When I bought the bus from Steve it was in very good shape. I consider myself fortunate as a lot of people complain about the PO (previous owner) but I had no issues at all. The upholstery in the bus was a bit faded after years of use so I wanted to freshen up my ride a bit. I was already planning a long term trip and it got me thinking that the more time I spend in the bus the more I am apt to spill something in the bus thereby staining the seats. I decided that with the re-upholstery I would go with marine vinyl. It’s cheap and if I slobber some food all over it then it’s just a matter of wiping it up. No fuss no muss.

I would find this decision to be good for other reasons as well. For instance taking a bird bath in the bus. For the uninitiated all that means is filling the sink up, stripping down and having a bath when you don’t have access to proper facilities. You can splash water all over the place and with the vinyl upholstery and parquet flooring it was no issue to grab a towel and mop up the water.

Fortunately my mother is handy with a sewing machine so she helped in re-upholstering the bus but it wasn’t that difficult to do. Once you start taking off the old you’ll see how it all fits together. Then, just wrap the new upholstery around, glue it down, tack it in and you’re all set.

Here are some before pictures.

And here is the finished job.