MC9 so much rust.

[wdtjawshwdt]

So many of you guys have done some amazing conversions.   You have given me insane amounts of information and resources for the bus I am working on and you make me worry.   I am all over the board with this project.  I know I have a rusted mess but there was no way I  could afford a nicer coach.  

When I first started out I was going to leave the interior walls and floor and just build my rv from that.  It seemed like a simple enough idea. I had started buying what I was going to put in the bus (fridge, ac, couch, etc...).   Now I am to the point I am replacing and cutting and welding structure back into the bus, I am going to reskin the bus, remove all the windows.  And the more I do the more I get nervous.   I think I am fully capable of handling what is being thrown at me and the metal I am using is free.   The rust and problems just seems endless.  

I woke up and got to my day job early so I could pull the bus out of the shop.   And I had read one of Gumpy's entries from his site about the rust in the dash below the window.   So naturally I pressed my thumb hard near the center window support and just felt it crumble beneath my thumb. My heart crumbled too...because I am not 2/3rd's done with the welding...I am about halfway done now..

Rust in the dash, rust in the walls, rust underneath the bus...rust rust rust...The more I look at the rust the more I realize even if I had bought a nice coach I wouldn't be able to believe that it was structurally in good shape.   Sometimes ignorance is bliss.  And you men have taken that bliss from me :-p  

SO...
No matter what vehicle you get you will make discoveries.  From cheap tin being glued above the control arm where a hole is, to wondering how the bus didn't tear in half driving down the road.   I guess that is part of the fun.  
To the new guys... Be prepared to learn if you are going to buy that cheap bus.  


Thanks to everyone that has done this adventure already.


I attached some pictures of the  interior walls and how i am using the pallet racking that I salvaged from our scrap pile.  

[luvrbus]

Pull a strip of siding off the front you may be just started these old buses sometimes can be a nightmare with rust I bought a 1983 Prevost about  8 to10 years ago it was beyond repair

[wdtjawshwdt]

Did you just turn around and scrap/sell the prevost?

[luvrbus]

Sold it for parts to guy in Oregon

[B_K]

Should have bought an EAGLE! (I hear they have less rust!)
  BK 

[luvrbus]

They all rust I have saw Neo's,Setra and Vanhools so bad they made a rusty Eagle look good   

[belfert]

The rustiest bus I have ever seen was a VanHool at ABC Bus.  I don't know how they could even try to sell the thing.  The engine door was held on with baling wire because the hinges had rusted through.  Everything below the belt line was full of rust.  There wasn't much left of the luggage bays.  The only way that bus would have passed a DOT inspection would have been if the inspection was handed an envelope full of Ben Franklins. 

I seem to recall ABC still wanted something over $10,000 for that piece of junk.  They had a sign in the window bragging about the new interior.  VanHool want to a stainless frame sometime in the mid 1990s if memory serves.

[wdtjawshwdt]

I am thinking about making my bus disposable.  I will run her until she is dead and invest enough time to make her okay enough to drive roughly 2000 miles a year.   But I think I will make everything removable including the skin and make this thing work for me as long as possible or until i find a decent mc-9 to do an rv swap.   I had a lot of time to think about it today driving dumpsters.

[lvmci]

Hi Josh, sometimes our first bus lasts us a lifetime, sometimes a month, nothing is right or wrong, good luck, lvmci...

[lvmci]

Enjoy and learn, maybe your engine and trans, might fit in a good bus with a bad motor!...

[Chopper Scott]

Rust never sleeps!!

[Barn Owl]

Never hear of 4104 owners complain much about rust. Maybe a reason so many are still around. GM, deciding that everyone should have some rust worries, decided to steel cap the front and rear of the 4106 and later models. Some rust worries hear and there, but thankfully not like the other manufactures.