Rusty 87 build thread

[cadillackid]

I didn’t know the type but I knew it as the “school bus transmission “ just like all Dayton wheels were “school bus wheels” to me.. I had no idea they were used anywhere else lol.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Did an experiment (fortunately) riveting 1/4" Lexan to some plastic from my roof hatch with 3/16" SS rivets.


Attachment 59757

I guess I need to try this with aluminum rivets or just use screws.

Use backer washers on the rivets to hold it together. I always save the heads of rivets I have drilled out, to later use as backer washers.

[musigenesis]

No leaks in the skyhatch.



Prepped the back end for painting. Sanded as much as I could with 220 on an orbital sander, hand-sanded the rest. Then wiped everything down with mineral spirits. I would have used acetone but I couldn't get the damned can open.







This experience of prepping and masking has made me think that a bus already painted something other than school bus yellow is the #1 priority when looking for a bus. What a horrible task.



Primed any bare metal with Rust-o rusty metal primer and SEM self-etching primer for the bare rivet heads. This back end is a very motley collection of POR-15, Dynatron-550, automotive primer, Rusto self-etching primer, and SEM self-etching primer. Some combination of something with something else is bound to cause problems.

[musigenesis]

After all the prep, it was nice to see that the actual painting only took 45 minutes or so. This took six rattle cans of Rustoleum antique white gloss enamel (exactly the number I had bought), so I'm estimating that I'll need another twenty-eight or so to finish the bus (everything but the roof and the hood). I'm starting to be a little scared that I may have trouble acquiring that many cans, since I've cleaned out the two Home Depots near me.



Came back a few hours later and saw that I had a few spots that needed touch-up.



And learned that Rustoleum isn't kidding when they say the second coat either needs to go within an hour or after 24 hours. Some nice alligator skinning that I'm going to have to deal with at a later point.





I learned through testing that my LED running lights aren't watertight despite the rubber gasket, so I'm finally able to put them in permanently with some Dynatron as sealant.



It somehow looks both better than I thought it would and worse at the same time. There are some runs but you really can't see them unless you're a few feet away. The rub rails and the disks covering the flasher light holes are going to be painted my trim colors (maroon and navy), so they only got some incidental antique white on them today.

[Bert06840]

I’m shocked how good a result you seem to be able to achieve with rattle cans!!

I had been mentally preparing for an eventual multiple $1,000 paint job, but now I’m reconsidering if I should aspire the same outcome as you.

In particular, how much cover you seem to be able to get per coat is astonishing…

[peakbus]

I used a $10 harbor freight HVLP gun and a $50 can of Benjamin Moore Super Spec on my 1st bus. The idea of pushing the trigger on all those cans makes my finger sore!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Bert06840

I’m shocked how good a result you seem to be able to achieve with rattle cans!!

Thanks very much. It's funny how every time I do something I haven't done before, it seems like a horrendous ongoing catastrophe when I'm about halfway through and I start thinking about how much I'm going to sell the bus for because the end has finally come, and then when I'm done it's like "oh, this is fine."

Originally Posted by Bert06840

I had been mentally preparing for an eventual multiple $1,000 paint job, but now I’m reconsidering if I should aspire the same outcome as you.

I'm estimating the total number of cans (including the trim) at about 40, so that's a total cost of $171, way way less than what I thought it was going to cost also.

As a good friend of mine once said, the key to successful dating is to keep lowering your standards until you're successful.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by peakbus

I used a $10 harbor freight HVLP gun and a $50 can of Benjamin Moore Super Spec on my 1st bus. The idea of pushing the trigger on all those cans makes my finger sore!

It's not too bad so far - that finger gets a lot of exercise working my mouse. I'm going to be doing this over six or seven sessions, too, since I can't imagine doing the entire bus at one time this way.

[Phatman]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

After all the prep, it was nice to see that the actual painting only took 45 minutes or so. This took six rattle cans of Rustoleum antique white gloss enamel (exactly the number I had bought), so I'm estimating that I'll need another twenty-eight or so to finish the bus (everything but the roof and the hood). I'm starting to be a little scared that I may have trouble acquiring that many cans, since I've cleaned out the two Home Depots near me.

