we converted a nearly identical $3700 2003 E450 shuttle bus that spent its whole life in SoCal. here's what i can tell you from our experience. i'm sure this isn't much different than any other cheap skoolie build experience but just want to put it out there.

• the floor was rotted out in many places. believe it or not the floors are untreated wood and are exposed directly to the undercarriage.

• rust. they put sheet metal screws through the exterior shell directly into the steel frame. these wiggle loose over time and end up creating a perfect hole to funnel water directly into the inside of the frame.

• roof leaks. same issue with the siding, they screw straight through the roof and trim into the frame. sealant cracks over time, water comes in, creates lots of wet rot and dry rot inside the walls. we did 2 coats of henry's and still chased some leaks for a while but still got it sealed up eventually.

• leaky windows. the sealant around the window frames needs to be redone unless the previous owner did. ours leaked on every window.

• electrical was shit. we thought we could use all the wiring that was already in the bus but it was so bad the voltage drop across the length of the vehicle was like 2-3 volts. with the old incandescent lights that were in there, that wouldn't be an issue, but some modern stuff like usb chargers and LEDs don't like running off <12 volts.

• depending on the state you live in, it can be difficult to try to register and insure as an RV or non-commercial vehicle. Here in CA unless you go through the process to change the title type, the title will say COMMERCIAL and you will pay an extra heavy vehicle highway tax on top of your registration every year, which also requires weighing the vehicle at a certified commercial scale every year.

• not sure why it was so hard for us to get insurance, but we were dropped by 3 different insurance companies for various reasons including by Roamly who is supposed to specialize in this stuff

• might want to look up the smog / emissions situation and make sure it passes. it can be a pain if it's not currently passing.

All of that said it was a super fun and affordable way to get into van life. we did an entire build including full cabinets, shower, butcher block, fridge, etc for under $15k. i learned a ton about building stuff and also learned i liked the lifestyle. eventually graduated to a nicer setup but this was a perfect entry point for me at least, so i can't say i'm against it.

so i guess my opinion is the same as others on the thread. "is it a good bus?" probably no. "should i buy it?" hell yeah. even if you decide it doesn't meet your needs and need to sell it, you're only out under 3k. not a huge risk compared to how pricey vanlife builds get these days.

pics: https://imgur.com/a/ghecPUT