Yellow underside?

[Native]

Originally Posted by o1marc

Personally I don't think you'll ever get the underside of a bus clean enough to accept paint.
And you'd be screwed if you scrapped it now. When I scrapped my 87 BB, scrap was paying $7.50 for vehicles and $6 for scrap/ Went by yesterday and vehicles are down to $3.50 and scrap at $3 (/100lbs). I made money on my scrapped bus, at todays rate I would have lost considerably.

Wow, at $3.50/100 pounds, our beast would bring in about $6,000.00 !!!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

Wow, at $3.50/100 pounds, our beast would bring in about $6,000.00 !!!

Your bus weighs 171,429 pounds?

[Danjo]

Maybe a better solution is the asphalt under coating that buses already have? Of course you would need to sand blast the underside before doing that. It might be hazardous to your sheet metal.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by o1marc

Personally I don't think you'll ever get the underside of a bus clean enough to accept paint.
And you'd be screwed if you scrapped it now. When I scrapped my 87 BB, scrap was paying $7.50 for vehicles and $6 for scrap/ Went by yesterday and vehicles are down to $3.50 and scrap at $3 (/100lbs). I made money on my scrapped bus, at todays rate I would have lost considerably.

My test pieces are these angle brackets made from 1/8" steel that were used on the underside of the seat bolts so they're in the same rust condition as the rest of the bus bottom. They were pretty dirty but the grease and grime was on the rusty surface layer and came off easily with the loose rust. Cleaned with just soap and water and dried with a heat gun, and the paint is adhering very well to it.

[Drew Bru]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Your bus weighs 171,429 pounds?

Maybe is tires are made of uranium?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Danjo

Maybe a better solution is the asphalt under coating that buses already have? Of course you would need to sand blast the underside before doing that. It might be hazardous to your sheet metal.

Yeah, sandblasting is in the same realm of toxicity as ospho treatment for me - I could do it if I had to but I don't want to (I'm using ospho on the inside but that's different because I'm not applying it over my head).

I've considered applying undercoating, and tried it out on one of my test brackets after ospho. It also seemed to work fine and adhere well, but I don't think it's normally applied directly to rusty metal (the use of the rusty metal primer gets me out of doing any work on the rust itself).

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Native

Wow, at $3.50/100 pounds, our beast would bring in about $6,000.00 !!!

Does your bus weigh 175000lbs?

[Native]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Your bus weighs 171,429 pounds?

Oops ... should have used a calculator ... wait, I did (for most of the calculation). At times though, it runs like it is 170K pounds!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Native

Oops ... should have used a calculator ... wait, I did (for most of the calculation). At times though, it runs like it is 170K pounds!

A steel supply place near me in Jersey sells scrap pieces (sheet, flat bar, angle iron etc.) from their custom-cut orders for 50 cents a pound, which is way cheaper than getting the stuff at Lowe's or Home Depot. I didn't realize how much of a gold mine it still is for them if scrap is selling at 3.5 cents a pound.

[Native]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

A steel supply place near me in Jersey sells scrap pieces (sheet, flat bar, angle iron etc.) from their custom-cut orders for 50 cents a pound, which is way cheaper than getting the stuff at Lowe's or Home Depot. I didn't realize how much of a gold mine it still is for them if scrap is selling at 3.5 cents a pound.

Yeah, we have one in Fort Worth. My wife calls it my play ground. They go thrugh their stock quickly ... and still have lots to choose from all the time. You do have to dig through the piles to get what you want.

[DWJoyce]

POR15 is a complete waste of money. It's not really intended for your application, think underwater rust maintenance. If you use it, don't even think about leaving it exposed, be sure to paint over it.



Coroseal (sp?) is better.

[OlgaAK]

That floor is in bad shape. I would strongly recommend starting over with a bus from a different region. You have a ton of work ahead of you and can probably get a bus in much better condition for less than you are going to spend dealing with that.

That being said, if you aren't willing/able to start over, can you cut it out down to the frame and install new metal?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by OlgaAK

That floor is in bad shape.

This may surprise you ... but I'm actually aware of how bad my floor is.

Originally Posted by OlgaAK

I would strongly recommend starting over with a bus from a different region. You have a ton of work ahead of you and can probably get a bus in much better condition for less than you are going to spend dealing with that.

That being said, if you aren't willing/able to start over, can you cut it out down to the frame and install new metal?

Check out my build thread. That horse has not only left the barn, it's entered the witness relocation program.