It started so smooth....

Well today was set aside for a little bus stuff a little Grey Cup stuff....
And like Saskatchewan things started so smoothly.

I was at Princess auto on Friday and got my hands on some axle stands, and a 20 tonne hydraulic jack...awesome! So Randy came over and we put the ol' girl up in the air.

Pulled the passenger side wheel off, I felt like part of a pit crew with my impact wrench.

But this is where things turned south, getting the tie rod ends off was next to impossible. A large part due to the fact that I didn't have the most important tool...a "spreader" or a "pickle fork".

In the end on the passenger side we were able to remove the tie rod still attached to the steering arm, the drivers side was a complete no go. At least this will allow me to go with tie rod in hand to show the parts counters. I'm starting to think dropping the whole front end out and replacing it with a mid 80's or newer school bus front end might be the way to go.

I bought a brand new breaker bar...damn thing broke. I guess I misinterpreted what it's job was.

Tie Rods and guck

One of my mechanical issues is the feeling you get when you are driving the bus......well your not really driving.....more like herding a large elephant down the road. The tie rods have been a known issue since I first had the bus inspected by Chris down in Montana. Getting parts to fix it is a whole different adventure!

When I crawled under the bus to inspect the tie rods, I thought.."hmm, they don't look that bad!"

They actually look quite clean,...a little too clean.....so I looked to the other side.

Ahhhhh, now that's more like it, there is some good 60 year old wax/grease/tar/guck


This in fact is the worse tie rod on the drivers side. The clean one, I found out later in an email from Chris, is the one he had removed and cleaned in an attempt to locate new tie rods. This weekend I hope to do the same, pull the tie rods off clean them up and see if they can be repacked or replaced.

Tear out complete...kind of

I have been picking away at the tear out of the bus, but I have to be honest, it's a slow go Mon-Thursday. By the time I get home from work the sun is already setting, then dinner, dishes,kids to bed. So it's 8:30 before I would have the opportunity to work. Needless to say little gets done. Most of what I have achieved has happened on the weekends...which makes for slow progress.



So I was more than eager to accept the offer of my good friend Randy when he graciously said "You know if there is ever anything I can do to help with the bus, let me know I have a bit of time." Little did he know.....I had the list made up by the next day! Randy has taken a few days and come out to 'putter' on the ol' girl. Recently he finished the tear out of the rear platform. Originally the half wall that you see above went all the way up to the roof, thus separating the engine &luggage bay from the coach.

I want to recreate the wall and provide space for storage of skis, bikes,luggage, also potential space for some RV infrastructure. Pumps, tanks, etc.


Next on the list for Randy is the flooring.....

Perfect justification!

I guess Michelle feels this way about shoes. You need the right shoes for the right outfit, and yes although you could make due with a different pair of shoes you already have...it makes it harder, it takes longer. You need the right tools for the right job. I get it!

This is my latest pair of shoes. As it is not easy to simply replace any weathered or beat up parts, I have to re-use what I can when I can. This is a vibratory tumbler used to clean and refurbish parts


Before....



During.....




After............'dem some nice shoes baby!

I always wanted to be a stripper....not!

A whole lot of little pieces that need to be stripped

When they say this stuff is harmful if ingested..I don't think they are kidding!

I figure the bus has had three interior colors, or colors 1&2 were a paired base and top coat

#1 Yellow/tan

#2 Dark Green

#3 Milk Chocolate Brown

The stripper works great on the smooth surfaces, but the louvers will need to be blasted.

They don't make 'em like the used to.....

Pretty cool really, the turn signals lenses are made of glass...a multi-colored and partitioned glass.

The one above is the rear passenger side stop and turn indicator.

This is the turn indicator from the front. Due to the age and materials these things are just about impossible to replace.


I got super excited last night when I was doing my usual look through ebay. There was a rear indicator lens in perfect shape....but it was the wrong color(all yellow) and it was for the passenger side. The rear one I need is for the drivers side.

Molassis

Yes it is November, and when the weather gets cold....things slow down. I finished pulling the remainder of the roof panels out. Now I'm working on removal of the curved metal interior skins that you can see running the length of the bus from the sides. Under those is the same period insulation...corrugated cardboard. Removal of the center strip of lights and then the platform in the back and she'll be ready for blasting.
I have a meeting on Friday with a company to help me with the steering and possibly paint and body. I'll keep you updated!!

Glass

Here we are, one of 14 windows of the bus....she's a little cracked!

As most of you who follow this blog know, I'm having a hell of a time finding these seals/moldings/"U" channel. This one is the one which holds the glass in the aluminum frame

This one is the seal between the entire window unit and the bus wall


These pics are of the trim that sits against the stationary window and acts as a stop for the sliding window.
I have checked just about every place I can think of both here in Alberta and on the Internet. I now am to the point of contacting extrusion manufacturers and having some of it custom made....not cheap.
So if anyone has a line on this stuff PLEASE let me know!!

