Converting and Modifying Our Front Door on our School Bus // Skoolie Conversion

This is the how we turned our bifold door into a single fold. It opens and functions like a normal door now! if you have any questions, feel free to message. I'd love to help!
TheCalebNelson.com
Here is a list of the other tools we have used.
Air Ratchet amzn.to/2PGM5SG
Impact Driver amzn.to/2NRCHsL
Angler Grinder amzn.to/2OXjhDc
Twisted Wire Brush Wheel amzn.to/2MJnoQL
Grinder Disc amzn.to/2Bh5EXw
Gloves amzn.to/31hsqsU
Breathing Mask amzn.to/31hmPmC
Paint Brush amzn.to/32jNFLZ
Paint Roller amzn.to/2Br8LMV

[@deepsouthinception]

Props for actually explaining what you are doing and how you did it showing your challenges. Most skoolie build videos are worthless half naked attention seekers who leave out the challenges of building a bus as a home. It is a pain in the butt for sure. You're the man.

[@BackroadPurpose]

Dude thank you! That means a lot. I really try to actually bring some value to people who are watching my videos. Time is precious and I don't want to waste someone else's. Thanks for watching mate!

[@jalonenow]

Truly love this door fix. It's similar to a couple others I've seen, but I like the no welding approach.

[@BackroadPurpose]

@@jalonenow thank you!!

[@nickijones4950]

This was the best tutorial of anything skoolie related!! No time wasted while watching this! Completely unnecessary to upload a 50 min video just for a door! Lol thank you!

[@BackroadPurpose]

Haha you're so welcome! Yeah I don't want to take advantage of people's time stringing them along just to make a couple bucks.

[@nicolestanley3360]

hoping to find a video of this bus about lock and door handles! so many videos and this is the first door I've seen that's the same thin strip between the glass, not much room to work with. Those doors are freaking heavy huh? Lol, have a good day, thanks for the video. Our dog has ripped the gasget out too so I'm digging this sheet metal idea as a replacement that is Miss Mishka proof

[@Wopbobaloobop]

I feel a lot better about doing mine now thanks.

[@BackroadPurpose]

Glad to help brother

[@cliftonsnider1520]

Great job on the door. I wondered how people converted them. Thanks.

[@BackroadPurpose]

Glad to give up some insight! Thanks for taking the time to watch our video

[@Omegaman1969]

This is great, I've been thinking about doing the same to my bus bi-folds.

[@jeremeyweeks7409]

excellent! love how it follows the bus look.

[@BackroadPurpose]

Thank you very much!

[@Thisguyandhiscamera]

This is EXQUISITE! Kudos! Been trying to come up with something for mine, and I'm pretty sure you just gave me the answer!

[@BackroadPurpose]

How cool! I'm glad to help! Let need know if you need any help! Thanks for watching

[@ZeroEntropy.]

I love your vibe and style, I would have made a different choice or two but your style and quality of work is about the same as mine. Can't wait to watch your under storage videos.

[@BackroadPurpose]

Thank so much! I really appreciate it

[@galaxykode9243]

I like your ideas

[@BackroadPurpose]

Thanks! I like your words of encouragement

[@skooliecatwilderness6346]

Well done

[@BackroadPurpose]

Thank you!!

[@MiningAmerica]

I need to redo my Skooly also. The emergency half assed job we did it before really doesn’t work because of the insulation. I Need to pull out all the interior and insulate it.

[@BackroadPurpose]

Aw well thats a bummer but also exciting that you realize what you need to address. I would say you can really tell a big difference with the bus being insulated. Game changer for sure.

[@Tilewarriorsofamerica]

Nice work

[@BackroadPurpose]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@TheMarukeru]

We have a similar styled door on our bus, where the space horizontally across the middle is quite thin. I honestly think we may need to try and get as close to your build as possible for us to be able to make our door work. I mean, it's almost entirely glass with such thin spaces for us to build off of. Thank you so much for showing and talking about how you did this! I feel it will be a huge help for us! PS: I Love your videos! (We'll also be doing something similar to how you did your ceiling ^-^")

[@BackroadPurpose]

Yeah these oem bus doors are tricky. Thank you so much for watching! It means the world!

