Conversion questions

Tyania

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2017
Posts
125
Location
Mainland Mexico
First... FLOORS... I have:

Removed seats and old floors.
Removed loose rust.
Grinded and wire brushed rust spots.
Had a body shop guy weld all holes and patch rusted through areas at the corners of one wheel well. Everything grinded flush.
Removed silicon from edges and corners.
Treated the entire floor with a "phosphatizing" solution, then washed floor.
Treated entire floor with rust converter.
Painted with a quality primer.

was able to get rust converter under the driver seat plate with a sponge on a stick but the primer is thick. Any ideas?
17901-albums1378-picture17899.html

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/members/17901-albums1378-picture17899.html

still to do...

Recaulk the corners and edges.
Install flooring.

Am I missing anything?
Is the primer enough or do I need paint on top.
 
Last edited:
First... FLOORS... I have:

Removed seats and old floors.
Removed loose rust.
Grinded and wire brushed rust spots.
Had a body shop guy weld all holes and patch rusted through areas at the corners of one wheel well. Everything grinded flush.
Removed silicon from edges and corners.
Treated the entire floor with a "phosphatizing" solution, then washed floor.
Treated entire floor with rust converter.
Painted with a quality primer.

was able to get rust converter under the driver seat plate with a sponge on a stick but the primer is thick. Any ideas?
17901-albums1378-picture17899.html

http://www.skoolie.net/forums/members/17901-albums1378-picture17899.html

still to do...

Recaulk the corners and edges.
Install flooring.

Am I missing anything?
Is the primer enough or do I need paint on top.
Lots of work! Do folks undercoat vehicles? Seems to me that a undercoat makes more sense...but idk, just asking

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Tyania; The floor sounds good. The primer should be adequate but I'm sure there are other opinions.
You might want to lay down a little insulation before the floor or subfloor if you're intending to air condition.

Jdawgsfanasty; Some have undercoated. Some have foamed from under the floor. I wanted to foam under the floor but there's a lot of stuff in the way that makes that difficult.
 
Tyania; The floor sounds good. The primer should be adequate but I'm sure there are other opinions.
You might want to lay down a little insulation before the floor or subfloor if you're intending to air condition.

Jdawgsfanasty; Some have undercoated. Some have foamed from under the floor. I wanted to foam under the floor but there's a lot of stuff in the way that makes that difficult.
That makes sense too...thx

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Lots of work! Do folks undercoat vehicles? Seems to me that a undercoat makes more sense...but idk, just asking

Rubberized undercoating seems like a good thing --- until small holes form, the rubber starts peeling, allowing water to enter the space and stay there. My sister had a Toyota Tercel in the N.C. mountains with an undercoating. They salt the roads there in winter, and I thought "Wow this is great!" Everything looked perfect. I put a jack under the frame-rail, and it crunched. All Rust....

Paint and primer flake away, or show the rust starting to bubble underneath, allowing you to fix it before it gets bad, and don't hold water against the metal.
 
I'm going to do several inches of foam board and then metal as my sub-floor. It won't ever rot and you can fit more insulation underneath to make up for what the plywood thickness would have been.
 
That sounds like a good way to save 3/4". That metal flooring might be handy if you had hydronic heating.

I agree about the undercoating, and even exterior underfloor sprayfoam. A rock hits the undercoating allowing water to find an entry point into the body panels. I'd expect virtually the same from underfloor spray foam, unless its factory.
 
We are thinking of eventually corro-seal painting (Mexican available rust converter) the underside of the bus. Our bus came from NY so even though the school did a fair job at regularly spraying the underside, there is rust. Where we live, there is no sand blasting available. Anyone have experience using a rust converter on the underside? How much prep (cleaning, sanding, sandblasting) did you do first?
 
We are thinking of eventually corro-seal painting (Mexican available rust converter) the underside of the bus. Our bus came from NY so even though the school did a fair job at regularly spraying the underside, there is rust. Where we live, there is no sand blasting available. Anyone have experience using a rust converter on the underside? How much prep (cleaning, sanding, sandblasting) did you do first?

