Just another sling shot

Its funny, when the engine was in the old rusty frame before the repairs, it was the best looking thing on it. And well as you can see the repaired frame makes it look bad. I am thinking of painting the new engine candy apple red and look forward to this pic changing soon.....lol.....

Slinging the engine

I used four rachet straps to sling the engine off the bottom of the new frame to roll it forward enough to get it over the drive. I have four 1000 lb casters to weld to the bottom of the old cradle and it will become the new engine stand. Now that its over the drive I will be able to roll it into the garage.

Getting the motor and trans out of the yard

You can see here, the dead area of grass in the yard at the end of the drive way. I had the bus hanging out over the grass and over the last two years it killed it from its shadow. I had also cut the engine cradle while it was still bolted together and let it hit the ground here and then just pulled the bus off of it to rebuild the frame work and cradle. Needless to say when it came time to get the engine outta the yard it became impossible to jack up the 3000 lbs up with anything. So I got the bright ideal of backing the new bus back over it and using the bus itself as a hoist to get the motor back on flat ground.

Hinge for bay doors

I think this concealed hinge will work for the bay doors. I put a copy on here for easy finding.

Lower stairs

Now I need to finish the door and get some weatherstripping on it to protect them. It sure feals good to "finish" some areas of the steel portion of this project.

Stairs

I got the rust dust off and the final coats of Rustbullet on them.

Heres the same area with the Rustbullet

Sometimes I forget none of this will show and I get a little carried away....lol..

Yet some more welding

I finally got around to finish capping the radious tube to the right of the stairs. I also seal welded the radious wall metal to the tube also. This is now all ground out and wire brushed for the Rustbullet.

Rustbullet on the front passenger wheel area

Just a little clean up for the Rustbullet

I got back to the front to sand and apply the rustbullet. In the stair area, while I was working on the steel under the new cap, got a lot of grinding dust which the dust started to rust and needed to be cleaned up. I decided to take it back down to bare steel and it ended up being quite a project.

Long shot of bay floor steel

If you look close you can see that a couple of the down tubes in the middle of the bus are a green cast. This is what seems to happen to the Rustbullet when you just apply one coat. It seems that the Rustbullet turns this color as it "etches" itself into the steel. I can tell you from my experience that it is just as hard to get off no matter what color it is. If you are just starting to use the rustbullet and you see this happen, dont worry as it seems to be normal. The next two coats dont "tarnish" like this and stay that, brillant aluminumn color.

Bay floor support steel

I finally got the new steel all wire brushed and the Rust Bullet applied. I am a lot more prepared for winter this year...lol.... Notice I set up everything on the same plane as I will be panning the whole bottom of the bus with aluminumn to be able to pour foam all the floors. I would like this bus to be usable down to about -20 degrees or so. I will use some sort of heat supply in the water bays and circulate the air also.

Paul, brake canisters

Paul, brake canisters

Paul, brake canisters

Looking down into the generator bay

This will become the generator bay eventually....lol....

Looking down into the boggie area passenger side

Theres the new filler boxes with some Rustbullet on them.

New mount for the air filter

Here's the new mount for the extention of the air filter with a little rustbullet on it. Earlier I said I needed to put in soom diagonals and you can see I didn't forget. Really I did, But went back and put them in....lol.....

Lining up the differential

I used this big rachet strap to pull the differential over an 1/8 inch. You would be surprized how hard it is to line up the darn thing to the new shackels.

Engine compartment looking from the passenger side

Later, this compartment will be covered in polished stainless steel sheeting. I have to work out a good way to seal the access doors in the bedroom floor though. If anybody has any ideas I would appreciate any and all input there.

New shackles from Silver Eagle Bus

Here I have started lining up and welding in the new shackle mounting boxes. After I get a little further along in the drive line replacement I will be replacing the torsalistic springs and at that time I will rebuild the control arms that you see here and send them to the powdercoater to get a little bling bling too.

Rustbullet on the fuel tank supports and boggie axel area

Just another shot of the newly fabbed frame.

"Temporary" siding

Since I still am not quite ready for the siding, I went and got enough 1/2 inch osb sheeting and kilz painted the inside to help it to be more fire resistant. I then screwed on these angles to "hook" the sheeting over the rails. The bus has since weathered a wind storm and these panels proved their worth the effort and dallar. This winter I will work on the remaining slideouts and fabing up the exterior doors. Then in the spring I will install all the sheet metal onto the bus. Hopefully.....lol......

