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Old 07-28-2017, 01:22 AM   #1
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Remington's 2000 7.3 International Shorty

Hey, guys! I finally joined the club Huge thanks to EastCoastCB for helping me find this lovely shorty and for answering all my questions! You rock! I flew from WA to CO and drove this baby home in record time, I love how comfortable it is to drive!

Well, here she is!



Got home yesterday and already made some decent progress!





Is the general consensus here that I should remove all the flooring? I took out the middle aisle strip and I'm unsure if I should rip it all out. I'm 6'6" and would rather not raise the floor, as of now I have 6'5" of headroom. Also, I can't decide on whether or not I should remove the rear heater... So many paths to choose from.

Are you guys insulating the walls and ceiling too? I don't know if this is necessary or if I can just paint over the walls. I would rather insulate the walls than the floor or ceiling though, that's for sure. I live in WA and I plan to travel all over North America. I will have a wood burning stove for when it's really cold/.

Thanks for all the help, this is a great community!

I will be updating this thread and video documenting my entire build. Be on the lookout for my videos! Cheers!

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Old 07-28-2017, 01:34 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by cowlitzcoach View Post
Once you get all of the linoleum up you will be in a better position to determine whether to keep the current floor or re-do it. School buses by their very nature get a lot of water on the floor. A bus from CO is going to get considerably more in the form of snow.

All of that moisture tends to cause problems over time. It will be particularly bad in corners and around the wheel wells. Most of the time the buses never run long enough to get warm enough to dry all of the moisture out. Which over time will tend to rot parts of the plywood.

At 6'6" I think you need to seriously think about a roof raise. Even if you are only going to be running around the NW you are going to want something between your living space and outside besides what is there currently.

One of the buses I owned came from a mining company in NV or UT. They paid extra to have the entire underside of the passenger compartment to be insulated with spray foam. It was thick enough that you could not see any of the floor joists. It also covered up a lot of stuff that in order to work on it you just abandoned the stuff and re-plumbed or re-wired.

The problem for anyone doing it on an older bus is I don't know that you would ever be able to get it clean enough for the spray foam to stick permanently to the underside of the bus.
Hey, accidentally formatted my thread wrong and missed the 120-minute window so I remade it.

My dad is trying to convince me that the floor isn't rusty enough to need to rip it out. He's smart, DIY in every aspect of life, but he has never converted a bus... So I'm seeking some advice.

Did you guys keep your rear heaters? This is another thing I'm indecisive on ripping out.

If I rip out the floor, how many inches will the insulation + new flooring add to the height of the floor? A roof raise sounds like a ton of work for me. Idk if I could get my dad on board either. I should add that I'm 6'6" but my bus interior height is about 6'5 I can stand pretty comfortably. I can stand completely straight up under the roof hatch or on the stairs.

Any tips for material on insulating the walls? Once again, my dad said that they are double walls and I could get away without insulation. From what I've gathered, everyone on this forum is very pro insulation.
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Old 07-28-2017, 03:39 AM   #3
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is not hard to raise the roof or build a flat one..rear heater and lines can be ash canned, as rv heater should be installed. also a small wood stove is great esp in the damp nw like wa and ore. I have built my own wood stoves and made all of them zero clearance with a fan. i always just use the existing flooring that is metal as now i always make a 8 inch higher floor with storage inside.. besides removing the windows when raising roof, the floor becomes hidden storage...
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Old 07-28-2017, 05:00 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Remington View Post
Hey, accidentally formatted my thread wrong and missed the 120-minute window so I remade it.

My dad is trying to convince me that the floor isn't rusty enough to need to rip it out. He's smart, DIY in every aspect of life, but he has never converted a bus... So I'm seeking some advice.

Did you guys keep your rear heaters? This is another thing I'm indecisive on ripping out.

If I rip out the floor, how many inches will the insulation + new flooring add to the height of the floor? A roof raise sounds like a ton of work for me. Idk if I could get my dad on board either. I should add that I'm 6'6" but my bus interior height is about 6'5 I can stand pretty comfortably. I can stand completely straight up under the roof hatch or on the stairs.

Any tips for material on insulating the walls? Once again, my dad said that they are double walls and I could get away without insulation. From what I've gathered, everyone on this forum is very pro insulation.
They are really comfy to drive all day aren't they? Air ride and air seat make for a nice bus!

