The Four Season Prime

[nat_ster]

Thanks for the warm welcome back fellow skoolies. It's sooo good to be back.

Many of you folks know me from some of my passed threads like "Natsters Haul All". Well that thread was deleted from this site by a mod, but can still be found here.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/tow-r...-haul-all.html

Project to heavy 91 Cummins

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/canad...1-cummins.html

Home built Slide outs.

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9144

Low cost, Great looking modern Tile Counter tops.

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9122

Real Canadian Scrappers

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/canad...-scrapers.html

Cabin Build for the Old Timer.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/gener...old-timer.html

Engine driven Compressed air for skoolies without air brakes

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f10/en...tml#post107247

My favorite Build Threads from Pirate 4x4

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f9/my-...tml#post107747

Hydronic Radiant Heating in a Bus

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f13/hy...-bus-9024.html

Summer of 2012

This is a completely different bus. It's a 32 foot 1992 TC2000. Powered by a 190hp 5.9 P pumped 12 valve Cummins with a AT545 auto trans.

A few days after buying it, I used it to haul the material for a deck to a clients house.

The two guys are my hired help from eastern Canada.



Much much more to come. Six months worth of progress pics are currently uploading.

Nat

[bansil]

Welcome back
Nat

Is your bus still "see through" ?

[nat_ster]

Originally Posted by bansil

Welcome back
Nat

Is your bus still "see through" ?

Lol, only through the big 4 foot by 5 foot windows , and a few other places.

Nat

[nat_ster]

I never would have chosen a bus this short and this rusty for my conversion. This bus was bought with the intention of stealing the engine and trans for a client of mines 3 ton tree truck. However they decided to keep the 454 Gasser in the tree truck. So I decided to use the bus I had, and got underway.

After using the bus for a few trips to town and back, I located all the minor issues that would need fixing.

Bus Parked where the full tear down, and transformation will take place. Windows are already removed to start the ventilation process.



Photo chop of the purposed 23 inch roof raise.



Photo's of starting condition. Many of the next few photo's have been posted here before.



Here you can see the really bad patch job that was done on a rust hole.





Here you can see the rub rail over the front wheel well was starting to push out from rust underneath. I also started to remove it.



Rear.

[nat_ster]

My 49 cc scooter on the job. I ride it around the farm when fetching tools, ect. The white shed is 16 feet of my Haul All's bus body, framed with rough 1x6, insulated with 6 inch fiberglass bat insulation, then strapped with 1x4's and skinned with roofing tin. It has a wood stove, I lived in it Dec and Jan of 2011. Tired of paying $1600 a month for rent in town, I moved back into the shed mid Sep of 2014 and still currently call it my home.





Inside before tear down.







If you see this when buying a bus, walk away. This is caused by salt traveling up the moist bolt from the underside.







Nat

[nat_ster]

Then I dig right into the tear down. This took place over the coarse of a month in 2013.







Stairs by the door.



Inside the walls over the front passenger wheel well.



Over the rear fuel fill behind the passenger rear wheel well.



Passenger side of the rear door. This was packed compleatly full of dirt holding the moisture.



Over the driver side battery box. This was caused by the battery off gassing.







The plywood that freight liner installed under the drivers seat was the only plywood that was not rotten.





Nat

[jazty]

Hell yeah Nat! It's good to see you're still kickin'

I'm looking forward to seeing what you've been up to!

[nat_ster]

Now for the outside. The entire skirt needs to come off to fix the rust underneath, and plan for the belly storage boxes.



This looks minor, but wait till you see whats underneath.



The rubber around the wheel well held salt and moisture.



Stairwell is getting completely cut out. Door is getting moved to the middle of the bus, passenger side.









I made the cut under where the rub rail go's back on. This will hide my cuts if they aren't perfect.

You can see all the seam seal Blue Bird used.















You can see the color of the galvanizing is changed from the original color. This is caused by the continues attack, the coating is half used up.



The backside of the little rust holes.





One side skin off.



Rear wheel well.





