The Outside Once I removed all of the junk and had an empty interior and blank, rusty exterior I felt like I could start the build up. However, I first had to contend with a LOT of exterior rust. Every single one of the 57,000 rivets was rusty. So, I did what any totally insane person would do and purchased a $12 siphon feed sandblaster wand for my wimpy air compressor. I spent the next 3 weeks sandblasting the exterior with $2-a-bag play sand from the Home Depot. I also did a lot of grinding, sanding and priming the exterior. Woo hoo! |
 Starting the sheet metal skin. I got this stuff called "paint prep" from a sheet metal fabrication company near my house. Apparently it is ready to paint without having to strip all of the oil that is normally on sheet metal. One rivet every three inches, please. My dad was down helping me out with the project and he told me I was over engineering it. Ironically, he is an engineer. |
 No more bus lights on the front. Nice and smooth. I like it. I put the lines on with a Sharpie to make sure I got the rivets installed uniformly. |
 Those bus windows were leaky and ugly. They had to go! |
 More sheet metal over the windows. |