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Old 09-26-2020, 12:46 PM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Join Date: Nov 2019
Location: Virginia (for now)
Posts: 15
Year: 2006
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Chassis: Navistar International 3300
Engine: DT466E
Rated Cap: 66
MNTU Tesser “Tessa” - 2006 Bluebird International

Hey all.

We found our bus and brought her home earlier this month (September 6th!). I posted a couple pics in the intro forums but this will be our conversion tracker.

We got a temporary travel permit to transport her to our workspace but I probably won’t be driving her again for a few months (been running every few days though to keep her happy) due to DMV appointment waitlist in VA right now.

I’ve been taking it slow the past few weeks due to a foot injury but this is what we’ve done so far:
  • Removed seats
  • Removed most outside lettering
  • Removed speakers/lights along ceiling
  • Started removing side panels above windows

We took out the first seat to discover a jolly rancher candy river that seeped into the emergency door. In general, the seats weren’t as bad as I expected BUT there were two seats that each had one nut that threaded/melted and we had to cut those out. Everything else came out with wd40 and a bit of patience. We removed the last seat bolt yesterday.

I’m posting ads to hopefully sell some of the seats locally so we can get them out of the way.

We’ve started watching videos to remove the heater and the two air conditioners and will hopefully tackle one of them this week. I just want to make sure I don’t mess anything up and I’m figuring out whether we’re keeping the front heater or pulling it out too. The AC units work too so I figure some folks might want them.

If we’re working on her full time, we’re hoping to get most of the demolition done over the next few weeks and start on paint prep. I want to look into local diesel mechanics before we start doing any serious building because while most of the ride was smooth there were a couple points on the drive home where she would buck while accelerating and it felt like an earthquake.
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Old 09-26-2020, 12:52 PM   #2
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Join Date: Nov 2019
Location: Virginia (for now)
Posts: 15
Year: 2006
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Chassis: Navistar International 3300
Engine: DT466E
Rated Cap: 66
Looks like when I updated the attachments most of them deleted themselves. Whoops. Well, here :
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Old 09-26-2020, 01:03 PM   #3
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Columbus Ohio
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Year: 1991
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Engine: DTA360 / MT643
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Those are nice trans air units .. keep those unless you like to sweat buckets on the road in summer
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Old 09-26-2020, 02:19 PM   #4
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Sweating buckets during the summer helps keep a body lean! I agree those are really nice looking ac units.
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Old 10-16-2020, 03:03 PM   #5
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Join Date: Nov 2019
Location: Virginia (for now)
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Chassis: Navistar International 3300
Engine: DT466E
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@cadillackid - we may keep the ac unit near the driver but we’ll most likely sell the one in the back since it’s pretty rare for us to use the ac. I’m keeping the fans for sure though.

@bus’n it - Yeah, they work pretty good - that’s why I want to pass them on if we don’t end up using them.

~~

Updates :
  • Removed almost all reflective tape (and residue - ughhh)
  • Removed stop sign
  • Slowly removing rivets on walls and ceiling
  • Almost ready to remove rear heater

We’ve not had any luck selling bus seats so I’m most likely going to see if I can donate or scrap them somewhere so we have more space to work and we can tackle the floors. Until then, we’ve been starting to work on cleaning the outside and removing what we need to for painting prep.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve located the two(?) valves under the hood that need to be turned off for the heater. We’ve removed most of the metal guard for the tubes that connect to the heater but it looks like they connect somewhere under the control panel next to the drivers seat so we’ll need to remove a bit more of that. From what I understand from reading through threads here, I’ll need to buy some copper piping to complete the circuit once we do all that. Also trying to trace back the wires for the rear heat so we can disconnect what we don’t need.

On that note - I am trying not to be overwhelmed by the number of wires in the panel on the side of the bus. I spent a while the other day just staring back and forth between the diagram and the bundles trying to familiarize myself with where most of everything is. I need to actually start pouring through the manuals.

~

I measured the approximate amount of inside space we’ll have for a floor plan so that we can start drawing up a new one but I’m going to include our original plans (before we got the bus) of the basic ideas of what we’re trying to do. I started our first mockup of how we’re planning to paint as well.

We’ve been slow moving the past few weeks but I have a feeling we’re going to get quite a bit done before it starts getting really cold.
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Old 12-21-2020, 02:33 PM   #6
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Join Date: Nov 2019
Location: Virginia (for now)
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Year: 2006
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Chassis: Navistar International 3300
Engine: DT466E
Rated Cap: 66
Smile

It's been a rough couple of months for us but we're making some progress.



I was finally able to get rid of all the seats through fb marketplace and craigslist and it makes such a huge difference now to see the space that we have to work with. We kept a couple cushions to reupholster and turn into folding stools.


We finally figured out what works best for us with rivets. We're about a third of the way through removing them all (probably would've been done a while ago but other distractions keep popping up) and I'm looking forward to having that hurdle out of the way.



We also removed half the windows to clean and reseal them. I'm not sure how pristine they should be but we've managed to get just about all the old gunk off (except the very edges). Cleaning them has been more work than I expected but I'm looking forward to popping them back in over the next week or two so we can pull the tarps off and have a nicer view.


We started putting down some painters tape to make a basic map of how we want to set up and I finally started remapping a floorplan (which I'll post once we've figured it out for sure).


We picked up paint for the roof but we'll probably have to wait for a few warm days before tackling that. Until then, we'll probably thoroughly paint prep the outside so it's good to go when spring rolls around.

I've still been anxious about the heater but I know we'll be tackling that soon along with the a/c. I know I need to take the dive and start sorting through some of the electrical too.



My hope is that for our next update, we'll be finished removing the walls, ceiling and floor.



Oh, and there's a thing holding the driver seat belt into the ceiling that I haven't quite figured out removing yet (included pic) - maybe we'll have some luck with that before checking in again.



Until next time, enjoy some deconstruction pics.
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Old 12-21-2020, 06:10 PM   #7
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Join Date: Oct 2020
Location: Florida
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Chassis: RE-300 42ft
Engine: 466ci
Rated Cap: 90
It's amazing how much rust and mold can be found under the plywood of an otherwise 'rust-free' bus. On our 2009 from Central FL, the only place.
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Old 12-22-2020, 12:06 AM   #8
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Year: 1974
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If you're not yet done with the removal of the decals and reflective tapes, check out a Whizzy Wheel that you chuck into a drill. We had to remove some baked on, double-layered reflective stripes and heat/scraping/explosives wouldn't touch them...but the Whizzy Wheel worked wonders.
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Old 12-22-2020, 01:13 AM   #9
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Join Date: Jun 2020
Location: Long Beach, CA
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Year: 1998
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I could be mistaken but...I think those seat belt bolts come out from the back side.
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