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Old 07-15-2020, 07:35 PM   #21
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Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Eustis FLORIDA
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Originally Posted by sepudo View Post
For the spots where the rail bolts also connect to the bus frame just reuse the original bolts. In my case it was pretty straight forward since the rails were all attached using a #3 square attachment.

For the holes you want to fill you can weld or mesh and bondo.

Good luck Attachment 46651Attachment 46652Attachment 46653
Sorry- I'd for some reason thought THIS^ was your bus. Carry on! lol

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Old 07-15-2020, 07:36 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by Kaleth2 View Post
I posted link to photo of the logo on the bus. So strange! So, did Bluebird do a year where they produced bus bodies for Freightliner that were Freightliner’s designs or something maybe? Bluebird logo on outside, inside and the VIN number tags say bluebird too.
So you've got one of the oddball Bluebirds on a Freightliner FS65 chassis.
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Old 07-15-2020, 07:38 PM   #23
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Year: 2002
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Well the entire body of your bus is clearly a Thomas. The pics show it. Bluebirds have individual louvers over each window. And a different body style. And the windows on yours tilt in 6 degrees. And the hump in the front on the roof- that's only a Thomas thing. BB never did any of those things.
Found a photo of the VIN plate. Titled Blue Bird Body Company.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b1H...RSsVsTv1_FEA7w

Haven’t figured out how to upload photo from ipad directly yet.
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Old 07-15-2020, 07:40 PM   #24
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Oddball for sure:)

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Originally Posted by EastCoastCB View Post
Sorry- I'd for some reason thought THIS^ was your bus. Carry on! lol
LOL! No biggie. Am still a newbie at all of this!
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Old 07-16-2020, 08:22 PM   #25
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Bluebird rubrails

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Originally Posted by somewhereinusa View Post
Not sure if you have a Bluebird or a Thomas your signature says both. On my 91 bluebird the three lower rub rails aren't actually. The middle one is a ribbed panel that the upper and lower ones are riveted to. If you take off all three you would have to reskin that section.
Got the top, of the middle three, off today and can see that the middle one is ribbed. I’m going to remove what I can of the three and reassess. Have never skinned a vehicle before. WOuld involve learning to rivet I imagine. Have no idea what gauge of sheet metal to use.
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Old 07-17-2020, 12:04 AM   #26
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Gee, I thought all Bluebirds had those window eyebrows. Logo painted on or not, that was a signature of a Bluebird body.
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Old 07-17-2020, 12:14 AM   #27
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Window eyebrows

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Originally Posted by bus-bro View Post
Gee, I thought all Bluebirds had those window eyebrows. Logo painted on or not, that was a signature of a Bluebird body.
LOL! That’s a fun description. If you mean the mini metal awning over the windows....mine has those. FS65 25 foot shortie.
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Old 07-17-2020, 12:49 AM   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaleth2 View Post
Found a photo of the VIN plate. Titled Blue Bird Body Company.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b1H...RSsVsTv1_FEA7w

Haven’t figured out how to upload photo from ipad directly yet.
I hope you figure out how to post to the site. icloud does not like to play with non-apple devices. Go figgure.
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Old 07-17-2020, 07:17 AM   #29
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if you use 3/16 carriage bolts to reattach the skin to the channels they look just like the original rivits. use locktite on the nuts so they never come loose. get or make a square punch to square the holes for the shoulder on the bolt
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Old 07-17-2020, 12:12 PM   #30
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Thanks for the tip

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Originally Posted by mmoore6856 View Post
if you use 3/16 carriage bolts to reattach the skin to the channels they look just like the original rivits. use locktite on the nuts so they never come loose. get or make a square punch to square the holes for the shoulder on the bolt
Thanks for that tip! Seems sturdier than another thread I saw where they were using plastic plugs they got off Amazon. Found that our seams where the Middle rub rail is formed isn’t tight to the body. Think those may be our gusher leaks. Going to remove the rest of that side railing today and seal up those seams...hoping thats our solution!
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Old 07-17-2020, 12:35 PM   #31
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shop online as we used about 1,000 as i used them along the top , bottom and where we extended our channels on the sheet metal . we covered the windows as to use more efficient replacements as 1k bolts and nuts were about 80 dollars but some places would have been 4 to 5 hundred. remember cobalt is your friend here as we only used 3 - 3/16 bits to drill all those holes
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Old 07-17-2020, 12:37 PM   #32
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sorry my 65 year old wife drilled all those holes!!! not me
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Old 07-17-2020, 03:14 PM   #33
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sorry my 65 year old wife drilled all those holes!!! not me
aww! Kudos to you for giving her a shoutout for her hard work! I will remember cobalt for drilling. Right now we just have holes to fill in....
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