Rusty 87 build thread

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

I had a milk crate for my last seat lol. Seatbelts are overrated lol.

I learned how to drive in my grandmother's '56 Chevy. This had only lap belts, and after my grandmother got too heavy for the belts to fit, she had extended the driver's belt by cutting it and hand-sewing a folded-up pair of her old nylon stockings as a splice. Her theory was that the nylons would allow the belt to continue to expand along with her. She literally only ever drove the car half a block to the senior's center at that point, so we never said anything about it. Probably for the best anyway, since she would have been impaled on the steering column even with a normal belt on (in fact I think the belt ensured that you would hit the steering wheel in a frontal collision).

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

I learned how to drive in my grandmother's '56 Chevy. This had only lap belts, and after my grandmother got too heavy for the belts to fit, she had extended the driver's belt by cutting it and hand-sewing a folded-up pair of her old nylon stockings as a splice. Her theory was that the nylons would allow the belt to continue to expand along with her. She literally only ever drove the car half a block to the senior's center at that point, so we never said anything about it. Probably for the best anyway, since she would have been impaled on the steering column even with a normal belt on (in fact I think the belt ensured that you would hit the steering wheel in a frontal collision).

Yep.
When I was young and shopping for my first car I was only looking at 66' and older so I couldn't get a seatbelt ticket for a car that didn't come with them. Got a seatbelt-free 66 beetle with money I saved from my part time job after school cleaning meat grinders and deli equipment. A trooper pulled me over on a back road when I was on my learners permit. Had my stepdad with me just practicing driving around n stuff. Trooper barked at us for no seatbelts. I proudly told him that in FL cars manufactured before 1967 didn't require them. He turned RED! it was awesome.
Man, we're so indestructible at 15, eh?

[musigenesis]

Been raining heavily since late last night, so I went to check out the bus now that I have more stuff out.

Found some leaks in long-exposed areas, of course. This is one of the two bolts attaching my new trailer-style stop/turn/tail lights in the back. Many of the lights I've bought have seemed like they would be naturally watertight because of their design, but haven't proven to be so.



Not exactly sure where this is coming from. I suspect one of the screws holding on the rub rail here is leaking, only real possible source of this.



One of my new ID lights in the back has a slight leak, which I already knew about. Again, seems like the rubber gasket would be watertight but it isn't - I'll need to seam seal these up after I paint.



Always amazing how much water can come in through tiny, tiny holes.



Side windows still leaking, all on the passenger side. Kind of a weird coincidence I guess, or else I still have a slight lean to the left.









Leaking corner of the window I just exposed yesterday.



Tiny bit of water under the heater next to the driver's seat.



Weirdly, the water is coming from this little gadget on the hose. Maybe it's condensation?



Water in this little pocket thing left of the pedals.



Arrow points to a little stream of water coming down that seam.



I think this is where the leak in the back is coming from, one of these two screws holding on the rub rail (probably the top one).



I think this grill might be a (or the) source of the leak left of the pedals.



Some more dead stinkbugs.



The sills here in my windows are where they're prone to leaking. I put this seam sealer in with my little finger and I think it is not adhering very well. I need to use a hobby brush to apply it.





The trim piece that holds the grill/opening is flaring out at the bottom and rusty, and it looks like much was done in the past to seal up this whole area. I'm going to try taping over this grill (temporarily) next time it rains to see what that does for me.



This is where the electric cable to the driver's side mirror goes into the bus. Seems like it's probably leaking as well.

[banman]

Thanks for highlighting all the water intrusion points. Gives me a a renewed pause for a plan of attack...

My beloved Huey (UH-1H) also (like, all of 'em!) leaked in the rain -- some worse than others but...

Leaves me feeling like any build needs to expect leaking in the future and the best defense is designing the insulation and other materials to channel the water to the outer walls and let it drain down and out...

[musigenesis]

There were signs of rust at the base of the panel covering the stepwell heater, so I decided to take it off and see what was in there. Looks like old rust, no sign of current water. I'm planning to mount a handrail here so my mom can come in the bus, so it's good to get an idea of what I can attach to here - which is nothing. I think my rail will need to be self-supporting from the floor level.



Cut away some more of the plywood. I think I'll need to unbolt that plastic engine cover (I think that's what it is) to get everything out.



Getting up the panel to the right of the seat is proving to be a giant pain in the ass. Grinding and cutting through the welds takes forever. I think what I need to do (for the other 3/4 of the damn thing) is cut through the plate itself inside the weld, and then grind the welds down.



Still need to take out the headless bolt for the seat.



This is (was) the piece of plywood under the seat base. It also had a section that extended forward for the feet to rest on. I'm going to replace this with a smaller square of plywood that is the same size as the metal seat base. The rest of the floor in the cab area is just going to be painted steel, and I'll get some sort of thick rubber matting or industrial flooring and cut pieces to cover it. Not sure how I'll do a foot rest, probably just another layer of rubber matting.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by banman

Leaves me feeling like any build needs to expect leaking in the future and the best defense is designing the insulation and other materials to channel the water to the outer walls and let it drain down and out...

