If I could put time in a bottle.....

Come on you all know the words. It's been great to have Ron here to help putter away on the bus with me. My only regret is that I have to go to work...otherwise we'd get allot done!

This was the last of the rust. The rear quarter panel, drivers side.....actually now that I think of it I'm not sure you can call it a quarter panel ass it does not comprise 1/4 of the body......but ehhh! whatever.

I cut the body panel and then the support panel underneath. I will have to weld a new support piece and then cut a new body panel, seal, rivet and paint.

The last thing on the menu was a piece that seemed to have very little use. I'm not sure what the original floor plan was but there was an extension of the passenger side raised side platform. It jutted out into the drop down floor, narrowing the center isle. So....with a sparks a flyin' she came out.

You can't really see much difference but it was fun. More symbolic than anything really....I know enough to "never say never" but this marked the turning point from deconstruction to construction. As far as I can figure from here on in it's time to rebuild....unless I've missed something......(uh ohhhh!)

With a little help from my friends

Great day was had by all, Ron and I started drilling on the drivers side. Yesterday we pulled off the second skin. So next was to pull off the damaged first skin. Things weren't going very smoothly. As you can see by the expression on Ron's face the drilling of the rivets was long and hard. Harder than I remember from the other side.

But with perseverance we got through.

Another one bites the dust.

After we busted the second drill bit, and put in the third it became apparent what was wrong....all drill bits are not created equal. I had purchased whatever bits I could from Can. Tire. Two of one kind(shop master) and two of another (premium cobalt something or other).Once we put the cobalt bit in.....wowza!!

Sometimes when you take one layer off...you get a surprise and say HOLEY SH....!!(kind looks like it too)

Is there anything left?

Michelle said the other day that she questioned whether or not we can call the bus a 1949. She figures that by the time I'm done I will have replaced most of the thing...so you can't really say it's old...it's really new. BUT I reminded her that even though in the years to come I will likely have to have parts replaced and repaired...despite her wishful thinking I will still be the original man she married.....for better or worse!

Today started by making a trip (or two) into Calgary to get sheet metal for the body panels. Upon returning....after a small detour to go see a patient as an emergency... I finally got to put hands on the ol' girl. Ron had puttered a bit trying to remove rivets and screws.

This is the drivers side. Although the panels looked OK from the outside you could see that there was some fudging going on. There was some questionable repairs done. Instead or replacing rusted( or possible damaged? panels)....they cut out the affected parts and slapped a new panel over top......I just couldn't stand it. So we removed the panel.

Underneath you could see the original emergency door...notice the crease just below the lettering, this is what makes me think there was some damage vs rust

But of course once the panel was simply covered....secondary rust set in.

Here are the new body panels.

Lots of work with nothing to show

I've had a good weekend. Lots of family activity, lots of bus activity, lots of sunshine. As I mentioned in the last post, I spent some time learning heating and cooling options. Then made some progress in removing the last of the interior tear out.....(careful never say never)....

Here is the interior after I had to remove all the interior window frames
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And last but not least I removed the big ol' LP tank mounted underneath. My plan is moving to a much more efficient and multi functional heating system that runs on diesel.....more info TBA!!:)

A window to the soul

I've had a great day. I spent the morning running around Calgary hunting and gathering...and educating. I made some good contacts and ordered some sheet metal for the body panels. I got home 3ish and got to work on the bus. I decided..(after some debate) that I needed to remove the inner window panel. I knew that there was dead space there....and I knew I couldn't "stuff" insulation up there. So I ground through some welds and removed the panels.


I hope Shawn comes out soon and teaches me how to weld these back on!!!:)