school bus conversion

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Window Tint Removal and Application

August 6, 2018 by Claire Edwards 2 Comments

Our Toyota Coaster windows are already tinted, so why would we want to change it? Well, we are a little bit special that way and like things to be new and clean. So Shane and I decided it would be a great idea to replace the old, tired window tint in the bus with new ‘do it yourself’ window tint. As with everything we have done so far, we thought, ‘how hard could it be?’. Well I can tell you, the window tint removal was fun. Turns out when you follow instructions, it can be hard to the point of stamping your feet and crumpling the tint up into a ball. Yep, as you can see towards the end of the video, that is what happened.

So back to the decision of window tint. We purchased Altrex extra dark smoke 5% from our local Supercheap Auto store. This is a super dark tint, with only 5% of light being allowed in.

We decided to go with the darkest tint we could find, for the windows that were going to be directly behind the bathroom cubicle and the fridge. We did not want to be able to look in from the outside of the bus and see the back of these.

The Removal Process –

Removing the old window tint was the first step.

I had purchased a scraper blade from our local hardware shop, Bunnings, and had planned to just scrape it off. I began by removing the window lock using a phillips head screwdriver and taking out two screws. I set this aside to put back on after the new window tint was in place. You can leave the window lock on and cut the tint around it, but I found that the ease in removing it was much more convenient than trying to work around it.

I then began to scrape the window tint off piece by piece. Two hours, and half the window tint later, I decided no more. There must be an easier way; that’s when I turned to Google.

Heat.

I found a hair dryer, heated the edges of the window tint and used my scraper to start a peel. It worked. What had taken me so long on my own, took only 15 minutes to complete the rest of the window with the hair dryer. Time for the next window.

Once the old tint was removed from all of the windows we decided on, they were cleaned with ammonia free glass cleaner to get them ready for the new tint. We are not sure why it was necessary to have ammonia free glass cleaner; the instructions said so and we decided it would be best to follow them, just in case. We wiped the windows with paper towel so as not to leave any dust or marks.

New Tint Application, First Try –

The process was supposed to be simple. We purchased all the items required –

Tint
Bucket
Mild dish washing liquid (Mix approximately a cap full with 4 litres of water and fill spray bottle)
Spray Bottle
Squeegee
Utility knife
Large 60cm ruler
Clear tape
Ammonia free window cleaner
Paper Towel
Cleaning Cloth
Butchers paper for the outline
Marker

The instructions said, measure twice, cut once.

So that’s what we did. We measured the window, drew it up on the butcher’s paper, and cut out the paper only to reveal it was too small. Time to measure again. This piece looked better. We then placed our piece of butcher’s paper up against the new tint, cut around it, and left approximately 1 centimeter around the entire outside. This was just in case there were any issues, and it could be trimmed later.

The next step was a bit fiddly. The new tint has a thin protective layer which once removed, meant that we could adhere it to the window. Using 2 pieces of sticky tape on either side of the tint, and pulling gently, it allowed us to separate it. Once we had done that just a little, we wet the window and tint with a mixture of dish washing liquid and water in a spray bottle. While ever the window and tint were wet, you could move it easily. We learnt this probably a bit too late; our first attempt started to dry and no matter what we did, we could not get it to line up.

It was so difficult! This is where I ended up stamping and crinkling it into a ball.

Our piece of tint was too small. It didn’t work. Measure twice, cut once they said. It didn’t work!

Back to the drawing board.

New Tint Application, Second Try –

We decided not to measure the window up this time. It was time to ‘wing it’.

We held the tint up against the window and cut a piece big enough to fit with plenty of excess around the edges. We decided it would be easier to just trim around the edges once in place. We separated it, and kept it completely wet throughout so it did not crinkle as we got it in place, and stuck it on. And… it worked! Our way worked! Once it was in place, we used the squeegee on the new tint. Shane gently pressed it, and pushed all the water to the outside edges to get it flat, remove the air bubbles and all excess water from underneath.

The utility knife was then used to cut around the edges of the excess tint and make it a nice clean edge.

It was done. And with our way, the second and third windows were complete without issues.