Attachment 60004

Came back a few hours later and saw that I had a few spots that needed touch-up.

Attachment 60005

And learned that Rustoleum isn't kidding when they say the second coat either needs to go within an hour or after 24 hours. Some nice alligator skinning that I'm going to have to deal with at a later point.

Attachment 60006

Attachment 60007

I learned through testing that my LED running lights aren't watertight despite the rubber gasket, so I'm finally able to put them in permanently with some Dynatron as sealant.

Attachment 60008

It somehow looks both better than I thought it would and worse at the same time. There are some runs but you really can't see them unless you're a few feet away. The rub rails and the disks covering the flasher light holes are going to be painted my trim colors (maroon and navy), so they only got some incidental antique white on them today.

Attachment 60009

If you have a few runs, take you a single edged razor blade and slightly bend it, and then drag it across the run long ways. Once you get it flat, hit it with 400 grit wet sand paper and repaint it. Works like a champ !!

[cadillackid]

Lookin good!! Except did you really paint over the school lights without removing them and covering the holes??

34 cans of paint?? My poor finger to do a whole bus.I sure hope you roof won’t be that color or you are gonna sweat!!! Make the roof a bright white not cream.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

Lookin good!! Except did you really paint over the school lights without removing them and covering the holes??

This was waaaaaaay back on page 1, but the very first thing I did on my bus after demo was to remove the flashers and rivet 7" steel disks over the holes. I was originally just going to paint over them but they were the kind of light with a metal backing plate and they were completely rusted out.

I left the eyelashes up because I think they're a major part of the bus aesthetic.

Originally Posted by cadillackid

34 cans of paint?? My poor finger to do a whole bus.I sure hope you roof won’t be that color or you are gonna sweat!!! Make the roof a bright white not cream.

My roof was already regular white and I'm leaving that as it is. I am embarrassed to admit this, but right after I bought my bus I went to help some young people in NJ paint their bus and I almost bought their leftover Henry's Tropi-Cool since it seemed like everybody does that with their skoolies. Later I read the product literature on it and had a good laugh.

[Buster Junior]

Wow. Really nice job. In hind sight, i wish i had the courage to have moved forward with painting our bus myself. I had enough people make me doubt myself and I caved. Bravo to you. It looks quite great! Elizabeth

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Buster Junior

Wow. Really nice job. In hind sight, i wish i had the courage to have moved forward with painting our bus myself. I had enough people make me doubt myself and I caved. Bravo to you. It looks quite great! Elizabeth

FWIW if you got pros to do yours, it will probably last a lot longer and it probably looks a lot better up close. My paint job is definitely a Monet (looks pretty from far away but up close it's a bit of a mess).

[Mr4btTahoe]

Originally Posted by Bert06840

I’m shocked how good a result you seem to be able to achieve with rattle cans!!

I had been mentally preparing for an eventual multiple $1,000 paint job, but now I’m reconsidering if I should aspire the same outcome as you.

In particular, how much cover you seem to be able to get per coat is astonishing…

It's all in prep and paint quality. Don't buy cheap paint. Make sure the surface is fully prepped.. no shiney.. everything smoothed out. Lay multiple light coats and a full coat or 2 after everything is fully covered. You can get great results. Just be sure to use paint that is UV rated or clear it with a UV rated clear.

[musigenesis]

Started on repairing the driver's side fender today. I was originally going to leave these holes for a while and break my hinged skirt panels on them, but I got a stick up my butt about painting the whole bus so I decided to clean up them now and worry about the hinged parts later.



Flap-disked the bottoms of the rubs rails which were slightly rusty with bubbling paint. There were also a number of very small paint bubbles on the skirt with just the faintest bit of corrosion underneath, so I sanded them all down.



The bottom lip of the skirt was all peeling, but the metal underneath is not really in bad shape at all.



Checked the date code on my tires for the first time ever. I'm going to need new ones soon.



