Demolition of a School Bus

Bus seat removal: When we got Atlas home we couldn’t wait to get started. That next day we started the process of ripping out all of the seats. All of the seats were held down by bolts so Jade took an impact under the bus and started to take each one out. There were about 10 that we couldn’t get to or were so rusted the impact didn’t work. So Jade brought out the next best thing, an angle grinder. We put a grinding wheel on and went to work. Grinding off each top of the bolt and getting the seats out on by one.

Taking the heater out: Some would ask why we decided to take out the back heater, well, simply because it was too in the way for what we were trying to do. So we unscrewed all the metal, cut the hoses, drained the antifreeze that was still in the lines into a bucket. We then used a copper pipe to reroute the antifreeze. It was a simple process but make sure you have the right fitting to reroute the antifreeze.

Getting the floor up: After we got all the seats out we then were able to go through with a drill and remove all the little screws that were holding down the rubber flooring. We were able to remove all of the rubber flooring with crowbars. After removing all the rubber flooring we exposed rust, nothing crazy but enough for us to treat it! But before we did the floor…. the ceiling had to come down.

Taking the AC Unit out: Again, some may ask, why would you take an AC unit out? Well, it was ugly, super super big and would only work when the bus was running. We also planned to raise the bed, so it was coming out no matter what. The only problem is AC units carry Freon, and Freon if awful for our environment. So we had two options, pollute our air or spend a few dollars. We had to wait two weeks to get the Freon out which cost us $75. We then were able to take the cover off, go on the roof and angle grind more bolts, cut wires, cut tubes and remove the whole AC from in the bus and under the bus. Get ready to get VERY dirty.

Removing ceiling: Now, Atlas had rivets that were holding up the metal ceiling panels and if there was an easy way of removing all of the rivets, we would tell you what it was. Devin’s grandfather had an airgun so Jade used that to pop the small ball in the rivet up. She then took a metal drill bit and went through the whole rivet, popping the head off and breaking the panel free. Jade did this for about 3 days and thought her arms were going to fall off. You also can use an angle grinder, this is what Jade did on the last panel. She would grind an X in the rivet and then break it free with a crowbar.

Treating rust on the floor: After the ceiling was all removed we went back to the floor. We knew that once we took the floor off we would be exposing whatever rust was there but a huge reason why we were excited about buying Atlas was because it was stored inside. We bought Loctite - Naval Jelly, Rust Prevention from Lowe’s the treat the rust and POR-15 Rust Preventive coating to prevent more rust from happening. Jade bought to small of a can of POR-15 so we bought two cans of Rustoleum to do the edges and the stairs.

Removing seats, spark by spark and bolt by bolt.