Skoolie in the UK!

[SamDee]

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.


View attachment 43022


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.


View attachment 43023


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


View attachment 43024

Ah brilliant! Thank you very much for that. All tho I believe mine is built differently! When I go under the bus the drivers platform is actually higher than the original bus floor. So its not like a platform placed on the original floor!

But I think your right, I will take out the driver seat and remove the flooring from under it. If I'm sealing and treating the rest of the bus it would be foolish to just leave that small 1m sq! Ill pull it out today and upload some pictures!
thanks!

 

[SamDee]

Today I pulled up the plywood around my driver's seat, and look what I found: https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f11/rusty-87-build-thread-27741-34.html#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.

Ahhh!!! Thats frustrating.. All tho is helps me to see that stiffener doesn't look like a whole piece on yours too. (The bits I circled red in previous picture)
Is it supposed to be holy or not?! Yours doesn't look as bad as mine. Mine has lost contact with the outside of the bus. Im not sure how easy it is or would be to replace the whole thing across the length of the bus? Ill have to do more investigating I.e cutting the floor up

 

[Native-SKO]

Ahhh!!! Thats frustrating.. All tho is helps me to see that stiffener doesn't look like a whole piece on yours too. (The bits I circled red in previous picture)
Is it supposed to be holy or not?! Yours doesn't look as bad as mine. Mine has lost contact with the outside of the bus. Im not sure how easy it is or would be to replace the whole thing across the length of the bus? Ill have to do more investigating I.e cutting the floor up

Yeah, once you pull it all off it should be much easier to see what has to be done.


A wire brush on an angle grinder and also a grinding wheel on the same will be your best tool for seeing what to do next.



Take pictures and post them as you investigate. We may be able to help you see what is needed.

 

[musigenesis]

Ahhh!!! Thats frustrating.. All tho is helps me to see that stiffener doesn't look like a whole piece on yours too. (The bits I circled red in previous picture)
Is it supposed to be holy or not?! Yours doesn't look as bad as mine. Mine has lost contact with the outside of the bus. Im not sure how easy it is or would be to replace the whole thing across the length of the bus? Ill have to do more investigating I.e cutting the floor up

On mine that stiffener is a full piece that runs from side-to-side and the stiffener itself is not very rusted at all, but from its appearance it looks like it was an after-market thing the previous bus owners put in, probably at the same time as they welded in the new panel to the right of the driver's seat. I need to get under the bus and see exactly what I'm dealing with because I'm still not sure yet. The underside has the same thick tar gunk on it as yours, which makes it hard to see what's what.

My dilemma with removing the driver's seat is that the lot I park my bus at doesn't have electricity and my generator can only power my welder to do sheet metal stuff, not anything thicker like I'd need for frame repair work. For thicker stuff I drive the bus to my house and plug in to a 20 amp line, but if I remove my driver's seat at the lot I won't be able to drive the bus anywhere. And if I remove the driver's seat at home, the bus will be stuck there for a few days at least and I'll get Code Enforcement called on me again.

My only hope is that whatever's under the driver's seat just needs some sheet metal cut out and replaced, and I can do all that at my lot. I just don't understand the structure under that seat well enough yet.

Is it supposed to be holy or not?! Yours doesn't look as bad as mine.

These pics are after I scraped all the loose rust up and squared up all the holes with a cutting wheel. I honestly couldn't believe the huge chunks of flat rusty metal I was scraping off the floor here - they were thicker than the 16 ga that makes up the floor, but somehow there's still some floor left. A lot of this stuff is extremely thin, though, and most likely I'm going to end up cutting a lot more of it away today.

 

[SamDee]

Ha! What a dilemma with your seat! I tried to remove mine but as with the rest of our our bus seats you need a man under holding the otherside!! So I took the plunge today and did more investigating. Firstly I removed the heater by the steps to make allow me to see what the floor was like under there. The steel plate that met the cab and body of the bus is laughable.



After I removed the heater I pulled up all the ply and flooring, I also pulled up as much of the drivers rubber matting as possible and revealed a very nice sturdy floor. I then removed the metal surround around the platform of the seat and found more Swiss cheese. Also a giant build up or road dirt and what have you.



So off I went! and attacked the floor!!





So I figured Im going to replace that whole stiffener! I went under the bus and could push my finger through the bottom of it. So with that and it be so corroded away from the bus on the other end iv decided to remove the lot.

Back to it Monday! have a great weekend! :Thanx:

 

[Native-SKO]

The area at the top of the stairs on the passenger side on our bus was quite grungy. I had to do a fair bit of refurbishment there as you will. Be aware that if you have your fuel tank on the side, it is right there butt up against the stairwell. Well, there is a few inches between the tank and the stair well, but you get the drift.


That fat "Y" shaped opening probably had a piece of sheet metal laid over it before they laid the plywood. This is where the manual shifter comes through the floor. Since you have an automatic, they simply put the piece f sheet metal over the hole and "seal" it with the plywood subfloor. I ended up welding it in place.


You have made great progress on the demo. I still find it strange that you have nothing under the driver platform. On our bus, that was part of the heater ducting system. Perhaps your was so rusted that it dropped out?


Your load-bearing framework looks to be in good shape. It is only the sheetmetal floor (which is folded to for the I-channels between) that is in sad shape.

 

[SamDee]

Thank you! Really appreciate your feedback, So ill be taking up the whole first panel of flooring! this is the only photo I got directly under the drivers seat will take more Monday. As you can see on the left one of the driver seats supports has corroded!! That'll also need replacing and Teeing off the new stiffener I put in!

as you can see the heater pipes have been foamed in place... This has raised some concerns with me!

