It is indeed wonderful to be making memories with our littles while they learn valuable skills and help us move toward a common goal. Thanks for all the awesome support and feedback, everyone!
After the seats were out with the metal floor trim unscrewed and removed, it was time to pull up the flooring.
The driver's seat came out with ease but the seat belt mechanisms fought valiantly before we were able to vanquish them. This ended up being a challenging area! (Note: The wires ran to the rear heater which has been removed)
Which exposed some waterlogged and molded plywood. Fun!
We picked a spot and made a place to get the prybar under...
Success! The first chunk of plywood we removed ended up being over one of the MOST rusty parts of the entire floor.
The front board was the biggest pain to remove, why they nail the plywood through the steel floor, we are still unsure of but whoever did this front one wanted to make sure it was never going anywhere.
With
all of the plywood up we could see that some of it held water and some of the boards made puddles of condensation underneath, making a major difference in rust occurrence.
With the floor well underway, we turned our attention to the ceiling and removed windows to get the wire run covers down so that the panels could begin to be removed.
What it looks like down
The (kind of gross) window frame
After much discussion and brainstorming about how to store the windows, we decided to purchase the polyisocyanurate insulation boards we needed for the floor and to stack them between them in our utility trailer. So far, it's been working like a dream!
We have now started removing all of the riveted ceiling and wall panels using an air chisel to peel off the rivet heads. We bought this specifically for this job and can heartily recommend it!
Question for all you knowledgeable folks who have removed your ceiling panels: what becomes of the rivet remnants that are left in the ceiling ribs? Since the flared back of the rivet is inside the rib, they're not coming out. We are worried that they will make a loud rattling noise driving down the road.
We are also compiling a list of everything that needs to be removed to make the bus RV legal. We know the requirements vary state to state; we are in Washington, but plan to travel to many others. So far our list is the upper warning lights in the front and rear, the stop sign, and the yellow paint color. Can the side marker lights stay?