new bus (to me), and new to this site.

[vegadog12]

hello all,
i am the proud new owner of an 89 gmc bluebird, with an 8.2l detroit (64 pass). wow, i dont know where to start. the seats are out, and ive stripped all the vinal and foam (for bedding or whatever). the rotten plywood is also out and ive grinded about 3/4 of the rusty floor. i was thinking about putting some sort of rust converter, and new paint on the floor before i lay my Styrofoam and begin steps to a (fake) hardwood floor.im kinda torn between laying a floor and building the walls on top of the floor, or should i lay my walls out and install the floors around the baseplates? i also want to put a deck on top (which brings me to another set of questions). do i use the inside walls as load bearer for the deck or do most people just bolt it to the roof? anyway thanks for reading this and i apologize for my terrible grammar, im much more familiar with a skill saw than this keyboard.

[Papabear]

Welcome to the madness! Sounds like a good start on ideas. Start doing searches on this site and you'll get a lot of answers. Lots of experience and info here. Again welcome aboard.

[Sojakai]

Go through the Picture Gallery, write down the Album Name so you can find it again later, and have a folder on your computer ready. When you find something that you like or want to remember, save the picture.

By the time your done, you will have a bunch of ideas and pictures to point at and say, "I love this" or "What if you do it this way" and so on.

But, Watch where you walk, There is useful info laying almost everywhere you step... and a few jokes or ribbings.

[vegadog12]

jimmy, thats a good idea about the 1x4s. thats what im gonna do. ok, so here i am, seats out, old rotten floor out, removed all heaters, removed instrument cluster (i saw some ants going back in there), and i just finished grinding every square inch of the floor. i also removed the panel between the window and the seat bracket at the very rear driver side of the bus. wow thoes pop rivets are a pain but the good news is that the entire bus is already insulated!!! from windows to floor and the roof to! thats gonna save me a ton of work. so this week im gonna focus on the shell of the bus, im gonna use navel jelly (rust converter) on the entire floor, then i will put down a rustolium primer on the floor then hit it with a good coat of paint, following it all up with a coat of roofing tar to fill in all the seat bolt holes.i also want to powerwash the under side of the bus and undercoat it but i might not get to that this week. as for the outside of the bus i will remove the stop sign, and put a 50 yr sillicone around any visible gaps around the entire outside of the bus. during last weeks big storm veronica (my girlfriend) saw water comming in under the instrument cluster( i later found gaps around the stop sign)
After all that were gonna coat the entire inside a gloss white (except the windows), and we should have a pretty solid shell to start with. now the fun starts!! were picking up as many cardboard boxes as we can from walmart tonight and we want to ductape our walls up so we can see how our layout will auctuley lay out. we will be able to move them around and compair layouts. the next step will be to make a scaled blueprint of the bus then make sure we can get standerd articles to fit various items of the bus (seat covers, bench seat covers, shower inserts, sheets, wood stove, ect..) ill follow up with a price list but i dont expect to pay more than $150.00 (excluding undercoat) for an insulated, water tight , reliable shell on wheels to build on.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by case

...I thought it might be beneficial to let moisture escape somehow...

Stands to reason though that if it can breathe out, it can breathe in, too, not to mention that exposed dry wood will draw moisture. I'd seal 'em up if it were mine.

Originally Posted by case

...I should shut my pie hole until i learn more...

On the contrary, the stupid questions are the ones you DON'T ask, so ask away shamelessly!

[vegadog12]

silicone...du, why didnt i think of that? i already have like 3 tubes for the outside of the windows and various other places. great idea. im dying to get my picts on here the inside came out GREAT. 2 coats of rustolium does a great job. i used smoke grey at the below the chair railes and gloss white for the roof and walls. i could not get a good coat above the driver seat so i bought 2, 4x8 sheets of luon to go up there.it should match the hard wood floor nicely. now, what do you use for water tanks? ive priced them and they are really expensive, and i cant find anything bigger than a 35gal. i was thinking about ratchet strapping two 50 gal tanks under there. there is PLENTY of room under there, its cheep, and when i find the right tank replacing it should not be too difficult.... what do you guys think?
Thanks to everyone for your help and advice your input is really helping out a great deal. i cant read this post every day, (working on the bus, and trying to make a buck) but i do read it. thanks again.