Preppin the floor

Work days 7 & 8 were all about getting the floors painted with Buskote (insulating and sealing paint) and ready for the replacement floorboards & insulation.  We decided to go ahead and take up the steps, too.  Robbie pulled the flooring off, knocked some of the worst rust off with the sanding disk, and treated them with Rustex.

Pretty rusty

While he worked on that, I got started with the Buskote in the back of the bus.  He jumped in after finishing the steps.  This went on pretty quickly, but we had to let it dry for the night before we added any more coats.  

Not a great pic, but easy to see contrast btw floor & Buskote

finished first coat on floor & side walls up to the lip

Be sure to wash brushes out good--that stuff is THICK!

Work Day 8

Next day, we arrived at the bus to find a beautiful little bouquet of daffodils fresh from my Nana's garden.  She said we needed something pretty to look at after all of that dirt and rust.  Ain't that the truth!  Thanks, Nana :) 

We love working out there <3

The steps looked nice and marbly like the floors had the week before, so Robbie swept out the black dust, and those were ready for Buskote.  

We found the floors still a bit tacky & full-on wet in a few spots where the paint was particularly thick.  

Since they needed a little more dry-time, we decided to take advantage of the sunny day and check out the roof.  There are two spots in the back of the bus (on both side walls) that were wet and rusty, and we had covered that end of the bus with a tarp until we could go up and hunt down the leak.  So, with a little time to kill,  we (and by "we" I mean Robbie) climbed up to the roof to check for any obvious leaks.  He did find a bad caulk job around the rear emergency hatch.  He added a new caulk seal and we covered it back up; we'll tackle that job another day.  Back inside, we decided to go ahead and put a coat of Buskote all the way up the walls to the window bottoms (hey, why not?).  By the time we did that and ate lunch, the floor was ready for the second coat.  

first coat

future bedroom/loveshack

back bench & walls getting a coat

Robbie wants YOU!  (to come help us paint)

gratuitous selfie 

Depending on how it looks when we return for the next work weekend, we will either put on a third coat or start laying down the insulation & wood floorboards! (Exciting, because once those floors are replaced, the FUN BEGINS!)

Bus Kote on the floor

This weekend we put down two coats of bus kote.  A paint made for R.V. and bus roofs. It insulates and seals.  We applied a coat on Sunday and it was still very tacky and even wet in places. This bus kote stuff is very thick as you will see in the photos.  We applied some to the walls. We got one coat on the walls and two on the floor. I think we will apply one more coat on the floor and walls on the next work day weekend.
 I also got the old stairs addressed in the entry way.  We treated the rust (there was plenty of rust to treat).I applied some paint to this area as well, but it will need a second coat.  We hope to address the iron throne (drivers seat) next weekend. Floor/decking soon!

very thick stuff, but a heavy coating for sure.

we cut in all the corners first, then came back through and rolled
the wall and floor.

got the old stairs up and wire brushed them, then applied Rustex (ospho)

cutting in front corner

before treatment.

What I was actually doing under the bus...

I re routed the radiator lines for the front heater and defrost. I mounted two 20 ft runs of 1 1/2 in grey electric conduit with 2 hole straps x 6. I mounted them close to the frame rails. The screws are ran into the cross sections (hat sections) from underneath (you can see in pics). I then ran the 1in radiator hose pipe in the conduit. I selected this conduit based on price, availability, and easy to mount.  I re used a lot of the old hose pipe, hose clamps, and couplings. I did not want to run the the entire length with one piece of hose for each (send/return) in case of hose failure, I won't have to replace a 40ft piece of hose, just a 20ft or 8ft. This was the best idea I could come up with for the re routing of the hoses. I need the front heater for it's defrost capability, and for our comfort when traveling in winter.

these old fittings used to go through the floor. I used them to get around the wheels.

broken drill bit on the second strap. lots of cussing.

one pipe mounted

right over the leaf springs

2hole straps (hot)