As part of the move, Carpenter unveiled major changes for its 1996 product line. On the outside, the body now wore full-length guard rails above the wheels. Under the skin, the body was redesigned with single-piece roof bows; new welding procedures allowed by the equipment at Richmond strengthened roof joints (unlike a later found in Mitchell-produced buses). Inside the bus, Wayne tooling was used to update certain areas of the Carpenter buses; on conventional buses, Carpenter re-used the driver control panel and windshield from the Wayne Lifeguard; all full-size buses would use Wayne entry doors.