day 11 - almost roof raise.

Today was a much more productive bus day, but unfortunately the roof still remains unraised.

The silent partner and I (we lost our companion) arrived at the shop around 1:30. First thing we plugged the batteries into the charger so we could give them a few hours good charging.

Next we jumped into taking off the rest of the ceiling. I'd drilled out most of the rivets last time, but the ladder was bolted through the ceiling and I needed a second set of hands to get it off, hence waiting until today when I had the silent partner. We made quick work of the ladder and the ceiling and then suited up to deal with the insulation- gloves, respirators, long sleeve shirts, goggles. Dealing with the insulation in all these things got horribly warm and we took a few lemonade breaks in the process.

No more ladder.

After the insulation was out we cleaned out the rest of the bus- putting the scrap wood, spare tire and pieces of metal I am saving out in the shop so they wouldn't be in our way. We gave it a good sweep and blow out with air as well.

Getting a good clean.

Look at that empty bus.

The silent partner and I split up between the two big tasks of getting the roof off- cutting the steel framing and drilling out the rivets. I stayed inside the bus with a grinder cutting the framing. The first side I cut was really easy, there was only one side welded on each framing piece so it was just one cut. The other side however made me very grumpy because it was welded on four sides in very hard to reach places. I cut away at them for quite some time and was still unable to cut all the welds. On the outside of the bus the silent partner was able to get all the rivets out and we did some brainstorming on what to do at the front and back of the bus where there isn't a nice clean seam to put the 1' extension at.

Drilling out rivets.

No more rivets!

A mostly cut off framing member.

The silent partner had the good sense to get a fire extinguisher ready.

After getting that all sorted we turned our brainstorming to how to deal with the framing I was not able to cut. The conclusion we came to is we needed to remove the sheet metal that was directly outside the place I was cutting the framing all the way. Luckily there is this smaller panel along the sides that looks like it shouldn't be too hard to remove. Then cutting the framing will be much simpler. When it comes to putting the sheet metal back on I have two options I'm going to consider. First I could stick to the plan and put the original sheet metal back on and then add the 1' sheet metal flashing I bought. Alternatively when I bought the flashing I also saw some rolls that were wider than 1'. I don't remember how big they were, but if it happens they are the same or bigger than the gap I'll have after I remove the old sheet metal and do the raise I may just return my 1' sheet metal and get that instead. It will cost a bit more but look much prettier than the patched together sheet metal.

The panel with the yellow is what I'll remove.

Removing this other piece of sheet metal would mean drilling out rivets for a few more hours and since the bus was still in one piece with no huge holes in it we decided to call it a day. Next weekend is a 3 day weekend for me and a 4 day weekend for the silent partner so we will get the rest done then.

While I'm disappointed we didn't get the raise done we did quite a bit of good work and came up with a new plan on how best to approach it next time, so I'm pretty satisfied.