Tale of 2 Buses

[Apacheglen]

Actually, this is about my 91 Blue Bird TC2000, 33 foot bus from the Johnson County School System, in Tenn. I also have a 89 33 Foot BlueBird TC 2000 with severe coorosion, The older bus is being retired, and the 91, which is very clean will carry on.

I got this bus a year ago, and am now in full swing. Seats out, flooring out, and am grinding away at the floor.

One thing I found out, if removing the plywood, mine was very secure with nails into the galvanized floor. If you use a crow bar, full size of 36" of larger, you can get a floor jack under the wood, and literally pull the wood off. Using a saw to cut the wood was too tricky. I damaged a saw blade when I hit a nail.. I just did not see it, I later pulled out the floor jack and got the rest of the wood up in about an hour by myself. This was a serious time saver.

[Apacheglen]

I'm not sure how much brushing the floor needs, but I hope to get some POR 15 soon, if not some other floor sealer. Any suggestions on a vapor barrier?

Thanks,

[Tango]

Just spent a couple of days welding shut all the holes in my floor and looking into applying a good coat of the newer, spray on rubber before laying down any insulation or flooring. Should also help act as a sound deadener. Like you, I am open to any ideas or experience though.

[Apacheglen]

Painted today, or at least tried to paint..
Used implement paint, thinned with lacquer thinner ( 2 capfulls per quart of paint), did some prep sanding, used the finest foam roller I could find.. but what a poor job. I had fish eyes "small pin heads" throughout the painted area. I waited a while, but they did not go away. Then I used more thinner on a brush and cleaned up the pin heads.. a first grader finger painting could do a better job..

Does anyone have the prep pages for roller painting?

At a minimum, I'll be days cleaning up this mess. Or I'll need a paper bag to keep over my head while I drive..

Thanks,
Glen

[JakeC]

I actually know what you may have done wrong... You can't use lacquer thinner with implement paint, which is enamel. You can use paint thinner or Naphtha, among other things. Lacquer thinner is too hot and mucks it up :/

[proconsul100]

Originally Posted by Apacheglen

Painted today, or at least tried to paint..
Used implement paint, thinned with lacquer thinner ( 2 capfulls per quart of paint), did some prep sanding, used the finest foam roller I could find.. but what a poor job. I had fish eyes "small pin heads" throughout the painted area. I waited a while, but they did not go away. Then I used more thinner on a brush and cleaned up the pin heads.. a first grader finger painting could do a better job..

Does anyone have the prep pages for roller painting?

At a minimum, I'll be days cleaning up this mess. Or I'll need a paper bag to keep over my head while I drive..

Thanks,
Glen

i have always used mineral spirits when i rolled paint on either my Jeep of the bus. it never looks perfect, but it doesn't look to bad either.

[Das Mel]

Originally Posted by JakeC

Lacquer thinner is too hot and mucks it up :/

Hot? I am confuzzled, which granted while a natural state of being for me (along with dazed), I don't like being confuzzled. How can lacquer thinner be hot?

Wait wait wait, is it 'hot' like how chicken-**** is 'hot'?

[JakeC]

Originally Posted by Das Mel

Hot? I am confuzzled, which granted while a natural state of being for me (along with dazed), I don't like being confuzzled. How can lacquer thinner be hot?

Wait wait wait, is it 'hot' like how chicken-**** is 'hot'?

Exact same as chicken **** I should have put parenthesis around "hot". And admittedly I do not really know what I am talking about. Just repeating what I have recently read over and over. I think it reacts with the enamel and raises the temperature too much.

[Das Mel]

Originally Posted by JakeC

I think it reacts with the enamel and raises the temperature too much.

That sounds dreadful.

[Accordion]

Johnson City? My bus was a Johnson City Emergency Management bus. If you live there, you may have seen it in years past. You can't miss the huge exhaust stacks in the rear.

[JakeC]

Originally Posted by Das Mel

That sounds dreadful.

Dreadful indeed.

[Apacheglen]

Thanks for the info... So I"ll pick up some mineral spirits..

Should I look for any reducers, or more surface prep? All that I did was sand with 180 grit, and clean with Lacquer thinner. What should I clean the area with?

Thanks,
Glen

[proconsul100]

Originally Posted by Apacheglen

Thanks for the info... So I"ll pick up some mineral spirits..

Should I look for any reducers, or more surface prep? All that I did was sand with 180 grit, and clean with Lacquer thinner. What should I clean the area with?

Thanks,
Glen

i didn't even bother sanding, i just cleaned really good, wiping it down using acetone and sanding where there was sticker residue. just do multiple, even coats. you can wet sand in between if you want it really smooth, but i didn't care about that too much, i just want it to look uniform and not yellow. the first coats wont look too good,but thats normal. What color are you using? i used Rustoleum leather brown gloss.

[bansil]

Originally Posted by Accordion

Johnson City? My bus was a Johnson City Emergency Management bus. If you live there, you may have seen it in years past. You can't miss the huge exhaust stacks in the rear.

Nope Johnson County Papaw probably drove that bus

[Apacheglen]

It took a few weeks for the paint to harden so that it could be sanded, but I got it removed, then sanded a larger area (180 then 240 grit), then sprayed the paint. It was hot ~95 degrees when I painted it, so the gloss was not as good as it could have been, but I am happy with the outcome.

As for rolling it, I may have to roll the top, but I'll spray most of the sides, to a point where I have to get on top... it may look a little funny, but I definately like spraying, as it looks so much better.

[JakeC]

Awesome! Glad to hear it worked for you. Good luck on the rest!

[Apacheglen]

Well the paint is almost complete.. here's what i learned..

Prep, I sanded with an air dual action sander with 180, then 240. then hand sanded where necessary.. Fairly good results.

Cleaned with a sticky rag, then acetone. It's outside, so some dust settled back on when I was painting... not much I can do about this...

Paint... Implement paint works. Gloss is OK, but I am painting when the temps are 90 to 100 deg. I have diluted the paint to 70/30 thinner, seems to work, but will run easily, yes I have a few, but got better as the project progressed.

Rolling, I tried the top, again poor results. runs, bubbles etc.. I stripped when wet, then cleaned with acetone, and re-sprayed. Looks OK, but gloss is only fair.

Recommend 2 persons here, I dropped some things, rags, hose etc, and had to climb down, then back up.. took a lot of time set up again..

Last and most valuable suggestion, forget ANY 3M product. The tape (blue or green) sticks great, but is bonded to crappy paper... THis means, when you put 1 piece of tape on, you will pull thousands of fragments off, damage paint, and end up cussing..THe tape was only left on overnight, and I had spend hours and hours pulling it off. the cheap wal mart (china) stuff works great. Sorry, I wanted to be patriotic, but will never purchase 3M again.

I haVe some touch up to complete, and add some stripes... but it is looking better,

[Apacheglen]

Pics resized

[Apacheglen]

I wanted to share about my old 89 BB.. It was rusty, then had a frame mount crack. Estimates on a repair were 4 to 6 K.... too much for me, so I opted to purchase the 91 and outfit it..

Attached are some pics from last year...

Here is the killer... when the bus was on it's side, an old time welder came up and said that he could brace and weld the frame in about an hour.. plus $30 in steel... He was an excellent welder, so I can only say that he knew his stuff...

THe blue bus was cut up in Jan of 2013.. it was an excellent bus, called the Blue Raven.. hated to see it go..

[Apacheglen]

Finally got the final coat on the 91 BB, it's looking so much better. Lots of work but worth it.
Many thanks to Jake C who had the comments about the mineral spirits with the enamel...