Ball Family Bus

Last night, Keegan and I taped out the interior design on the floor of the bus. This helps get a feel for size and placement in the real world. The different floor levels still make it a little challenging to visualize, but this has been a very useful exercise.

A couple of things occur to me after doing this. The shower should be the whole room rather than having a standing area. And I need to work a little more on the exact fit of the dinette and couch at the front.

This will also help refine window placement since I can now see the structure in the walls along side the plans.

Yesterday, the kids and I got the dumpster loaded. I was thinking we’d have some extra space but it’s completely full.

I removed the rear heater finally. It made a mess but I caught most of the coolant from it in a tub. The area under the floor there is the most rusted of the whole bus. Obviously that heater has leaked.

After that I got out the shop vac and cleaned the bus. I got up a thousand rivet heads and the remaining trash, etc.

This week we had a 10 yard dumpster brought out to haul away the bits I’ve removed from the bus.

I started putting some stuff into it last night and will finish loading it up on Saturday I hope.

I am keeping some of the more choice metal for future use, but the piles in the yard are pretty unsightly and need to go.

Today I removed the remaining side wall panels, including the worst of all - the left rear one. It was a small piece (about 3 sq ft) but had no fewer than 53 rivets holding it in place - many in corners and difficult to get at. I also took off the folding “SCHOOL BUS” signs from the top front and rear of the bus.

I took the rear heater loose so that I could get a better look at the plumbing. I need to get a coupler for a 1″ID hose so I can remove the heater and splice the water line back together. That will leave the front heater functional until I start building out the interior.

I added a valve and a fitting to the “wet” tank in the compressed air system. This allows me to charge the system from a standard air hose connected to my electric air compressor. That way, it can be used for testing, operating the door, etc without running the engine.

I connected up a hose and charged the system up to around 110psi and drove the bus out to the mailbox and back to see how the compressor behaved. I left it running for a while - even opened drain valves, etc to dump air, but the engine compressor kept up just fine. I am not sure what had caused the previous problem (it would only charge to 60psi) but I think it may have been condensation freezing in a valve or something like that. I’ll keep an eye on it in the future.

The only remaining demolition work to be done for now is to remove the flooring beneath the heater, the inner wall above the engine box, the ceiling wiring harness, and the side windows. I’ll take out the windows right before doing the roof raise. I’ll be glad to see them go - they are leaky and I am now convinced (from the rain the last few days) that they are the primary source of water in the flooring.

Last night I got all but one of the wall panels and insulation below the windows on the right side out.

Update: tonight I removed the remaining right side panel and the front half (in front of the emergency exit) of the panels from the left side.

The entire ceiling is now out along with the inner skin over the windshield and rear window. It looks really bare over the driver’s seat now. I’m going to miss the huge bus driver mirror. It was fun to scowl at the kids in while driving…

I also removed one small wall panel tonight. I’ll get working on the rest soon.

One frustrating thing that I discovered today is that the air system isn’t building pressure. It was working fine the last time I ran it about a week ago, so I’ll have to do some troubleshooting.  I can put enough pressure in the tanks from the shop compressor to move it around the property, but can’t go far without it working.

This evening I got out all the ceiling panels except for the front two. I’ll post more pics when I get the rest out.

Tonight I finally got serious about drilling out ceiling rivets. I removed four of the ceiling panels and insulation.

Once you get the hang of it, the rivets go pretty fast.

I am removing the ceiling so that I can add in much better insulation (both thermal and acoustic) than the little fiberglass that is there now.  I plan to add a couple layers and then put in a bead board ceiling later.

Tonight I removed the rest of the floor except for under the driver’s seat and the rear heater. I uncovered more spots of rust, rotting plywood, and places where there was moisture present but not too much.

This evening I was able to get a lot more subfloor out. I now have about 2/3 of it all out and it’s going much faster now. I found more areas of surface rust and some plywood that was actually still slightly wet. The tricky parts that remain will be the driver’s area and under the heater in the back that I have not moved yet.