Once more into the breach, dear friends...

[zim]

Here goes round II. I had to move into my first bus ('82 Thomas Transit Liner) a lot sooner than I had originally expected and took a lot of shortcuts in the process. I was ready to live with them as a tradeoff for having something now and nothing was really that horrible anyway. Then, I got a chance to buy another bus, and even better, a reason. I'm giving my son the first bus as a 'leg up' to get started living on his own and building up my own with lessons learned from the first, as well as a much more relaxed schedule. He can help with building mine, learning enough in the process to customize his own to his tastes and finish some of my better intentions.

I've finally got a month or so of steady work done on the beast and figured it was enough to post something. Pictures are up on the gallery with narrative. Hoping to get to the point to start construction (as opposed to preparation) before Thanksgiving.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

[zim]

It's been a few weeks and I've continued to prep the bus for interior painting. The plywood on the floor was shot and hasn't been coming up too nicely. I've also had to do quite a bit of grinding to get the remains of screws out and the flaked up rust off.



After a hard day yesterday, I got all the floor up on the curb side from front to back and about 4' wide. I hung the leaf blower in the window to push a lot of air forward, which kept the rust dust flowing out the front door and out of my face.



I wanted to get all the floor done first, but considering how much water had come in through the window over the years, I thought it might not be a bad idea to pull a few windows and get familiar with how it all went together. I left the windows in my first bus, covering them inside and out, but removing them seems to be a better idea this time around.



I found some $8/sheet plywood to hang in the interim. I've painted the outside and edges with a few coats of latex primer to make it last a little longer, but these aren't meant to be the long term solution... just to stop the water from coming in the crappy bus windows before I start installing floor.



This guy decided to move in early... He's a one eyed stray that's been hanging around the last few weeks, following me in and out of the bus and crawling up on the boxes in the back to sleep at night. I've left him a litter box, food & water inside and set him to work keeping the mice out. The power tools don't seem to bother him at all.




Hours to date:
~80

Approximate expenses for this entry:
$160 HVLP Gun
$40 Rustoleum rusty metal primer
$40 Grinder
$30 Respirator
$20 A **** load of drill bits, screwdriver tips & torx tips
$8 Test panel for temporary windows
$10 Weather seal & carriage bolts for temp windows.

More pics at my Picasa Gallery

[M1031]

Zim;

I still have the fuel pump contact disk on my key chain !

[lornaschinske]

You forgot the cat food, kitty litter and vet bills! Don't forget to microchip your kitty cat before you take her on the road.

My vet had us giving our kitten baby doses of childrens motion sickness liquid (body weight dose) until she got used to traveling. After a few months she was great about traveling... except when the dog would lay down on her and squish her.

[zim]

I am thankful for the fact on Thanksgiving day, I managed to get out there after the feast and get the rest of the plywood up! EVERYTHING is off the floor now and this weekend, I'll fish the last of the crappy insulation out from between the walls. I also managed to draft up how I want to do the two bulkheads that separate the front bedroom and the back bedroom from the living area in the middle.

Using 1x4's, I want to set out several horizontal 'guides' parallel to the floor, clamped to the 'ribs' of the bus with C clamps.


Next, I plan on setting out my vertical 2x4's, using a screw at each intersection with the guides.


On top of the guides, the 1x4's cut for the opening will be attached to the 2x4's with screws.


As a footer, screw a 2x2 into the floor between the 2x4's to keep the wall from walking around at the base.


Fill in the space between the 2x4's with styrofoam stacked to match the thickness.


Place similar guides on the front, parallel with the rear guides.


Install the 1x4's cut for the door opening as was done on the back side.


Install the header. Similar to the footer, the middle 2x4 layer of the 'sandwich' could bolt to the roof for added strength


Remove the guides...


Fill in the spaces between the 1x4's with foam on the back side


And do the same on the front, cutting out a groove for the wiring to the switch box


This should leave a wall ready for skinning with any sort of thin paneling. I'll let you know how it turns out and would be interested in comments in the mean time.

[zim]

Sunday, I managed to get the inside completely cleared out. No plywood, no insulation, no rusty sheet metal... just a few spots ready for a touchup with the wire wheel and some red primer. I was happy to get everything out from the instrument cluster, too. I also managed to get (from the front) windows 1-3 & 5-7 skinned over on the street side, leaving the emergency exit for ventilation. The ribs around this exit showed no signs of leakage, but I sealed the frame up with a coat of latex paint that should keep all but the most determined water out of the inside. On the curb side, I still only have windows 1-3 done, but will get 5-7 finished one evening this week.

Also, I want to put black astroturf on the raised flooring area around the driver seat, so tonight will be spent scrubbing that area with scotch-brite pad and some soapy water. I'll dry it with the leaf blower, then wipe down with acetone before priming. I suspect the glue for the astro-turf will stick to the primed metal just fine, but will peek back here before putting down the glue in case someone knows better.

It was a productive weekend.

