The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1946 Chevy 1.5-ton Shorty Bus - "Bus to RV"

Still pluggin' away. Got all the rust replaced with new panels on the rear, built in a through-wall box for my electrical (house) panel, some interior walls and I'm now installing the mount for a set of freshwater tanks. As always...pix on Flickr below.

Great project thanks for the update .

Tango, thanks for the update. For a while I thought you had slipped out the back door Progress is progress. Keep on trucking brother.

Thanks guys. That's the plan...just keep pluggin' away. More to follow.

Been doing a work all over the bus lately. Hoppin inside and out. Got some much needed sheetmetal that allowed me to start constructing the dash/firewall and mounting some of the stuff that will go through it. Steering, brakes, stuff like that. Added some sheet metal outside and some marine ply inside.

Posted some more pix in the Flickr album. Back to work.

A few new updates. Made some progress on the footwell part of the new firewall along with working out the throttle & the TPS for the tranny. Pix in the Flickr album.

Been sorting out the bits and pieces of a remote Hydroboost brake system. It is activated by a small (3/4") Wilwood clutch master. Don't really care for the extra plumbing required but there is simply not enough room under the hood to direct mount a conventional master.

A few pix of this Frankenbrake system in the album below.

Thanks for the update, Tango. Your still one of my hero's!!
Isn't it wonderful how one modification leads to one...then another..and another. Or as my grandfather said, if it isn't one thing its sixteen!!

Got that right Chip, but in my case...more like 16,000!

Made some progress on the brake system. It's more complicated than I would like but given the space restrictions, not a lot of choices.

Installed a remote hydroboost master cylinder from Vanco in CA. It is actuated by a little 3/4" clutch master (that's all there was room for in the engine bay). Had to fab and install a large bracket to hang it on the fishplate and still need to plumb the whole system but at least making some significant progress. Will get back on the engine seriously in a couple of weeks.

New pix in the album.

Spent a fair amount of time putting together a fold down rear deck on the bus. It will be home to my Honda generator and spare tire carrier. All the metal work is done and all it needs is some Trex decking (fake wood) on top. However, I will wait until other work on her rear end is done for that part. Meanwhile, it will all come off and set in a corner for a while.

Fresh pix in the Flickr Album below...

Still at it --- Have decking on the floor, installed the remote hydroboost operated off a clutch master and have begun pulling 110 wiring. And given my lack of electrical savvy, I will be getting with a real electrician on Monday to see if any of it will work.

As always, a few update pix are in the Flickr album.

Hmm, two months since I checked in and wow, you just keep right on trucking. Evidently your running on energizer batteries. I'll add you to my "hero" list.

Howdy Chip. I have found that one of the few advantages of being old is the ability to take the heat. Been sweltering work in a metal building with no ventilation at 100 or so degrees and the usual Houston 99% Humidity. Now the cold??? That's a whole different deal. My joints all lock up. So I have to hustle before our two weeks of "Winter" set in.

FINALLY...I got an Allison tech over to check out some fabbing/cobbling details on the transmission and he thinks they just might work. Had to make an adapter to fit on the Cummins throttle lever so I could hook up the Allison's TPS (Throttle Position Sensor). Also had concerns about how best (and where) to mount the TCM (Transmission Control Module). Have them solidly in place now and really hoping I don't have to relocate anything. Spent part of today securing all the fancy, new wiring harness stuff.

Made some headway in the cooling department as well. Had to make a custom charge air cooler (CAC) and radiator package in order for it all to fit into that narrow, Art Deco nose but it came out pretty nice I must say. Well...at least it's shiny. Still waiting on a bunch of plumbing hardware to hook up the CAC. All coming from China (SURPRISE) so no telling when or if it will get here.

Pix in the Flickr Album as usual

Just gotta' keep at it.

Engine & Tranny Progress ---- Finally made some brackets and now have my transmission control module & throttle position sensor installed on the firewall. Also began fitting the tubes to & from my intercooler. Still waiting on the silicone couplings for the tubing but hoping they get here soon...from China, of course.