I agree 100%. I'm actually thinking of doing something like this back in my living area (behind the bulkhead wall):



(Black is the steel wall and floor, blue is 2" XPS foam board, the yellow-green is 3/4" plywood for the floor and 1/4" ply for the wall)

I would weld on and seam-seal a small lip maybe 1/2" high and 1/2" away from the chair rail, then notch the bottom edge of the XPS to fit over this lip (then a drainage hole through the floor every few feet or maybe even just at the ends). Any water running down the wall would end up in this little trough and would eventually drain away.

This is also why in my cab area (in front of the bulkhead wall) I'm just going to paint the floor and lay down loose rubber matting. I'm not sure I can definitely stop whatever the leaking situation in that corner is, so I'm going to leave it open and available (even if I end up stuffing towels in there like I have to for my roadster when it rains) and not have a new plywood floor to soak up water.

[musigenesis]

This is my full flooring system, with the dowels connecting plywood to metal through the XPS and a piece of quarter-round to connect the wall plywood to the floor plywood.

[JDSquared]

So you're using dowels in the wall too? The picture makes it look like you will have screw heads interior and the tips of the screws going outside your bus. That doesn't make sense to me.
But dang I like the dowels idea. I really wonder what kind of cold spots you end up with. And how little of a temp difference.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by JDSquared

So you're using dowels in the wall too? The picture makes it look like you will have screw heads interior and the tips of the screws going outside your bus. That doesn't make sense to me.
But dang I like the dowels idea. I really wonder what kind of cold spots you end up with. And how little of a temp difference.

The wall will only run from the floor to the bottom of the windows, so I think I will have just two dowels per rib there, spaced in the middle. In my pic the black is the floor and the inside wall, with the dowels being salmon (? or whatever color that is). The black line inside the dowel is the 1" piece of threaded bolt that is welded to the wall/floor and that the dowel is screwed onto; the red that goes into the dowel is the wood screw screwed in from the inside (so nothing is going outside the bus).

I really wonder how effective it will be thermally, too. I was expecting to have a lot of down time this winter, and I was going to set up an experimental metal box to test out the effectiveness of various insulation schemes that have been tried or proposed on skoolies, using a heating element, kilowatt meter and a digital thermometer. Weather was too nice, though, and I had too many bus-related tasks I could do when it wasn't.

Mainly, though, it's just seeming to me now to be the easiest way to attach stuff in the bus through a layer of foam.

[JDSquared]

I forgot about the welds. Lol I don't know why. Now I've got a clear picture

[JDSquared]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Mainly, though, it's just seeming to me now to be the easiest way to attach stuff in the bus through a layer of foam.

That's my problem. I did not closets and bath walls flush with the ribs. So one side has nothing to attach to. I've been experimenting with glue and trim. Think I'll be doing like a wainscoting or quarter round on all four sides. It will look nice.

[Native]

A little back-track to your seatbelt. The seatbelt will still bolt into the seat. All you are missing are the tethers.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

A little back-track to your seatbelt. The seatbelt will still bolt into the seat. All you are missing are the tethers.

Oh, I meant I will have to drive without seat belts that are fully effective. Am I misunderstanding the function of the tethers? Without them, the belt would only be attached to this weak floppy thing on the side of the chair.

[Phatman]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Yep.
When I was young and shopping for my first car I was only looking at 66' and older so I couldn't get a seatbelt ticket for a car that didn't come with them. Got a seatbelt-free 66 beetle with money I saved from my part time job after school cleaning meat grinders and deli equipment. A trooper pulled me over on a back road when I was on my learners permit. Had my stepdad with me just practicing driving around n stuff. Trooper barked at us for no seatbelts. I proudly told him that in FL cars manufactured before 1967 didn't require them. He turned RED! it was awesome.
Man, we're so indestructible at 15, eh?

I still drive my dune buggy around all the time with only lap belts. I never get pulled over.except one time when a Pearland cop pulled me over and wanted to know what it was. 64 VW.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Phatman

I still drive my dune buggy around all the time with only lap belts. I never get pulled over.except one time when a Pearland cop pulled me over and wanted to know what it was. 64 VW.

Weird, I have this childhood memory of the Banana Splits driving around in dune buggies, but apparently they were actually these six-wheeled ATVs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMl6HnhFFIA

I wonder if I'm thinking of some other '70s giant puppet TV show.

[musigenesis]

A couple modifications to my floor arrangement.



A little more work, but this beveled join for the XPS wall and floor pieces would prevent any water from seeping through and getting to the plywood (I think, anyway - not sure if capillary action could still draw it uphill).

[musigenesis]

Semi-circular gutter sort of thing welded to the rib above the post, to keep leaks from soaking the end of the wooden dowel.

[JDSquared]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Weird, I have this childhood memory of the Banana Splits driving around in dune buggies, but apparently they were actually these six-wheeled ATVs:

I wonder if I'm thinking of some other '70s giant puppet TV show.

Sid and Marty Krofft really messed with our childhoods.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by JDSquared

Sid and Marty Krofft really messed with our childhoods.

It is amazing what people can put out to make money off of kids. As the great Roald Dahl once said: "the little bastards will swallow anything".

[banman]

A quick thing to toss out for you that I've never seen mentioned in any of the builds here I've looked at.

Before you throw down your new plywood deck -- put a coat of paint on it. Almost any paint will do -- plenty of good paint at your local landfill Hazmart "store". Color is irrelevant -- you just want to coat the plywood before you 'bury' it. This will go a long way to keeping the plywood from uptaking any future moisture...