Hours to date:
~60

Approximate expenses for this entry:
$40 plywood
$20 carriage bolts & washers & nuts
$40 self adhesive weather stripping

[yankeflyer]

So thorough, this thread is going to read like a text book. Well done.

[zim]

Originally Posted by yankeflyer

So thorough, this thread is going to read like a text book. Well done.

Thanks! I got a lot of inspiration from Smitty, with his lots of pics and insight. I hope it helps someone else as much as the rest of this site has helped me.

As for progress pictures...

Here's all the flooring up with the loose rust knocked off. The paneling and insulation on the driver's side was taken out the next day and put in the dumpster, but I haven't had an interior pic since...


Driver side window skinning, 5mm luan paneling with exterior latex primer. Should last the 2~3 months that they are needed before making way for the metal or fiberglass. The bus in the background (in sore need of a roof scrubbing) is #32 from the same Texas A&M fleet.


Detail around the corner near the driver window. I'm not really happy with this, but there's a ton of caulk up there and it's already lived through one small shower with no dark spots on the unpainted inside.


Curb side 5mm paneling added to windows 5-7.


That's it for this batch. The materials were accounted for in a prior post, so really all this took was about 4 hours time.

[zim]

Oh yeah... I wanted to paint it grey.... or olive

[lornaschinske]

OMG! Green Trees! I miss green trees.

This is what I look at in my "back yard"
http://gigapan.org/gigapans/45680/

[dirtygoat]

Take a look at my build... It will give you a really good idea of what Olive will look like...

[zim]

Originally Posted by dirtygoat

Take a look at my build... It will give you a really good idea of what Olive will look like...

Where do you think I got the idea? :P

I love that short flat-nose look, too. You've done awesome things with it.

[dirtygoat]

Well then, I vote Olive...

[zim]

Just got back from Alro Steel with 13 60" x 31" pieces of .040 aluminum, painted on one side, primed on the other for a grand total of $187.79 out the door. I'm a VERY happy camper right now. .040 is a little thin, but since it will have some stiff foam glued to the back of it, I think it will be fine. The shop clerk said it was used for trailer skins and took me straight to it when I mentioned what I was doing with it.

60" will span two windows with an inch or so of overlap and 31" will slip up in below the raingutter and beneath the rub rail at the bottom of the window. I also picked up about 50feet of 1x1x1/8 aluminum angle to put at the top of each window instead of just letting the sheets flap around up there. Will post a diagram & pics after I do the first one... probably this weekend with the weather the way it is.

Anyway, if you're looking for cheap metal, I highly recommend shopping in the 'usable drop' section at your local local Alro Steel. Good people and good prices.

[zim]

Originally Posted by Smitty

Your bus is progressing nicely, you'll really start noticing the change, and see the biggest difference once you start framing the interior. You'll also notice it (interior) will get a lot smaller, and in a hurry too.

yep. already starting to notice that as I bring more tools, table saw, etc to work indoors. This is #2 for me and because of the shrinking space issue you mention, I've got with a lot more 'open' floor space on the floor plan with lots of storage in and under things.

Progress this weekend was pretty good... to the point where I took off Monday and got a little more done. First up was getting one side ready for the sheet metal. The entire top rub rail was loosened so that I could slip the new metal down in between it and the lower siding for a shingle style overlap. This will ensure that water just keeps on going down the outside. There is some ugly grinder stuff to clean up, but I'm not too worried about filling it in before painting. The rear was similar, but easier since I removed the last little bit of rub rail entirely...

[zim]

Between playing Santa and digging for the right calculations to figure out this radiant floor thing, I got the sheet metal up on the driver side. Today I got out and wiped down the painted strips and the area around them with acetone, then buffed them up with a scotch brite pad. I had a quart or so of rustoleum gloss white from the other bus and it rolled it on. It matched up to the new metal and the old paint just fine. It's not the final color, but it will keep the word 'eyesore' from being bandied about... I hope.

Happy Holidays,

/zim

[dirtygoat]

Nice...

Just making it "look" better will keep a lot of people happy... You can have an ugly car that runs like a raped ape and it's just a piece of junk in the driveway... Then you can have a broke down hunk of garbage that is pretty sitting in the same spot and no one will ever complain... Stupid??? Yes... But, that's just how it is...

[M1031]

Looking awesome so far ZIM!

[zim]

Thanks! Been getting some good time in, but nothing else ready for pics quite yet. Currently, i'm building up a single piece door from the existing two door frames.... more to come!

[zim]

Still chugging away at the door... I had planned to pick up the channel for trimming the edges today, but it wasn't in stock. It will be a few more days before I can get started back on this again. Also, once the channel is on, the wood jam will be measured and I'll order square aluminum tubing to the closest dimensions possible to replace the wood.

There was also time today to pull the driver side window and skin it over with the same aluminum I've used everywhere else. 2" foam behind, and I'll need to make up a hot foam cutter to contour it with the bus's interior profile.