Any signs of rust? mine has a bit I'm taking care of in prep for paint.
Did yours come with new-ish tires, too??
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Old 07-28-2017, 11:05 AM   #5
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Originally Posted by chev49 View Post
is not hard to raise the roof or build a flat one..rear heater and lines can be ash canned, as rv heater should be installed. also a small wood stove is great esp in the damp nw like wa and ore. I have built my own wood stoves and made all of them zero clearance with a fan. i always just use the existing flooring that is metal as now i always make a 8 inch higher floor with storage inside.. besides removing the windows when raising roof, the floor becomes hidden storage...
8 inches?! Goodness, that quite the floor raise. I'm steering clear of that, haha, a roof raise may not be hard for you, but as a 21-year-old with minimal experience in this field, that sounds terrifying. Scares my dad off too.

I'm nervous about removing the heater, I feel like I'm going to screw up the cooling system somehow, which is my biggest fear for every vehicle I ever drive from now on. My last rig (1986 Toyota Van) had the worst overheating problems.
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Old 07-28-2017, 11:11 AM   #6
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They are really comfy to drive all day aren't they? Air ride and air seat make for a nice bus!

Any signs of rust? mine has a bit I'm taking care of in prep for paint.
Did yours come with new-ish tires, too??
The air ride is AMAZING, I had a blast with all the air controls on the way home haha. Oh, the intercom too... Sure made me feel like a kid again. Such good fun.

These are the only two rust spots I've been able to find. Thinking I'm going for the full floor pull today, at least the vinyl. Did you pull the plywood in your AmTran? I'm curious if you removed your rear heater.



Back right side of the bus seems to be the only place with rust, I'm sure some more is just playing hide and seek though.



Also, how did you go about removing the L-Track on the floor behind the driver's seat? Every single screw won't budge and instantly strips while trying to remove it. Am I going to have to drill out every single one? That's 88 screws I would need to drill out... haha.

It's a project, but it's sure as hell a fun one! I have some great time lapses and videos of me working, stoked to make a full video of this

Oh, and the tires are in fantastic shape! The fronts are probably about 60% but the back look new!
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Old 07-28-2017, 11:38 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by Remington View Post
8 inches?! Goodness, that quite the floor raise. I'm steering clear of that, haha, a roof raise may not be hard for you, but as a 21-year-old with minimal experience in this field, that sounds terrifying. Scares my dad off too.

I'm nervous about removing the heater, I feel like I'm going to screw up the cooling system somehow, which is my biggest fear for every vehicle I ever drive from now on. My last rig (1986 Toyota Van) had the worst overheating problems.
I wouldn't bother to raise the roof on a shorty, and CERTAINLY not the dang floor!
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Old 07-28-2017, 11:41 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by Remington View Post
The air ride is AMAZING, I had a blast with all the air controls on the way home haha. Oh, the intercom too... Sure made me feel like a kid again. Such good fun.

These are the only two rust spots I've been able to find. Thinking I'm going for the full floor pull today, at least the vinyl. Did you pull the plywood in your AmTran? I'm curious if you removed your rear heater.



Back right side of the bus seems to be the only place with rust, I'm sure some more is just playing hide and seek though.



Also, how did you go about removing the L-Track on the floor behind the driver's seat? Every single screw won't budge and instantly strips while trying to remove it. Am I going to have to drill out every single one? That's 88 screws I would need to drill out... haha.

It's a project, but it's sure as hell a fun one! I have some great time lapses and videos of me working, stoked to make a full video of this

Oh, and the tires are in fantastic shape! The fronts are probably about 60% but the back look new!
Mines a little less rusty, but you'll be fine. Just attack that rust!
I haven't pulled the floors yet. Maybe next year I'll do that. I'd recommend it. I'd jsut go HAM on the l track with an angle grinder.
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Old 07-28-2017, 01:38 PM   #9
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Mines a little less rusty, but you'll be fine. Just attack that rust!
I haven't pulled the floors yet. Maybe next year I'll do that. I'd recommend it. I'd jsut go HAM on the l track with an angle grinder.
Yeah this L Track SUCKS! I'm going with securing it from the top and removing the bolts from the bottom. 1st one when great, been stuck on the second one for a bit now... I am doing it solo however. Having a friend come over now to help.