Just brush off the loose stuff and "Ospho" what remains.
 
Rubberized undercoating seems like a good thing --- until small holes form, the rubber starts peeling, allowing water to enter the space and stay there. My sister had a Toyota Tercel in the N.C. mountains with an undercoating. They salt the roads there in winter, and I thought "Wow this is great!" Everything looked perfect. I put a jack under the frame-rail, and it crunched. All Rust....

Paint and primer flake away, or show the rust starting to bubble underneath, allowing you to fix it before it gets bad, and don't hold water against the metal.
Thx for insight...

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More conversion questions... prepping electrical wiring

Before I have the bus spray foamed...

1) I am punching in the posts of the rivets that haven't already fallen into the bus ribs. This may be a silly question but... people just leave them in the hollow ribs to jingle around in there? Or is there something to squirt in there a bit to help fill up the ribs and insulate those a bit?

And 2) I have not applied myself to understanding the electrical system of the bus yet (one step at a time) nor do I know much of house electrical systems. I will need to do that soon but before I insulate the cables in I have a few questions. I hope to repurpose some of the cables from unnecessary lights and things that are not needed for the bus with outlets and new lights. I am sure that I will need to change many of the fuses to be appropriate for the new uses but what about the cables themselves? Is there a standard gauge used throughout the bus that will work for 12v oulets and 12v fans or might some be to small? For 110v outlets, should I run new wiring now? I also want to change the function of some of the rear flashers to be turn signals and stop lights etc... should I do that now, pre-spray?

I will try to keep as much of the wiring out of the foam as possible running it above the windows behind an access panel but anything that goes to the lower wall, back wall, and the ceiling fan will end up buried in the foam within the electrical tubing.

Anything I should know? Tips that I haven't thought of? How much do I need to prep now before spraying? I suppose some string leads to feed wire in the future? Will the spray foam expand into the standard electrical tubing or pinch it? Is there a better electrical ducting system... redo with pvc or other solid duct... something without the side slit? Pull it all and route into the spray afterwards? If so, what about the parts where the wiring goes through metal framing? Just dig it out? I am only planning to spray the inch and a half depth of the original framing.

Thanks in advance for ideas and suggestions.
 
Last edited:
Before I have the bus spray foamed...

1) I am punching in the posts of the rivets that haven't already fallen into the bus ribs. This may be a silly question but... people just leave them in the hollow ribs to jingle around in there? Or is there something to squirt in there a bit to help fill up the ribs and insulate those a bit?

And 2) I have not applied myself to understanding the electrical system of the bus yet (one step at a time) nor do I know much of house electrical systems. I will need to do that soon but before I insulate the cables in I have a few questions. I hope to repurpose some of the cables from unnecessary lights and things that are not needed for the bus with outlets and new lights. I am sure that I will need to change many of the fuses to be appropriate for the new uses but what about the cables themselves? Is there a standard gauge used throughout the bus that will work for 12v oulets and 12v fans or might some be to small? For 110v outlets, should I run new wiring now? I also want to change the function of some of the rear flashers to be turn signals and stop lights etc... should I do that now, pre-spray?

I will try to keep as much of the wiring out of the foam as possible running it above the windows behind an access panel but anything that goes to the lower wall, back wall, and the ceiling fan will end up buried in the foam within the electrical tubing.

Anything I should know? Tips that I haven't thought of? How much do I need to prep now before spraying? I suppose some string leads to feed wire in the future? Will the spray foam expand into the standard electrical tubing or pinch it? Is there a better electrical ducting system... redo with pvc or other solid duct... something without the side slit? Pull it all and route into the spray afterwards? If so, what about the parts where the wiring goes through metal framing? Just dig it out? I am only planning to spray the inch and a half depth of the original framing.

Thanks in advance for ideas and suggestions.
It not safe to us wiring in a DC circuit for AC...insulation is usually the last job before closing the wall

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