My 92' Vista

[Malevolence4845]

Well today was the first real day I worked in the bus, removing overhead storage racks and seat removal. All the while my sidekick was hovering over my shoulder! Only had a few hours after work to do it, It's cold and nasty out but my excitement kept me warm. Here are some pics

[nikitis]

Just sawed the legs off of the seats huh? I guess it does make it easier to unscrew the bolts a tiny bit, but not much, still requires one to get under the bus to hold the wrench still. Or if you grind wheel them out, but that's gonna smell terrible when you hit that rubber with that grinding wheel.

[Malevolence4845]

I don't have an extra set of hands to help me right now so I'm just cutting the legs to make myself some room and cutting the bolt heads off. I was lucky today and so far I hadn't hit that floor. I became too tunnel visioned today so I didn't take many pictures. I did record it and I'm debating a YouTube thing for it. It'll show my mistakes and hopefully keep someone from it ha!

[nikitis]

Mistakes are okay to make, and flaunting them on the internet via youtube is the best way to learn from them. Constructive criticism

But everyone loves watching others work even if they have something to say or negative to say, they still appreciate you posting it. A lot of times it comes from the heart and simply want you to succeed, so I wouldn't take most of the negative comments as a bad thing or let it get to you or get in the way of you making videos.

You'll have more positive things being said about what you do than negative as well as most people are far too polite today. You'll also learn the best way to do things from comments, and ways you haven't considered ever that may even help you in other endeavors in your life later.

The only reason I haven't started my own youtube channel is because I can't get a Yes from the wife. She doesn't want any of our personal details to get out on the net, and she doesn't want to be famous. To which I kind of agree to an extent, but I still would like to do one. I've recorded a lot of footage of my builds that in hopes that one day she changes her mind, or dies pre-maturely I can retroactively go back to the footage and show videos I recorded then.

[cadillackid]

sawing the legs off isnt bad.. some of the seats you can get to the bolts underneath but a good number of seat bolts will be obscured by batteries, transmission, exhaust, etc.. thats why a lot of people just grind the bolt heads off inside then pound the bolts out.. or if the bus is a rust freee from the south they often almost fall out on their own..

[nikitis]

Yeah for our bus at least we found it difficult to get to some of the bolts underneath, but still doable. (Someone had to reach up there to put them on during installation) So in theory you should be able to get to them. The only ones I had to grind off were the very front padding walls right behind the driver seat. I think they welded the battery box afterwards on those and covered them.

The seat removal is some of the toughest work in the demo imo. Everything else was pretty smooth. Even the 1000 screws in the walls/ceiliings wasn't so bad.

Some advice when you get to that point. Use the grinding wheel on the stripped screws. If they don't come out, skip them, then in one go with the grinding wheel just grind a flat line through the head, then go back with a drill and a flat head screw bit, and they'll come right out. Will save you a ton of time.

[BamaBus]

Originally Posted by nikitis

I've recorded a lot of footage of my builds that in hopes that one day she changes her mind, or dies pre-maturely...

"hopes that one day she changes her mind, or dies pre-maturely"

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by BamaBus

"hopes that one day she changes her mind, or dies pre-maturely"

im glad i never got a wife i mean a ball N chain

[musigenesis]

LPT: convert your pics to PNG format before uploading. This will ensure that they're oriented properly and not rotated. Also, after uploading the pics in the popup window, you can click the paper clip button again and insert any (or all) of the uploaded pics inline into the text of your comment (any pics not inlined in this way show up in the "attached thumbnails" section, as in your initial post).

[Malevolence4845]

Demo work continues, seats and overhead racks removed. A few seat mounts left to take out and some rubber flooring taken out as well, I have no plywood underneath so I'll take that blessing. Some rust near old heater exhaust but it was kind of expected. Twisted wire wheel and chassis saver will solve that issue quick, other than that there is some flash rusted rivets and not much else, she is a clean bus, here are some photos of my work and the underside as well. Sidenote, it was 4F outside this morning so while my truck was defrosting I ran the bus to warm it up and drop some fresh power to the batteries. Cold started like a champ, grumbled like any cold diesel would but she rumbled to life with no other gruff.

