BB008: One month with the bus!

Here's a photo of the inside of the bus today, May 26, one month after I drove it off the lot:

Compared to April 26:

After some more hours of grinding away at the old seat tracks, they're gone! And I've got a flat floor-installation surface. Time well spent in my opinion.

Safety first, even if you look like an alien.

I spent another few hours using the angle grinder tool w/ a wire brush attachment to clear off surface rust below the floor. Now's my chance to protect the frame from further deterioration.

I didn't have to remove all of the rust down to bare metal because my next step was to apply a "rust reformer" by rustoleum. This converts the rusty surface to a stable, paintable surface, as long as you've removed the loose surface rust. It's black, as you can see, and I've chosen a few colors for the protective coat, because why make it boring if you can make it less boring?

But before I applied the topcoat I started cutting the plywood to fit. I figured that way I could be coating the underside of the wood with Redgard (a waterproofing membrane) and letting that dry, at the same time the metal topcoat was drying. Being efficient with time is important since I only have the weekends to really dive into this.

First panel was pretty successful but had to be pulled out a couple times to adjust for mismeasurements.

The second panel was really satisfying because I measured it once, cut it once, and it fit almost perfectly -- only had to shave about 1/8" to get the fuel tank filling line to fit (the biggest notch in the below pic).

So, the rear 8' of my bus has a floor! It's not fastened yet, but at least I can walk on it and store things inside again.

Next I used about five cans of spray paint to apply two coats to all the metal:

While that was drying I went to work coating the bottom of the wood floors with Redgard, which is a pretty bizarre thing to paint with. It's really thick, almost gelatinous. It goes on pink and quickly dries red.

I applied three layers, using almost one gallon for 2 pieces of plywood.

So I popped those boards back in there, threw all my junk on top, and that's where I'm at now!

Work on the bus has been a bit slower than I'd like, but it's for a good reason. I asked David if they might need any more workers at the company he works for (they make radiant floor heating for RVs) and he helped me get a job there. So I'm working part time, it's $13.86/hour which is less than I made at the burger place after tips but it's convenient because it's right next to the shop where I work on my bus, and the work is pretty peaceful. I just need to be patient and realize it's OK to slow down if it means staying afloat financially. Still, I can't wait for it to be livable and really make the transition from the minivan to the bus.