Raising the roof

Gaining headroom and a flat floor

Raising the roof or fitting caravan windows is a major project and should not be tackled by anyone not confident in what they are doing.

These modifications are best left to the professionals, and many motorhome or bus builders will perform this work for you, but be prepared to spend big money.

You will need a level (concrete) and preferably indoors area to perform this task. Some DIY motorhomers have even leased an industrial shed for 6 months just to tackle this task alone!

After stripping out the interior of the bus, including removing the interior sheeting from the ceiling and walls by drilling out 6 million pop-rivets, we are ready to start the exterior.

You will need to remove all the windows and frames from the bus body, including the windscreen and rear emergency escape window. Next on the list is to remove the door(s) and any associated trim.

After drilling out another 6 million pop-rivets, we remove all the external metal sheeting from the exterior to fully expose the frame of the bus.

At this stage it is a good idea to look at replacing any rusty or usually rusted out structural beams and braces.

The rear fibreglass section can either be cut and joined in the centre of the old window hole if this is to be sheeted over, or if you wish to retain the window then you can often raise the entire rear section then add to the bottom skirts.

The front of the bus is a different story, often requiring full removal and modification. Some simply slice across the top and fibreglass in another section, others cut through the A-pillar and install taller more modern windscreens, while some will cut above the screen and insert a section there.

Next, depending on the design, we either cut along the entire length of the sides above the old window apertures, or we cut each vertical support beam. At this stage it will be necessary to support the roof on RHS crossbeams, with either scaffoldong or formwork props so that we can begin jacking it up vertically, while maintaining the horizontal aspect.

Generally, we would wind the roof up 300mm, which should give plenty of headroom from a flat floor even near the walls. Using the pre-cut 300mm extension sections, we begin welding them in, first the corners, then the middle to help apply camber to the body.

So after welding in all the new extensions, the job is as good as done. Time for the engineers first of many inspections at $300 bucks a pop.

The next job on the agenda is to fit the nosecone or front of the bus to the new higher roofline. We best do this by cutting sheet aluminium to form an angled "stepup" from the original front roofline to the higher main roof. Dont just fill the gap with a 90deg vertical piece as the wind slipstream effect on the highway would be terrible. You need to re weld a frame from the main roof to the fibreglass section first, and have this at a nice forward sloping angle. Then you can sheet this using 5000 pop-rivets and copious amounts of SikaFlex after another engineer's inspection.

Do the same for the rear section and remember to use 50kgs of bog and fibreglass to try and make it look nice.

Next we begin by measuring our new replacement windows, marking where we want them on the sides, and begin welding in a support frame for them. Okay, that's the hard stuff out the way, now begin cutting your new sheets of aluminium in your sheetmetal guillotine you purchased for the project. Start pop-rivetting the sheets to the frame using SikaFlex as a sealant, after another engineer's inspection. We recommend thousands of pop-rivets for this job, however that is not a problem with your new automatic air powered pop-rivet gun you purchased for the project.

That's it, the job is done. Now you can respray the whole thing inside and out, fit the windows, get the auto-glazier to refit the new windscreens as the old ones broke, and we can get to work on the inside, insulating, wiring, plumbing, and of course, re-sheeting followed by another engineer's inspection.

In essence people, this is a $10,000 pro job not a DIY $300 special, so get the professional body builders to do it. It will be the best 10 grand you can spend. Brisbanites, we recommend Barry Watts coach builders at Wooloongabba. He has been doing it for 50 years