Converting A School Bus To A Tour/Shuttle Bus By Sanding and Repainting

Projects & Repairs --> Restoration --> School Bus Conversion

Converting A School Bus
To A Shuttle/Tour Bus

Painting The Short Bus Red Makes It Special... In A Good Way

In This Article:

All the lights and body hardware are removed, the old paint is stripped were needed, the surface is sanded, then the bus is painted.

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Skill Level: 4-5 (Advanced to Professional)

Time Taken: About 200 Man-Hours

By Jim Wilk, Licensed Auto Body Technician

Start:

The owner of this 1994 school bus wanted to convert it to a vehicle suitable for giving wine tours and ski tours around Northern Michigan.

That meant a color change was needed, for a start. But before the bus could be repainted, we needed to clean up some surface problems.

To complicate our jobs further, the owner wanted the bus ready for her first tour, a St. Patrick's Day pub crawl. Of course, that means a deadline of March 17th. We started this job on March 1st.

That sounds like a reasonable task for three guys... but we had a LOT of other work to complete during that time period.

As we looked closer we found some rusty areas, but it was mainly surface rust.

Sometimes the big 'ol school bus seemed out-of-place around our shop, since we had Cadillac limo, a 72 Pontiac Firebird and an extremely rare Bocar to work on.

School bus sharing workshop with Bocar, Firebird, Caddy limo.

Removing decal lettering from old school bus.

I covered the windshield to protect it. Then I removed the lights from the top, marking each one so it could be re-installed in the right spot. I marked all the wires too.

To prevent mistakes later, I stored the front lights in their own box, and the rear lights in another box.

To remove the lettering, I used a heat gun and a razor-scraper. I warmed up the decal and used the razor to get under the edge of the vinyl, and the letters just pulled right off.

After the front was disassembled, I started working on the rear.

Conversion school bus wth rear lights removed.

There are a LOT of lights on the back of a school bus.

Using an eraser wheel mounted in an ordinary electric drill, I removed the rest of the decals.

This 3M eraser wheel can be purchased at most auto-body supply shops.

Removing decal letters with eraser wheel.

These eraser wheels remove decals and glue residue without damaging the paint.

But remember not to press too hard. It's important to press lightly and let the eraser wheel do the work. Also... hold the drill with both hands because this tool has a tendency to get away from you.

That unpredictable nature is why I did not use it above the windshield... it would be too easy to slip and drop the drill on the glass.

The work in progress was examined by the real boss (the one with the checkbook).

We also reassured Kim that her bus would ready for her "maiden voyage"... a St. Patrick's Day pub crawl.

Bus with paint stripped from front-top area.

I decided to strip the top front all the way to bare metal, because there were so many chips in the paint.

The rear of the bus was stripped where necessary.

Stripped paint from rear of school bus for converting to tour bus.

Stripping automotive paint to bare metal.

Stripping all this paint was not an easy job.

The front was easier to strip because it had been chipped so badly.

I spent a lot of time sanding the roof of this bus.

Sanding the roof of used school bus to prepare for repainting.

Working on school bus roof is easier when standing on roof.

I never figured this would be the way I would get up in the world.

After doing a lot of sanding while standing on the ladder, I just climbed up on the roof to work. It was much easier to move around.

Sandpaper Grit:

I used 80 grit sandpaper on a pneumatic dual-action (DA) sander for the areas that needed to be sanded down to bare metal. Everywhere else I used 150 grit sandpaper.

Bob made metal patches and welded them in to the rusted areas.