*Two Birds* - 1992 Bluebird TC2000 - Updated 10/20/14

[bansil]

great dumpster diving

[White99z]

We picked up the bus this afternoon and it runs and drive better than ever! It even seems to have a bit more oomph under the foot. I will post more later this week, since I am now headed to bed! ZzzZzzZZz...

[White99z]

The bus is running and driving successfully on Veggie Oil now

[sdwarf36]

How much oil have you collected so far?

[White99z]

Originally Posted by sdwarf36

How much oil have you collected so far?

About 100 gallons

[White99z]

Our insulated subfloors took us 7 days of work, which were split up due to a busy life, the bus going into the shop for the injection pump rebuild, going back into another shop for a new wheel bearing, etc. Today, we can happily say we finished it! For us, it was a necessary step for comfortable 4 seasons living. The walls and ceiling will be insulated in the coming weeks.

For anyone interested in technical details on the floor, the original bus floors were 3/4" plywood. We removed those and added 3/4" foam insulation with 3/4" furring strips (to support the top layer and protect the insulation). We then added 3/4" plywood on top. We screwed it all into the metal with self-drilling screws. We countersunk every single screw into the wood to keep things flush and to allow us to use hex-head screws for easier drilling. This step took a long time, but created a very nice, quality work. We also glued every piece of flooring and insulation down with Liquid Nails.



First sheet of plywood

[bansil]

your feet will appreciate that in the winter time

[White99z]

Finished skinning one side today and removed all the rivets for the second side tomorrow. Took my friend and I probably about 6 hours or so. We removed 7 windows and riveted in the new panels with 3/16 inch steel rivets. We used Duraplate made by Wabash for the panels. The panels are 2.5 mm thick and contain two thin, painted sheets of galvanized sandwiched over a composite core. The material is used on semi trailers and these specifically are the ones used in the Wabash Aero Skirts. They were AWESOME to work with, went up easy, cut easy, drilled through easy, etc. I would highly recommend Duraplate for skinning if I could, but I don't know how you would get it. We had a friend that worked there get it for us. We could make 2 panels per sheet! I think he said it normally costs around $40 per 2.5 mm sheet, but we got them at a very steep discount due to being overruns, scratch+dent, etc.

http://wabashcomposites.com/duraPlate

http://wabashcomposites.com/products/du ... ite-panels

All finished


My friend measuring some sheets

[White99z]

Also... I must add that I removed all the rivets on the outside with the Air Hammer and Chisel from before (when I did my interior panels). It did a good job of removing them without too much hassle and left everything in good shape still. I would recommend some practice removing interior rivets on the panels before moving to the exterior. I let me friend try a few and he definitely did a number to the sheet metal. I had him remove rivets on the panels that were on the support beams, so it didn't matter if he damaged the sheet metal

Also, I purchased the Harbor Freight Air Hydraulic Rivet Gun to put them in. $32 with a 20% off coupon. Worked like a dream! I'll never hand rivet again if I don't have too.

Also, thanks to Lapeer20m's tip, I had a air hose hooked up to the bus's air tanks. Since we are working in a field and I don't have a big air compressor, I ran all the tools off the bus engine (running on WVO). Worked great! Even the air hammer ran well of the bus's tanks. Sure beat driving 45 minutes to my friends dad's house to use his stationary compressor. Ran all of our electricity from the shed.

And... last but not least. I was very nervous going into this project. It was a project where there was no turning back once I started and I had no experience with anything like it. With two of us, it was a piece of cake. I highly recommend window skinning now. It did so much for the bus and really wasn't hard at all! Our insulated subfloors were much more work

[big_bertha]

Nice job, they look great! That Duraplate stuff sounds awesome.

[White99z]

Originally Posted by big_bertha

Nice job, they look great! That Duraplate stuff sounds awesome.

I'll post later how it stands the test of time. I think it's the perfect solution for skinning. No oil canning, it's very stiff and rigid (but yet still flexible... we are using it for our ceiling also), pre-painted (rust prevention), and cheap!

[White99z]

Another update! Yesterday, we finished skinning the other side of the bus and began working on the back windows. On the back windows, we cut out 4 mm thick duraplate to the exact size of the windows. When we paint this week, we will reinstall them with the original window seals!

Pics:

[White99z]

Also, we have two new videos on the project:

First, a time lapse from yesterday's window skinning. Nearly 2 hours in 46 seconds:

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

Second, we teamed up with a local filmmaker, Atomic Independent Pictures to make a documentary about our Waste Vegetable Oil System. The system was designed using WVO Designs components and parts from McMaster Carr, several online retailers, and the local hardware stores/auto stores for parts we missed when ordering online. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4yZRKJre7E

[skrapgiarc]

Nice job on the skin! Are you planning to install RV windows in the back for some natural light or just leave it as is? I can't decide if and how much i'm going to skin.......

[White99z]

There will be some RV windows in the back in the bedroom.

[White99z]

We have been working diligently on painting the bus. Here's just a quick update of our process and what it looked like when I left today. We painted it with custom-tinted Ace Rust Stop paint that we sprayed on using Harbor Freight HVLP spray guns. We only had a few days at family's house with an upright compressor and have since been painting utilizing the air from the air tanks on the bus (with it running on veggie oil while spraying). I couldn't be happier with how it's turning out! Today, we even ran two spray guns at the same time off the bus tank with no issues and never once ran out of air!





We ended up cutting the plastic shorter after realizing that the overspray didn't go very far


Cut some panels out of some extra Duraplate to "delete" the flashing school bus lights!


All of the blue has been sprayed with the bus air tanks as the air source




Today when I left... still have a bit more blue to paint tomorrow and then we will do the black accents.

[White99z]

Made another time-lapse video today too. This was 1.5 hours of spraying on the drivers side (after about 4 hours of prep work, taping off, lunch, etc.) condensed into 30 seconds. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-rOuIt ... uQF83uuYZA

[White99z]

Finished painting the front and door yesterday. On to the rub rails today!

[ol trunt]

Now THAT is one blue bird! Looks great

[bansil]

turned out good