Old meets new in the door

Just laying out my transition. I will cut out the rust after everything is tacked up.

Cleaning up the old door heads

There was about 1/2 inch of fiberglass in this channel but, the wire wheel made dust of it pretty quick. It also ate the surface rust off pretty quick.

Half of the new door is swinging

Still have to put the radius ribs in the front of the door though.

I will make use of the top rounded corners of the doors

Old doors

It was a waste of time to tear these doors apart. Dont know till you try though...lol

Hinge, welded to door with shims in place

I have made two 1/8 inch shims and welded the door hinge together with them in place. I will have 1/4 inch of adjustment. Not sure what the wieght of the completed door will do so I wanted some weldless adjustment play.

Hinge pins and bronze bushings

Hinge template

Gary, this is the same template that is on its way to you.

upper and lower hinge mounting plates

Welded in some grade 8 nuts

Mounting plates for door hinges

welded in center plates in hinges

Support rollers in the slides

(upside down)

Brass bushings for slides

This impressed me as I never even thought of doing this.

Support slide for large slideout room.

These are the slides for the largest slide out. they are laying upside down. My machinist friend did an excellent job laying them out for me. He even put in brass bushings for the bearing rollers.

Silver Eagle Bus front cap

this is the inside view of the new cap I got from Silver Eagle Bus in Texas. I have yet to do the extensive remodling to the cap to make some changes to suit me.

Door hinges

upper hinge is just clamped in a temporary position as it come further up to the dash.

Lower door hinge

Front door hinges

After talking with my good buddy Gary L. I realized it was possible to just make a good heavy duty hinge for the front door and after he and I talked about them and I studied Pat Bartlet's pictures of his door hinges this was the outcome.

Radius tube deterioration

This is the last tube to be cut out, forward of the boggies, that is deteriorated to look like this. Every thing forward of the boggies is new or reworked to better than new now. I still have to build the large slideout and form the tube frame for the front cap support but, the rust is now all gone from the boggies forward. Im likeing it now......lol......

It will never see road use again, I promise!!!!

I might just bury it in the back yard....lol............lol....

The old manuel steering gear

out with the old

Jefferson bus parts for steering gear

Here are the weld in and bolt on plates for the power steering gear that I got from Jefferson Bus Parts to install the steering gear. I know this seems premature for the project but, I want to get all the welding done befor I put on the final coat of rustbullet on the frame. I know there will be some things I miss but I want to get all I can think of done first. After I get the mounting plates welded in, I will unbolt the gear and store it in a controlled invironment till the frame is done and ready for permanent fixtures of this sort.

new power steering gear

This is the new steering gear I bought from the Eagle manufacturer in Texas. Power steering is now a reality.

Long shot from back to front

Date stamp is wrong this is sometime in august 07

Now thats "getting into your work"

clostrophobia ha, I told you guys Id be "digin" into all these holes. Just have to do what I have to get at the angle to see and do at the same time.

New solid electrical panel

Stairs are complete with rust bullet

Wrenches I used to think were a joke

Yea, after a day of pulling on these I was ready for the hot tub.

Passenger boggie arm and torsion assembly

Not a simple task to get out. After talking with other bus nuts, I think I will just order this whole assembly from Eagle in Texas.

Passenger side fuel tank support, well whats left of it anyway

Rusted through shackel

Another "whats holding this bus up moment".

I cant believe somebody actually used a coat hanger and some duck tape to hold this on!

Next wheel well to do

Never mind, you know the drill.

Time to eat some more rust

In the bay looking back. Id like to skip this chapter and make it a mystery.

Front passenger wheel well

Front passenger wheel well

One wheel well complete with Rust Bullet applied. Now only 5 more to go.

Bay floor support from wheel well veiw

The new front sill for the front bay

Outside of slide out

Man that filon is going to look good on the bus. That is a sample of it clamped to the bus

the rusty bay floor support is gone

By the way, please dont anyone think they can support one of these heavy busses with a cement block. That block is there only to support the rear end in my jeans.

Its worse than it looks

Laying on the ground looking up

Front bay floor support

I set up the side wall supports to take this 1 and 1/2 by 3 support, long ago. So that the bottom of the bay joist will all be on the same plane. When I get done I will cover them with alluminum skin and insulate the bay floor with spray foam.

Rotten front bay floor support

one slide out frame done and three to go

rust bullet

You can now see the pocket I created under the slideout floor for the hearth under/infront of the fireplace.

ahhhh rust bullet, finally

The bus is getting bigger!!!!

wow what a diff

another angle of the curbside slideout

It is amazing what a difference the 20 inches makes in the room. It will be interesting to see what an other 33 inches on the other side will do for this room.

curbside slideout

If you look closely you can see I raised the floor in the middle of this slideout to accomodate permenently mounting the hearth to the floor and having it reveal itself as the slideout is extended. Otherwise we would have to trip over it in the middle of the bus while the slideout is retracted. I think it will be neat to see this feture in action.