Plywood under the Heater Removal? HELP!

[CuriosityBus]

Hey guys,

So I've been hard at work gutting my bus these past few weeks and I've gotten a lot done. All the seats are out, as are the wall panels, and most of the flooring/plywood.

My problem is that my Plywood goes underneath my heaters on both sides of the front of my bus as shown:




Can anyone recommend how to get this out? My heater system goes inside the bus and I'm not sure whether I can remove the heater beside the drivers seat or not. Would I not need it to operate my dash heaters?




And as for the heater beside the door, I have no idea as to whether or not I need it.



(Also, does anyone else have a huge hole in their floor above their transmission?)

Thanks in advance!!

[Native]

We ended up removing the whole heater assembly and the console to the left of the driver. The console is attached at a few points to the floor. You may want to temporarily remove it anyway to get the old floor up and new floor down. We also removed the front heater as well. This gives us maximum space for our final console design with as much leg room for the passenger as possible.


If you go the heater removal route, you should retain your heater cores as they may be needed in the future. When you remove the heaters, you loose the defrost/heat that blows on the windshield. So far, we've not needed defrost. [Keeping my fingers crossed.]


We do have an electric heater. We also do not plan on spending any time in severe cold. To us, severe cold is defined as below 40 degrees!



As for the hole, yes. That is to accomodate a manual transmission which needs that area for the shifter to pass through the floor. On our bus, there was a piece sheet metal covering the hole under the plywood. I welded up the hole using that piece of sheet metal.

[Native]

Note: I seem to remember that the left console is actually two parts, top and bottom. The top part houses the electronics and the bottom houses the heater and blowers. I removed the bottom and retained the top.


Then again, yours is a Bluebird and ours is a Thomas Built Bus. It may all be different.

[Ninjakitty]

You can order a different heater from jegs that is smaller to replace that one if you like. I did, haven't turned the coolant valves on yet to see if it leaks... Make sure you close those before you remove the tubing.

You will have to disassemble part of the area to remove that flooring.

I also had a hole over the transmission. I framed around it and covered it with wood. It is still accessable. If you ever need to remove your transmission, you will need that access.