Demo (Part 1)

June 27 and 28, 2020 - What a busy weekend! We took out:

the metal tracks that the bus seats were bolted to
the metal flashing around the edges of the rubber flooring
a small heater that was under a seat once
the rubber flooring
the plywood layer that was under the rubber flooring

The metal tracks for the seats were a pain in the neck to take out. Some of the bolts needed a hex drill bit, some of the bolts needed a torque drill bit, and some were so badly stripped and rounded that we bought special cobalt drill bits to just drill out the metal and separate the head of the bolt and shank. It didn't help that the nuts under the bus were caked with dirt, which just refused to move because every time we tried to loosen the bolt, dirt would get stuck in the threads and bolt refused to move. Elad and Ruben worked really hard to get every single bolt out, with minimal swear words.

On the other hand, the metal flashing was held in by regular phillips screws. No dirt, no rust, no nothing holding them back from speedy removal. Getting the flashing out of the bus and removing material made us really feel like we were making a dent in the demolition process. Ana really enjoyed seeing the pile of metal flashing and seat tracks grow bigger outside the bus.

Demo weekend continued on Sunday with more grime and grease and dirt (mostly on Elad this time). We removed a small heater inside the bus, which meant tracing and removing the hoses connecting the heater to the coolant. While Elad was busy under the bus tracing hoses, Ana was inside the bus with a hammer and a paint scraper trying to pry the rubber flooring off of the plywood. The glue holding the rubber flooring down was super sticky, so the paint scraper came in super handy.

Once a section of rubber flooring was out, it was time to remove the self-tapping screws that held down the plywood flooring. Luckily, this time there were no dirt-caked nuts holding the screws in place. The plywood came out without breaking apart, and once the floor was completely clear, Ana went a little overboard with the broom to sweep out debris.

In one of the pictures below, you can see that at one point we could see all three layers of the bus floor: metal, plywood, and rubber.

Next weekend's goal: removing the walls, ceiling, and original insulation. Rivets here we come!