Rusty 87 build thread

[banman]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Those Daewoo washers look great and the form factor is exactly what I'm looking for. $550 is kinda steep though. I think it would take about 400 loads to pay for itself (compared to a laundromat).

And a dryer depending on where you live...

[musigenesis]

Floor turds.





If the rust around the hole is not too bad, the screw and bolt holes are not too hard to weld up. On a lot of them, though, the rust has thinned out the metal around the hole, so it becomes a hunt for thicker metal until I give up and weld a full patch over it.



I've given up trying to make my patches watertight. I just want them solidly attached and then seam sealer and paint will do the rest.







Underside.

[musigenesis]

I had no way to access the underside of the floor where the fuel tank is in order to clean and paint there. So I cut four holes 22" wide between the crossmembers above the tank. From these holes now as well as from underneath, I can access everything including the tank, the tank supporting structure and the chassis rails.

To cover this after everything is painted, I'll do my usual welding bolts to the floor and nutting down a pre-painted panel with seam sealer. The bolts will probably be a bit more challenging here as I'll be welding them to pitted 16ga instead of new 3/16". Also going to make a hole in the panel the same size as the original fuel sensor access hole, and then screw it down with a rubber gasket so I can get to this later if need be.



So dirty on top of the tank but no rust underneath. Didn't find any of my missing tools down there.



More floor welding.



Managed to weld over a ton of holes in the front half of my floor. There are all the double bolt holes for the seats, and then a crap ton of smaller holes for I don't know what reason. I guess they were originally from screws that held the plywood down, but I don't remember.

I was having a lot of trouble welding them yesterday, but today I tried a new approach where I hold the gun almost horizontally against the floor, and it makes it a lot easier to deposit metal at the same layer as the hole. I'm able to weld the smaller ones now in one pass and the glob doesn't stick up as far; the larger ones I can do quickly now in three or four passes and they're also flatter. As usual, figuring things out just as I finish the task.

[musigenesis]

Welded on more 1/4-20 bolts with the heads cut off. This went about as easily on the 16 ga sheet here as it did on the thicker beams and they feel just as solid. Perhaps they will fail years down the road (or sooner) but it's becoming a handy way of attaching stuff.





16 ga panel goes down over the bolts. When I do the final assembly on the floor, this will go down with seam sealer around the rim of all four openings.





Still need to cut the smaller hole in the middle for access to the fuel sensor line. My original hole cut halfway through the stiffener channel - from the look of the original floor, it seems like the school system owner cut the hole and I guess they happened to cut through the channel inadvertently (seems weird to think it would be that way from the factory). I ran out of time today because those four freaking seat bolts took forever to get out, even with this easy access to them.

[musigenesis]

Cut the smaller access hole to match the original opening. I was thinking of not doing this and just cutting a hole in the future if I ever needed to get to it (which I think is what the original owner of my bus did). But I think I read about somebody failing an inspection because they have covered over this opening. It would also be kind of hard to do without showering sparks all over the fuel tank.



Access panel for the hole. Bolts are put in from the underside and I did a hideous job of spot-welding the heads. Couldn't get a good electrical contact on it.









Going to paint everything and then set the small panel in with a rubber gasket.

[Frochevy]

Good job thinking ahead for " when" not "if" the sending unit will need accessed some day!! I did the same in my bus along with a cut out section in the insulation and the wood sub floor...

Will you have a final flooring of some sort over the top and will it be marked? I'm trying to decide how I will mark or measure of where to remove my vinyl flooring planks in the event I need to access my sending unit/fuel sensor...

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Frochevy

Good job thinking ahead for " when" not "if" the sending unit will need accessed some day!! I did the same in my bus along with a cut out section in the insulation and the wood sub floor...

Will you have a final flooring of some sort over the top and will it be marked? I'm trying to decide how I will mark or measure of where to remove my vinyl flooring planks in the event I need to access my sending unit/fuel sensor...

I'm also going to have a cutout in the insulation and the plywood over it - with recessed metal tabs or something in the corners to hold it flush. My rear section (behind the sunken floor part) is just going to be loose carpet or vinyl sheeting, so it'll be easy to lift it up and access this little hatch.

I dunno what I'd do with a permanently-attached floor.

[Frochevy]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

I'm also going to have a cutout in the insulation and the plywood over it - with recessed metal tabs or something in the corners to hold it flush. My rear section (behind the sunken floor part) is just going to be loose carpet or vinyl sheeting, so it'll be easy to lift it up and access this little hatch.

I dunno what I'd do with a permanently-attached floor.

Hmm I hoped you had it figured out and I could steal your idea shamelessly... Lol

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by joeblack5

maybe also get that exhaust out of the way and let it go before the rear wheels. Save money space and future frustrations.

