​ Today was a long day of grinding and chiseling. We weren’t sure how much we could actually get done so we didn’t set any goals other than a full day of work. Again we started at 9 and ended at 5. We were exhausted! But on the brightside, my forearms have never been stronger.
 
The last 4 seats in the bus went out in a second, 2 days of practice and Phil had seat removal down to a science. We piled all of the seats in a very satisfying pile and had them tarped by our mid-morning break. 

​I continued banging away with my hammer on the rivets on the ceiling and then some on the walls. Phil had been avoiding having to remove the screws on the ceiling and wall up until this point but for me, 3 days of hammering rivets meant I needed to see a ceiling panel come down or I was sure I’d go crazy.
 
I had tried to start the screws with a hand screwdriver because the electric drill couldn’t grip enough and would strip them, but I just couldn’t get enough pressure to start them. Phil went through and loosened the ones he could but so many were stuck that he ended up putting a metal grinding wheel on the angle grinder and took to grinding them off. Rivets fixed on the ceiling panels except for at the very front and very back. As well, around the rear exit and front door screws could be found more often then rivets.

This is a more technical post for those of you looking to convert your own bus and want to know what to expect.
Once you have all of the centers punched out of the rivets and have chiseled off the rivet heads you can pry the metal panel to ensure its loose.
 
Where the ceiling panels meet the window they are covered with a long piece of metal that looks like an eaves trough in a way. Behind this are the wires for the lights. They are held on with screws, through not all can be loosened and unscrewed so you will need to grind the remaining screws off. This needs to be removed before the panels can come down.

​The panels are then fitted into the ribbed trim above the window and until you have the first one out you will need to damage these slightly by bending them. We chose to start with a panel above windows we knew would get covered by the bathroom and closet so we wouldn’t have to see the scratching and bending on the trim. We very slowly took to prying one side of the panel out from behind the trim and then pulled the other side out. These panels are heavy and hard to maneuver so be careful as they come down.

After the first panel was down the rest went quickly. We pried the panel loose first on the side which overlapped another panel and then began prying the side which had been covered by another panel. Then it just fell down! Slipping right out from behind the window trim without any damage at all.

​With all of the ceiling panels down we started poking around the walls. It was getting too late though and we’d already done so much so we decided to call it a day and figure out the walls tomorrow.

Today we got up early and headed back to work. Despite the cold, despite the snow, despite the dark of Canadian winter mornings, we were raring to go!

Phil went right back to removing seats, cutting them at the floor with a metal cutting wheel on the angle grinder. This was what we found out worked the best after a lot of trial and error on Day One. He would cut as much as he could and then use a metal chisel and hammer to completely remove the top of the bolt and washer.

I started tackling the rivets on the ceiling. If I never see another rivet in my life after this bus I will not be msising them. There are hundreds of rivets in the ceiling and wall of a bus! hundreds! thousands? I wouldn't doubt it. 

My dad took three swings with a chisel and hammer at the head of a rivet and it was off, I on the other hand spent 7 minutes trying to do one the same and didn't do anymore than dent it. So, I thought back to the countless instructional videos Phil and I had watched in preparation and remembered one about rivets. 

Using  a hammer and a thick nail I popped the center of the rivets out. Then, using the chisel I pryed the ceiling sheets off by hammering through the middle shaft of the rivet. After 7 hours of work I managed to completely open 3 sections of ceiling and hammer out the center of the rest of the ceiling rivets. This is about half the work on the ceiling so I'm anticipating another big day of hammering tomorrow.

Tomorrows plan is to remove the last 5 seats and get the ceiling down! Another big day, followed by most likely many, many more big days. Wish us luck!

Well today was the day we have been waiting for, for months. We got the bus home last night and today finally began work. Its funny how you see things differently in your memory than they actually are; my parents' driveway is the perfect example of this. In my mind there was plenty of space to park it, it could really go anywhere, but in reality, it was a tight negotiation. 

The first part of the conversion is simply taking the seats out of the bus. Easy, right? They should just pop-off, or be able to be unscrewed with an Allen Key, like Ikea furniture.... NOPE.  

​We tried a few different ways to get the seats out and by the time we were losing daylight we finally found a method that worked, removing the first seat, just as the last of our toes froze.

Most people remove the seats by cutting them with a metal cutting blade on an angle grinder. This is often because of the level of rust that comes up through the flooring and ruins the bolts. Our bus had very little rust so we hoped we'd be able to simply undo the bolts. This worked easily for the screws attaching the seats to the railing along the wall, because we could hold the nuts still with a wrench while undoing them with an impact driver, however the bolts and nuts on the bottom of the bus were too rusted to undo. With Phil lying under the bus on a crazy carpet using the impact driver and myself holding the top of the bolt with a clamping wrench we sure tried, but screws broke and nuts stripped and even once undone some screws were rusted into the floor.

What we ended up doing was cutting the bolts attaching the seat to the floor with an angle grinder just like everyone else. At the end of the day one seat was out and we were ecstatic.

Seems like a lot more seats once you find out how hard it is to get even one of them out.

Phil getting ready to crawl under the bus and use the impact drill. 1/2 inch socket (13m)