Front Bumper Overrider Repaired

The bottom of one of the front bumper overriders was rusted through. The overrider parts are what makes this the “US-only” version of the bus bumper; buses sold outside the US & Canada did not have the overriders. The overriders and bumper are in generally OK condition after the repair. Some dents will be smoothed later, but I do plan to leave some ‘character’ on the bumpers.

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Pop-out Window Bracket Repair

Another part for the “why did they cut that off!?” category. For some reason the pop-out window bracket for the first window behind the driver’s side door had been chopped off. Luckily the same bracket is used on 3 other windows and I was able to create a paper template by rubbing over an existing bracket with pencil/paper. Once the new bracket was shaped, drilled, and tapped it was welded in place. The picture makes the grind marks look deeper & messier than they actually are; after the next primer coat the new bracket should look as good as the factory brackets.

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Spare Tire Bracket Installed

At some point in the bus’s past most of the spare tire bracket was removed, leaving only about 1/4in of the original bracket. A donor bracket was located and after a bit of prep work it was welded onto the left rear cargo wall. The position of the remains of the original bracket were used as a guide.

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Miscellaneous Metal Repair

Paint has been mostly stripped from above the trim line. The wire wheel found a few previously unnoticed weak spots which were repaired. The remaining pieces of the spare tire mount were carefully removed in preparation for a replacement that’s on the way.

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Cargo door removal, Spare tire well patch, and window sandblasting

The 8 large Phillips head bolts holding on the cargo doors were removed after much heating, hammering, and some cutting. The cargo doors were removed and a patch was created/installed for the floor of the spare tire well. All window frames were then sandblasted and nearly all paint stripped from the inside/outside of everything above the trim line.

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Patching begins on spare tire well wall

The spare tire well had a hole similar to the mystery hole from previous posts cut at some point in the bus’s past. The hole was cut very raggedly so I squared it off with a cut-off wheel to make template creation easier.

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Mysterious Hole Patched

At some point in the bus’s history a previous owner cut a hole behind the back seat row. This was probably done to bring in warm air to make up for a poorly maintained heating system. The hole was cut on an un-ribbed section of floor, making for a fairly simple patch. Prior to this repair the gas tank was taken out to avoid any fiery surprises.

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Driver Side Cargo Floor: Patchs #3 & #4

More scratch-made patches fabricated and welded in. Also shown, patch #2 welds ground and smoothed.

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Driver Side Cargo Floor: Patch #2

Scratch-made patch panel made, with raised section, and welded in.

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“Tophat” panel behind driver’s seat patched

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