And for a ‘do it yourself’ job, it looked fantastic! We were super happy and decided that possibly one day, definitely not too soon, we would do the rest of the windows, just not as dark.

So that was the window tint. The final step before we could mark out our layout in the bus and start framing!

The Layout –

We have talked about our design before and what we want in our bus. It was finally time to tape it up on the bus floor and get an idea of where we stand. Both Shane and I had been wanting to get to this step for so long. We wanted to see if everything we had discussed and hoped would actually work.

The day was beginning to fade so this would be our last job before leaving. We got out our plan, measured and taped it out. It started to look real.

Thankfully, just about everything we had talked about and measured worked. We will go through this in more details once we start framing, but it was just exciting to get it up and running!

Keep an eye out for next time, the exciting stuff begins!

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Insulation

June 21, 2018 by Claire Edwards 2 Comments

Still to this day, after removing seats, building grey water tank mounts, and sweltering through 45 degree days, our Toyota Coaster bus conversion insulation remains one of the most annoying and hated jobs we have done!

The Insulation –

The insulation we chose for the bus was Earthwool with an R value of 2.5. It is very similar to the insulation we decided on for the walls. The only difference is it has a slightly higher R value. It is the same thickness of 90mm and was a very similar cost.

One of our subscribers on our Youtube channel suggested we could use a polyester insulation, easier to use and not as many consequences as the glasswool. This is something we looked into, but decided for cost, it was a better option for us to use the Earthwool and make sure we were adequately prepared.

The Process –

Learning our lessons from the wall insulation, today I came prepared. Full long sleeves, pants, mask and glasses were a must. Well I almost came fully prepared, I forgot gloves. When using your hands, gloves are extremely helpful to keep the insulation out of your skin.

Installing the insulation really is a simple job, just a little bit time consuming. I found it easiest to use scissors this time rather than tearing like the wall insulation. Whilst it was more time consuming, it was much neater and there was less waste.

I cut piece by piece, measuring with my hands as I was going. The insulation on the curved edges of the roof did not require any glue to hold in place as they fit snuggly into the metal edges.

For the insulation on the middle, flat part of the roof, I used a small amount of liquid nails and held it in place for a moment just to set the adhesive a little before letting go.

Now, do not do what I did. I tried to put the liquid nails directly onto the roof… and it came back down all over me. Of course, if I had thought about it, this wouldn’t have happened. But it did. It is definitely best to put the liquid nails directly onto the insulation, then place it on the roof.

When all the larger pieces were done, I went back and used offcuts to fill any of the smaller gaps.

It was as simple as that.

The result –

Pain!

Even though I was careful and had protective clothing, I did not wear my glasses all the time. I also at one point removed my mask and wiped my face with my hand. Mistake! A word of caution, wear glasses and do not wipe your face unless you have cleaned your hands. The result was glasswool all through my face and eyes. Itchy and sore for days!

Our Toyota Coaster bus conversion insulation however, looked great. The roof insulation is finally done, and that leaves us one step closer to completion!

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Installing Wall Insulation

April 5, 2018 by Claire Edwards 3 Comments

With only a few hours today, we wanted to finish our bus insulation. We still needed to remove the remaining roof insulation and then it was time to start on the wall insulation.

Roof Insulation Removal –

Finally, time to finish the roof insulation removal. This was a huge step for us and both Shane and I were so excited to finish it; it meant it would be time to start putting new things in the bus instead of removing the old.

After our last trip to the bus when we started the roof insulation removal, we received a tip from one of our subscribers suggesting we use Goo Off – Goo and Stain Remover to help with removing the old glue. It was a great idea. Previously we had tried to use this on the floor but, because of the public holidays over Easter, we didn’t get a chance to purchase any. We still wanted to mention this just for anyone else struggling with removing the glue.

There have been so many frustrating jobs on the bus so far but the original bus insulation is one that sticks with me – using a paint scraper we pulled it off, piece by piece.

Finally, it was done. No more original fire attracting bus insulation!

Installing Wall Insulation –

Finally something going in the bus rather than coming out! This is what we were looking forward to.

