roof raise

[troy]

Hi looking for any info on best way to raise roof on a 40ft austral tourmaster
and also fibreglass panelling the outside as want to start conversion
Thank You
Cheers
Troy & Kaz

[BruceS]

Troy is it a single axle bus?
Fibreglass is mostly pretty heavy. (in boats anyway)
There's obviously 2 ways to raise the roof.
Pay someone to do it or do it yourself.
Are you pretty handy, got a nice big shed & maybe a friend or 2 close by?
Doing it yourself will be more satisfying & allow you to see any structural damages that may need repairing. (usually under where the toilet used to be)

[Dot]

Hi Troy unless you are over the 6ft 6inch height why go to the extra work and expense? we decided not to as we are of average height.

[generdawg]

... why go to the extra work and expense?

From memory, I think Terry did it to get the windows up above counter top height, but I agree with you - it would be a lot of work.

dawg (now that I think about it, why wouldn't you just fill in the offending windows with a panel and put in a shallower pane?)

[TigerMK1]

WE have a Fuso and decided to lower the floor. It seemed structurally sound, the standard floor was raised each side and the middle section sat on a raised metal platform that was about 300mm above the main chassic members. So we (that is me, I, ) spent a good deal of time and money fabricating a complete metal frame floor that meet the engineers requirements. All good. We (I) then removed all the windows and welded in rhs gal steel from the roof to the remainng lower side frames. This was done at every new window frame. Then the sides were resheeted. End result suits us very well.

Would I do it again, never, when we stripped the bus and had all the windows out, we (I) only had to make a cut above the windscreen and 3 places each side of the bus and at each side at the rear and lift. Bloody easy. We were still going to fit windows where we needed, we were still going to resheet the sides and where the small rear window was. The only extra was fabricating the 10" raised section from the new roof line down the the origional roof above the windscreen. I know others that did this, that lowered section of the origional floor was ideal for running all your RV services and sheeted over. It also allows the wheel arches to be reduced to smaller heights, although we (I) worked around that.

[T1 Terry]

Somewhere in my bus build photos are some involving the roof raise. The reason for me doing this was 2 fold, my head crapped on the original ceiling height and the windows dropped below bench height. I originally made a work around for the window to bench height problem, then went to a summer C.M.C.A rally and looking through different conversions, the heat and feeling of room was so much better in the raised roof ones compared to the standard height ones, a complete rebuild and 3 yrs work went down the toilet and I started again That's where the photobucket series starts, digital cameras had just made it cost wise onto the market so digital storage became possible. The photos of how it looked when we got it in 1998 were scanned to get those images.
How did I do it, 4 x Ford/Holden bumper bar jacks with extensions welded on and the foot plate and lift plate tack welded onto the metal bit of the bus. 2 lengths of RHS clamped to the front uprights of the roof and body section so the whole lot didn't go forward or backwards, cut the longer pieces required to replace the short bit under the window section, cut the old ones out, jack up the roof bit at a time on each jack to keep it sort of level, tacked the new upright pieces in , lowered the upper body on to them, tack welded them in. Then a 2 day nightmare of triangulated chains and truckie dog chain tensioners to pull it square, welded them in, welded the taller metal skin on the inside and stitch welded the uprights to it so they were locked in place, couldn't alter their angles any more, and it all fitted. I didn't raise the front drivers or passengers window or the windscreen so the standard driving visibility remained.
Then I cut the chassis and added a mtr, extended the leg supports/mounts between the body and chassis by 6" so I could do away with the wheel arches, moved the door to a 3rd way down the bus, floor to roof, and converted it from front engine to rear engine, the roof raise was the easiest bit

Murray T did a roof raise on his Austral using acro-props (scaffolding stuff) and fabricated an add in section the go between the double RHS sections under the windows, he didn't lift the front area so the roof has a bigger drop deck look than the floor, but it still looked good.
I remember he did an article in the C.M.C.A Wanderer with photos etc, possibly 8 to 10 yrs back, so a search in their archives might find it. I would have had a copy of the magazine up until 6 mths ago, I distributed all 14 yrs of them around various waiting rooms when I dropped my C.M.C.A membership... sorry about that, but you might be able to find a copy some where. I'll hunt around and see if I can find Murray's phone number and if it's ok with him, I'll give you a PM with it, then you can get all the info direct... hows that eh

T1 Terry

[glenda]

hopefully this Picture tells the story and could give you some idea's this is how JP tackled it

once you get to this stage you are the owner of a wreck which soon passes & you eventually end up with something fantastic

Good luck
Glenda

[T1 Terry]

once you get to this stage you are the owner of a wreck

Love it, never a truer spoken, you have the vision in your head and someone else comes in and says, "what have you done, you've wrecked it" Never look at the fact you have 36ft of upper bus body standing on 4 car jacks, not good for the confidence to question your sanity at that point.
sorry about the crap photos, my photo skills still haven't improved either

Bus Pic's, raise the roof.jpg

Bus Pic's, raise the roof 2.jpg

Bus Pic's, raise the roof 3.jpg

[norman]

Why anyone would want to do that is quite behond me. Buy a taller bus.....

[Wilbor]

Why anyone would want to do that is quite behond me. Buy a taller bus.....

Or get your legs shortened