Eat,Sleep, Sing

There is no new bus news this week. Another week has gone by with little done to the bus. A whack of what I call hunter-gatherer type stuff. Procuring "parts" is always an adventure. I think I have talked to just about every automotive glass shop in the city(with no luck). I had a chat with a mechanic at one of the transportation companies and he put me on to a few manufacturers. I might have to get a custom order of rubber extruded "glass 'U' channel". At least I know what it's called now. This weekend is our chorus concert...which I am producing...thus the main reason nothing has happened on the bus.

Look up...look way up

I've been looking forward to seeing exactly what we have under the panels on the walls and the ceiling. I had an interesting find when I finished taking the walls down. I got everything out and realized that I could see the stainless steel panels from the inside....meaning there was no "skin" underneath. I made the quick assumption that someone before me had pulled the panels off, found rust, cut out the affected 20" of skin and then screwed the SS siding back on.
However, I have found a wonderful resource in the Flxible community on Yahoo groups. There you can talk to allot of guys who have been there & done that. They assured me that not to worry in the Flx allot of ordered buses with SS siding had no skin under the siding....so I relaxed.



This weekend was the roof, It was a little tricky, and I saved all but one of the roof panels I pulled out. Unfortunately none of them are re-use able but I can use them for templates to cut new ones.
The exterior skin was sealed from the inside with what looks like tar.....that's going to be fun!


I couldn't help taking a pic of this. The ceiling insulation was cardboard, all pre-cut and labeled !





I was trying to get a good shot of the center roof lights that run the length of the interior. Allot of old brittle wires and 12volt incandescent bulbs. My plan is to go to low amp LED lights!

Stripped down

The night before we the "inspection" I felt a compelling need to powerwash the underbelly of the beast. Maybe it's a left over guilt from your mother saying "wear clean underwear, what if your in an accident and the doctor sees your privates?!" Well our old girl was about to get a good once over down under and I thought it should be clean.
Tricky part is that she's fairly low to the turf! This is no back country rig. So to get ample room to clean off the slack adjusters we had to back her up onto make shift ramps/blocks. Michelle if your reading this it was WAY safer than it looks.




As you know from the last post, she didn't cut the mustard on the inspection, not a surprise but now I know exactly what I need to do to get her up and running. In the meantime I continue to poke away at the interior. I won't be ready for the next step until I get her down to the bare bones.


Pulling the wall panels and the insulation...after shes' been sitting in a barn for 10 years...you can just imagine the evidence of previous inhabitants

Speaking of insulation, there are two layers in the bus. The first is a fiberglass insulation, under that is 1940's style......cardboard

One side(passenger) done next is the drivers side, then on to the ceiling!

OOPSI

So yesterday I had time to kill. The bus went into the city for a safety inspection. I went in with open eyes, I knew that it wasn't likely to pass, but I wanted to know what needed to get done and to see if the company I took it to would be interested in doing some of the work. And, I was right the ol' girl didn't pass the inspection and the company was a great place and they are interested in helping getting her up and running. The main reasons for the failure of the inspection, horn, mudflaps, broken windows(already have the glass cut) and the biggie, with no surprise to Randy, too much play in the steering.
Yet I digress, while waiting for 3 hours during the inspection, I got to play with my iphone....a great app called color splash let me play with this image...not bad for a first timer!

Before and After

I know I know, I'm a little ahead of myself. I have bigger fish to fry but I got my hands on a aluminum polishing kit, and I had to try it out. For all my dental friends it looks a whole lot like 3rd year lab polishing gold crowns......just on a larger scale!

Just when I thought I had a good handle on the seals and trim pieces for the windows I realized that there was another foam based component underneath one of the rubber seals!

A nice little before and after shot

And of course a little shameless product placement...my happy juice.

I need your input

OK folks!! I need some help. I am in the process of refurbishing the slide windows on the bus. I have found a place who can cut/get me the glass, and I have tracked down two out of three sources for some of the seals for the windows(thank you airstream trailers!) However, I seem to be running into some challenges with finding the glass seal or glass trim seal or the window gasket. I'm not sure what the official name is but here it is. The glass pane sits in the channel in the seal/gasket which in turn sits in the channel of the window frame.
I foolishly did not measure the size but I will right away and update the blog.
If anyone out there is a closet widow gasket/seal junkie and knows where I might get a lead on something like this I would be most appreciative!!

OK here are the measurements 3/8" wide, fits into 1/4" deep channel in window frame lip sits above frame and the channel within the seal for the glass is 1/4"

OOPSI - Surprise!!

Most of the bus is empty now, all the kitchen,bath,storage, hot water tank,furnace etc. are all gone. But as I said earlier I left the dinette and the bench as a place to sit, a place to put my tools etc etc. Tonight I was putting the front end heater back in when I thought I should look under the seats of the dinette and the bench.
I found a few surprises...

For better......




And for worse.....ewwwww!

I am putting some of her back together for this Friday. I have to take her in for an "OOPSI"....ya you read it right...That would be the Out Of Province Safety Inspection....to quote a good friend, "Really I couldn't make this stuff up"

Waiting to work.

Sorry, no progress has been made on the ol' girl. I have been out of town for the last few days. Singing in Whistler! I have had some great discussions in the meantime with some of the Flxible owners group members about repowering options for the bus!!