Removing seats is the first job for obvious reasons - you can't get to anything else with them in and they're on the floor which is the foundation of this 'house'. It's good to start with foundations.
Grabbed a 100' length of power cable and air hose in town before heading up so I was equipped to plug into the Machine Shop's outlets. Got up there for 8 and, after a quick chat with Robert about the plan for a rear motorbike rack and tow hitch, and getting air compressor set up and cord/hose unwound, got started.
There are a number of ways to remove the bolts that hold the seats down to the floor depending on your circumstances. Quickest, easiest and simplest is to simply undo the bolt - this rarely works because the nut on the underside isn't 'captive' (welded to the floor) so usually just spins with the bolt. I got 3 out with this method. Next easiest is to tighten the bolt until the head shears off - this seems to require the nut to be solidly rusted to the floor. I got none out using this method - they just span. Next easiest depends on whether you;ve a helper and who is the guy/gal under the bus. If you have two people you can have one under the bus with a wrench on the nut while you undo from above. Easy for the person on top, not so much fun for the nut monkey. I didn't have a helper so I got none out like this. Last resort is to cut and grind the heads off the bolts - noisy, dirty, smelly and costs in cutting discs. This was the main method I employed and went through 3 discs on one side of the bus.
I started by trying to cut all the way thru between the bolt head and the seat base plate
and got one out:
but quickly realised that I was cutting way more metal than I needed to and also that some of the bases plates had become concave so getting the disc into that joint was tricky/impossible especially when it had worn to half its original diameter. I was going through discs too quickly so I had an idea to cut the heads vertically down the shank dividing it in two.
That used up the worn discs that weren't cutting heads off well. Then I had the idea to try an air chisel on them to see if I could cut each half off. I couldn't - didn't even make a mark! I started again with a fresh disc and cut at a slight angle from the top of the lip of the bolt head down to the start of the shank. With that half of the head removed I could cut the back half off starting a bit higher up from my original cut and so avoiding cutting into the seat base, which was the real disc eater.
Carrying on like that I had one side of the bus (14 seats) out, and a couple of rows at the back, by 11:
What I wasn't expecting was that the bolts holding the seats onto the 'chair rail', the horizontal member that runs the length of the side of the bus, wold be such a pain - I'd heard they were the easy bit. Again, no captive nuts and upholstery, wheel wells, heater units, etc made accessing them very difficult in places. An impact driver, ratchet wrench and extension, and regular wrench in various combinations got them undone. I was very glad I had the selection of weapons I do or I might have admitted defeat in this battle.
If I'd had the whole day, or even just a long morning to a late lunch, I would've got the lot out so I was pretty pleased with progress. I was less pleased with discovering water on the floor from leaking windows but only because I'd been in the bus on a wet day before and not noticed any leaking. I was not surprised at all because the originals are notorious for being sieves.
Next job will be to complete removal and find somewhere to put/leave/sell/dump them. Trevor said there wasn't much of a market for them but he could use them if I didn't want them. He must've know I didn't want them and could've taken them out in the month he had the bus. Sigh. An ad offering them on local classifieds hasn't led to any enquiries yet.
Until next time, amigos/amigas!..
No comments:
Post a Comment