Squared off the skirt holes and cleaned them up a bit.



Spot-welded patch.



Mondo bondo tomorrow.



This weird little piece needed to be plug-welded at the bottom since the side paneling overlaps the skirt panel instead of being flush with it. This is a continuation of the side panel.







Another gratuitous shot of my painted rear.



Fit and spot-welded the patch over the other hole.





I guess I'll repair the fender on the other side as well, while I'm in a groove and I still have a bit of welding gas left. That's going to be more of a job since I need to replace a two-foot length of rub rail that was flattened by an accident the previous owner was in.

[musigenesis]

Fixed the rusted-out lip of my driver's side fender. These pieces are $80 or so each, but mainly I don't feel like grinding away all the rivets.







Finished repairing the driver's side, except for the bondo.



Started on the passenger side, which is in worse shape.



Ground away the rivets on this crushed piece of rub rail. Not too bad a job but nearly impossible to do without nicking the rub rail - good thing I'm getting rid of it.



The length I cut off was determined by the length of the scrap piece of rub rail that DrDanger sent me (thanks DrDanger!) which was nearly perfect to replace the crushed section.

There was no rust on the wall underneath the rub rail here, just a tiny bit of paint bubbling.



DrDanger's piece was straight on each end, so I cut the rounded end off the original piece to weld onto this section. Since it's smashed and the steel is much too strong to hammer back into shape, I'm welding on an extra bit of sheet metal and I'll re-create the profile with bondo.



All ready for grinding and bondo.



As I was squaring up the nasty holes on either side of the wheel, I noticed a bit of water starting to trickle out of the bottom of the skirt, which was a bit odd since it hasn't rained here in a few days.



It finally dawned on me that it was coming from the rub rail itself and that it was probably holding water because the drainage ports had gotten clogged. I went along with a screwdriver and cleared them and sure enough a large amount of water came out. Good to know for the future that these are worth cleaning from time to time.



Whole fender area demoed and ready for repairing.



I should probably cut this entire section away and rebuild it from scratch, but I'm feeling pretty lazy this week.

[Buster Junior]

Very productive. Nice work. Keep the fire lit!

[dbsoundman]

I've noticed that the worst corrosion/salt damage is always on the passenger side...I guess that's the "slushier" side? Kind of weird.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by dbsoundman

I've noticed that the worst corrosion/salt damage is always on the passenger side...I guess that's the "slushier" side? Kind of weird.

On my bus the worst rust was definitely on the driver's side.

https://i.imgur.com/IO8j2XU.jpeg

I think it just has to do with where the bus is parked and how it's leaning (left/right and/or up/down). In the case of my fenders, I think the passenger side was in worse shape because it got smashed at some point.

[musigenesis]

Figured out that it was faster to cut a piece a little bit larger than the hole, then trace it over the hole and use the grinding wheel to enlarge the hole to fit, rather than grinding the piece down by eye until it fits.





This passenger-side fender was the victim of a repair by the previous owner at some point, and there's a pretty large gap between the outer skin and some sort of inner panel that was put in for the repair. There's also some sort of weird aqua-colored foam in here. I think the whole mess came along with the rib that was entirely replaced here. It's hard to imagine that as badly rusted as the wheel well area was on this bus, it wasn't even original. If this bus could talk, it would probably be screaming "let me die already!"

I decided to plug-weld the two separated layers back together.





And then spent some time trying to weld little scraps of sheet on to fix this mess. I don't know how I haven't learned yet that it saves time and effort in the long run to cut out the crap and fix things properly.



Finally gave up and cut out the crap where it needed to be cut.



I traced the curve off the fender on the other side and then ground it down and eyeballed it to make sure it looked right. I don't this fender piece is exactly semi-circular.





I traced the curve on this scrap piece to form the rim. I'm going to weld it in place over the piece already there, and use two plug welds to simulate the cut-away rivets from the original.



Ran out of AR/CO2 and also motivation. Hopefully I will have the fenders all done tomorrow and I can start prepping for paint.