Window Sheeting, Chair rail, possibly more random gut/framing questions

[Surf44]

Pretty close to being fully gutted on the inside of my bus, I just have some random questions before I go farther.

I plan on taking all the windows out and sheeting over, same as you would do for a roof raise but my bus is short and 6' 5" inside so not doing a raise (Hope I don't regret that!). But my question is every video I watch even Chuck's roof raise videos, everyone puts the bottom of the sheet metal inside/underneath the bumper rail. But looking on my bus today the bottom window flange goes on top/over the bumper rail? Which seems correct to me for just overlapping common sense. What am I missing here?

Second question is after gutting the walls I realized the chair rails are part of the stucture and have to stay, the issue is there's insulation and junk down there and it's impossible to get out since it's caught on the screws. I didn't find one video or thread where someone talks about getting that crap out. Is everyone just leaving it in there?

 

[nikitis]

What you are missing here is that behind the bumper rail the sheet overlaps the sheet coming from below so it's still overlapping, but is covered. Or it should. So account for the length of that so there's enough to overlap, otherwise you'll have leakage behind the walls. The point of bumper rails isn't to manage water really, it's to protect the bus from things running into it, or you running into them.

You only have about 3 good inches to play behind the rail so make sure your sheets at least overlaps 1-2 inches behind the bumper rail. Some people also make cuts behind the bumper rail and not between the windows. I plan to do it this way. I will cut behind the bumper rail leaving 3 inches past the bottom of the rail on the bottom original sheet, and then adding a sheet to overlap that on top, and hide the upper edge with the bumper rail so it looks like the ones below.

I also plan to add an EXTRA bumper rail and have overlap with the original window slits as in your picture. So I'm essentially raising it under the windows instead of through the windows, and adding a new bumper railing so I'll have 4 instead of 3 bumper rails.

The reason windows go over is for strength for the Windows but also for overlapping. I imagine style points is part of the reason too, but you can do it either way as long as it's done like I described.

The under bumper method will look better if you are covering the windows. I plan to keep my windows.

 

[Surf44]

Gotcha! Thanks I figured there must be a reason. Thanks!

 

[AlphaHare]

As it's a Thomas, you will probably find that the black parts are just window sills and can be removed entirely. They're sectioned to fit between the structural hoops. As you plan on skinning, I'd experiment taking one out to see if the whole job gets easier.

 

[nikitis]

The overlapping black parts I plan on keeping on mine because it overlaps the bumper bar, and goes under the window and does have a slight slant so water drains away from the window. If keeping the original windows, I'd re-use them personally. If removing the original windows, you can toss them, as instead of those you're replacement sheet metal will just slip under the bumper bar, but over the bottom sheet.

If keeping the windows you only have to unscrew the screws along the upper bumper bar section and you can sort of wiggle the bumper bar out from underneath the upper black part and leave it in tact, then after you raise it, slide the new metal up under those pieces and drill new holes through the existing holes and it should all line up.

 

[AlphaHare]

here's a few pictures of what we're talking about