[@TheBluebird65]

I love the look and the visibility that this door delivers. I drove school bus for 18 years and needed that extra visibility many times to see exactly how far I was from the curb and any vehicles parked or moving that might be in this area. I have had two motor homes that this was a major blind spot making me very uncomfortable maneuvering through parking lots and city streets. Any way I wanted to mention that a little out of the box thinking might work here and save this attractive door. By locating the latch and locking system in the bus body frame at the rear of the door with the latching bolt moving into the thin rear edge or into a pocket on the inside of the door and a hand grip mounted to the door edge to pull it open when unlatched. I also like the way this post was presented, very considerate of his viewers.

[@allancooper3865]

Looking good , and paint the new metal work black , it’ll make it look factory made that way , and keep up the hard work on that Lil investment .

[@BackroadPurpose]

Very true. Which was the whole idea. We wanted something subtle. Thanks for watching!

[@HarmonyExpressSkoolie]

Nicely done, Sir! Looking forward to seeing your install of the locking mechanism! As you may have seen, we ended up going with a house door on ours primarily because we didn't have that center cross-piece in our door, so no good place to join it together. Really like the look on yours, though!

[@BackroadPurpose]

Thats actually the problem. Because we wanted a certain look for the lock and door handle. this door will not work for us so we're having to come up with a different solution. Video to come for sure!

[@HarmonyExpressSkoolie]

@@BackroadPurpose AH!! I should have read all of the comments before placing my own! I know how it goes with doing one thing and then having to undo it to do another thing. Can't tell you how often that has happened in our build... We opted for a house door in our build, and must tell you that it was a pretty big project to get it done. We're happy with it, but the project wasn't for the faint of heart!

[@russelltrupia4479]

Great job

[@BackroadPurpose]

thank you!!

[@BEAdventurePartners]

Great job on the door! Like how you joined them together! Are you using any seam sealer or bondo where the flat stock meets the original metal framing? Or how are you sealing the seams? We’re soon to be tackling the door project & thought about doing something similar. Knapp Time Bus channel made a nice door with a great latch setup. That may be a good watch if you haven’t done that part yet. Keep rocking it! Love the ambient sound in this one! - Brian + Erin

[@BackroadPurpose]

Thanks guys! I actually used a polyurethane caulk to seal and edges that water might get in. Very cool! I will have to check it out! We are actually going to be changing the door. The style lock and door handle we want will not work with this door unfortunately so yeah. haha we kind of picky on the whole style of things lol. thanks for watching guys!

[@BEAdventurePartners]

Backroad Purpose LOL! Totally get you on being picky! That’s what’s great about a Skoolie! We can fab up anything we want. If we don’t like it, we can change it! Have y’all already changed the title over to RV/Motorhome?

[@allmomomosthomebus3895]

Nicely done, sir.

[@BackroadPurpose]

Thank you kindly! I really appreciate that!

[@krassos]

I was planning to re-purpose my doors as shelves.

[@BackroadPurpose]

Well thats a pretty cool idea!!

[@johantheboneless7252]

That is awesome bus bro . This is me Joan Barcenas by the way. I changed my channel name

[@BackroadPurpose]

Hey man! thanks a lot for watching!

[@c0pyimitati0n]

What did you do on the inside of the door to hide the wood?

[@tipsturnup9843]

This is fuckin GENIUS 🔥

[@JM-oi8pt]

Attaching the metal to the doors - what type of bolts are you using? Are they bolts? Thanks!

[@BackroadPurpose]

Yes and they're were 1/8" stainless steel bolts.

[@HankEyring]

Another great vid. Thanks for providing the unabridged version as well :-) Did you rivet metal to wood on the left side? You’re gettin good with the cutting wheel. The end result looked good enough - what are you gonna change? (Don’t worry about answering if that’s a future vid)

[@BackroadPurpose]

Thank you! yeah I used the biggest rivets I could find to rivet the metal too the wood. with the flat iron behind it, it made it plenty sturdy for us. And yeah we're having to change the whole door. Video to come!

