Rusty 87 build thread

[banman]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

No, it's just glue spots on the original wheel well bits. You think I'm gonna rebuild my entire floor and leave rust on the wells as a sort of sacrifice to the rust gods? My philosophy is that any part of my bus that has survived this long without any rust on it should be left alone.

It's funny, my original goal in October was to get the floor rebuilt before winter shut me down until the spring. So I'm basically where I planned to be, just with a few months' extra work to get there.

I was wondering...

[musigenesis]

Groove to fit over the t-bar.



Piece of sheet to help me get the piece up after fitting.



Piece fit nicely, with some persuasion.



Lesson learned: don't try to fit the pieces so tightly. This broke trying to get it out.



I might still use this piece since the broken halves will fit back together perfectly. I hate keeping something like this around, though - bad mojo.

[Native]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Needs a better name, that's for sure.

Needs to fit on the end of 1.25" dowel:

I do like your use of dowels to hold in the XPS and provide floor attachment points without any thermal bridging. It seems like it is fairly easy to implement and should do the job well.

[Native]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Groove to fit over the t-bar.

Attachment 42774

I might still use this piece since the broken halves will fit back together perfectly. I hate keeping something like this around, though - bad mojo.

I would not think twice about using the piece with the crack. You seem to have tight fitting pieces so the crack will only be a crack and not a gap.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Native

I do like your use of dowels to hold in the XPS and provide floor attachment points without any thermal bridging. It seems like it is fairly easy to implement and should do the job well.

still thermal bridging. Just LESS of it!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

still thermal bridging. Just LESS of it!

It's almost exactly a 50% reduction in the thermal bridging due to wood in the case of this center floor (mainly because the beams in the center of each of the three trays have to be full-length wood) countered slightly by the two steel t-bars that penetrate 1" into the foam. On the main floor with all posts like this, it will be more like a 90%-95% reduction since there will be so little wood compared to a floor with 2X joists.

I'd be willing to bet that it will not make a measurable difference in the overall insulation value of the floor, but it's kind of fun to do as an exercise. At this point, I value it more for its ability to make a strong mechanical connection between the metal floor and my plywood subfloor - as much to firm up my rusty metal floor as to firm up the plywood - without putting additional holes in the metal floor.

[musigenesis]

Went to do the other simple panel after breaking the wide piece.



Decided to use the broken piece anyway. Seemed to go in OK.



And managed to pull out one of the posts. So annoying, I felt the dowel grip good and hard, and decided to do another quarter-turn. Bang.



Fortunately this one isn't super-important since it's right next to the two-by-four joist. I can't pull this all up to properly fix it, so I just stuffed the hole with scrap insulation.



Cut a nicer groove the second large panel ... and managed to break this one in half, too. Oh well, in it goes.







Now I just need to cut the plywood and screw it in place.

[banman]

The cracked foam boards are gonna look/feel perfect after the plywood's down!

(lest there be any doubt -- this is meant as a positive comment!)

Keep moving forward. Your progress is awesome.

[Native]

I am excited for you (and me too) to see the subfloor laid in on all your hard work. ALMOST THERE!!!!

[musigenesis]

Laid in place for the third time. After the first time I realized I had forgotten to measure where the four dowels in the middle are; second time I realized I hadn't cleaned off the underside of this piece of plywood. My back is slightly tweaked so this was a bitch to manhandle.



All screwed down.





Feels more solid than the rest of the floor. I'd call this a success!

[Native]

Super fantastic! Is that a graphic of you dancing on the floor???

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

Super fantastic! Is that a graphic of you dancing on the floor???

I may have done a wee bit of riverdancing, it's true. Didn't help the back.

Which reminds me that I need to get something to cover this temporarily or I'm going to **** it all up in short order. I'm cutting some narrow strips of plywood to temporarily protect the exposed 2" of insulation around the edges, but I need a piece of astroturf or cheap carpet to cover the main piece of plywood.

It's crazy how easy it is to ding XPS. I put a lot more "texture" on this stuff today than I wanted to, but it's OK.

[Native]

Yeah, XPS does not "bounce back" at all!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

And managed to pull out one of the posts. So annoying, I felt the dowel grip good and hard, and decided to do another quarter-turn. Bang.

Attachment 42787

I realize I was maybe a bit hasty in stuffing this hole with insulation and moving on with the floor. I could have instead drilled a hole here all the way through the beam the post had been welded to ("welded" to) and run a bolt through it from underneath, and put the dowel on and everything. It would have been a little tricky to do since it's directly over the axle and I have nobody to help me in self-quarantine. I also could have at least plug-welded the sheet metal to the beam there, or even attempted to weld the post back in place after cutting out a bit of the surrounding insulation.

Oh well, I still think the stiffness of the overall structure from the plywood plus the seam sealer will hold the sheet metal down in that spot and prevent leaking. And if I ever need to fix it properly I can cut a small access spot through the plywood and XPS.

[musigenesis]

Added some more layers to my leveling blocks, plus some extenders on the shorter ones so I know where to position them relative to the tires. These get more fun to drive up with each layer.



Still not level, of course. I have to go up at least two more layers of 2X on the front ones, and the one on the driver's side is already getting close to the limit of what I can move around without undue straining. My conception of how solid each layer has to be is changing.



Best part of finishing my floor: no more birdshit in the bus.

[JDSquared]

You push your limits on every step. It's awesome.

I can't figure out from the picture why you have a gap around the plywood. I figure you're building a wall at the wheels, but the other two ends?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by JDSquared

You push your limits on every step. It's awesome.

I can't figure out from the picture why you have a gap around the plywood. I figure you're building a wall at the wheels, but the other two ends?

Thanks!

The floor in front of the dropped section and the floor behind will also be 2" of XPS and 3/4" plywood, so there will be 3" steps up from the dropped section. The XPS from the higher sections will stick over 2" (and then there will be little 1" sections to join with the insulation of the dropped sections) and the plywood from the higher sections will also project over to form the steps. The idea is to have insulation covering the steel wherever possible, instead of wood.

[JDSquared]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Thanks!



The floor in front of the dropped section and the floor behind will also be 2" of XPS and 3/4" plywood, so there will be 3" steps up from the dropped section. The XPS from the higher sections will stick over 2" (and then there will be little 1" sections to join with the insulation of the dropped sections) and the plywood from the higher sections will also project over to form the steps. The idea is to have insulation covering the steel wherever possible, instead of wood.

Ok I thought it was dropped. Then the picture (on my phone) made it look even.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by JDSquared

Ok I thought it was dropped. Then the picture (on my phone) made it look even.

Well, the top of the plywood is more or less level with the original metal floor (it's actually maybe 1/4" higher, which I was puzzled by until I realized that a piece of 3" angle steel is only 2.75" inches high when measured on the inside. ).

[musigenesis]