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Bus Exterior
[Taken from the original 'The Alice Project' bus conversion and motorhome website 2002-2003]
The most obvious work undertaken on the exterior of the bus was the removal of 7 (out of a possible 17) windows. Although originally we had planned to retain all the windows (for history’s sake - yeah, I confess to being a huge sentimentalist when it comes to these things) but it soon became clear that we needed to remove some windows for better insulation (heat and noise). The removal process was the easy bit - you just had to slowly drill / angle grind the hundreds of rivets out and with some gentle nudging (a sledgehammer would have been handy) the window frames were removed. Each window frame was surrounded by steel framing, which we then grinded back and treated for rust.
Once completed, we hand cut ‘zincalume’ sheeting to size (using aviation tin snips). The cutting was the easy bit. We could actually use the old window frame as a stencil for the size required and also for the location of the rivet holes (zincalume is far from easy to drill through!!) Fitting the sheet to where the window used to be proved to be the real fun part. The sheets were obviously cut oversize, so that there was plenty of overlap. A silicon sealant / glue was beaded around the overlap and then Mel struggled to hold the sheet in exactly the right spot, whilst I drove in what rivets I could to hold it in place. The re-drilling of many of the rivet holes and subsequent use of a hand rivet tool will long be remembered as the worst bloody project we undertook on the bus. It was a slow, hard, unforgiving job and we celebrated the day the last sheet went on and the very last rivet popped into its place….
The new sheeting looked rather impressive (for a backyard amateur body-work job). It was to look even better once we had painted the exterior insulation paint over it. Before we started painting however, we first had to repair the gutters along the edge of the roof. The gutters were bent and in places, had come away from the body of the bus [and consequently allowed water to enter the bus in one part]. We used plenty of silicon sealant and re-riveted (yeah, more bloody fun with the hand rivet gun) the gutters into place.
As far as the exterior paint job was concerned, we were more than happy with the existing colour scheme. The paint was in reasonable condition, having been maintained by the previous bus company owners. We decided to leave below the window line alone and concentrate our efforts on above this line and the roof. The plan was use an insulation paint, as we had read and heard much about the benefits of such a product. We went with a local Queensland mob - Australian Paint, at Springwood and their insulation paint ‘Barrier 2000 Thermashield’. Before applying the insulation paint, we gave the roof and top half of the bus a good wash, and gave a rough but thorough sanding all over. We then used a product called ESP to prepare the surface for painting. Applying the insulation paint was quite easy (well, er, as easy as a paint job could be?). We had to brush the first coat on and after that, we rollered another two coats to the roof and from the bottom of the window line upwards. The paint left a very rough textured surface, which was made somewhat smoother by applying two coats of white Top Coat paint (again, we used a roller on an extended handle for ease of application). We are more than happy with the finished result, and believe that the insulation paint has made a big difference to the interior temperatures.
Another big job externally involved the Super Roof Rack. We were very lucky to find a ‘Free to Take’ old roof rack sitting in someone’s side yard (it looked like it was once a bus roof rack - how lucky can you get?). We had to walk it all the way back to Mel’s parent’s place (long walk). It measured 4m long by 1.9m wide - just perfect. It was in a fairly poor condition and required an enormous amount of work to treat the rust and re-weld many of the joints. But in the end, after much angle grinding, welding, treating and painting, we had a brand new looking Fire-Engine-Red Super Roof Rack! We dreaded putting it up on the bus roof, and so waited till we had enough volunteers around one afternoon - but it went up with relative ease. The steel framing in the bus extends through the roof and so the roof rack was simply fixed to the roof at cross-points of the frame. Our access to the roof rack is (at present) via the rear roof hatch, which opens fully when required.
(Keiran Lusk 2003)
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