and cut out the heater ducts.
During this time I also worked on the battery/starter problems, installed a
block heater and worked on the design of the water tanks.
March/April 2001.
Removed all of bus air
conditioner and heating hardware and removed two piece air operated entry door.
I also installed a new air compressor and dryer for the airbrake system as well
as relocating the “wet tank”. Each of these jobs were quite messy and
difficult.
May/June 2001.
Primary work this period included checking and repairing wheel bearings/seals,
building a one piece front door and installation of a more conventional fuel
filling system. Each of these items are documented in more detail below.
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Hubs with new studs
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new wheel seals
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Several
of the wheel seals were leaking. I pulled the hubs and drums and installed new
parts as necessary. While the front and bogey hubs were off, I installed new,
longer, studs so that aluminum wheels could be installed at a later date.
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Drill and tap for speedo
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Lower tube for new door
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Fitting door to jam
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Door striker plate
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The
speedometer on the bus did not work (common problem). As a result, I purchased
an aftermarket unit that uses two studs mounted in the drum of the driver front
wheel. These studs pass by a magnetic pickup in order to send a pulse to the
speedometer. The picture above shows me tapping a hole for the stud. Note
(1/1/04): I did not feel comfortable with the holes in the brake drum and
later had to replace on of the drums. I moved this drum to the bogey and
put the new drum in it's place. On the new drum, I welded the studs on
with a mig welder which keeps the heat to a minimum.
The two
piece air operated door of the Eagles is a big problem. Often they don’t work
well and they take up a big part of the opening. I built a new one piece door.
As you can see from the third photo from the left, the door must be curved to match the
contour of the bus. The door frame is 1 1/4 inch square steel tubing. I cut
multiple notches in the tubing to form the curves. Also, typical RV type door
latches are not very strong. I bought a Freightliner truck door and used all of
the hardware—makes a very strong latch. The striker plate hardware is shown
on the right. For the hinge, I used a large stainless steel “piano” hinge and built a
special plate, welded to the bus vertical frame tube, that has blind nuts for
attaching the hinge.
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Starting opening for left fuel door
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Repaired left fuel filler
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The
fuel filling system is quite a story unto itself. The Houston Metro fleet
used a special quick connect system with the filler on the passenger side only.
Apparently, they would hook up the hose and come back a half hour later to a
filled bus. Worked well for them, but not so well for me. When I tried to fill
the tank on my way home from Dallas, it was painfully slow and the truck type
filler nozzles would just barely fit. The standard Eagle buses had a much
larger fill system with filling capability on both sides of the bus. I
purchased, used, all of the hardware needed to convert to a standard system.
The installation was extremely difficult. The parts that bolted to the tank
were almost impossible to get to (located up under the bus just in front of the
rear end and only enough room for one arm). I had to cut a new opening in the
left side of the bus and weld in the new filler box. Before I could do that, I
had to repair the purchased box, because it came out of a very rusted old bus.
The filler box on the right side had to be replaced as well. It was not in too
bad of shape and went in much easier than the left box.
July 2001. This month
I finished the door structure and worked on the driver’s window frame (see below
for reason). I also
ground all of the paint off the side between the windows and the aluminum siding
in order to remove the decals and some pretty bad paint.
When I
ordered the RV type windows for the bus, two of them were for the door and a
matching one for the drivers window. Because of the door size, the drivers
window had to be re-framed in order to make it the proper size.
August 2001 to April 2002.
I did not get much done during these months. My work schedule was very hectic
and I spent quite a bit of time on some of my other projects. Never really
ignored the project, as I kept buying parts and thought a lot about various
sub-projects. Also kept up with all of the bus related internet activities.
April/May 2002. Well,
I started back on the bus again. During these two months, I began work on the
generator sound box, built the rear bed platform, reinforced the rusted tubing
in the frame and started building the wall dividers. I will add a little detail
on some of those activities below.
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Bed frame beams
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Bed frame and insullation
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I had
made a decision to build the bed frame with a structure that would raise the
engine area opening 13 inches. I also opened up the area drastically to allow
better engine access. By raising the engine bay, I will be able to install a
late model four stroke truck engine if I win the lottery. In the mean time it
makes working on the engine components much easier. Since I removed quite a bit
of floor structure, I made the bed base frames as trusses and then covered them
with 1/8 inch steel plate. Obviously, that is a case of overkill, but what else
would you expect of an engineer on his own project. The frame for the mattress
was made out of 1 1/4 inch square steel tubing sandwiched with 3/8 inch
plywood. In between is sheet foam insulation. The mattress frame will be
hinged to allow access to the engine.
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Rear cross member reinforcement
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Bed frame and cross member
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5
4
Another
provision for an engine swap down the road was the build a rear cross member
reinforcement beam. This was made of square tubing and then 1/8 inch plate was
welded on both sides. The reinforcement beam was then welded to the existing
beam. The design was such that the existing beam could later be cut and removed
from the bus to allow the new engine to fit and yet the structure would still be
as strong as the original design. The picture on the left shows the completed
bed structure and the new rear cross member in place. You will also see some
very large angle iron running along the sides of the wall. This was to
reinforce some areas that had rusted. More about that in the next paragraph.
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Rust at floor level
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Tube and angle reinforcement
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Insullation and double tubes
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Plywood walls
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As noted
previously, I had to do some reinforcing where some frame tubes had rusted. The
photo above show the worst area. Eagles are pretty famous for having rust
problems. I had inspected most of the normal places and did not find anything
significant. Because I had planned to do a quick conversion, I had not planned
to remove the existing lower wall covering. However, I thought I ought to just
make a quick check and the rest is history.
This
particular rust comes from water/condensation. running off the windows and down
the inside of the wall. Some people simply remove the tubes and weld in new
ones. That can be done if you remove the skin of the bus, but I was not doing
that. Instead, I cleaned up all of the rust, painted POR 15 rust killer and
then special primer on all of the tubes. Then I welded 3 inch angle iron the
full length of both sides of the bus. I welded the angle iron to the wall tubes
and floor beams. I also “doubled-up” the tubing where the rust was
particularly bad (see picture third from left). (BTW, I have to put this rust into
context — I have seen Eagles where the tubes were almost nonexistent for several
inches above the floor, so my rust was not real bad).
After
the rust repair was done, I insulated the walls with 1 1/2 inch rigid foam. The
walls were then covered with 3/8 inch plywood.
June/July 2002. This
period I built and installed the trailer hitch, finished up the fuel filler
system, started converting the emergency roof hatches to air conditioning
openings, and started installing the electrical equipment.
Installing a heavy duty trailer hitch in and Eagle is a real challenge. There
is lots of equipment that gets in the way. I made several components that bolt
to the frame side rails and bolt to each other in order to make the unit strong
and removable.
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