Strap clamps for breather (filter canister)

Here's the clamp end before welding it together. I'm kicking around welding in the bolt and sealing the sides in for more support. I made the straps about a 1/4 inch longer to allow for a thin strip of solid rubber for anti-rattle control. Metal to metal eventually leads to a rust spot and we don't want to have anymore of that...lol..

Strap clamps for breather (filter canister)

I then set my sights on the funky ends on the strap. I have to bend them long and then I will cut off the excess when I get them completed.

Strap clamps for breather (filter canister)

Bent the ends up at the proper length.

Strap clamps for breather (filter canister)

I started by cutting the length of 3/16 by 1 1/2 length for the assembly base.

Strap clamps for breather (filter canister)

Someones poor repair job on them years ago. Since rusted away.....like everything else.

Strap clamps for breather (filter canister)

As you can see these have done their job for 40 years but they won't make it another forty. I will make two new ones.

A pair of new clamps

Cant buyem anywhere I know of.....lol........

Old vs new

Here's one of the new clamps beside its original one. remember its upside down. I was not even able to get the nut off of the old one while it was still mounted on the bus. The other side is rusted nearly through itself. These clamps hold the copper tank to the bus so after they are welded and painted in place I will line them with a thin piece of rubber to keep the two different metals apart. The rubber will also be good to protect from vibration noise.

One clamp for coolant tank

Here's the first one ready for welding the bolts in. You can see the lower part of the clamp I made out of 1/8 inch thick steel. That leaves' it flexible enough to get onto the bolts. This is same as original plan. The thicker half is on the top and welds to the bus frame.

Hardware

Here's the hardware for one clamp. The soft steel nuts on the left are to use to hold the bolts in place for welding and then the next nuts are grade 8 non locking for mock up and finally the nylon locking nuts are for final assembly. All 7/16 th

Bits and pieces

Now that the main part of the frame is completed from front to back. I am going through it one more time and making all new weld on mounting tabs and hanging brackets such as this. Sorry I have not posted lately as I needed a short break last fall and now the pictures are flowing again. The old part of frame you see here is the original stretcher just above the engine access door. Mater of fact, it IS the part of the frame that the engine access door bolts to. It is laying upside down in this picture. I have all ready replaced it and kept the old part till I had these clamps made. The clamps are for mounting the coolant fill tank for the engine. The tank mounts parallel to the ground and just above the top of the door. Here I have bent (with a hammer and anvil) the 3/16 thick upper half of the clamp and drilled new holes to weld the new mounting bolts into.

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.