Rusty 87 build thread

[Draftdayinc]

Good evening,

We're located in Philadelphia as well.

We just purchased our bus 2 days ago after 2 years of planning.

Our Bus purchased:
2003 Ic Corporation 7.3 Turbo diesel.

If you ever like to meet up and maybe lend each other a hand we're here.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Draftdayinc

Good evening,

We're located in Philadelphia as well.

We just purchased our bus 2 days ago after 2 years of planning.

Our Bus purchased:
2003 Ic Corporation 7.3 Turbo diesel.

If you ever like to meet up and maybe lend each other a hand we're here.

Congrats on your bus and welcome to skoolie.net! I'd love to meet up once this coronavirus thing is over. BTW if you go to User CP in the upper left corner of this site, you can enter your details like where you are and what kind of bus you have, so people can tailor their advice to you.

[musigenesis]

Just made a run to my steel supplier in Jersey. I'm bummed because I'm going to use expanded steel sheet for my bulkhead wall and door and I was also going to use it to build overhead storage all along the bus, because I found a guy on Craigslist who had about 1000 sheets of 3/4" #9 flat expanded, offering 10 sheets for $200. I've been factoring this into my build plan forever but I put off actually buying the stuff because he had so much; unfortunately I just found out he sold it all to one person. Got two new sheets from my steel supplier and they're $50 each. Have to come up with a new overhead storage plan now, $50 a sheet makes it too expensive.

This place has such good prices. I got a 4'x8' sheet of 14 ga for $40, 10' pieces of 1"x1/8" flatbar that I'm going to use for the bulkhead wall for $2.50 apiece, and 20' pieces of 1"x5/8"x1/8" angle steel for $8 each. I have everything I need now for the bulkhead wall and door so I think I'm going to start on that now and paint it along with the cab after I get the transit van seat installed (also got a gallon of Safety Blue rusto enamel for the cab - decided I wouldn't be able to take the yellow forever, whereas the blue is kind of pleasant). I'm mainly doing the wall for insulation, but being made with a steel frame and the expanded sheet will give me and the passengers some protection from stuff flying around in the living space. I may even put my chef's knives up on a magnet!

It's probably going to look like a prison bus, though, until I add the insulation and plywood.

[Frochevy]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Just made a run to my steel supplier in Jersey. I'm bummed because I'm going to use expanded steel sheet for my bulkhead wall and door and I was also going to use it to build overhead storage all along the bus, because I found a guy on Craigslist who had about 1000 sheets of 3/4" #9 flat expanded, offering 10 sheets for $200. I've been factoring this into my build plan forever but I put off actually buying the stuff because he had so much; unfortunately I just found out he sold it all to one person. Got two new sheets from my steel supplier and they're $50 each. Have to come up with a new overhead storage plan now, $50 a sheet makes it too expensive.

This place has such good prices. I got a 4'x8' sheet of 14 ga for $40, 10' pieces of 1"x1/8" flatbar that I'm going to use for the bulkhead wall for $2.50 apiece, and 20' pieces of 1"x5/8"x1/8" angle steel for $8 each. I have everything I need now for the bulkhead wall and door so I think I'm going to start on that now and paint it along with the cab after I get the transit van seat installed (also got a gallon of Safety Blue rusto enamel for the cab - decided I wouldn't be able to take the yellow forever, whereas the blue is kind of pleasant). I'm mainly doing the wall for insulation, but being made with a steel frame and the expanded sheet will give me and the passengers some protection from stuff flying around in the living space. I may even put my chef's knives up on a magnet!

It's probably going to look like a prison bus, though, until I add the insulation and plywood.

Those are some really good steel prices you listed! 14ga is pretty heavy sheet metal. I used mainly 18ga and one sheet of 16ga. Can't beat the price tho! I'd like to find some like you did! That's a bummer on the expanded metal being sold before you got any...

[Native]

What is your plan for anchoring the expanded steel wall (and frame) to the bus?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

What is your plan for anchoring the expanded steel wall (and frame) to the bus?

Not entirely sure yet. It will basically be two separate 30" wide sections on each side, with a 30" gap in the center to mount the door. I think I will weld tabs onto the floor and walls that I can bolt the section frames to. Mainly not sure how I'm going to attach to the ceiling, since this wall will be about 10" forward of the rib behind it. I'll be able to bolt each section in one spot on the ceiling where the front-to-back roof beam runs, and then I can also attach them to the original perforated ceiling panel that I'm going to put back up (I don't remember why but this is the one ceiling panel that was not stolen - I think I had kept it inside the bus, fortunately). That might be enough without my having to fabricate any additional stuff up in the ceiling.