 

[Native-SKO]

That cross piece does look to be destined for the garbage bin. Instead of providing support to the floor, I think the floor is upporting it! Looking forward to Monday's shots.



After you get "in there", you may find a better way to route the heater lines.

 

[SamDee]

Haha, hoping I only have to cut so much back on that one. Or maybe just leave it and weld a whole new piece near it to save the hassle!
Those heater pipes serve the rear heater which Iv now removes and don’t plan on keeping. Read in a few places to just return them on their selves which I done but inside the bus, what I might do is do the fix under the bus so there don’t come through my new floor.

 

[SamDee]

Hey guys!
So Mondays fun.....

Managed to cut away the majority of the old supports for the front section of the floor and started on the back here's some photos...






So the purple line represents what was there

So here's my proposed plans if you guys could weigh it that be great...



Im unsure if to replaced exactly what I took out. What I took out was a bit box section which was roughly 60mm tall & 30mm wide that sat against the original floor which bent around.

I dont know if I should replace it with a box section and U channel then floor into the middle of that and weld. Then continue the flooring from there

Or option two just replace with one big box section 60x60 then floor to the middle, weld, continue flooring...Thoughts?

NEXT is my wheel arch issue....




So that's rusted around the wheel arch but also between the external and internal skin the actual wheel arch has fell through... So Im purposing to cut the lot out fix the wheel arch and replace back in...

Im also cutting these sections out as they are rusted through!


Sorry for the photos being everywhere... Really find this format difficult to use...

 

[SamDee]

Heres a photo under my drivers seat! For those who asked!

 

[Native-SKO]

The last photo of the bottom of the driver seat makes me say option 3 ... remove the driver seat platform. This will free up the area to reconstruct the support beams. After the structure is fortified, you can then put down a solid piece of 14 guage sheet metal and have a solid floor from which to build. After that, you can place the driver platform as close or far away from the steering wheel as you like. For our bus, I needed to remove the platform completely so I was not looking through the sun tint at the top of the windshield. I also adjusted the seat a little further back. I have a tall sitting height. Note, if you do choose to remove the platform, you will want to build a small platform for your feet under the pedals that the platform used to provide.


Regarding your wheel wells ... looks like you suffer from the same rust problem as our bus had. This is with the wheel well and rusted floor removed:






This is after I rebuilt the framework:

 

[SamDee]

Remove the drivers platform?!?! What!!!! Don’t really want to do that as it is solid through out. Just that rear of it has gone. I was planning to lap the new flooring to the top of the drivers platform and weld it there for support?

Nice work on the wheel wells. Did you manage to keep the arch shape?

 

[Native-SKO]

Remove the drivers platform?!?! What!!!! Don’t really want to do that as it is solid through out. Just that rear of it has gone. I was planning to lap the new flooring to the top of the drivers platform and weld it there for support?

Nice work on the wheel wells. Did you manage to keep the arch shape?

You are there and can feel/see the construction/support, I am not there and can not. If you feel it will work as-is, then go for it. The support to the rear of the bottom of the platform does seem to be missing some metal, so a little refurbishment is in order.


I must be misunderstanding. You are going to raise the floor up to the top of the platform? Just the entry, right?


On the wheel wells, I also lowered them. Before I put on the wheel well, I put in new flooring:





I used the wheel well in the final product, only it was cut down a bit:

 

[SamDee]

You are there and can feel/see the construction/support, I am not there and can not. If you feel it will work as-is, then go for it. The support to the rear of the bottom of the platform does seem to be missing some metal, so a little refurbishment is in order.


I must be misunderstanding. You are going to raise the floor up to the top of the platform? Just the entry, right?


On the wheel wells, I also lowered them. Before I put on the wheel well, I put in new flooring:


View attachment 43259


I used the wheel well in the final product, only it was cut down a bit:


View attachment 43260

The new flooring ill place down will run along the floor then a piece will fold up to the top of the drivers box and we welded there.

Ah wow! That’s really impressive with the wheel arches!
Does that affect the ride at all? Do you stand a chance of rubbing the wheel arch at all??

 

[Native-SKO]

The new flooring ill place down will run along the floor then a piece will fold up to the top of the drivers box and we welded there.

I see ... a simple replacement. That will work fine.

Ah wow! That’s really impressive with the wheel arches!
Does that affect the ride at all? Do you stand a chance of rubbing the wheel arch at all??

Thank you. It does not affect the ride. I have air suspension. With the air gone from the air springs, the frame sits on the axle stops. This gives the lowest clearance. I then put a jig made from 2x4's and 3/4" boards which wrapped around the wheel to provide at least 3 inches (7.6cm) clearance from the lowest point to the wheel well. I cut the wheel well down to maintain this distance.



Once it was all done, this is the difference between the driver and passenger sides:



Once the floor is put in, there will be only about 12 inches (30.5cm) of wheel well above the floor and it will stick up less than 2 inches (5cm).

 

[SamDee]

That’s insane! Very tempted by this. Very nice work.
Has mine got air suspension? Appears to be some big bellies under the bus


I Want to send some more pictures as I currently at it but can’t with via mobile device?

 

[Native-SKO]

The air bags are big black rubber cylinders just inside of the wheels and just to the rear of the axles.

 

[SamDee]

Yeh that’s the suckers. Also I’ve noticed some parts of the floor inside the walls have rusted through and they’ve been patched underneath! Currently cutting a wheel arch out...

 

[Native-SKO]

Air spring

Here is the passenger side air spring ... the black cylinder to the right of the exhaust pipe and to the left of the mud flap.