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Old 04-07-2020, 05:48 AM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Bristol, UK
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Year: 2006
Coachwork: Thomas Built Buses
Chassis: Freightliner
Engine: cat C7
Skoolie in the UK!

Hey guys, So we've taking the big leap and imported a 2006 Thomas Freightliner from NY to here in sunny ol England....

We've began stripping the all the seats, all the floors and the sheet metal under the windows! My biggest concern is some serious amount of corrosion around the back of the drivers seat and the rear wheel arch.. Im very hands on being a carpenter so I'm going to patch them myself.
This is the first bit of welding iv ever done.

Can anyone advise on wtf to do? How much to cut back etc?? Ill attach some pictures. Hoping to use 16gauge.
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Old 04-07-2020, 05:50 AM   #2
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Coachwork: Thomas Built Buses
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Engine: cat C7
And here's the wheel arch area. One picture Is looking down in the wall channel where the insulation would sit....
Attached Thumbnails
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Old 04-07-2020, 06:29 AM   #3
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Welcome!
What part of England?

My wife's from Glasgow, Scotland.
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Old 04-07-2020, 07:23 AM   #4
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Ah awesome! We are in the southwest! Currently Bristol.
Where do you live now?
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Old 04-07-2020, 07:30 AM   #5
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North of Orlando FL.

We are lamenting the abrupt end of football aka soccer for the season.
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Old 04-07-2020, 08:06 AM   #6
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Welcome to skoolie.net! If you click on User CP in the upper left corner, you can fill out your profile details and then everybody will know where you are and what kind of bus you have (this will show up to the left of every comment and will help people tailor their advice to you). Also, if you convert your pictures to PNG format (and make sure they're oriented the way you want them to be by rotating them if necessary) before uploading them, you won't have the sideways pic problem.

Regarding the rust, check out my build thread. I've had to deal with a similar degree of rust as your bus (it was also a NY bus), although the damage on my bus was mostly in the back half, with nothing near the front like yours. But you'll get a sense of what bus structure is like (my bus is a different make but the body structure is similar to yours) and what can be done to repair it.

One thing I'd do if I were you, and it will be a pain: that degree of damage just behind the driver's seat and next to it suggests that the structure underneath the seat is also damaged. This is obviously important since that's the part that's holding you up. You're probably going to want to remove the seat entirely and pull up the floor there and see what you have. If the whole floor here needs repair, this is one part you might want to let a professional welder do. This unfortunately means you couldn't drive the bus while this is happening (unless you rig up a sling chair or something dangerously absurd like that).

One thing I'm curious about since yours is also a NY bus: do your windows have little plastic stops riveted in place that only allow the windows to open 4 or 5 inches?
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Old 04-07-2020, 09:29 AM   #7
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Brilliant

nice to see a fellow limey on the board

I hail from Ruislip, but live in the USA in north Carolina now

cheers!
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Old 04-07-2020, 02:29 PM   #8
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The degree of damage ends there! The drivers seat is raised up on a different piece of floor completely. It looks and sounds very solid from underneath. I can physically sit behind the drivers front wheel!
Im just unsure how much I should cut out.. Should I replace the majority of that beam going horizontal?
With regards to the windows I'm unsure about plastic rivets but possibly as they only drop down roughly 5 inches? Ill check out your thread!
thank you!
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Old 04-07-2020, 06:47 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SamDee View Post
The degree of damage ends there! The drivers seat is raised up on a different piece of floor completely. It looks and sounds very solid from underneath. I can physically sit behind the drivers front wheel!
Im just unsure how much I should cut out.. Should I replace the majority of that beam going horizontal?
With regards to the windows I'm unsure about plastic rivets but possibly as they only drop down roughly 5 inches? Ill check out your thread!
thank you!
It's a bit hard to tell exactly what I'm looking at in your pics because of the black goop, but it looks like you have a horizontal beam or stiffener that is badly rusted and sort of split down the center. That whole piece would want to be cut out and replaced. Generally, you just want to cut away rusted stuff until you get to solid metal, and then figure out some new structure you can stick in to replace whatever was cut away.

If your windows are like mine, you'll find two little plastic tabs in the tracks for the top pane (this track is on the outside so this is where you'll see them). The plastic tabs are riveted to the window frame and they're a pain to remove. I removed mine when I took all my windows out (before putting them back in again) - when they're out, it's very easy to drill out the rivets holding the tabs. You then just need to fill the holes with something; I used JB weld's Steel Stick (not sure if you have that in the UK).