Our Toyota Coaster bus originally didn’t have wall insulation so we are hoping it will make a big difference.

Shane and I decided on a wool insulation from our local hardware store Bunnings. We chose this one for a couple of reasons – price, thickness, and insulation rating.

After researching what others were using, we decided whilst the more expensive options seemed good, they had the same ‘R’ value as the cheaper options. ‘R’ value is basically a measuring system where the higher the ‘R’ value, the better the insulating and thermal properties it has.

Of course we wanted the highest ‘R’ value as possible – 5.0. We quickly learnt that this was not an option. With wool, the higher ‘R’ value, the thicker the insulation. We didn’t have room for this and didn’t want to protrude into the bus too much.

We opted for an Earthwool with an ‘R’ value of 2.0. Even this had a thickness of 90mm, so we concerned this would be too thick, however it was cheap enough that we were willing to try.

It was extremely easy to tear apart and fit into the walls in the bus. We did decide to use a little bit of adhesive to keep it in place, but learnt quickly this is not necessary. I strongly recommend using masks, gloves and long sleeves. The earthwool is made from recycled glass and little particles get in everywhere. We had masks but didn’t prepare with long sleeves and when we do the roof, we have learnt our lesson and will make sure we are better prepared.

After it started to come together, we both agreed we could have gone with something thicker; the wool condenses so much that a thicker insulation would have been fine.

Undecided, we may cover this in foam board for an additional layer. Our plan at this stage for our roof insulation is again wool, and then foam board so we can get better insulation.

The whole process only took around an hour and it was done. We were surprised how quick we managed to finish it and we excited we were finally moving forward.

Our plan for next time – window tinting, new door installation and roof insulation. Keen!

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Floor Installation and Wheelchair Lift Dismantle

March 8, 2018 by Shane Patmore 3 Comments

There are some days that are just disappointing and our last day on our Toyota Coaster had us walking away with a frown. Not today, today would be great. We just knew it. Our goal was to dismantle our wheelchair lift and replace our damaged sub-floor.

The wheelchair access in our Toyota Coaster was at the rear of our bus, and opens like a ”clam shell’. It is not a standard lift however, and when discussing with people who install the wheel chair ramps, they stated it looked like it actually came off a Ford van or similar, and was made to fit the Coaster.

As it was made to fit, it has been completely welded to the chassis. Of course we would pick one with something non-standard and difficult to remove. Either way, we decided to still give it a go, and remove what we could.

Dismantling the wheelchair lift –

The easiest place to start was the hand rail, and fold out ramp. These were held in place by a few bolts and were easily removed.

This now just left the main lift. There was a steel plate on the main lift area, and underneath it ran all of the electrics. The electrics looked like they were connecting each bit of the lift, and needed to be disconnected for us to be able to remove the pieces. So it made sense that we had to start by removing the steel plate.

A lot of the small screws in the steel plate were threaded so it took a fair amount of effort and frustration to try and undo them. Two of the screws were unable to be taken out and a grinder was required to cut the heads off.

After all of the screws were removed, we were able to remove the steel plate. This allowed us to access the electrics underneath.

We were right. The wires ran under the metal plate and linked everything together.

After reviewing the wires (and much to my disagreement!) Shane decided to cut the wires leading to the first piece of wheelchair lift he detached.

‘Check it’ he says. Of course I was not surprised to find it no longer worked. Shane had broken the electrical circuit and now we were stuck with the wheelchair lift down. This became priority number one now as without the electrics, there was no manual way that we were aware of to be able to close it again.

To fix this, Shane got some female insulated electrical blade terminals and a switch. He stripped the wires back, crimped the terminals on and connected them to the switch.

For anyone out there like me who doesn’t understand that, he basically fixed the broken circuit by adding a new end and reattaching it to where he had cut it off from before. Kind of like cutting a circle, taking part of it away, and reattaching the ends to make a smaller circle.

So now the pieces of the lift had all been disconnected, and the electrical circuit was fixed, we were only left with the ‘clam shell’ doors.