[Malevolence4845]

The PNG's just look like someone spliced together the pics 8 times its really weird, I still appreciate the advice. I found a funny technique were you rotate the pic 90 clockwise then 90 back and save it as a copy and then it locks the orientation. Odd how that makes it stay!

[nocoasty]

Originally Posted by nikitis

that's gonna smell terrible when you hit that rubber with that grinding wheel.

I might be an outlier, but I absolutely love the smell of burnt rubber.

[nocoasty]

Originally Posted by Malevolence4845

I did record it and I'm debating a YouTube thing for it.

I say go for it. My full-time income since 2018 until recently has been the YouTube channel my wife and I started as a result of our first skoolie build. It opened up a world of possibilities for us for that build, our travels, and our current business.

You'll find your audience.

[Malevolence4845]

[QUOTE=Malevolence4845;504514]Well today was the first real day I worked in the bus.

Slower than I would like (curse adult expendabilities ) but progress is progress, All seats gone, 95% of the floor out. I've been chasing wires for disabling the flashers and whatnot. Any good tutorials on doing a new dash and gauges? I don't have a computer (I have looked everywhere) so no Blue Fire, I prefer analog anyhow. My gauges work I just would like nicer ones and I will be adding more to it anyways (trans temp, turbo temp, etc etc) Next up will be ceiling panel and insulation removal and wall insulation removal, sweeping it up and prepping for a coat of chassis saver on the floor pan.

[brokedown]

Your DT360 won't have a computer, its all mechanical and we love that about it... You can stop looking!

[Malevolence4845]

I had a few people telling me to "Get bluefire, it'll have a 6pin, it'll be 6 pin you have a computer yada yada yada" I knew it shouldn't have one but I'm a newbie and just went looking to be sure haha. I kept telling them I literally went for something that's all mechanical for a reason, I did not under any circumstance want a blasted computer :'D

[brokedown]

The engine that replaced the DT360 (T444E, which also replaced the 7.3 IDI) would show up starting in 1994, it is electronic and would have that 6 pin connection.

I would personally take a DT360 over a T444E however I also acknowledge that most people are probably better off doing the opposite. Clear as mud I know.

[Malevolence4845]

Floor is totally gone, removed wall channels that covered wire bundles, and now the ceiling comes out. My insulation was held up by scotch tape it seems, no scraping for me! After this it'll be taking the walls apart, disabling flashing lights, wire wheel for the floor, sweeping, moping, Chassis Saver, then pulling apart my dash (bypassing old heater lines while I'm in there) and doing electrical work while waiting for spring so I can remove the stock windows (If anyone wants them you can have them when the time comes let me know) and then add new skin over the gaps. I'm probably being ambitious (as always lol...) but I suspect by fall I'll be buttoning up my interior and next spring will be ~90% finished....even if I fall short.....aim for the moon, if I miss I'll still land among the stars.

[nikitis]

At the rate your going, you'll do fine. It took my wife and I a week to get the seats out, Still don't have the floor removed. We have removed the ceiling, and started the side panels. (Decided to do the floor last cause if everything was going to drop on it, why drop it on the bare metal and have to clean it?)

Congrats on the non-sticky ceiling insulation. Newer models had sticky, mine did not and was taped so that saves you 3 days of scraping.

Also you'll likely find your side panels are under your Windows, so it would require window removal or cutting the panels near the windows. If you do cut, shield the glass cause the sparks will melt into the glass.

[Malevolence4845]

T24 worked it seems, tag office took everything in and should get a New Motor Home title in a week or two, called insurance agent and they just wanted pictures to show the school system stuff was removed or painted over. Said they can give it the same coverage as my 2019 Silverado so hey that's not bad at all. Quoted at $45 a month and I'm definitely cool with it. Need to get that squared away so I can go back to the tag office for my plate. Also learned AutoZone and O'Reilly recognize my bus based on VIN, color me surprised. Temp sensor stopped reading (or the gauge broke not sure yet) and they even had one in stock! Go figure.