Nat

[nat_ster]

This is a buses fatal flaw that is nearly imposable to fix. I do have a solution though.





I turned the flash off on the camera to concentrate the color of the rust.



Drivers side where the battery box was. Boiling acid is bad stuff.





You can see the damage done to the floor supports.



This is whats left of the battery box. Just a crumpled, corroded, broken, floppy, mess.





Nat

[nat_ster]

Entry door stairs cut out. Door will be moved to mid ship, passenger side.



Rad is rotten with a broken top rad hose port.



Some one tried to fix this broken neck a few times. It was in vein, as the original design did not have enough flex in the rubber rad hoses to allow for engine mount movement. This changed on the next model year of TC2000.



Now nothing more than almost 100 pounds of scrap. it will be replaced with a aluminum rad that weighs less than 25 pounds.






This is the charge air cooler. I will be reusing it.



The shutters that restrict air flow for use in cold weather, to prevent over cooling the engine.



Nat

[nat_ster]

She kinda looks like a snow blower.

That massive, engine driven fan will be replaced with an electric fan or two.



The rad, inter-cooler and shutters are all bolted together, and hang off these mounts. They are rusted solid, and nearly imposable to get to. There for this mess is getting cut up.





Cordless angle grinder takes care of the job.



Nat

[nat_ster]

This is a one wire Chevy alternator, built to a sad 90 amps. It's got rebuilt to 160 amps.



Now I can get to the front of the engine that has never been cleaned, due to the crappy way it's all built. Air cleaner in the pic is my sitting stool.



I can now begin scraping the grease off the engine.







In this pic you can see the rubber mount where I cut the bolt. The rad, inter-cooler, shutters, and shroud weighed more than the engine in my Honda CRX.



One more flaw. This needed a cross member to prevent the tow hook from bending the mount. Every TC2000 I've seen have the mounts bent.



Removing the heat exchanger for cleaning, testing, and to change all old hoses for new.



Nat

[nat_ster]

Many Many more pics currently uploading. Including the 23 inch roof raise, residential door install, and the residential duel pain window installs.

Originally Posted by jazty

Hell yeah Nat! It's good to see you're still kickin'

I'm looking forward to seeing what you've been up to!

Thanks Jazty. My addiction is still leading my life. lol

Nat

[EastCoastCB]

Thanks for posting those great pics.
Your raise looks great.
I'm going with one similar, only raising the middle 3/4 though.
Keep up the good work!

[bansil]

so you have been working on the ole girl, cool!!

[somjuan]

Nat, you're a wonder. Seriously, setting the bar.

[claydbal]

i see a torn apart bus, but no axe marks.

[nat_ster]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Thanks for posting those great pics.
Your raise looks great.
I'm going with one similar, only raising the middle 3/4 though.
Keep up the good work!

That's just a photo chop. I haven't posted the pics of the real roof raise yet.

Originally Posted by bansil

so you have been working on the ole girl, cool!!

After moving again, it really motivated me. I'm tired of living in old, smelly, moldy, mouse infested homes. I'm also tired of paying minimum $1600 a month for a decent place to live.

Originally Posted by somjuan

Nat, you're a wonder. Seriously, setting the bar.

Thx

I try to bring new ideas, understanding and different methods to the skoolie world.

Originally Posted by claydbal

I see a torn apart bus, but no axe marks.

Na, no more axe. I have invested in a few more civilized tools. lol

Nat

[nat_ster]

Now for some more pics.

A few quick pics of the underside.



In this pic you can see the front axle is just behind the transmission pan.













Salt stuck in the rust.



Nat

[nat_ster]

These pics are from the fall of 2013.

I started planning the 23 inch roof raise.

I cut a four inch piece out of one of the ribs to take to the metal shop as a template. This insured that the new rib extensions will fit properly.



I had a metal shop make these out of 12 ga. Sheared, and bent to perfection on their massive bending brake. These pieces are my rib extensions to fill the 23 inch gap in the support ribs.







Showing how well they will fit.





Nat