I was just re-reading this, and I realized you probably meant to just end the exhaust in front of the rear wheels and route it to one side or the other. At the time I thought you just meant routing it past the rear wheels a different way. I might have considered just ending it there, since that would have let me flip my tub and gray tank over to the driver's side.

It's still an interesting thing to consider. Maybe when my bit of flex-pipe fails I can do that instead of fixing it. How close to the front of the bus can you safely/legally have the end of the exhaust?

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by Frochevy

Hmm I hoped you had it figured out and I could steal your idea shamelessly... Lol

In days gone by when houses were mostly pier and beam foundations, many houses had a "trap door" opening to access underneath the house from inside. It was just a rectangular, cutout section of the floor that could be lifted out. It was often covered by a throw rug to hide it.


You could do the same and just screw it down.

[Frochevy]

Originally Posted by kidharris

In days gone by when houses were mostly pier and beam foundations, many houses had a "trap door" opening to access underneath the house from inside. It was just a rectangular, cutout section of the floor that could be lifted out. It was often covered by a throw rug to hide it.


You could do the same and just screw it down.

Thanks for the idea! I'll see where it end up when I build my bathroom wall...

[musigenesis]

Everything is built, all holes and gaps have been closed up. Now I just have to clean, ospho and paint everything, inside and out. Sigh.

I'm leaving the three center panels, the plywood sheet and the cover for my fuel tank holes at my house so they're not in the way of the cleaning and painting etc. Also have to paint the fuel tank covers still.



















Naturally, after breaking down my welder and hauling it back to my shed, I then cleaned up the bus and found six floor holes that I'd missed. Also, sigh.



So now I just have to get everything painted and then I can start on my subfloor. Or I may install my transit van seat first, I dunno.

[Native]

Man, you sure make short work of all that!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

Man, you sure make short work of all that!

Do I? I've kinda lost all sense of time - seems like this has taken forever.

[Native]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Do I? I've kinda lost all sense of time - seems like this has taken forever.

It has been a long while, but you have done a lot of work. For me, the whole process of opening up the floor above the tank, making attachment points, making a cover, etc. would take at least a week. I do work rather slowly, but two days???


You do work well and efficiently.


... and I did not even mention photo and text documentation.

[banman]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Do I? I've kinda lost all sense of time - seems like this has taken forever.

I think you've been at it about as long as I've been a forum member --

But you've made a sh!t ton of progress in a way that won't require future re-work...

I like this last set of pix -- go back to your first posts of gaping rust holes and compare!

and your dropped floor for the shower gives me some ideas to rethink how I do some of my tool and valuable item storage.

[musigenesis]

I don't know if the sunken tub and sunken closet things are going to work out, but they're damned handy for stuff you don't want flying all over the back of your bus.

[musigenesis]

Had my first run-in with The Man today. I've had my bus parked at my house instead of my lot for most of January, since I need the house juice to run my welder, and I've been getting kind of nervous that I might be pissing the neighbors off. I was getting ready to move it back to the lot this morning and had just reconnected my batteries when a guy drove up in a gray car and introduced himself as being with "code enforcement". Some neighbor had emailed in a complaint.

He was very cool and it was obviously no problem since I was leaving anyway. He confirmed that I am legally allowed to have it there and legally allowed to work on it there as I am doing, so I think actually he was just hoping to talk me into leaving of my own volition. There are two brothers a few houses down the street from me who have about ten cars on their property, all in tarps, and they built a large, illegal outbuilding that they work on the cars in, and the township hasn't been able to do anything about that.

I then drove over to the self-car-wash that is labeled as having 10'4" clearance, after measuring the top of my escape hatches at 10'3". I was going to just drive through it to see if it would work, but I lost my nerve because there was a small rise in front of the bays and because it looked like I was going to smash my mirrors off because of the width. Just seemed like a really bad idea to attempt it.

Then I drove home on the highway for the first time in six or seven months and realized how bad my bus is at highway speeds. 60 mph was at 2400 RPM, although other than that he handles great and even has cruise control which I didn't have the courage to learn to use in the heavy traffic.

Had the front heaters going and after the engine warmed up they had the whole bus nice and toasty, even with the big open hole in the back. Once I have the bulkhead wall behind the driver's seat built, I imagine the cabin will be incredibly warm.

Got back to my lot and had to execute a two-point turn to back into my spot without running over one of the six million U-Haul trailers parked around me. Did it while ignoring some guy who was trying to be helpful and give me directions. My brother does the same thing when I'm maneuvering - people don't understand that with all my windows in place and my head turned I can directly see every object that I need to avoid, but I can't see them.

[EastCoastCB]

I think I found those body clips for $12.99 each-

https://www.buspartswarehouse.com/19133371

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

I think I found those body clips for $12.99 each-

It's funny how close those are to the clips I ended up fabricating. The International version only has one bolt hole as well as a little tab that goes into a hole in the crossmember and prevents it from twisting.