Little Miss Skoolie
She’s a small bus. A mini. A shortie. Alias: Sunny the Bus. My wife and I liked the Little Miss Sunshine movie so much, we actually named our first-born pupper after Olive. So, naturally, while it’s not a VW Bus (I think I’m longer than a VW Bus anyway), we went along with a Little Miss, uh, Little Miss Skoolie theme.
No, we’re not that crazy to paint it yellow with a white top, as this is illegal in most of our united states, but we just liked the whole vibe of the underdog rising up and busting through the whole ‘being normal’ thing. We are, after all, far from normal. Eclectically quirky, let’s say.
We wouldn’t have it any other way.
The particulars for the geeks (myself included):
Sunny is a 2005 GMC Savanna 3500 Dually with a Corbeil coach (that’s the bus part), 5-window, with a 6.0-liter, gas-powered V8, with an automatic transmission that’s only gone 99k miles in her 17 years. We found her locally in Putnam, CT, and bought her from a fella who worked for, and bought her from, a local prep school, Marianapolis, in Northeastern Connecticut. So when you board, please wear a tie or something argyle.
Just a quick note: Throughout this build, I have used many, many products from Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. However, I will only link to products that I used and found helpful. Some products I even provide mini reviews for because they are so good. Screws and sandpaper are not always created equal. OK then, now get going!
How we painted our driveway. Oh, and the bus!
I guess normal people start out with a small car, or a small part of a car, but we just kinda went full send and decided to paint a rolling building — with no experience. If you have the budget though, hire someone to do it!
How we built a flippy bed in a bus
To achieve this miracle, we scoured pages and pages on skoolie.net and YouTube, of course. We settled on a hybrid system where we can fold the bed into a dinette in a few minutes.
Misfire Mayhem: How I fixed our 2005 GMC Savana skoolie’s soupy fuel injectors
Sunny sat stable in launch mode, up on ramps, pointed at the sky for a long time. Some might say too long. So after we stabilized the cabinet and counter, it was time to give her a little run around town to blow out the cobwebs. The worst thing you can do to a vehicle, especially one of this vintage, is let it sit. And we let it sit.
How we started our skoolie kitchen and scored a Big Box deal
Allrighty, now that we’re back from the tour down Memory Lane, let’s build some things that don’t require curves, like walls and a kitchen! Steph and I both like
The dawn of building a DIY camper
Photo by Ihor Malytskyi on Unsplash We're taking a little detour from the how-to this week. Everyone needs a break every now and then. Today I'll be
A dried-in wet bath: The skoolie bathroom is done (mostly)
Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash Just get to the point, would ya? By this time in the build, both Steph and I were in graduate programs at
A flush of a different sort: Building the skoolie throne room – Part Deux
OK, so I think I just discovered all that is wrong with carpentry — it’s their naming conventions. See that orange triangle in the photo of bathroom tools below?
How we built the Throne Room structure for the Royal Flush
I started watching @ThisOldHouse in the mid-1700s and have been fascinated by the whole wood thing ever since. I thought it was so cool that Norm and Tommy and
Sealing in Skoolie Windows: What a pain in the A$$!
Sometimes when it rains, it pours — inside the bus. You know how we got that fresh new floor in and how snazzy it looks and all that good
From Mad Scientist to Silly Seat: How we installed our passenger seat in the bus
Big buses, little buses, school busses, and city buses, all have plenty of seats. Typically in that range, you can fit from 6 to 60 school kids, commuters, or