A few new pix in the album.

Tango, you make my projects look easy! I've admire your patience and perseverance for some time. I'm thinking it would have been nice if a couple neighborhood young guys took the time to learn some skills from you or maybe a school kids out early to work.
You sure know your stuff and my hats off to ya. Great work.

Thanks Chip --- But I don't know how good a teacher I'd make since I'm learnin' all this as I go myself. If I could pass anything on to kids today, it would be an unbounded sense of curiosity combined with the willingness to do the work necessary to figure things out. Easy answers aren't nearly as much fun.

Tango,

Did you ever get your air cleaner location worked out?

Ed

That thing is Sweeeeeeet. Great Job

Thanks Gregg. Just saw that beauty you put together. Absolutely perfect for what you are doing. Sweeeet!

Ed --- Still putzing around with the air cleaner thing. Have not found a unit that will adapt well. Saw a home built over on a 4x4 forum made out of cake pans and rivets that really kicked it. Just might steal his idea. But the flow rate has to be right and it has to seal up properly, so fabbing one can be tricky. AT least the one I saw was made for a 3.9 Cummins, so the filter should be right. The builder is one seriously talented dude. I wound up reading his entire build thread.

Howdy All --- been a while but I'm still at it. Just finished prepping my window openings for new glass that will go in tomorrow. Lots of little stuff done here and there including getting my E Brake and tranny cables hooked up. All custom made $tuff of course. As usual...new pix in my Flickr Album.

Got Glass! --- All new Low E glass all around and you can even see through it! Quite a change from the old, chipped, frosty stuff. Been (slowly) working at stripping the paint from the roof and rain gutters on this thing using wire brushes on my 4-1/2 and 7" grinders. A major PITA since some moron decided water based latex house paint was a brilliant idea. It was not. The multiple layers are a bear to get off (where it isn't already flaking off) and where it is off (surprise!) ...is rust. Water on metal is never a good idea. Even Detroit is having fits with the new EPA friendly, water based primers. Been going through wire brushes at an alarming rate. Stuff wont sand (plugs it up)...flap disks eat too much metal...and stripper pads are expensive and get chewed up quickly with all the exposed nuts, bolts and screws on this relic. Still having to use a little liquid stripper here and there but trying to keep it to a minimum. Hate that stuff and typically burn the crap out of myself with it not to mention what it does to your lungs.

Oh well, back to work.

Have you tried soda blasting the paint off? The baking soda removes paint but does not harm the metal below.

I haven't used it, but I don't restore stuff either. ;-)

Cheers, Dean

I have heard really bad things about soda blasting from a few hard core builders. It gets into every nook & cranny and is next to impossible to remove so that when the paint goes on...it does not reach the metal. It holds moisture like crazy and starts rusting those areas badly. There are other media that are better/safer but I can't relocate the bus at this time to a facility big enough to handle it anyway.

Here's a blurb about plastic bead blasting that might be a viable option: VCCA forum post about plastic bead blasting

Cheers, Dean

Plastic beads have gotten really good reviews with the builders I know around here. Just wish I could move this monster to a facility that does it.

When I was doing my panel I ask a company about doing it in plastic and they wanted BIG bucks. I was sick at the time and basically had only part of one side to go so I took it to them just to see what it would do. I ask the guy to also hit the inside where I would be painting. They later called and told me it was ready and I owed them $545. This was around 2012. I took a good friend with me to talk to the OWNER of the place and walked out with a bill of $250....more like it.

Since that time I have a 5 gal bucket of the plastic just like what they used and saving it for something sensitive. Most everything I have needs fine sand blasting. I will have to find it but I do promise you one thing.....if you have any rust what so ever plastic will NOT take it off. Just paint.

just fyi f rom my perspective.

Sounds pretty much like what I heard. The guys I talked to wanted a really low impact on the metal (a couple had nightmare stories of blasters wrecking body parts) and didn't mind coming back and dealing with light rust on their own. I am having to do the same even after wire brushing the garbage latex off.