Our latest project is the conversion of a German made Neoplan Cityliner from a seated tour bus to a motorhome.

The Neoplan N116/3 was manufactured in Stuttgart Germany, is 40' long and 8' wide and stands 11'6". As a touring bus it is equipped with a bathroom and seating for 53 passengers as well as a coffee bar and a hot-dog cooker - only the Germans would build in a hot-dog cooker! The bathroom will not suit the needs of a motorhome and is being modified, the seats are being removed and when finished it will have a bedroom in the rear with a queen size bed, a small office, two bunk beds, a full size shower, dinette, kitchen and a living room fitted with a sofabed and two chairs. >FLOORPLAN

This drawing is the concept for the rear bedroom as seen from the doorway looking toward the rear of the bus

The original interior before stripping - Seats and video system were sold to a bus line, overhead compartments, lights, flooring and wall coverings have been stripped.

The interior stripped, note the sloping floor section in the center isle and the rigid insulation in the wall panels. The sloping section has now been leveled, all surface rust ground out and sealed and a layer of silver Mylar film glued over the walls as a vapor barrier.

The rear section of the bus will become the master cabin, the vent at the top is the main air conditioning outlet which will no longer be used.

Here the rear can be seen after stripping. The vents have been boxed in 1/2" plywood in preparation for the application of birch veneer. The birch wall panels are set in place for test fitting.

Inspiration for the interior is being taken from the interior of the "Wally Power 118" a 118 foot power boat built by the Italian firm Wally, world renowned for their sailboats.

07-21-04
Seats and overhead compartments removed and sold, floor stripped and prepared for bamboo and carpet flooring

11-01-05

The floors central sloping isle has been made level with the bus floor.

The Bedroom has been finished except for detail work, fitted with a king size bed and divided from the rest of the bus with twin pocket doors, sliding into walls only 2 1/4" thick.

The child's room and shower area have been separated by another wall fitted with a single pocket door.

These walls were an engineering feat! Since the windows are curved and meet the curves ceiling special beams had to be built to span the glass and tie the wall skin into the upright beams between the floor and ceiling, in addition two of the walls span opening windows. Once the beams were shaped to the floor, ceiling and windows, all-thread sections were welded to the bus frame and the beams bolted in place using the all-thread.

I finished the kitchen design and have to begin building the cabinets before the walls can be finished as the cabinets give support to the largest wall and must be screwed to the framework from inside the wall.

This is the kitchen counter design:

Since I chose to use undercounter refrigerators as not to block any windows, I needed to increase their efficiency as much as possible. Under inspection I discovered that these units radiate their heat through the sides so I designed a system where the sides would be enclosed in hollow walls (the uprights on either side of the refer units), these walls would have holes in the floor and holes in the wall at the rear and top of the wall where it met the outside wall of the bus. In the top holes I intend to mount small high efficiency computer cooling fans, which when powered by a solar panel on the roof, will draw cold air from below the bus, past the side of the refers and exhaust it out the side of the bus. Since the solar panel will provide power to the fans during the day when the ambient temp is likely to be highest, they will aid in the refer efficiency. In tests I was able to see a 30% drop in power consumption.

From left to right: Refer unit, sink on top and drawers below, refer unit, Jenn Air downdraft propane stove and grill with drawers below. The top will be one piece of stainless, the uprights will be faced with stainless, the drawers will be hardwood stained black, the hardware stainless and the drawer units will be attached to the uprights and wall but float 4.5" above the floor.

Counter hight 35"
Counter depth 25"
Drawers 35" wide
Refer Cu.ft. 5x2= 10cu.ft.

12-20-05
This image shows the doors deviding my daughters bunk from the hallway leading back to the master bedroom. Below the bunk are 6 drawers and across the hall are the shower and wardrobe. The shower has been designed to drop 9" below the level of the floor and the entry is raides 8" above the level of the floor allowing for a 14" deep tub for my daughter.

The screens which seperate the bunk from the hallway are hand made Shoji screens with a acrylic honeycomb rather than rice paper, while still allowing light to pass through they are strong enough to take abuse.

In this image the screen has been slid open allowing access to the bunk which measures 6'1" x 34".

The bunk is heated by a radiator below the bunk warming the mattress which will be a futon. When complete the bunk room will have its own lighting, fan, and shelves as well as having an opening window.

Since the hall can be closed off from the main part of the vehicle, and the bunk and the master bedroom can be closed off from the hall everyone should have a certain level of privacy. My daughter can be put to bed early and the adults can still be active in the main salon.

The hallway will be dimly lit with high brightness LED lights at night, as will the stairs to the bathroom.

This is a view standing next to the drivers seat looking reward with the door to the rear section closed. Where the chair on the left is will be two chairs and a sofa on the right.

Here is a detail shot showing the wall where the sofa will sit, the walls are birch with fir trim around the window frames, this will be treated with Seafin varnish.

Here is another view of the main room with no flash. on the left is the dining area (table unfinished) and across from that is a single stainless steel counter with a stainless double sink welded into the surface, the counter has a "marine edge" bent into it to prevent drips and a built in Jenn-Aire grill top which ahs a down draft and sucks the cooking fumes down and blows them out the side of the bus. Below can be seen two stainless refers. Note that the counter itself floats above the floor. The refers have an air space on each side, each fitted with vents to the outside moving air from under the bus past the cooling coils on the sides and out of the bus through the use of four 4" computer fans powered by a solar panel on the roof increasing the efficiency of the refers by almost 50%.

Above the counter the cieling is covered with stainless to make cleanup easier. I am designing a dish rack which will fold against the cieling above the sink when not in use, when in use the dishes can drain into the sink. Between the sink and stove will be a cutting board.

Through the doorway to the rear you can see Halle's room on the right enclosed with Shoji screens.

From the stateroom looking forward, Halle's room on the left and the shower and wardrobe (unfinished) on the right.

All plumbing has now been stubbed through into the basement as has all power, the wardrobe and shower need to be finished, the main table, some trim in the bedroom and in the very front of the bus. A railing built so passengers do not fly through the windshield and then the party begins in the basement: Tanks, VO, dewatering, batteries, gray water, inverter, propane tanks, fresh water generator, Inverter, etc, etc, etc.

I am crossing my fingers that friends will find the time to help because I sure don't have it but it would be nice to use the darn thing this summer...or ever.