Slow and steady wins the race? That’s what my little sister advised me when I was a little down with my very slow progress. I do not find this current deconstruction mode to be very exciting. It seems like every time I turn around there is another stripped bolt, broken screw head, or just something to overcome. I guess the positive view is that the interior is becoming larger and larger!
Nonetheless; I would really like to move onto the CONSTRUCTION phase of this project.
Regardless, painfully slow and barely steady it is… Thanks Sis!
I must admit though, looking at these photos of recent progress is encouraging!
The driver side parcel rack is down now. It too came down with a nice big CRASH! Very exciting stuff!
Experience did teach me a thing or two so it was stripped down pretty quickly and just had to be cut into manageable pieces.
I’ve also removed most the lavatory/bathroom. It too is well constructed – no shortage of heavy materials and fasteners!
The reciprocating saw made pretty quick work of all those bathroom panels and now it is a small stack of trash waiting to go to the dump.
As everyone that has done a bus conversion has found, the air/heat ducts are FILTHY! Mine were no different.
The heating ducts that run up each side of the bus along the floor are the next deconstruction task. They are attached with several dozen hex head bolts. Every one of those bolt heads stripped out when I tried to loosen them. Ugh… These heating ducts and the lower portion of the toilet are all that remains. That is exciting!!
New chassis batteries were installed this week. They are the big 8D 12 volt batteries that take a real He-Man to lift. The old batteries were not holding a charge and their age was unknown. I am not a fan of batteries with an unknown history so two problems solved.
I’ve also received and installed Missy’s new South Dakota license plates! She is looking bona fide now!
I think it looks fantastic. You have made great progress!!!
I can’t wait to see her tomorrow! Considering that you are also working full-time – you are making amazing progress!!
You are making great progress. Thanks for all the pictures showing the steps you are going through. I look forward to seeing your design and final product, even though you say it might take decades. I have a feeling once you start the construction phase your milestones may be adjusted.
Thanks for the photos. I can see you have put MUCH effort into stripping out the seats & over-heat storage units. From what little time I was in Missy… you haven’t wasted time getting her cleaned out.
Those pieces look absolutely huge! You really ARE making good progress. If you have never tried “PB Blaster”, it is worth having in your tool box. It loosens frozen bolts like nothing I’ve ever seen!
Hi Pete – yes, I agree, PB Blaster is a great product. The problem I was having was that these were allen/hex head bolts and so much force was required to turn them that the inside hex “key” had stripped. They were in a hidden location so getting a vice grip (or anything) on them was nearly impossible. Grinder to the rescue! 🙂