Replacing the Sub-Floor –

If you haven’t read the previous post to this one, Shane and I had some damaged sub-floor at the rear of our Toyota Coaster motorhome. Water had leaked in via some damaged seals, and the back 30cm needed replacing.

If you want to see how we removed the damaged sub-floor, you can read about it here.

It was now time to replace the floor with some new wood.

The original sub-floor we removed was 15mm thick. We wanted to replace this with marine plywood in case there were any future leaks. Unfortunately, we were unable to find 15mm marine ply to replace it. We decided to buy 6mm and 9mm marine ply which we would glue together to make the 15mm.

So how did we do it?

Start by measuring the wood, and mark it up with a dark sharpie (or similar).
Use some clamps, and secure the wood to a solid and stable spot ready for cutting.
Use a jigsaw to cut along your marked lines.
Make sure the wood fits into position, and adjust and cut as necessary.
Once the wood is ready, remove it from position and spray the metal floor of the bus with some sort of Rustguard and allow to dry.
Apply a layer of liquid nails to the metal of the floor, ready for the new wood to sit on top.
Lay down the first layer of wood, and then apply more liquid nails in between the layers, and place the second layer of wood into position.
Place something heavy on top, and allow to sit until set.

The sun was setting and it was time to reflect on the day we had had. The day started well. Then after multiple trips to the shops and the issues with the electrics we were feeling quite certain it was going to be another day of disappointment.

But it wasn’t!

We fixed the wheelchair lift and removed what we could. We cut all the wood, and replaced the sub-floor. It was a day of teamwork with our wheelchair lift and sub-floor, and we got there.

It all went well, except our sunburn… that was another story!

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Bus Heater Plugging, Sub-Floor Removal and More!

February 14, 2018 by Claire Edwards Leave a Comment

So you have decided to do your own bus conversion, and you’ve gotten to the point where you are needing to do all those small miscellaneous jobs. It’s the things no one ever talks about and you should just ‘know’. But really, it never is that simple. And that’s what this post is for us; the small jobs we had to work out on our own for our Toyota Coaster, and now we can share them with you.

Heater Plugging –

Time to plug the heaters that we removed in the middle of the floor in our bus. If you haven’t already read it and need to, you can check out our post here where explain how to remove these heaters.

Since we removed them, we have had a few people ask us how we went about plugging the heaters in our Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion. Well we can tell you it was a success.

School bus conversion - heater plugging - Toyota Coaster conversion

Shane started by hopping underneath the bus and traced the heater hoses back towards the engine bay until he found where they clamped onto some metal pipes.
Then, he cut the hoses approximately 10cm from this join and, using a bucket, let the coolant drain out until empty.
After this, he then plugged them with 19mm rubber plugs (purchased from Bunnings) and sealed the ends with hose clamps.

We have not had any issues with overheating or coolant leaks, so can confirm for us the heater plugging was a success.

Sub-Floor Removal –

Claire measuring the damaged sub floor - Toyota Coaster converison

If your sub-floor has any damage, it may be a good idea to replace it now during the conversion, rather than needing to deal with it later.

Our standard Toyota Coaster sub floor was in quite good condition. However the rear 30cm or so had water damage from a leaking seal. So Shane and I both decided the most cost effective method would be to replace just the back 30cm with water damage.

Start by removing any seals, and measuring the back portion you want to cut out. For us, this was 30cm across the rear.
Remove anything that may prevent you from cutting the floor up.

We had some wheelchair seating mounts which needed removing. These are the mounts that were used to hold the seats in at the back of the bus; the seats that were removable to put a wheelchair in if necessary. These were a little tricky to remove; I used an allen key on top of the mount to hold it in place, while Shane unbolted a nut underneath the bus. WD40 was our best friend here. We used a lot of it to loosen the nuts and remove the 4 bolts off each mount. If we were not replacing our sub-floor, we would not have bothered to remove these mounts as they will be located under what will be our bed. However, we decided that considering we were replacing the subfloor, it would be easier to remove these now. Other we would need to cut and shape the new floor around them.

