Well, I am home now and recovering nicely from knee replacement surgery. Needless to say, I am pretty keen to get back out there and start working on Our Time but I think I’ll be a few weeks away from actually being able to do anything really productive.

Before the surgery, I managed to get the frame finished and ready for the windows to be installed. It was a big job and I found more rust that I anticipated but I will sleep much easier now knowing that she is rust free!

In previous posts, I detailed the rust I discovered on the back and side windows and provided a guide to removing rust. You can check out those posts by visiting the Dealing with rust section.

This is this next part of our series on How to cut out rust, we focus on two things, firstly, don’t assume there is no rust if you see no visible signs and secondly, how to bend metal to sit nicely in your window frames. You can also see Parts 1 and 2 to learn how to prepare the rust area and creating the metal sheeting by clicking here:

Item Brand/model Brian uses
   
Angle Grinder Ryobi
Sheeting, cut and bent to shape  
Pop Rivets  
Two hammers  
Two clamps  

At this stage, I have already measured and cut out the new metal sheets to replace the rust I have removed and have them in position. Part One – How to cut out rust will give you the background and steps involved to bend the metal.

I wanted to make sure that there was no rust on any of the window frames even though there were no visible signs. It was just as well I did check because the back rear window turned out to be ridden with rust.

You will need to pop out the window frames to check for rust and then cut out where necessary.
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Even though you don’t see rust, it can be there. Here you can see that when I removed the rear window, there was actually a lot of rust.

If you want to be really sure your bus is rust free, I would strongly advise that you remove the frames and just make sure it’s free of rust!
DSCF1119.jpg Here is a close up showing the rust.
DSCF1290.jpg This is a shot of the outside of the bus after the rust has been cut out and a new metal piece replaced.
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You will notice that there are a few large areas that have been cut out. This was due to extensive rust. A new plate has been made up a new plate to replace the section that was removed.
DSCF1295.jpg I have made up a new metal piece and have partly slotted it back into place to show you what it looks like.
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The plate is now dropped into position and will be pop riveted in.
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Another plate has been made to replace the outer frame.

To bend your metal piece into a curved space, use your grinder. Make a series of cuts on both sides. Position and you will be able to easily bend it to the desired curve…easy!

You can see where I have used clamps to secure into position.

I will use pop rivets as with all the other frames. But what I do is take the pin out of the rivet which leaves you with the rivet head. I then drill the holes into the frame and put that rivet in the hole, I have two hammers, one on each side of the rivet and keep hitting the other side until they squash up tight.
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This is a shot of the metal set in place with the rivets.

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I have used my grinder to remove all of the paint ready for finishing up.

Here you can see that iI have ground all of the paint of ready to be bogged up.

 

Well that’s about it for this stage. Our next post will show you how to prepare the surface for bogging and finishing up for painting.

Thanks for stopping by!

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