bus gutting has been going surprisingly well. the seats were hard, but thanks to youtube and all the others who have gone before me, i expected this, and therefore it wasn’t worse than i expected. but OH was i happy when they were all out! pulling up the rubber floor was thankfully also not as hard as i’d seen others experience. i spent a lot of time sitting and jamming the (indispensable) pry bar/”ripping chisel” under the rubber, lifting it inch by inch. it was slow going, but i finished today! i also pulled up the first of the plywood subfloor and whoooo is it rusty under there. so far it just looks like A LOT of surface rust – other than a small hole above the wheel well, but at least the hole doesn’t go through. i tried my grinder flap disc on various parts of the bus, it works well on slightly rusted parts, but the super-rusty floor it won’t do. time for more shopping. after the floor is checked out and the rust ground away i plan to paint it with a rust paint and then put an insulated floating plywood floor over that.

before getting to the painting though i need to remove the rear heater. not looking forward to dealing with the coolant, but i suppose i’d prefer that to keeping the heater. took a look at the engine again today to see if there was a shut-off valve for the coolant to the heaters (there wasn’t other than the one in the cab) and in doing so was again awed by just how large this engine is. not used to dealing with an engine so big. and the tires too! i can’t imagine changing a tire this size! hopefully they never blow!

*i forgot to note last time that all the bolts/nuts that held the seats down in the bus were 1/2 inch. the long socket head was invaluable for the bolts beneath the bus that weren’t rusted tight.