Ended up buying a second gallon of Smoke Grey.
Due to 50°F weather, the paint has not quite finished drying. At least not enough that I feel comfortable walking on it to put the top coat on. Delayed until tomorrow.
Got the Rust-Oleum Clean Metal Primer down today. Phew. Fumy.
Cough. Sputter. Good lord that was a lot of dust even with mask. Due to the severity, I ended up using a fine steel wire brush on the drill. Worked perfect. Swept and air hosed out the bus several times. Everything is ready for tomorrow being paint day. Assuming I don’t end up seriously ill.
Bus smoke! Don’t breathe this!
Seriously. Wear a mask. That thick white powder is zinc oxide. You know, the stuff that makes welders sick? While I was smart enough to wear the mask for the bulk of today’s experimental scrubbing in a dry area, I failed to do so in a patch at the back door. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make me feel like crap. It isn’t just for welders to keep in mind.
This time I was smart enough to wear gloves and rubber boots. Yay me.
Started a bit late today, ground down all the rust with a 6″ course grind wheel on a drill. An angle grinder or some such probably would have been better as while the drill was far more maneuverable, it was shaking hell out of my hands. That matters when you are doing several hours of that crap.
I’ve also removed the radiator hoses on the loop leading to the passenger front and passenger back heaters. Didn’t like the fluids one bit, more on that in a following post.
After sweeping and using compressed air to clean out all the debris, I used a strong solution of TSP in hot water and a scrub bush to work my way across each panel, spraying and scrubbing. After that ordeal, I used remaining solution to spray over the entire floor and some spots I wanted to insure were clean. This was soon followed up with hosing out the bus with a spray nozzle several times until I was satisfied. Remaining standing water was swept out, fan was put in on high to help it all evaporate one more time.
So, apparently painting is a lot more difficult than I thought. After a good amount of research, I’ve reworked the plan and bought all the appropriate products.
Physical Clean:
Chemical Clean:
Paint:
The end color will be Smoke Grey in this case as it was the least offensive not-white color available locally. So far as I can tell via hours of research and talking to several people, this is indeed the best route to go if not overkill. As I have no bloody intention of having to do this again, overkill is good!
I’ve yet to decide what manner of topping will go onto this. If I go with foam panels for the floor, I will likely end up going with a spray in truck bed liner for long term durability and sound dampening. If I go with a high density spray in foam for the floor similar to what I intend to do for walls and ceiling, it will likely stay as it is. The latter is a bit more expensive in the short term, but I am leaning strongly in that direction.