It is time now to measure the depth of the wood. We measured our sub floor depth by taking multiple measurements at different levels and established it was around 15mm thick. Due to the water damage and age of the wood, one measurement could not be relied upon accurately.
Now it was time to remove the wood. We set the circular saw to a depth of around 12mm. Close enough we should be able to pry the wood off; not too deep as to touch the metal of the bus underneath. We cut as much as we could with the circular saw, and used a crowbar, chisel, and anything else we could to scrape the remainder of the wood off.

So this was our experience of removing our sub-floor. If you want to continue reading about our new sub-floor installation, check out our next post here.

Shane replacing the damaged sub-floor - Toyota Coaster conversion

Seal Replacement –

Now that the damaged sub-floor was removed, we had to fix the leaking seals prior to laying the new floor.

This part was easy; at the back of our bus we have a wheelchair access door. The seals were old, dry and cracked. It’s important to fix the issue otherwise you will continue to have problems later.

We were able to purchase auto seals from our local hardware store. We purchased Goliath rubber seals. It was a simple task to cut the old cracked seal and push the new seal on in its place, ensuring a snug fit.

Sub-floor Hole Sealing and Filling –

Our Toyota Coaster motorhome sub-floor had a few holes – this was expected after the seat, heater, hand railings, and trim removal!

Shane and Claire sealing the sub-floor - Toyota Coaster conversion

In NSW, it is a requirement that a vehicle not have any holes. So be able to get signed off by the engineer, we had to fill any visible holes. Not only this, but we want it to be completely waterproof.

As this was a bus we are converting to a home, we decided to use a sealant suitable for wet areas (just in case there are ever any leaks!).

After research, we decided on Selleys 100% Wet Area Silicone Sealant in white. Even though the sealant won’t be seen underneath the floor, we chose white in case we decided to use it for our bathroom.

For the larger holes (particularly the ones from the heater plugs we removed earlier), we purchased a thin sheet of aluminium and tin snips, and cut some small rectangle pieces.
Once these pieces of aluminium were ready, we placed a layer of silicone around each hole, and used it to adhere the aluminium in place.
We also used the silicone to seal around the edges of all the subfloor, and joins in between.

Claire using tin snips and filling holes in our Toyota Coaster conversion

So these are just a few of those jobs that no one ever talks about. Glad we can finally say they are done!

Make sure you subscribe to hear more about our Toyota Coaster conversion, or watch us in action below ?

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Floor Plan – Designing Your Home

January 23, 2018 by Claire Edwards 4 Comments

One of the first steps to converting a Toyota Coaster to a motorhome is coming up with a floor plan.

Designing the floor plan for your motorhome can be tough but getting it right will save you time and effort during the building stages.

First, you need to decide what you want out of your conversion.

What will make it feel like home? What do you need to survive?

Will you need the essentials to survive off grid, or will you be somewhere with amenities most nights that you don’t need to worry? We have had many discussions about this… or should I say arguments? Our Toyota Coaster motorhome plan is something we have been thinking about non-stop since purchasing our new bus.

Shane and I both want the finer things in life, normally reserved for a large house, squeezed into our beautiful bus to be taken on the road. This was a tough one for us. We had to think about what was really important; what was a necessity, rather than a want. We needed to work on minimalising our current life to fit everything we own in a 10 metre squared living area.

Our wants

Shane’s wants was his home theatre room. For me, it was a dressing table. How do you go about fitting a home theatre room and a dressing table in a Toyota Coaster motorhome?

Short answer, you can’t. There has to be compromises.

We have had to design the bus so we still had a large enough lounge to rug up on and watch a good movie or two, with a reasonable size TV and soundbar. Despite Shane’s best efforts, a 43inch TV would not fit.

For the dressing table, a large mirror on the closet, and some internal storage space was the best compromise to make sure we were getting what we wanted.

I guess this is all what it comes down to; deciding on what you need to make you happy and comfortable and what is something you can compromise on.

Our needs

And then of course there are the necessities. The things we need to live, to survive.

We have all the standard plans for a nice fridge, oven, stove, washing machine and toilet. We know we will require a lot of storage in our Toyota Coaster motorhome and have worked out how we will achieve this with what space we have; under bed and lounge storage, above head cupboards and built ins where possible.

