That wasn't so bad.

[chazwood]

I would have shared some of the highlights of my continuing bus conversion sooner....  but I haven't been able to type. Let me explain.....I have found that in the early stages of gutting a mc9 the only tool I really need is a putty knife. This tool comes in handy just about everywhere because you must dig through about 1/4 of an inch of dirt in order to even find your bus. Furthermore, a "sharp" putty knife is most essential, so I found  myself constantly going into the shop to sharpen my putty knife.....now, I will tell you how a sharp putty knife and my inability to type are related. My 17 yr old son... (the hockey player) was attempting to pry up a piece of flooring with a freshly sharpened putty knife and I reached across him to grab the lifted corner just as the man killer putty knife lets go of the wood and stabs the dickens out of the tip of my right hand pointer finger. (I think it hit the bone.) (("Look kids, now we don't have to paint the inside red like we were thinking")) Since this is the only finger I can type with, you see how it has affected my correspondence.



Now, about that dirt I mentioned....I have been doing a few seconds of gutting, followed by seeming hours of cleaning dirt. A few seconds of gutting .....a few hours of cleaning. I swear, you can sweep up a section of the floor ....stand right in the same spot ,spin on your heels one time, sweep over the same exact spot and you get the same size pile of dirt. It's weird. But I think I have it figured out .....The whole bus is made of dirt. They just sprayed fake rust on it, to make you think it's metal.

At first, I would ask my kids "Who wants to sweep? and they would fight over it. After about 3 days of cleaning the same spot?.........(insert lonely wind sound).....Ghost town. 


Anyway ....to make a long story, even longer, I finally, finally, finally!!!!  get as much of it cleaned and covered with new plywood as I possibly can and I am ready to celebrate, right? No more cleaning! right? (Do you have any idea how tough it is to balance a shop vac and yourself (all week) on those skinny little beams and not break your neck?) The whole floor was laid and screwed down....and all the stuff my kids kicked into the new square vent holes was retrieved, (I thought......)  so...... I fired up the bus to celebrate.  Every thing was going fine until I thought .....you know something???.... I don't think I've ever run the blowers on this bus since I bought it....................(some of you are already smiling)......What were they thinking when they put the blower in this bus!!!!.... Were they frustrated wind tunnel engineers? That blower was blasting everything that fell down the funnels all over the whole bus! You think this is not possible? It was shooting the heads of screws, chunks of wood, balls of that black stick tape,..... heck,....... I think I even saw a chunk of bread go by. Bits of metal were spitting out of there so fast and hitting the ceiling it sounded like a shooting gallery for BB guns.


The lesson I learned here is this...  if you plan to keep your og heat and air, ya might want to cover your main air duct before you start the demo or when you hit the fan..... everything will hit the fan....   you'll will be picking screw heads and wood shards out of you hair for days.  (and sweeping...... again)


Oh, and one other thing.....right after I finished resurfacing the ceiling of the bus with flying screw heads and wood chunks, I turned off the blower and my wife walks in....... I said "honey, go over there and put your hand over that hole, you gotta feel this air." She goes toward the duct ...I go toward the switch...... My finger is on the switch and I turn around and realize that my wife thinks the air is already on and she needs to get real close in order to feel it. She bends way down................Remember that hose trick we used to play on our friends on a hot summer day - you know, where you wait till they are drinking then you twist the knob real quick and blast them in the face (and up the nose ) with full pressure?............ ...............What?..... She still loves me.



Thanks
Chazwood

[dparker]

you da the man ...

are you a baptist preacher in your off time ... ?

I cannot wait until you the get the cans of spray foam out ---

dp

[cody]

Ain't it great, now you see why we love this hobby so much, nobody could possibly have this much fun and still live to tell it lol. My problem with a bandaid on my typing finger is that I can't see what I'm saying lol.