By the way, I can't read "UK!" with the explanation point without hearing it in David Bowie's voice, followed by Mick Jagger's "South AMEEEEEEricaaaaaa!"
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Old 04-08-2020, 01:27 AM   #10
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Haha!! I can't say I'm aware of what you mean regarding mick and David
Ill upload some more pictures with that I believe it missing...
I uploaded in PNG but they've gone to JPEG?



So on the first picture what I have circled red appears to be some sort of box section, This sits on the two main beams running front to back of the bus. On the right of that in yellow the box section has completely corroded away.

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Then in the second picture is what I think I need to do.. So the red would be something new to replace what is missing.. Then the purple would T of off that. To what extant I need to cut each of them back I'm unsure.

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In the third picture the green represents the steel floor which ill put back in place and lap up the back of the drivers raised platform.

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Lastly is just an over shot picture, the bits circled in black are the worst parts as the sides and under are ok.. Just need to decided how much of this I cut back. As like I said earlier this bit sits on the 2 main beams that run the length of the bus.

Im sorry I don't know how to rotate the picture

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Old 04-08-2020, 05:37 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SamDee View Post
Haha!! I can't say I'm aware of what you mean regarding mick and David
I got it totally wrong: Bowie says "South AMEEEEEEricaaaaaa!" and Jagger later says "UK!"

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Old 04-08-2020, 06:45 AM   #12
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Do people actually dance like that without causing severe damage to their selfs? ��
What’s your thoughts on the pictures??
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Old 04-08-2020, 07:25 AM   #13
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Do people actually dance like that without causing severe damage to their selfs? ��
What’s your thoughts on the pictures??
Don't ask me to explain their dancing - they're English!

I think your analysis of your rust situation is spot on. It doesn't seem like you'll have to cut very much past the holes that are already there to get to healthy metal. Weld in small beam pieces and sheet and you should be good to go.
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Old 04-08-2020, 08:12 AM   #14
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Hahaha do you have a Instagram account I can message you on? Have more questions regarding the body of the bus ��
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Old 04-08-2020, 08:23 AM   #15
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Hahaha do you have a Instagram account I can message you on? Have more questions regarding the body of the bus ��
No, no Instagram, sorry. You can ask more questions in this thread and then others can weigh in, too - there's no public shame in dealing with rust. OK maybe a little.

Also, my bus (an International) is built somewhat differently than yours, so I'm not always going to know exactly what's going on with your structure. Other people here have the same type of bus as you.
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Old 04-08-2020, 10:16 AM   #16
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" Just need to decided how much of this I cut back"

not really sure I understand either what you are asking... you are dealing with rust... so in the parts you've circled you would need to cut/grind until you get to clean metal.. period.

you can't weld to rust.

Am unsure how you ended up with a bus from NY, which is a notorious salt damage state, over there anyway? If you're paying to ship a bus over there why not a rust free frame to start with say from a southern state?


needless to say answering why you got a bus from NY is a waste of time at this point as it is too late but I am curious.

otherwise you will simply need to grind it all away...
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Old 04-09-2020, 07:29 PM   #17
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Today I pulled up the plywood around my driver's seat, and look what I found: https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f11/r...tml#post380163

So much for my "nothing near the front like yours". Fortunately I think all my stiffeners on the underside are still solid enough to leave alone, so I'm going to just patch the holes for now. I need to get underneath and get a good look at what I'm dealing with under the driver's seat.
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Old 04-09-2020, 09:05 PM   #18
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I have a 2002 Freightliner FS65 with a Thomas Bult Body. The driver seat is bolted with four bolts into the platform. Once the seat is removed, you can then remove the platform as it is also bolted to the floor. I believe that once you have removed everything from the sheet metal floor andused a grinder to knock off the rust, you can then determine what the next step should be.


PLEASE take a lot of pictures along the way ... especially if you intend on reusing the platform. In our build, I removed the platform to give me better view as I have a tall seating height.


I will look through my many pictures to see if I can find the ones pertaining the the platform.
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Old 04-09-2020, 09:35 PM   #19
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This is a shot with the platform removed. In the middle to the right of the bucket is a black hose with a white golf tee in the end. This is the air line feeding the air ride seat. To the right of that in the floor is one of the holes through which the platform was bolted. The hole to the bottom of the picture by the same amount from the air line is the hole the seat retention loop was bolted through.


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This is the same area directly under the driver seat taken from the stair well. This is after having used a wire brush on the angle grinder. Notice the white dot in the lower left, that is the golf tee as viewed from the top.


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And finally, the same area as above witha liberal application of Ospho.


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Old 04-09-2020, 09:36 PM   #20
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If I find a meaningful shot of the platform I will post it.
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