Rustbullet, engine compartment looking forward

Here I have finished the wirebrushing and cleaning of the new frame and applied the Rustbullet paint for protection. What a long process this has been....lol...

Cooling fan mount "rustbullet"

After I mocked the fan assembly up and bolted everything up to get the alignment for the Idler pulley plate, I took everything back apart for the Rustbullet painting of the frame. The Bolt on parts will all be sent to the powdercoater for some bling bling before reassymbly.

Cradle Rustbullet

Just another shot of the cradle with the rust bullet. Notice the tube across the area for the radiator. This tube will come out when I fab in the swing out assembly for the radiator. I am still working on this project in the garage. Presently its a toss up between having the radiator swing out or slide out.

Fan belt Idler pulley mounting plate

Some of you that know your eagle frames my have noticed early on that this wasnt here. I just ran the down tube straight thru to make measuring for the cradle easy. After everything below was welded in I came in and side supported it and cut out the notch. Then seal welded it back in. Rustbullet all around, and I am finally feeling some relief now...lol......

More quality parts from Silver Eagle Bus in Texas

I got the new shackles (4) for the drive torsalistic arms and here I have laid out the shackles, weld in mounts(also from Silvereagle), and all the mounting hardware for one side. As usual the other side came straight outa the box and on to the frame...lol....

Bottom view of fill boxes welded in

These boxes were alot of work and I am pretty proud of em....lol....

Exterior view of filler boxes

After I welded the newly fabricated boxes in. I also welded a strip of 1 and a half inch by 1/8 inch thick steel across the bottom and up the forward side (not shown here) to keep the over flow in (like a dam) and to give a place to mount the flip door on the forward edge. When I get into the lighting and wiring I will place a light here in the box activated by the door for night time help in fueling.

New filler necks and boxes mounted to the bus

Here I have welded in the boxes and bolted the filler necks in. After I bolted them in I was able to measure the length and removed them and cut the proper amount off. Later I will unbolt the necks and send them out to be striped clean of any galvanizing residue and powder coat them in a contrasting color.

Notch for vent

Once I got everything in line the last thing to do was to notch the hole in the boxes to let the neck slide in to be mounted.

Filler neck mounting plate

Here I have welded the plates on the nipples and cleaned them up with the wire brush.

Filler neck mounting plate

I layed out one plate for each side. These will slip over the filler nipples and be seal welded in place to mount the necks to the boxes

fill neck layout

Here,s the niple that I will weld in. First though, I cut it off as I didnt want all the extra threads showing.

Filler neck layout

If you look close here you can see how thin the old neck is. There are several pin holes in it that werent to hard to stick a screw driver right thru. Here I have taken a short nipple of ridgid electrical pipe (2 inch) and layed out for the vent hole and drilled a one inch hole for the pipe fitting to weld in.

Drains in the fuel "boxes"

Here are both drivers and passenger side fuel boxes. After welding them up, I located and drilled a one inch hole in its original location for the drain for water and spillage. I then welded in a plumbing bushing for the threads to be able to plumb it to the ground as original.

New fuel box in the "rough"

Here I have cut out each side of the box in individual peices and welded them together to form the "box" that tapers to the front. I used a hole saw and drill bits to bore the holes in the back side before I welded them together.

Original fuel filler box

Here's whats left of the original box. You can see some of the fender rounds and upright tubes still attached to it. I cut out the best side (this one) to have as a pattern. They taper to the front so they will be a bit of a challenge. I will allso be rebuilding the filler necks and doing away with the original flip flap cover.

Air cleaner mounted in its new location

Here's the new mount all welded in. All thats left is to weld in some diagonals in the box to give it some mega strength to hold up another 40 years or so ...lol... Later, when I get done welding on the frame I will make some new strap mounts and then send them and the original air cleaner and the intake duct work all to the powder coater for some bling bling.

Here one welded onto the new bracket

This picture was take right after the bracket weld was cleaned up, corners rounded, the top cut off at a 40 degree angle, and all ground out and wire brushed.

Two halves

Air filter bracket

I then split that tube on a diagonal to make two brackets, a left and right.

Moving the location for the breather

I built this "box" to push the breather out to the back of the bus to match the stretch of the motor compartment. Here it is on its back. I then cut a length of one and half by one eight of box steel and bored a hole at each end to match the holes in the circle clamps to make both brackets.

Air cleaner original location

I started by putting back the vertical supports exactly where they were, in their stock location.

Air filter bracket

Heres whats left of the original air filter "breather" bracket. Since I have stretched the back of the bus I will have to also stretch the bracket.

last winter door pictures

door

door

door