Replying to your response on my first thread: That's interesting how we have the exact same spot with rust! I've taken off most of the vinyl flooring now and the wood actually looks like it's in pretty good shape, I don't notice any rust near the wheel wells. Unsure whether I'm going to pull the wood yet or not.

This L Track project will probably give me the entire day to think about it haha. I don't know what bus number I got, I'll report back!
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Old 07-28-2017, 01:40 PM   #10
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Yeah this L Track SUCKS! I'm going with securing it from the top and removing the bolts from the bottom. 1st one when great, been stuck on the second one for a bit now... I am doing it solo however. Having a friend come over now to help.

Replying to your response on my first thread: That's interesting how we have the exact same spot with rust! I've taken off most of the vinyl flooring now and the wood actually looks like it's in pretty good shape, I don't notice any rust near the wheel wells. Unsure whether I'm going to pull the wood yet or not.

This L Track project will probably give me the entire day to think about it haha. I don't know what bus number I got, I'll report back!
My keychain that came with the bus has a little brass tag with the bus number.
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Old 07-28-2017, 02:37 PM   #11
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My keychain that came with the bus has a little brass tag with the bus number.
Aha! I'm 1007!

Update: I managed to get a few of the nuts off each L Track from underneath while my mom stood on the top and secured it. The others are stuck and will not budge. Just sprayed it down with some PB Blaster and I'll go try again in a few.
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Old 07-28-2017, 03:01 PM   #12
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Gratz on that shorty

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Old 07-28-2017, 04:17 PM   #13
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If you have a decent impact driver...secure them from the top, then tighten them till they shear off. The aluminum track causes a lot of electrolysis that often welds the steel nuts and bolts together.
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Old 07-29-2017, 05:51 PM   #14
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If you have a decent impact driver...secure them from the top, then tighten them till they shear off.
Great idea. Never would have thought of that.
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Old 07-30-2017, 09:23 PM   #15
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If you have a decent impact driver...secure them from the top, then tighten them till they shear off. The aluminum track causes a lot of electrolysis that often welds the steel nuts and bolts together.
Yeah, that electrolysis sucks! Thanks for the tip, that didn't work for me. The heads of the bolts were so corroded that it 75% of them would instantly strip..

I finally got out all the L-Track, it feels great being done with that part of the project.





I refined the drill bit method and finally hit the sweet spot today, making the last two L-Tracks relatively easy. After trying various drill bits I found that these two, starting with the 1/4th and finishing with the 19/64th was the most effective.



I think the plywood is in good enough shape to leave it. I also think I'm going to leave in the rear heater. I plan to fill the L-Track gaps with plywood, redo the floor with a new vinyl flooring & then start my build.

Thoughts?
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Old 08-02-2017, 09:10 PM   #16
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Got out the lift, painted the back wall & got the flooring in!!







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Old 08-02-2017, 10:45 PM   #17
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Full steam ahead!!! Keep the pictures coming. Ty 4 sharing!

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Old 08-03-2017, 08:36 AM   #18
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My last rig (1986 Toyota Van) had the worst overheating problems.
I had a 85 those space wagons are the bees knees, except for the cooling system, mine overheated too!

Great progress on the bus and nice choice too.
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Old 08-03-2017, 01:36 PM   #19
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I had a 85 those space wagons are the bees knees, except for the cooling system, mine overheated too!

Great progress on the bus and nice choice too.
Right!! I love those vans so much, but damn, they are easy to overheat. My friend just picked one up in really good condition and his temperature gauge never even passes the 1/4th mark, which I find really odd since the cruising temp of my van is consistently at the 1/2 mark. Maybe I need a new radiator..

Here is a pic of my van if you're interested I bought it from the original owner, an old couple who drove it off the lot in the 80's, I'll never sell it.





I'm stoked you like the choice of the interior! I got some mixed reviews but I personally love it.
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Old 08-03-2017, 03:20 PM   #20
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VERY cool van!
Never even rode in one. Always had the german stuff- VW microbuses!! Started with a 1971, then a barn find 1970 in nice shape. Then scored a 67 westy for 800 bucks. Man, back in the day COOL vehicles were so cheap. VW's are cool, but to me the prices of today sorta make them NOT cool!
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