Is this too much rust?

[Asantana]

is this too much rust? It’s a northern bus from Wisconsin...

[o1marc]

If those are big holes in the top of the frame rail, Ya, that's too much rust. Take a screwdriver and see if you can penetrate the floor skin, I suspect you will.

[Tango]

Be afraid. Be very afraid!

[Robin97396]

Yeah, that's the rust nightmare that everyone tries to avoid.

[Asantana]

Copy that. Thanks, y’all!

[Robin97396]

The thing is we don't even like to hear about anybody doing that much work. It makes us tired.

Remember, it's easier for us to help you find a good bus than to fix a bad bus. That doesn't mean we want to evaluate a list of 20 buses either. If you narrow things down to your choice of a few buses put the information here and allow us to do our thing. Do not list links or locations to avoid getting sniped. Just available vehicle information and photos.

[Asantana]

This is a different bus, obviously. I’m assuming this is “surface rust”? It seems like there’s a rust proof coating that’s flaming off?

[Asantana]

Okay, last one - is this a normal amount of surface rust? It’s a different bus...

[joeblack5]

Personally i would stay away from that. Was this bus close to the sea side? The heavy frame steel can handle that somewhat but the much thinner floor and floor channels will not. Again my opinion as someone that fought rust for a long time.

Good luck
later J

[Johnny Mullet]

Rust is a bad thing to start with. You will be fighting rust for the life of the vehicle.

[jazty]

That rust proof coating is paint, and those rusted rails are deeply pitted.
What are you doing with the bus? If you only plan to do a minimal build and play with it for a few years then you can get away with some rust.
If you want something that'll last then run from those rust buckets!

[ThisBusPlusUs]

I'm nowhere near as experienced as the other commenters - but that's a fair amount of rust. It was a big criteria for me. Although rust ridden buses may be cheaper, you'll spend more money (and time) repairing it to an acceptable standard. Search further afield or spend a little more and avoid the hassle.

[New2Skool]

My skoolie had and has a lot of surface rust. The interior of the floor was rusty and I had to replace a few sections of flooring. Mostly were the heating lines ran and trapped in moisture and the drivers side wheel well which was also mostly due to the heating lines running across it. The underside of my bus was rusty but, a lot of wire wheel work and sand blasting cleared that up for the most part. Heavy duty industrial steel sealant paint solved a lot of those issues. One issue I had was a very bad floor support cross channel. A lot of water and dirt kicked up impacted it and rusted it pretty bad. My fix was to measure out the span and insert a 1x2 steel tube, braced up with increasing lengths of .25" tubing under it like a giant shock spring directly from the frame to the underside of the floor. Basically I replaced one entire frame to floor hat channel. It was a lot of work but certainly worth it.

I had to reskin my bus, from the windows down as it was a northern Minnesota bus. Rain, Slush, Salt, Snow, Dirt all year and mixed together was perfect with humidity to create a rust bucket. It was a big undertaking but, worth it. I got to lower the skirting about nine inches and raise the roof about 16 inches and the new wall span was exactly 8 feet. So, single sheets of sheet metal did the trick.

With your bus, I would be careful. Do what these gents said, test it out. My bus will not travel very far on a regular routine. So, I have some flexibility in the need for 100% rust free condition. Good luck and Skoolie Speed.