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Old 08-04-2020, 05:32 PM   #1
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Ripping out diamond plate flooring

I just bought a 1980 International harvester that was used by a fire crew in California. I see when alot of people gut their bus, they take out all the wooden subflooring. My issue is that I have a bunch of metal diamond plate flooring above the subfloor. I'm wondering if anyone else has had to rip out metal flooring and how much of a pain was it?
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Old 08-04-2020, 06:07 PM   #2
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Is that diamond plate on top of plywood on top of the sheet metal floor? Or is it possible that that's the sheet metal floor itself? Any pics of how this is put together from underneath? I've never seen a floor like this, maybe others here have.
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Old 08-04-2020, 06:19 PM   #3
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Looks like it has plywood sandwiched between 2 layers of metal above and below it
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Old 08-04-2020, 06:41 PM   #4
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That's incredibly heavy duty and probably not what you need now...
Fire tools, chain saws, pumps, would've destroyed the rubber mat over the plywood from it's skool bus daze -- makes sense that it was better protected.

Is the diamond plate welded in at the edges? Or is it just screwed down in a few spots? It would have to have been secured in case of roll over --

Where are you located?

I'm sure you could get help removing the plate in exchange for it...

How high is the ceiling?
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Old 08-04-2020, 06:58 PM   #5
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It looks like its bolted down on the edges and down the isle.

I'm located 40 minutes outside of Boise Idaho

The ceiling height is about 6ft, I'm 5'11 so I just barely fit. I was wondering if I should just build over the diamond plate floors or would it be worth it to rip them out and the plywood beneath it, to save on headspace
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Old 08-04-2020, 07:01 PM   #6
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Here's a pic of the bolts and the seams
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Old 08-04-2020, 07:07 PM   #7
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Here's a pic of the bus if you're curious
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Old 08-04-2020, 07:20 PM   #8
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All depends on your plans for the bus --
The plywood with rubber mat is almost 1" thick. You've then got the diamond plate over that...

The next question is leaks (seems like most buses do...) causing the plywood to rot a bit and rust the metal from moisture trapped under the rubber mat...

You can get an idea from looking at the floor from underneath the bus but you won't get the whole picture.

If you're planning to build a nice interior you will want to insure you're not building on moldy plywood and that there's no rust issues with the floor unde the plywood -- this means taking it all out...
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Old 08-04-2020, 07:24 PM   #9
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If its easy to remove, I'd just remove it, unless you just keep it and like the look for the floor, which frankly for my 50's Diner theme or Racer theme might work great.
But if you are going wood wood and more wood to cover it up, might as well remove it,
and can sell it for a bit to pay for your new flooring. IMO as always.
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Old 08-04-2020, 07:37 PM   #10
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Yeah I think I might just rip them out. I plan on building it into an off grid skoolie so it might be best to completely gut the floors out before building. This bus has very minimal rust but it probably wouldn't hurt to rip the floors out now vs having to deal with any problems in the future. Thanks for the input guys, it's nice having a second opinion.
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Old 08-04-2020, 08:20 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spodabee View Post
Here's a pic of the bolts and the seams
Those look like the heads of carriage bolts, so you should be able to get underneath and undo the nuts without any assistance. An ordinary wrench and a hammer should get them started if they're corroded, and then a drill will get the nuts off quickly. If they're also welded, you're in for hell.

You should be able to sell these pieces for a lot once they're out. Here's a link for this stuff new: https://www.metalsdepot.com/steel-pr...el-floor-plate. Your stuff would be well over $100 new, could probably get at least $75 a sheet on CL or Facebook Marketplace.

If you're 5'11" in a 6' bus, you're definitely going to want all the headroom you can muster.
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Old 08-04-2020, 09:30 PM   #12
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If that is 3/16" steel diamond plate it is worth it's weight in gold--at least it was when I bought the small section I needed to make a space for the tracking arm for my pneumatic door. I've done business with the same steel fabricator for years and he has always taken care of me--except on this stuff. Even he was surprised at what it cost. $45 for that little scrap! I wanted things to look "original" so I stepped up to it. I polish it every day--not really but you see what I mean. If you can remove that diamond plate without f25545 it up and get some cost estimates from a steel provider you should get at least one or two good camping nights out of it where they even have utilities! That stuff is heavy so at the least you will get better fuel mileage.
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