[dparker]

chaz,

that deal with the putty knife made me remember when i was at point ... i just quit using bandaids and went straight to electrical tape ...

oh yeah you cannot beat a good air chisel at this stage -- i started with a cheap one and went to a good one from snap-on ...

[kysteve]

Chazwood, 

     Keep up the good stories bud, as they bring back memories of days gone by for a lot of us and, for some of us, we are in the same predicament.  Its allways good to know that we are not alone in our adventures of pain. 
.........kysteve.......

[chazwood]

you da the man ...

are you a baptist preacher in your off time ... ?

I cannot wait until you the get the cans of spray foam out ---

dp

You don't want to know about the 25 cans of spray foam I dug out'a this bus with a claw hammer. A buddy of mine sprays the real stuff and he told me that the can stuff was junk... (after I blasted it into every crack and crevice I could find, of course) ......I bet he has never tried to tear some of this stuff out....Tough stuff, if you ask me. Oh yeah,  so right in the middle of it ....(I'm half buried in chunks of foam, pounding away with the claw end of the hammer) ....and my wife walks in........"Honey?......... what are you doing? ......

I had sent her to get the 25 cans of foam, the day before.....

[dparker]

Chaz,

the next fun part will be the chemical stripper for the exterior paint ... a pressure washer ... a ladder ... and chaz the man ... you might should consider a video camera and america's funniest home ... you would be 10k ahead --

[Dreamscape]

I think we have an author for a spot in the magazine....Titled....How to strip or not to strip a bus....

Great read, Thanks for the entertainment!

Brings back memories that I had long since tried to forget!

Good Luck and Happy Trails,

Paul

[chazwood]

are you a baptist preacher in your off time ... ?

No, I'm a stand up comedian.........I stand around telling my wife and kids what to do ....... and they just laugh. 

[BusMom]

Chaz,
Keep up the stories about your bus.  I never go out to the bus without my putty knife!  You never know what I can use if for.  I am your typical female, but instead of using a knife for everything I use my handy dandy putty knife!

[HighTechRedneck]

Oh yeah, the dirt.  What memories.

In my RTS, the floors were nice and clean.  However, when I ripped out the A/C ducts, that was another story.  On the RTS, the air ducts are up at the shoulders of the roof.  On the first section I did, I had all the screws/rivets out but it was stuck.  So I used a pry bar and forced it.  With a sudden pop, the side facing me swung down and a major cloud of dust and soot was released in my face.  After getting to fresh air and coughing my lungs out, I saw my reflection in a window - I looked like I had been working in a coal mine.  1 down, 11 to go.  But with a filter mask and goggles they weren't so bad.

[compedgemarine]

I made the decision (mistake) of pulling up my floor too. by the time I got all the dirt out my bus was a couple of inches higher. how these people manage to get some of that "stuff" down in the vents and nooks and crannys is beyond me. I guess I am glad I pulled it all out as I should get at least another mile to the gallon without all the dirt weighing me down
steve

[DavidInWilmNC]

I'm SO glad I'm past the point of scraping dirt... at least 'til I replace the flooring over the front airbeams, fuel tank, A/C, heat, etc.  I think the worst I ever did to myself was with a 3' pry bar.  I was removing the rear section of seat track in the floor.  I'd cut most of the way through the welds with a cutting wheel and decided I could lift the rail up a bit to get the wheel under better.  Bad idea!  The pry bar slipped and the flat end hit me in the face about an inch or so from my left eye.  I don't think I've ever bled so much!  At least I didn't lose an eye.  It seems that a bus, or my bus at least, will show the damnedest ways to hurt oneself.  One helpful hint... learn to use all those other fingers for typing!   

David

[chazwood]

Gee guys and gals,


With all these great confessions.......it's feeling more and more like home.

[Songman]

My story is similar but it was my left hand and I did it to myself. But I think it hit the bone there as well. And it wasn't even my bus, it was Don's. The scars will make us enjoy the finished product better. At least that is what I am telling myself.