The return of big yellow

[MP&C]

Well, we have had quite the dry spell. Here's what we had to contend with on the bus. Some can opener effect going
on....






















After cutting some of the mangled mess out of the way.........























......we saw that the bottom structural member was not going to cooperate.
The horizontal section behind the weld tear at the top used to be vertical...
So to save some time, we'll cut this out and make a replacement. This is 16 ga,
and is there to keep vehicles out of the passenger compartment. It did it's
job, so let's put in a new one to restore the integrity..

















Here the bottom flange is pushed in over an inch..











Here's the replacement we made up..











Comparison....

















All trimmed, we'll get the replacement panel formed and fitted Tuesday..











Spare parts...

[MP&C]

Well our bus side panel is just shy of 8' long and about 24" wide. We did a light pass on the wheeling machine just enough to break the grain, figured it would have less chance of waves that way... We found out real quick that 8' is a bit long, so some 1x2's were pony-clamped under the outside edges to provide a bit of support. We tried to make a pass through the bead roller for the stepped flange at the bottom, with less than stellar results, a bit wavy up and down. Good thing we had the other half of the sheet. More wheeling, and used the offset / step dies in the Lennox Tru-Edge.



Given our challenges with the long panels, we had to call in reinforcements. Regardless of the late hour that Scott's attire suggests, it was only 8 at night!





Linear slides really came in handy, nice straight detail this go round..





Comparing the bend relief above the rear bumper ear...





Tomorrow evening well get it fitted to the bus and final trimmed..

[chevynut]

Cool stuff Robert. I don't understand why you have to do any "wheeling" on a flat panel. Can you explain what "break the grain" means? Were you just trying to flatten it better?

[MP&C]

A very light wheeling with flat anvil across the length of the panel. Intent was to add just the slightest hint of a crown. A flat panel is the quickest to show waves, so hopefully it prevents that.

[MP&C]

Finished the welding of the lower structural member on the bus repair...





.....and underneath it is tied to the floor cross members



Added the frame around the fuel door, this helps prevent the side panel from flopping around as the fuel door is pushed closed..









Thursday evening we'll get all the holes pre-drilled for the skirting and start prepping for paint..

[MP&C]

The braces for behind the lower skirt were mangled pretty well, had to untwist the pretzels to get accurate measurements..





Getting all the holes prepped...



Welding in the new braces..





All the pieces of the puzzle... Well, almost..





Now to bust it apart for paint prep..

[Troy]

great work Robert wish I had your talent. I have a question, at the joint where the new sheet metal joins the old do you do a seam weld or rivets? If welding how do you keep the insulation from burning up?

[MP&C]

Since my paint booth is not large enough for these behemoths, typically I work with removeable parts for these repairs that can be painted and assembled afterwards. On the front edge of the new upper panel, you can see some clecos holding the panel on. Here we have about a 2" overlap over top of the old panel. The new panels will be attached with a combination of screws (per original style) and rivets, depending on location. The bus mfr even has some color matching body caulk, so that gets used during final assembly.

[chevynut]

Robert, since you call this "the return of big yellow", did you work on this bus before? I don't remember you posting about that but maybe I missed it. Was it the same driver? LOL.

Speaking of buses, we rode on a bus last night here in Cancun, and the driver literally scared the crap out of me. I've ridden on lots of buses in Puerto Vallarta and here in Cancun this week, but this guy was a lunatic. I've never seen anyone drive so aggressively with so many people's lives at stake....not even a taxi driver. He was clearly speeding and weaving in and out of traffic. Some of the cars were even honking at him and he nearly pushed a motorcycle to the curb. I heard a police siren chirp, the bus driver pulled over and got out of the bus, then got back in and drove off. Before he got out I saw him take some cash out of a bucket he kept bus fare in...probably paid the cop off. I'm amazed there aren't any more collisions here than there are. He went 3/4 mile past our stop (I told him our hotel name) before I asked him if he was going around again...then he stopped and let us out. We had to walk back to the hotel. I was glad to be off that bus.

[MP&C]

We fixed this same bus about 3-4 years ago, different driver. Then the damage was farther forward; two luggage doors, panel behind those, and wheel opening ring...