The new walls will be framed with the 1"x1/8" flat bar and the expanded sheet on the backside. The living space wall will be just 2" XPS foam up against the expanded sheet and 1/4" plywood over that. I'm going to attempt to build a custom door with the 1"x5/8" angle steel and expanded sheet, also with 2" XPS on the inside, beveled so it will still swing open (towards the front). The door may be a fail because of warpage, in which case I can still put in a normal door of some sort, even an RV door.

[Native]

Decent pan. One suggestion for adding attachment points to the ceiling ... rivetnuts.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

Decent pan. One suggestion for adding attachment points to the ceiling ... rivetnuts.

Well, it would be the roof panel I'd be attaching it to from underneath in this case, so I'd have rivnuts sticking out of my roof! I have to attach the tops of my walls (to something) before the ceiling panel (with about 10" trimmed off the back side) goes back up (I forgot to mention I removed the ceiling panel over this last year and have it safe in my garage, which kept it from being stolen with the rest of my ceiling). Because my bulkhead wall will be 10" in front of the rib, there's nothing at all to attach it to along the curve of the ceiling except the roof itself and the two front-to-back ceiling beams that run the length of the bus.

[Native]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Well, it would be the roof panel I'd be attaching it to from underneath in this case, so I'd have rivnuts sticking out of my roof! I have to attach the tops of my walls (to something) before the ceiling panel (with about 10" trimmed off the back side) goes back up (I forgot to mention I removed the ceiling panel over this last year and have it safe in my garage, which kept it from being stolen with the rest of my ceiling). Because my bulkhead wall will be 10" in front of the rib, there's nothing at all to attach it to along the curve of the ceiling except the roof itself and the two front-to-back ceiling beams that run the length of the bus.

I thought you were keeping the entire ceiling panel section and that the new wall would come in 10 inches from a hat channel. That is why I suggested the rifitnuts into the ceiling panel. If you are cutting the ceiling panel, then you can cut it to overlap a touch and use conventional nuts and bolts to attach the wall to the ceiling at the cuts. The wall will add stability to the ceiling panel and the ceiling panel will provide attachemnt points to the wall.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

I thought you were keeping the entire ceiling panel section and that the new wall would come in 10 inches from a hat channel. That is why I suggested the rifitnuts into the ceiling panel. If you are cutting the ceiling panel, then you can cut it to overlap a touch and use conventional nuts and bolts to attach the wall to the ceiling at the cuts. The wall will add stability to the ceiling panel and the ceiling panel will provide attachemnt points to the wall.

It would be easier for me to position my wall right at the rib and then attaching it would be straightforward. But I'd be losing almost a foot of living space and it would actually make dealing with the windows on each side more difficult, since I want to be able to remove the windows without having to remove the bulkhead wall first. Given the frequency of vandalism that skoolies seem to endure, I don't want to have to dismantle my interior in order to fix a broken window.

[Native]

Add more inter-rib pieces along the ceiling like the two you are planning to attach the wall to?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

Add more inter-rib pieces along the ceiling like the two you are planning to attach the wall to?

I think that's what I'll have to do, at least one on each side. Probably I wouldn't even have to do full rib-to-rib, just a shorter piece from my wall to the rib behind it would immobilize the expanded sheet.

I am getting unreasonably excited about this stupid wall. I also want to put some kind of transom windows in. I have four emergency exit windows from a bus with shorter windows than mine and I was considering mounting them in these walls, but I'm a little worried about protecting myself from these windows flying open in an accident.

[Native]

That is reasonable ... after all it will be the first non-remediation project for you. Yes, you did add a lot of neat features during your remediation. Not the same as creating.

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Well, it would be the roof panel I'd be attaching it to from underneath in this case, so I'd have rivnuts sticking out of my roof! I have to attach the tops of my walls (to something) before the ceiling panel (with about 10" trimmed off the back side) goes back up (I forgot to mention I removed the ceiling panel over this last year and have it safe in my garage, which kept it from being stolen with the rest of my ceiling). Because my bulkhead wall will be 10" in front of the rib, there's nothing at all to attach it to along the curve of the ceiling except the roof itself and the two front-to-back ceiling beams that run the length of the bus.

epoxy/glue some "L" ahaped sheetmetal tabs to the roof to fasten to.

