Building Bilby

Getting Started

First thing first was stripping the bus, we had to remove the seats, this was quite easy luckily as all the seats had standard sized bolts that were screwed straight into the floor. Then we removed the ugly walls on the side.

Once we had done this it was time to build the bed frame and then our half wall frame.

Decking/ Roof racks

The decking and roof racks were quite simple in the end. We used the Rhino roof racks made for a Toyota Coaster, the small complication we found was that they say the weight limit is 100kg, which put us off at first given we wanted to have 4 people be able to sit up on top. After speaking to someone at Rhino Racks it turns out it is a 100kg weight limit while driving, the actual racks themselves can hold up to 300kg when stationary. So shortly after buying them we bought 5 90x45 lengths of timber and bolted them to the roof racks and then screwed normal decking timbers straight in to the frame.

Painting Bilby

We were given quotes of around $7000 to get Bilby sprayed professionally, however this was not something we could afford to do. We had seen online that heaps of people had done this themselves. After a visit to Bunnings they sent us to Autobarn and Supercheap Auto. After visiting these places we were a bit skeptical about it as they were suggesting that we needed to buy air compressors and hire warehouses and made it seem like it was going to be very difficult. Supercheap sent us to a local auto paint shop (Milsomes Auto Paint, Ferntree Gully).

Milsomes were so positive about being able to do it and gave us a quote of around $200. All we had to do was make sure we had 2 nice days in a row with no wind and no rain. Fortunately that same weekend the weather was looking good. So we went back to Milsomes who set us up with plastic sheets to lay down over the driveway, sanding paper, auto cleaner to use after sanding and then auto paint with primer in it.

All we had to do was wash the bus, then give it a light sand to remove the shiny layer of paint. Masking tape it up, then another wash with a special cleaner and we were good to roll the paint straight on. Two layers of paint and 2 full days later we were done and so so happy with how it turned out. Its not perfect, there are blemishes and little runs of paint that we didn’t quite get right, but overall we were stoked with the color and how great it ended up looking.

The total cost in the end was $180 including all the rollers and paint and extra stuff. We strongly recommend speaking to an auto paint specialist, and the guy at Milsomes was incredibly helpful and optimistic, so we would recommend popping in to see him if you’re in the area, but we also strongly recommend giving it a go yourselves.

Engineering

The engineering side of things was by far the most confusing part of our journey. There were a number of complications with the way we did things as we purchased it as a bus not a motorhome. You have to get an engineering certificate from a Vicroads certified engineer. This list of engineers is on the Vicroads website and that is about all they give you. There is very little info on their website and very little info online. We hope we can shed some light on what we’ve learned. The number one thing we’ve learned is that no one has any idea what the rules are. Every engineer we spoke to gave us different advice and gave us completely different pricing estimates.

Unfortunately for us we wanted to take our time doing the conversion and still wanted to be able to drive it so we registered it as a “van” with Vicroads. This means the vehicle only has seats in the front row. So we were still a 2 seater. The first problem with this is that the bus we bought had a GVM of 5 tonne. In Victoria you have to have a Heavy Vehicle license to drive anything over 4.5tonne. Its important to understand the difference between the Gross Vehicle Mass and the tare weight of a vehicle. This stuff made no sense to us when we started, although boring very important and this is our understanding of it all. The tare is the weight of the bus empty with no passengers or load. Putting it on a set of scales. The gross vehicle mass is a weight decided on by the manufacture based on the design of the vehicle, what its maximum weight can be fully loaded. This means that when we removed 20 of the 22 seats in the bus, we actually removed the ability to carry 20 passengers at approx. 85kg (including luggage). So our estimations were about 5000kg less (20x85) 1700kg = 3300kg less probably 100kg in the weight of the actual seats removed. = 3200kg. Then that means you have about 1299kg to play with, before hitting 4499kg in terms of adding weight in the form of bed frames and kitchens ect. We haven’t ever been into a weighbridge to know exactly what we weigh fully loaded but our GVM is now 4499kg which means anyone can drive Bilby on a car license. This is one of the things we got included in our engineering certificate.

We also decided we wanted two extra seats for friends and family to visit us. As the bus was built before a certain date it didn’t need seatbelts when built, but now converting it to a motorhome we have to have seatbelts. Installing the seatbelts was something we had done professionally and was also included in the cost of the engineering certificate. Then there is the actual conversion of a bus to a motorhome which says that everything has been built safely and adheres to certain design standards. As Liam built most of it we were a bit worried about this aspect. Everything had to be mounted in properly as to not be able to move in the case of an accident.

Radio

The stereo was a tricky one as we had a family member help install it and we weren’t aware that a 24volt bus would mean that a typical radio from JB wouldn’t work without a 24-12v converter installed so this was quite stressful and was a process that we gave up on half way through and came back to at a later date.

Motorcycle/ hitch

We are fortunate enough to have a motorbike on the back which we carry with us which allows us to go off and explore when we have set up camp and can’t drive the bus without fully packing up. It’s also a lot of fun to be able to zip into the nearest town to get milk quickly when we run out. The bike is surprisingly something we get asked a huge amount of questions about. It is only a cheap little bike that cost about $2700 almost brand new. I spent about $300 modifying it including new seat, handlebars, paint job and grips, these gives it a real old school café racer look.

The hitch it self was quite cheap, around $200, however getting it on the bus was the difficult part. All the hitches we could find were made for square tow bars and we unfortunately only had a flat tongue tow bar. We had a welder weld a new square tow bar straight on to the tongue so the hitch could slide straight in and then reinforce the tow bar system under the bus to allow for the extra weight the bike has. This cost us around $450. Then there were trailer lights we needed to get to put on as our bus lights are blocked by the bus. This took us 4 days past the day we were due to leave as the bus is 24volt not 12volt so we couldn’t find lights anywhere. In the end we had to pay an auto elec about $350 to come and fix it for us. So all up around about $1000 and 4 full days of wiring for my poor neighbor.

Progress shots from along the way...

The bed frame and our half wall frame were built shortly after removing the seats.

Then using a recycled fence we built our half wall for some privacy in the bedroom.

After a bit of a play around we decided to put the couch across the bus to cover the wheel bases and give our guests somewhere to sleep.

After the couch was built we worked on the bedroom a little bit and put some more fencing up on the windows to keep out the light and add more privacy in the bedroom while still keeping a great bedroom view.

Next was time to add a kitchen for food and utensils, and a kitchen wall so we could hang stuff and keep a little bit of sun out of the living area.

Then was the tricky part for an inexperienced builder, the cupboards and drawers. Biggest advice would be to get this done properly by a chippy or cabinet maker.

#trip #getaway #America