Heavy Fuel

[M1031A1]

Threw out the junk fiberglass at our apartment garbage hopper too. I can't get over how much mold, dirt and just plain nastiness is in that stuff! I feel VERY vindicated in ripping the interior out and cleaning out all the yuck. My pile of scrap metal is getting larger in the back of Heavy as I'm "grinding" on.

[nat_ster]

That perforated ceiling sheet is great for fine bug screen in front of the rad.

Slide it out and pressure wash. It also keeps all the little stones from getting stuck into the fins of your rad.

Nat

[EastCoastCB]

How is the heat gun and scraper working on the tar/asphalt??
I tried that and got nowhere, but yours is a different bus.

[Tango]

I had good luck removing 65 year old tar using automotive paint "prep spray". Made for final cleaning of metal before painting, it dissolved the gunk on mine to the point I could wipe it off with a rag. Heavy/thick areas took a hit with a wire brush on my angle grinder before soaking, but all in all, it worked very well.

The rattle cans are handy but it is much cheaper in quarts you can then spray yourself.

Worked for me.

[M1031A1]

Originally Posted by nat_ster

That perforated ceiling sheet is great for fine bug screen in front of the rad.

Slide it out and pressure wash. It also keeps all the little stones from getting stuck into the fins of your rad.

Nat

Nat,

Mine is solid, no perforations..... It's definitely heavier! My arms feel it!

[M1031A1]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

How is the heat gun and scraper working on the tar/asphalt??
I tried that and got nowhere, but yours is a different bus.

I haven't gotten to that point just yet CB. When I do I'll let y'all know. If it's a bust I'll go Tango's route. But right now funds are tight with Wifie looking for a job STILL So much for this alleged "recovery".......

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by M1031A1

I haven't gotten to that point just yet CB. When I do I'll let y'all know. If it's a bust I'll go Tango's route. But right now funds are tight with Wifie looking for a job STILL So much for this alleged "recovery".......

FWIW I've been using Aircraft stripper and Paint Stripper from Kleen with great success.
Pics to come...

[M1031A1]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

FWIW I've been using Aircraft stripper and Paint Stripper from Kleen with great success.
Pics to come...

Thanks for the tip! I'll keep it in mind!

[family wagon]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

How is the heat gun and scraper working on the tar/asphalt??
I tried that and got nowhere, but yours is a different bus.

Worked great on my Blue Bird. I finally finished it last week, but haven't posted about it on my thread yet. It was slow to be sure -- took 10-20 minutes per "square" of roof. ("square" to me means the space bounded by adjacent roof bows and the longitudinal pieces between them; my 37 ft bus has 13x3 of these.) It definitely went fastest when I went home for lunch on a 100+ degree day and spent two hours in the early afternoon working on it. The solar pre-heat helped a lot but I still had to help it along with the heat gun.

[EastCoastCB]

I'm wondering if different manufacturers use different mixes of asphalt.
Mine won't come off for anything except harsh chemicals. I fought it for a long time before going that route, I HATE harsh chemicals.
Great thing about this site... How would we ever get to know such details of bus construction, otherwise?

[family wagon]

That's certainly possible. MEK, acetone, xylene, and naphtha all worked on my tar stuff. But none of them penetrated into and softened it; they only wiped off the top surface. I'd have gone through boat-loads of rags and solvent doing it that way; with heat I was able to soften and scrape away most of the gunk and then wipe clean with naphtha (two passes). I didn't get around to trying any paint strippers etc; I was reluctant to try them because I wanted to avoid damaging the primer. The corners of the metal putty knife I used for scraping did leave plenty of scratches though..

[EastCoastCB]

The Aircraft Stripper soaks into it and it will scrape clean to the metal after 20 mins of soaking/sitting.

[M1031A1]

Well, I got ALL the steel removed from the inside today! Wa hoo.... Note it's NOT the usual Wa HOO, heat has me beat right now....

Going back tomorrow with my son to remove all the fiberglass and clean up the junk floating around inside.

Tuesday we'll work on the black goo with the heat gun and scraper.

We'll hit it up with the airplane stripper Wednesday.

She's comin' along....

Pics for now:

[M1031A1]

Oh yeah, found THREE leaks in the roof. Something to work on after all the prep work....

[nat_ster]

Originally Posted by M1031A1

Oh yeah, found THREE leaks in the roof.

Hence the reason why we try to convince folks on here why removing the interior is so important.

Nat

[M1031A1]

Not sure if you can see in the third pic, the one with the fiberglass, but FOUR days after the last rain the fiberglass was DRIPPING WET!!!

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to completely gut the interior to check for leaks.

This is a California bus with hardly ANY real exposure to rainy environments. I knew it was a very important step in being sure my build went well, but I was stunned at how wet that insulation was. There are other areas showing tell-tale signs of mold and corrosion I'm going to fix once all the 'glass and wood are removed.

She'll be one long-lasting Thomas for sure!

[Scooternj]

Originally Posted by M1031A1

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to completely gut the interior to check for leaks.

Agreed. I found most of my crud, though, aft of midships, and in particular along the insulation behind the cable chases (so far).

[M1031A1]

This morning found MORE LEAKS!!! Good GRIEF!!! The emergency hatch in the front may as well have a spicket to open up.... EVERY screw on the passenger side has water and corrosion. Called the number on the insert. The manufacturer is out-of-business.... FIGURES!

Now I'm on a quest to find two steel hatches to replace both plastic ones. ANYONE have any ideas on where to get two? Any help is greatly appreciated!

The ceiling insulation came down with relative ease. However, the wall insulation is stuck to the wall with the black goo. Cleaning off the walls is going to be more labor intensive than I first thought. My son is helping me. As a surprise bonus (he doesn't know yet) I'm going to fully up-grade his computer this fall for his birthday.

We were drenched with sweat this morning getting all that fiberglass out of the ceilings. Got plenty of work ahead of us before we get to spray-foaming..... Here's today's pics:

[Scooternj]

Originally Posted by M1031A1

Called the number on the insert. The manufacturer is out-of-business....

Is the manufacturer's name on the label? Google-fu might help find them again

[M1031A1]

I did. No luck. Here's the pic: