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Old 07-21-2018, 05:07 PM   #81
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what was the part you were doing with flame.. what did that do? did you separate the 2 pieces of glass from the laminate?
-Christopher

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Old 07-21-2018, 05:09 PM   #82
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No, I took the windows out and resized them by cutting the frames and the glass. For the front 1/2 windows, I just cut the bottom glass so they only open a few inches at the top. for the tiny window (where the bathroom is going to be), I cut both the upper and bottom pieces.

Oh, there's also a door on the driver side that is now gone..
I'll have to see how hard it would be to seal a half window from outside and still have it be able to open all the way. On in the bathroom would work nice without revealing neck down in the shower and still be able to open for vent. I saw your door delete and commented on it as I have the same door I think I am going to delete as I see no purpose for it where it sits (midway).
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Old 07-21-2018, 07:12 PM   #83
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what was the part you were doing with flame.. what did that do? did you separate the 2 pieces of glass from the laminate?
-Christopher
This is safety glass so you need to score and snap both sides, then the easiest way to cut the membrane is to burn it... alcohol spread over the cut and light it.
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Old 07-21-2018, 08:17 PM   #84
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wow!! and it doesnt break the glass.. amazing... so basically you get that exposed part of the membrane hot enough to melt where you can cut it? or it burns away up to the glass and stops.
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Old 07-21-2018, 09:17 PM   #85
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wow!! and it doesnt break the glass.. amazing... so basically you get that exposed part of the membrane hot enough to melt where you can cut it? or it burns away up to the glass and stops.
Wellllll... it doesn't always break the glass ... The way I did things though, I had lots of glass to try again... I did throw away 4 attempts that cracked one side or the other beyond "reason"...
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Old 07-31-2018, 11:35 AM   #86
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Lock

So I decided I wanted to keep the cafe doors on the bus so there's the issue of how to lock them..

Here's my solution:




I'm using a steel rod that runs up inside the edge tubing of the right hand door. This gets activated by the deadbolt on the keypad lock mechanism.

The lock is a "defiant" keypad lock (not sure if it's made any more). I selected it primarily because it fit the available space on the center metal panel in the doors , but also because it locks/unlocks a "knob" to allow you to apply as much pressure as necessary to latch/unlatch. (as opposed to an internal motor that has limits).. I wasn't sure how much pressure would be needed to lift a 3 ft. steel rod..

The "cavity":



Drilled through the door using 1-1/2" hole cutter, then carved around with dremel cutoff tool and carbide burrs.
I made a spacer to hold the metal panels apart out of a piece of Fiberglass tubing I had laying around.


Bolt:



The "bolt" is a 3/8" thick stainless steel rod in two pieces. the top part is just the rod, with a 1/4-20 threaded end.
The "lift" mechanism is 1/8" stainless welded to a small section of the 3/8" rod and that section drilled and tapped. This allows the rod to be dropped in from the top and attached to the lift mechanism in the cavity. There a small screw that keeps the bolt from dropping lower than the center of the lock deadbolt.

Deadbolt and front plate:


The deadbolt is mounted to a 1/8" aluminum plate that covers the hole on the inside and ensures adequate spacing for the lock mechanism (designed for 1-1/4" doors minimum).

The lock requires pushing or pulling the door In to be able to engage or release the bolt. ie: you need to compress the seals to get the doors close to the bus.

The hole in the roof of the door opening for the bolt to go into is an oval to allow the doors to pull in when under pneumatic control.

That's about it for this one.. I'm reasonably happy with the result.. not sure if I need to add a lower bolt to go through a floor plate Right now, when you pull on the handle, the door 'bends', opening a couple inches at the bottom..
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Old 07-31-2018, 11:36 AM   #87
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Wellllll... it doesn't always break the glass ... The way I did things though, I had lots of glass to try again... I did throw away 4 attempts that cracked one side or the other beyond "reason"...
Note: The cracking always occurred during cutting, not the flaming part .. need more practice cutting glass.
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Old 08-12-2018, 11:30 AM   #88
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floor Insulation

Well, I was going to just leave the floor as-is since it is such good shape, but... all the dang experienced builders on this forum have shamed me into adding floor insulation...

So, new plan is to remove the old floor down to the metal, put in 3/4" rigid foam insulation and then 3/8" OSB T&G (I have my router and the T&G cutters). I'll lose 3/8" in height, but that should be Ok. Since the metal floor is on top of beams that only have 8" spacing or so, this system should be rigid enough even with the thin OSB.
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Old 08-12-2018, 04:43 PM   #89
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floor Insulation

So when others have done this (rip up the plywood and insulate)... did you remove the entire floor? how did you get under the dash? or did you just pull it out completely to get to the floor??
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Old 08-12-2018, 04:49 PM   #90
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Please don't use OSB, if it gets wet at all it will start to deteriorate. There is no place for OSB in my bus. The price difference now will be forgotten a few miles up the road.

