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Old 07-24-2013, 08:57 AM   #101
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

The Bluebirds at our district has C7 Cats in them they use the High Idle Switches even though they are mot marked as cruise control

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Old 07-24-2013, 09:17 AM   #102
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

The Cat 3126 must be a little different than the newer C7. We have a fast idle that idles the engine from 700 rpm up to 1000 rmp. There is separate switches for the cruise control. One of the buses had under bus storage and both fast idle and cruise, but it was not up for auction. I told them they had it out there to tease us.
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Old 07-24-2013, 05:12 PM   #103
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

Bus brothers! My bus is 8894 Montgomery. Btw I drove it 600 miles home, no tags no insurance no cops, accept on my street at 4 am a cop drove past me and stopped right in the road and stared at me.. I got lucky I guess. Haha, but if you find any quirky things with your bus let me know, like a magic lock for the doors or something. The glue on the rubber floor is on really good on them. Yikes.
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Old 07-24-2013, 05:42 PM   #104
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

Just saw this thread, great score! One tip, not sure how familiar you are with Webasto so I'll mention it. Fire that thing up once a month and let it run. Be VERY sure you keep the thing maintained. A little slack in taking care of it can be quite costly.

Proceed.....
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Old 07-24-2013, 05:42 PM   #105
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

Should say, the floor is a big pain, not to mislead, I'd say get 2 friends to help, I've had to hammer and chisel most of it, and there is rust under it, but not a terrible amount, because the glue wouldn't hold if it was that terrible. Glad to see your work and problems, I'm dreading the interior roof panels, 854 screws are dumb, I'm going to buy the dewalt impact gun, also I was using the cut off wheel angle grinder to turn Phillips screws into flat heads, then they come loose right away, but the impact gun seems to work good.
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Old 07-24-2013, 07:29 PM   #106
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

I did discover an easy way to lock the emergency doors. They use hefty sheet metal screws to hold the rear seats to the engine bay.

I drilled a hole into the handle of the side door.



and into the round part of the rear door.



Then used the impact drill to screw one of them sucker into the hole. I work the screw back and forth until I was able to screw it in with my hand.





Take the screw out you can open the door. Quick and easy. Still need a way to lock the front door.
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Old 07-24-2013, 07:30 PM   #107
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

Quote:
Originally Posted by opus
Just saw this thread, great score! One tip, not sure how familiar you are with Webasto so I'll mention it. Fire that thing up once a month and let it run. Be VERY sure you keep the thing maintained. A little slack in taking care of it can be quite costly.

Proceed.....
Thanks for the heads up. I do plan to use it, so now is a good time to get friendly with it.
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Old 07-24-2013, 07:33 PM   #108
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

Quote:
Originally Posted by ThePimentals
Should say, the floor is a big pain, not to mislead, I'd say get 2 friends to help, I've had to hammer and chisel most of it, and there is rust under it, but not a terrible amount, because the glue wouldn't hold if it was that terrible. Glad to see your work and problems, I'm dreading the interior roof panels, 854 screws are dumb, I'm going to buy the dewalt impact gun, also I was using the cut off wheel angle grinder to turn Phillips screws into flat heads, then they come loose right away, but the impact gun seems to work good.
I'm not looking forward to the floor, that is why I'm saving it for last. The screws on the galvanized under the windows is bad. Most of mine are corroded. I will have to try your magic flat screw method to see if that will help.
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Old 07-24-2013, 07:40 PM   #109
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

I did get the back half on the driver side galvanized sheet metal removed. So that is a start.

I drilled the remaining screws that I could not get with the impact driver (I will try the magic turn them into flat heads next time)

They are glued to the walls and this handy tool made short work of that.



I used my grinder and a cutoff wheel and it cut through the galvanized like butter.





More moldy insulation.



All done.

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Old 07-25-2013, 05:43 AM   #110
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

Quote:
Originally Posted by wmkbailey

Then used the impact drill to screw one of them sucker into the hole. I work the screw back and forth until I was able to screw it in with my hand.





Take the screw out you can open the door. Quick and easy. Still need a way to lock the front door.
do you have the capability to drill and tap those 1/4-20?

and how much thread is needed?
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Old 07-25-2013, 10:06 AM   #111
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

I could have taped them, but the steel was soft enough that the screw cut threads itself with the impact driver.
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Old 07-25-2013, 10:13 AM   #112
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

I'm guessing Bansil is getting at the robustness of the screws, vs. 1/4-20 bolts.
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Old 07-25-2013, 11:12 AM   #113
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

If they want it that bad, they can just bust a window too. My front door is still wide open, only air holding it shut. This is just there to give someone second thoughts before they take everything.

I hope to have something more workable later. I may keep the back door, but will remove the side door.
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Old 07-25-2013, 01:32 PM   #114
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

See somewhere came up with a good idea for the side door.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9827&start=30

I need to find something like this for the rear door.
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Old 07-25-2013, 01:33 PM   #115
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

nope I was going to throw some 1/4-20 bolts with plastic knobs attached to them in the mail, have some extra pretty sure if they are long enuf
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Old 07-25-2013, 07:30 PM   #116
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

I want to do something like what somewhereinusa did above so I can unlock from the outside too.

This is just temporary, but thanks.
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Old 07-26-2013, 08:21 AM   #117
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

The heat coming down at all?
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Old 07-26-2013, 08:33 AM   #118
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

Quote:
Originally Posted by JakeC
The heat coming down at all?
Nice pic. I took the motorcycle to work and had to find a jacket. It was down to 57 this morning. It will be a good weekend to get some work done on the bus. Next week we will be back up into the 90s.
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Old 07-26-2013, 08:56 AM   #119
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

Nice!! I'm hoping the weather holds up this weekend to get mine primed. Supposed to be 70's and sunny, but I'm worried about wind.
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Old 07-28-2013, 12:35 PM   #120
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Re: The Journey Visvi 1999 Thomas MVP ER

*** Magic flat screw method ***

This worked nice.

Behold striped out corroded Philips head screw.



Magic flat screw grinding tool.



Behold Flat head screw



It comes right out.



Screw gone.



I had 50 screws that I could not break loose. Using this method I got all out but two. Those I just grinded the heads off.
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