[musigenesis]

Underside of my farmhouse sink. Have to start thinking about how I'm going to mount this. The four corner holes I think are supposed to go over posts or rods of some sort. And then I'm also going to have to build the counter around it to hold it down.



I've been rearranging my shed over the last couple of days and I stumbled across one of my seat backs that I did my first welding experiments on. This was actually from my second attempt - on my first try I ruptured the pressure hose between the regulator and the welder because I hadn't the slightest clue how to use the regulator and it was screwed all the way down when I opened the bottle.

After this I signed up for a mig welding class at my local cc.



Decided it was time to cover my static vent in the front. It had a fair amount of rust on it, although there doesn't seem to be any indication that water got inside the bus this way. I was curious as to these things don't just allow massive amounts of water in, but I see now that they're two pieces, where the bottom piece has this lip to stop any water that comes in through the slats in the rounded top piece, which also has channels to allow this water to flow out. Pretty cool design, but I imagine it fails if it becomes packed with snow.





The red line here shows about where my bulkhead wall is going to go. The two blue lines are the transverse beams and are the only things right now I can attach the bulkhead to on the ceiling. I think I'm going to rivet three additional thingamajigs to the roof (rivets going in from above) that I can bolt the bulkhead to, some kind of bent sheet metal of sorts.

I'm golden with a 4'x8' sheet of 14 ga., but holy hell was that thing tough to manhandle (my bus is parked in front and it's about 100' back to my shed and the thing weighs like 100 pounds. I was able to get it on my wheelbarrow and get it back that way.



Reference pics for reattaching my hatch. I disconnected the arms so I could flatten it out on my roof and get over it easily. I'm planning to keep these hatches, but I need to figure out some kind of quick release attachment for these arms so I can take the hatch completely off and replace it with a fabricated popup sort of thing.





Fitting the roof patch.







Since I'm going to have to get my riveter going again, I decided to also deal with the handle for my side exit door. This one actually came off easier than the one in back, although I still had to cut it. Doing this kind of thing with a diamond cutting blade instead of a zip wheel feels a lot safer. I was able to cut in pretty deeply from both sides and then a couple of good whacks with a sledgehammer bent it off.



The last little chunk of handle came off with the little yellow tab, but then I had to completely cut the tray out. I realize now that the tray was probably just held in with seam sealer and that I could have removed it slightly less destructively, but oh well.



I like to get my screws and bolts lined up in an orderly fashion, but sometimes they have to be slightly wonky to deal with what's underneath. This patch is going to be kind of hard for me to look at.



About half the time when I leave my bus at my lot I forget to throw the deadbolt on this door so I'm basically leaving the bus open. I'm not going to have to worry about that any more.

[Native]

So as long as your door latch is in the closed position, it will be secure due to only being able to open it from the front?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

So as long as your door latch is in the closed position, it will be secure due to only being able to open it from the front?

Yeah, it will only be able to be opened from inside, same as my back door. Pretty hard to pick that lock, I think.

I'll have to remember to close the doors, of course, which is also something I've forgotten to do with the back door a couple times. I won't normally have the doors open for anything except loading large things, or possibly if I build some big screens for them I'll have them open in hot weather.

[musigenesis]

I pre-primed my patches and also painted the roof vent patch with rusto white. This was a mistake since I used mineral spirits to clean off the seam sealer and this ate away a bit at the paint around the rivets.



Door patch doesn't look too funky.



The right edge bent away a little bit. This is some 20 ga. sheet that I have that has a slight bend to it, which worked well for the roof patch but I forgot to pay attention to the orientation of the bend for this door patch. Oh well, it will be the sort of thing only I notice.



Roof patch looks good, I hope the birds appreciate it when they crap on it.



Rivethenge.

[Frochevy]

Looks good!! That's a reminder for me I need to remove my rear strobe light and put a patch over it!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Frochevy

Looks good!! That's a reminder for me I need to remove my rear strobe light and put a patch over it!

Thanks! I didn't get any of the normal cool bus stuff with my bus. No strobe lights and no kid-smacker on the bumper. I did get a spoiler so maybe I shouldn't complain.