There will be gas bottles and solar, a hot water system, water tanks and batteries, all the requirements to live off the grid and spend most of our time free camping.

It may sound a bit cliché, but the best place to start is to write a list. Ours looks a little like this –

Needs	Wants
Off grid system Enough solar, and water storage capacity to survive for minimum 4 days or so if necessary	Large, comfortable lounge
Shower and toilet	“Home theatre” area
Kitchen – sink, fridge, oven, microwave etc	Blender, slow cooker
Proper mattress	Full length mirror + Dressing space
Gas bottles X 2	Washing Machine
Storage	To look like a “home”

Next step is to work out a layout. This is where you need to know your dimensions, so you can accurately draw up your space.

For our Toyota Coaster the dimensions are –

Length – 5.3 metres – (This is the living area length from behind the cabin seats)

Floor Width – 1.87 metres

Height in the centre – 1.83 metres

Width at the middle (Widest point) – 1.98 metres

Then you need to decide if you are going to build it completely custom yourself, or use companies such as Noq Noq RV fit outs, or DIY RV Solutions to help you with your build. There are a lot of flat pack options, even from hardware shops such as Bunnings or Ikea that can be integrated into a build.

Putting it all together – Creating a Toyota Coaster floor plan

This is how the floor plan looked for our Toyota Coaster.

Photo of drawn up plan for our Toyota Coaster bus conversion.

Once these decisions are made, it is time to take everything from your list, and make it work in your floor plan.

We opted to go completely custom, and build everything ourselves. The only thing we decided against doing ourselves, was a bathroom cubicle which was purchased from Custom Coaster Conversions. As this is a wet area, we didn’t want to struggle with water leaks so went with an all in one design.

Research here is key.

Websites like Pinterest have been invaluable when it comes to planning and designing our bus. There is loads of inspiration and it gave us so many ideas we may never have thought of. A gas lift bed with storage underneath, a couch that slides out to a sofa bed, and a slide out extension to our kitchen bench. We created a board, https://www.pinterest.com.au/roamingonrubber/ideas-for-our-bus-conversion/, to save and keep these ideas for inspiration. Other sources of inspiration were blogs like this one, Instagram and Facebook groups of like-minded people.

Downloading and reading the installation manuals for appliances will also help make sure you plan correctly. For example, after reading our oven manual we had to move it away from the fridge as it could not be next to any other appliances.

What we have learnt

We didn’t specify on our layout where we would install things like our gas bottles, electrical system, hot water heater etc. This was a rather large mistake as we constantly had to make changes on the fly when we would learn new information.

It also meant we didn’t cut holes in the bus prior to walls being installed, making the job harder.

A good idea is to plan for these things first, that way you can cut holes early. It also allows you to run wiring and pipes in the wall cavities. Something we also were not planned for.

Weight distribution is something that must be considered. We thought about weight between the passenger and drivers sides. But didn’t think enough about weight behind the rear wheels. This has caused the back of our bus to be lower to the ground then usual.

We thought going completely custom was going to be the best option for us. However, there were a few issues.

We couldn’t get the nice finishes on our cupboards that we wanted, so ended up going to a cabinet maker to make them for us. This ended up being fairly expensive.

Our kitchen area was designed to look sleek with cupboards. As these cupboards were all custom built, they were not built to standard sizes. This meant any slide out drawer or tray did not fit, or at least did not fit correctly; especially cutlery inserts.

If we were to do it again, we would probably plan for and buy a flat pack kitchen and reinforce it.

Time. Time is huge. Whilst we thought doing things custom would look better and save us money, we didn’t quite realise how much additional time it would take us; all the extra research and finding things that would work, and then physically having to make everything. This can be a major impact if you are on a time limit.

So whilst planning your layout is definitely a must for your bus conversion, it is also good to know how different things can impact you and your build.

Knowing what you need to have and how much space you have is a must. Then deciding on how you want to achieve your results, and what timeframe you need to do it in are important steps.

So many things took so much longer than we expected, but having a good solid floor plan is the best way to ensure you reach your goals, and get what you want.

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