Hello! Now that we came up with a name for our bus I figured I would go ahead and start a build thread. We are starting with a 1992 Escort RE from Eldorado National. She has a Cummins 5.9, Allison trans(no numbers yet, lazy.), air ride front and rear, air over hydraulic disk brakes and everything but the engine and trans need rebuilding. Unfortunately I traded my fathers hot rod project for her but I had no interest in it and he built it to suit his needs and likings which are totally different than mine. I refused to ever sell it but it was getting rust on it and knew someone would love it.(in the words of my father, " it's just stuff, you can't take it with you." R.I.P. Dad) My family and I love our new bus and have named her Vandabus (like wonderbus with an odd accent lol) the interior will be kinda India/Romanian/bohemian hippyish and the exterior a simple metallic dk.blue with lt.blue stripes and polished Alcoa wheels to match our trucks.
The floor was rusted out on the bottom step so thats where I started stripping the floor. I cleaned the rust out then wire brushed it and used a rust inhibiting sealer for the time being (going to weld in new floor later)
as I worked my way into the bus and up the steps the metal looked good but then I had to tear apart the front of the bus as the ac / heater under the dash rotted out the floor an fell through leaving it to corrode in a hole. So I figured I would just continue on and get it out of the way.
I took the dash apart and pulled everything out, I wasn't about try and save any of it it was all rotted or rusted. I clamped the heater hoses and cut them off the now block of rust, removed the ac lines, and literally ripped it out taking rusty rods wires and ducting with it. Then proceeded to pry up all the wood floor since the bolts were all rusted it came out with ease.
The frame rails and cross members were all starting to rust so after cleaning everything out I sanded everything metal back to bare metal and painted it with rustoleum industrial black. Then I used 3/4" oak ply that was left over from a flatbed we floored a couple years ago and some new floor bolts to replace the pine ply that was there.
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