Bus gutting tools

jjhwick119 · 03-01-2018, 07:11 AM

Alright guys, so I'm picking my bus up from Missouri tomorrow, and was going to make a weekend out of it but now I'm thinking I'll just drive it straight home and spend the weekend working on gutting it, and try and get my diesel guy to come take a look at her

My question is, what tools did you find best for removing the floors? My game plan was pull the seats, strip floors, strip interior panels / old insulation, most likely in that order (obviously seats are first no matter what). Also, any tips don't hurt

Twigg · 03-01-2018, 07:29 AM

The two most helpful tools I used were an air impact wrench and an impact screwdriver (I have screws not rivets). For rivets I would have bought an air-impact hammer.

Oh, and an angle grinder.

The demo part requires some finesse, but most of it is just hard work and perseverance.

Seats, Luggage Racks, Ceiling, Walls, Floor, then I stripped out all the unused wiring.

RRRVBUS · 03-01-2018, 07:44 AM

Most of the screws in my floor wouldn’t come out so I cut the rubber with a razor blade to expose the seams and pried it up with a crowbar. Ceiling and end caps came out with no problems just removed screws. Side walls under the windows I removed the screws and it still didn’t want to come out. I ended up grabbing that as close to the windows as possible with vise grips and ripped the metal. Peeled it back like a can of sardines and smoothed any rough edges with a grinder. I have no patience with rusted screws, my grinder doesn’t either

I think at least with a Thomas your supposed to start with the floor which makes it easier to get the metal under the windows out but do to my situation I had to start with the ceiling and work down.

jjhwick119 · 03-01-2018, 07:48 AM

Will I need any kind of pry bars or crow bar type tools to rip up floor? I believe mine has screws as well. Am I being unreasonable thinking I can strip seats and floors in 2 days? I'll have to make trips to the dump while working too as I can't pile everything up at the rv storage lot

Twigg · 03-01-2018, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjhwick119

Will I need any kind of pry bars or crow bar type tools to rip up floor? I believe mine has screws as well. Am I being unreasonable thinking I can strip seats and floors in 2 days? I'll have to make trips to the dump while working too as I can't pile everything up at the rv storage lot

Two of us removed all the seats from a 40' Thomas in 4 1/2 hours. We had no rust to deal with but still had to cut a few of them out because access was tight.

RRRVBUS · 03-01-2018, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjhwick119

Will I need any kind of pry bars or crow bar type tools to rip up floor? I believe mine has screws as well. Am I being unreasonable thinking I can strip seats and floors in 2 days? I'll have to make trips to the dump while working too as I can't pile everything up at the rv storage lot

I didn’t have a helper to get under the bus to hold the nuts from turning so I ground all the bolt heads off. I had the seats ready to come out in a couple of hours.

jjhwick119 · 03-01-2018, 09:23 AM

I've got 20v dewalt drill, picking up impact and battery powered angle grinder since I won't have electric plugin at rv lot. Also getting a cheap crow bar. Should be enough for the gutting process I think

Gdog 5651 · 03-01-2018, 09:49 AM

Make sure you have plenty of batteries for your tools drills and impact drivers aren't bad the angle grinders are power eaters.
It took three hours to get the seats out,combination of nut/bolt and grinding about three hours to get the floor trim and heaters out(worst part of job so far) about hour to pull the puke mat and two hours to scrape loose paint and rust scale off of floor vacuum and lightly spray rust converter.

Tango · 03-01-2018, 09:54 AM

Personally, I much prefer corded grinders. As noted, they suck batteries dry very quickly. Drill/drivers are OK since you don't usually run them non-stop for long periods of time the way you do a grinder.

jjhwick119 · 03-01-2018, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tango

Personally, I much prefer corded grinders. As noted, they suck batteries dry very quickly. Drill/drivers are OK since you don't usually run them non-stop for long periods of time the way you do a grinder.

I don't have any electrical hookups on site at the rv lot, so I'm working with what I got. Already have 2 20v batteries, but will be getting 2 more so I have 4 on hand. Should be good. Gonna get everything I can with the impact and use grinder when necessary

Tango · 03-01-2018, 10:02 AM

You could go ahead and get a generator now and plug into it (?).

jjhwick119 · 03-01-2018, 10:52 AM

I actually didn't even think about that, lol.

Just hit bit of a snag. I didn't think to ask about being able to work on the bus at the storage lot because it was 24 hour access, but turns out they don't allow power tools...gotta figure something out. She acted like minor work or quiet work was fine, but she's gonna talk to the owner, I told her I wasn't going to be removing anything out of the bus, I would pile the trash inside and make trips to the dump so it wouldn't trash up their lot. Crossing my fingers

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