Post date: Jul 01, 2008 2:16:59 PM
The plan is a roof lift. About 16 to 18 inches. I figure I will cut off the roof at the top of the window supports, weld a 1 x 2 inch rectangular steel support beam along the top of the rails from the front of the bus to the back on both sides, and then weld a series of vertical bars (at least 1 x 1 steel) every 16 inches or so, and then weld THEM into the carlin rail of the roof. The carlin rail is the one that some Carpenter buses had bad welds from window post to rail. Although my bus is not one of the ones affected (wrong year) if anybody wants to be snooty that I have "one of them there dangerous buses from Carpenter" I can smugly assure them that all the welds on the roofline are human created, not bad robot work. The good robots were used after 1995 - it is hard to tell good and bad when you have robots because they refuse to wear gang colors, even when they are "bad" robots.
So.... this will give me a section to have to cover - preferably with metal - from the window top line to the roof line. Enter scroungery.
Our school district is getting rid of some old computers - scrap ones - where the capacitors have leaked. Too old to want to repair, too slow even if they WERE repaired, and worth nothing in all practical sense. So - through a deal with Apple computer we are recycling a chunk of hardware - and before these went on the pallet I had the 8th grade student doing the work set the side panels to the side. These are flat metal panels, about 16 inches high and wide - and should become the exterior skin above the window line. The sheet metal in a computer case is about the same thickness as a school bus.
Besides - I like the idea of scrounging computer cases to skin my bus. Hey, it is 80 pieces of steel.... save some money, right?