[@msfitz09]

Hi! Really informative video. We are in the process of doing our door. But, I see on future videos you say you have a different door. What happened with this design? I am going to be on the bus alone a lot of the time and wanted a super secure door, and we wanted to repurpose the bus doors, so I thought this was the answer. Please let me know if there are problems that you ran into. Thanks so much!

[@BackroadPurpose]

Hey! Thanks for watching! The door worked great. I just was being picky on the kind of lock I wanted. you could just do a sliding lock or some kind of gate latch with a pad lock but we didnt want to do that. so i made a custom door out of some steel. I'll post a video very soon about it.

[@unvaxd-p2b]

Hey Backroad Purpose I have the exact same style door. Will it be possible to use a deadbolt?

[@spiritlove2]

I wish he would of showed how he got the wood right with the measurements being diff at top n bottom

[@BackroadPurpose]

@@spiritlove2 measure the top gap at then the bottom gap. Make those marks over the length of the board and then connect the two marks.

[@Big_bus303]

We followed this video for our door but my boyfriend can't see how to install the residential door knob I'd like....and I'm not seeing a door knob install video 😮 HELP, please 😅

[@Kiss__Kiss]

Thank you for that bit of ASMR... Totally made the video that much more AWESOME!!! Edit: Are you going to be paining the exterior part of the door? Either black or school bus Yellow?

[@BackroadPurpose]

Haha I love me some ASMR every so often so I try to change it up a bit and sprinkle some good tones in there. lol we will actually be replacing this door. video to come for sure. We just dont like how locking the door works out so we need a different style door.

[@Kiss__Kiss]

@@BackroadPurpose Sounds like a good idea... Besides; Function over form.. SAFETY First!! My friend!!! PS: Honestly,thank you for that ASMR.. I try each and everyday of my life to absorb as much as possible.

[@misslango40]

What kind of metals are you using on the frame to make it sturdy and hold it together? Thx

[@BackroadPurpose]

I was using 14ga flat iron.

[@c0pyimitati0n]

2:05 what exactly do you mean? How did you change it up? I don't see any other videos about it.

[@BackroadPurpose]

I didnt end up using this door very long. I ended up making my own door! Video to come.

[@AG-is5vv]

How does the air pressure system work to open and close the door? My bus lost air pressure in the front door, so it wont open or close properly, and now the bus wont drive because of it. It shifts into R and D, but because the door doesnt have air pressure and close it will not get any throttle response.

[@BackroadPurpose]

There should be a valve to close off the switch for the door regulator.

[@simonnewberry4774]

You got a picture of that valve?

[@lamh5265]

Why couldn't you add the same size strips in the middle but metal or tin.

[@LONE-SOUL]

after doing this door modification were you able to find a lock that fits that small width from the edge of the door to the metal part of the door?

[@BackroadPurpose]

So we actually ended up changing it because of that. We just couldn't find one we liked (we're being super picky) buttttttt you can get a Mortise Style lock. And it would work well.

[@LONE-SOUL]

@@BackroadPurpose yeah I spent hours trying to figure out what I'm going to do. looking at hundreds of locks. I was looking into the mortise locks too. still trying to decide. thanks for the reply and good luck on the rest of your build.

[@BackroadPurpose]

Yeah same here. We're actually going to build our own door and do exactly what we want. Thanks for watching!

[@patsyvazquez7296]

Hiya! I’m currently working on my bus doors and your bus doors are the same size as mine, how are you able to lock it now? And what did you use?

[@BackroadPurpose]

That's actually a big reason why we didn't keep this door. (video to come) but we were going to use a Mortise Style lock.

[@patsyvazquez7296]

Backroad Purpose awww okay! Well still your video was very good and informative! Thank you!

[@BackroadPurpose]

@@patsyvazquez7296 awesome! I'm glad to have helped. Let me know if you nlhave any other questions!