The bitter taste of poor quality lingers much longer than the sweetness of a good price.
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Old 08-12-2018, 04:52 PM   #91
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Please don't use OSB, if it gets wet at all it will start to deteriorate. There is no place for OSB in my bus. The price difference now will be forgotten a few miles up the road.

The bitter taste of poor quality lingers much longer than the sweetness of a good price.
Hmm, my reason for looking at OSB was for rigidity rather than anything else. There are OSB panels that claim better water resistance than marine plywood... But, after reading a lot, I may go with exterior plywood instead...
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Old 08-12-2018, 06:15 PM   #92
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"better water resistance than marine plywood"...


I'm having a really hard time buying that but would love to hear more.
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Old 08-12-2018, 06:44 PM   #93
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If the base is flat enough, foam has pretty strong compression.

No need to go too heavy weight, if your desired topmost layer is lightweight water- and puncture- resistant, maybe go thicker insulation and skip ply completely.
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Old 08-13-2018, 12:15 AM   #94
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"better water resistance than marine plywood"...


I'm having a really hard time buying that but would love to hear more.
I was looking at Advantech information
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Old 08-13-2018, 12:18 AM   #95
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If the base is flat enough, foam has pretty strong compression.

No need to go too heavy weight, if your desired topmost layer is lightweight water- and puncture- resistant, maybe go thicker insulation and skip ply completely.
My top layer is vinyl plank flooring 4 mm thick.
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Old 08-13-2018, 05:34 AM   #96
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There you go.

If the base is flat and intact best off with no plywood at all, or the thinnest and lightest yo feel comfortable with.

For a very high lbs psi load, use a router and gorilla glue to embed, flush with the foam surface, a small square of thicker ply to support the vinyl and spread the load.

Seal any wood with epoxy paint on all six sides, particularly the edges.
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Old 08-13-2018, 07:52 AM   #97
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Hmm, my reason for looking at OSB was for rigidity rather than anything else. There are OSB panels that claim better water resistance than marine plywood... But, after reading a lot, I may go with exterior plywood instead...
the bus is plenty rigid, just focus on it being waterproof.
Marine grade is pricey but you can't go wrong using that.
I've only got short buses. But I had a 40' and would have still ponied up for the GOOD stuff.
I'm not a fan of spending lots of money unnecessarily, but I buy the good stuff when it comes to plywood.
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Old 08-13-2018, 08:23 AM   #98
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I agree on getting the good wood... no matter How much you seal and hose down a bus to test.. SOMETHING is going to leak in a massive rainstorm at 40+ MPH down the highway at some point.. esp after your bus has spent a couple years bouncing and flexing along in your journies.. I would want good wood underneath that could field a little moisture once in a while and not become an instant wick... esp after that underlayment itself has been flexing along with the bus body over a couple years...



-Christopher
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Old 08-25-2018, 10:07 AM   #99
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SubFloor and insulation

Ok, ripped out the old floor to replace with an insulated floor.
Metal underneath looks pretty good except in the cab area where there's a little rust:





First Step, rust conversion and plug the holes.. I also used rust conversion paint on all the holes to seal the edges. then I covered each hole with some metal tape. I decided to not paint the metal (it's galvanized, after all...).



I wanted to limit the reduction in available height in the bus, so I went with 1/2" foam insulation and 1/2" marine plywood. This gives me about R4 from an insulation rating perspective vs about R0.8 from the original floor. Probably not good enough for sub-zero weather, but I'm not really planning for that much.



Finished the subfloor, including a new insulated access port for the Fuel Tank.



Now... on to the walls.
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Old 08-25-2018, 02:52 PM   #100
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Ok, ripped out the old floor to replace with an insulated floor.
Metal underneath looks pretty good except in the cab area where there's a little rust:





First Step, rust conversion and plug the holes.. I also used rust conversion paint on all the holes to seal the edges. then I covered each hole with some metal tape. I decided to not paint the metal (it's galvanized, after all...).



I wanted to limit the reduction in available height in the bus, so I went with 1/2" foam insulation and 1/2" marine plywood. This gives me about R4 from an insulation rating perspective vs about R0.8 from the original floor. Probably not good enough for sub-zero weather, but I'm not really planning for that much.



Finished the subfloor, including a new insulated access port for the Fuel Tank.



Now... on to the walls.
Nicely done!

I'm about to start this part of the project myself and it helps seeing how others have done it. I was also thinking about doing a "floating floor" like you have.

Any concerns building walls over this floor? Do you anticipate any settling or shifting as the insulation compresses?
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