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Old 04-11-2018, 10:44 AM   #21
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: San Diego
Posts: 16
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Engine: 8.3 Cummins
Rated Cap: 84
Reposting to try to fix the image issue....

It's been a few weeks but I'm happy with my progress so far.
  • All ceiling panels and insulation remove
  • Almost all side panels removed
  • Both the front and rear inside panels removed
  • Cleaned all the spray paint off the outside
  • Removed the stop sign and swing arm

The main thing I learned: removing rivets sucks. I tried several different methods but the one that ended up working the best for me was taking a hammer and punch and knocking out the pins then for the bigger rivets (all the ceiling ones and the ones attaching the walls to the vertical ribs), a 3 lb hammer and a chisel that had one side of the tip ground flat. That allowed the chisel to get under the rivet head pretty quickly and pop it up and off. For all the smaller rivets like the ones directly under the windows, a similar ground down chisel attached to a Ryobi hammer drill made much quicker work than the chisel and hammer route. It seemed that with the hammer and chisel, the metal around the rivet head tended to move or deform much more easily but the hammer drill just cut through those rivets with no problem and none of the deformation on the underlying metal.







The Ryobi P222 SDS Rotary Hammer Drill with the filed chisel bit.


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Old 04-11-2018, 10:48 AM   #22
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: San Diego
Posts: 16
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Engine: 8.3 Cummins
Rated Cap: 84
Missing images...

Here's the fridge, Mini Cube and the manuals. Apologies if you couldn't see them before...





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Old 04-11-2018, 10:55 AM   #23
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: San Diego
Posts: 16
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Engine: 8.3 Cummins
Rated Cap: 84
Quote:
Originally Posted by Twigg View Post
Not seeing any of your pictures.
Sorry, was using Google Photos and used the wrong URL. I reposted and they should be showing now.
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Old 04-17-2018, 01:50 PM   #24
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: San Diego
Posts: 16
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Engine: 8.3 Cummins
Rated Cap: 84
Gutting progress...

Here's the state of the bus after this past weekend's work. Hooray to be done with rivet removal and I'm SO glad the guy I bought the bus from had already removed most of the seats.

I pulled up one part of the floor and found the only rust I've seen on the bus so far. I had expected to find some under there so not a big deal. I was surprised to find a couple cutouts for access to the top of the fuel tank. Not sure if I should leave access panels in the finished floor for them or not. I guess that's a question for future me...









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Old 04-17-2018, 05:02 PM   #25
Skoolie
 
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Marion NY
Posts: 103
Year: 2003
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: HDX
Engine: 3126 7.2
thats a nice bus you have going there... I wanted the 8.3 but am having to settle for the 3126 CAT... I also dont believe i have the Jake brake... great feature for those hills and stopping
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Old 04-17-2018, 06:10 PM   #26
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: San Diego
Posts: 16
Year: 1993
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Engine: 8.3 Cummins
Rated Cap: 84
Quote:
Originally Posted by SilentReprieve View Post
thats a nice bus you have going there... I wanted the 8.3 but am having to settle for the 3126 CAT... I also dont believe i have the Jake brake... great feature for those hills and stopping
Thanks!

I found out last week that the Jake brake is actually a transmission retarder and the two red "buttons" in this picture are actually lights - flip the switch and one light goes on to remind you that the retarder is active and the other light is a transmission temp warning. I met the transportation department service manager at the bus' original school district and he told me he used to drive it with his knee on the lever working the retarder and never had to take his hands off the wheel.



I'd never heard of a transmission retarder but here's some decent info I found:

Transmission Retarder Operation - How Does It Work
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Old 04-17-2018, 08:16 PM   #27
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 28
A Jake brake! This bus has lot of nice bells and whistles.
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Old 04-17-2018, 08:36 PM   #28
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 28
Even better. Something new and different to me. Sweet bus.
GW
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Old 04-18-2018, 02:00 AM   #29
Skoolie
 
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Marion NY
Posts: 103
Year: 2003
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: HDX
Engine: 3126 7.2
Quote:
Originally Posted by J A M View Post
Thanks!

I found out last week that the Jake brake is actually a transmission retarder and the two red "buttons" in this picture are actually lights - flip the switch and one light goes on to remind you that the retarder is active and the other light is a transmission temp warning. I met the transportation department service manager at the bus' original school district and he told me he used to drive it with his knee on the lever working the retarder and never had to take his hands off the wheel.
whoa.. thats a pretty nice feature once you get the hang of it... definitely never heard of that before...good find
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"Fitting a bus for your lifestyle is certainly easier than fitting your lifestyle into your bus" The journey begins... I am expecting a rough road ahead!!
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