Skoolie windows tend to leak.
Fact.
I don’t want leaks in our bus.
Fact.
Thus, we wanted to remove any skoolie window that would be hidden by some sort of closet or cabinet.
In addition, by law we needed take out the school bus sign and flasher lights. Well, just need to make them not visible.
We could have simply painted over them, but, then again, we would be keeping another aperture that, with our luck, would welcome water like a thirsty marathoner.
Nope. They had to go.
Materials
The frugal pack-rat that I am, (“Yes, dear, those little metal whosamawhatsits might come in really handy one day!”) I had saved several sheets of the metal that we took down from the ceiling.
I should have saved more.
So with that and some steel rivets and 3M 5200 marine adhesive, we set about to augment the water security of our skoolie.
Process
Removing School Bus Sign
When I first showed pictures of our skoolie to my school’s transportation director he said, “Oh, that’s a New York bus.”
Really? How’d you know that?
“By the school bus sign…that’s they way they do them over there.”
Our sign is actually a sheet of 1/4″ plastic that’s grommeted into the body steel.
And the grommet is rugged!
I couldn’t peel or pry it off. I wound up taking a box-cutter knife and slicing half of the bottom lip off. Then I could push the lower quarter out. This loosened up the rest of the piece enough that I could wrestle it free.
Skinning the Opening
I measured the opening, then drew out the shape on a piece of ceiling metal. Using some electric shears, (I love these things! I can’t cut a straight line with an angle grinder to save my life. These shears, though are fast and easy!) I cut out the shape.
Next, I took my angle grinder and smoothed out the burs on both sides.
After wiping it down with acetone to get rid of any oils or dirt, I sprayed to light coats of Rustoleum self etching primer.
I’m not sure if I needed a self-etching primer or not. My understanding is that you need self-etching primers, one that use a chemical bond to stick to the metal, on materials like galvanized steel and aluminum.
I know that the windows are aluminum, so I had the primer on hand for them, so I used it.
And, the ceiling material might be galvanized steel. I don’t know a lot about metals, so I’m not sure.
Anyhoo, after the primer dried, I readied for riveting
Riveting the School Bus Sign Patches
I had used stainless steel rivets on the floor because, since they would be covered up on the top and inaccessible, I wanted as much corrosion protection as possible.
However, finding stainless steel rivets is difficult and expensive, so I went with regular steel: 3/16″ in diameter and 1/4″ long.
I drilled hole in the center of the opening at both the top and bottom. Then, since Julie was off at work, so I had my daughter help. I held up the patch metal to the opening while she marked the the hole placement on the patch through the holes I had just drilled.
I drilled out the marks, then used a couple of clecos to hold it in place.
Then I marked the rivet run.
Rivet Rules
There are rules for riveting and if you don’t follow them, a badass woman in a bandana comes running out of the woods and gives you a noogie.
Edge Distance
- 2-4 times rivet diameter
- 2.5 is standard
- Thus: 3/16 rivet = 15/32 from edge
In addition, the distance apart is called “Pitch.”
Rivet Pitch
- 3-12 times rivet diameter
- Thus: 3/16×12 =. 36/16 = 2 1/4″
Rivet Length
- =1.5 x rivet diameter + combined thicknesses of all metal joined
- Thus about 1/8 + 3/16= 5/16″
I followed these rules religiously.
Well, not really. If you see me around the bus casting glances back to the bushes it’s because I’m paranoid about that bandana woman.
See, I didn’t have that much space to the edge. The curve of the metal there didn’t give me much room to wedge a patch in there. So I did my best.
I did follow the pitch rules, Rosie, I swear.
And I had to go with 1/4″ rivets instead of 5/16″ ones because they were all I could find.
Drilling Rivet Holes
Having secured the patch with clecos (They are marvelous little critters!) and marked the pitch, I set about drilling 1.9 million holes.
Tedious.
Be sure to have a sharp bit made for metal.
I did and it still seemed to take an eternity and a half to get them all drilled.
After each hole I would add a cleco to keep the patch tight against the bus. When I ran out of clecos, I took the ones out from earlier in the pitch and reinserted them close to where I was drilling.
Sealing
Once I had completed drilling (phew), I put a bead of 3M 5200 Marine Adhesive around the edge of the patch for two reasons:
- I wanted a water-tight seal
- Knowing the rivets were a bit close to the edge I wanted extra strength
Then, trying not to slather adhesive all over myself or the bus, I reinserted a few clecos to hold the patch in place.
Julie riveted like the wind while worked on drilling holes for other patches.
Well, she tried to rivet like the wind.
She was wind ready. The riveter was not.
Our electric shears and grinder worked marvelously well on this project. Our Harbor Freight pneumatic riveter did not!
It jammed.
Over and over.
I had to keep taking it apart, knocking out the stuck mandrel and putting it back together.
It might have been faster to hand rivet it. (Probably not…but close!)
Anyway…we finally got both the sign openings covered up.
We repeated the process for the flasher lights.
Quick note: the front and the rear are not the same size! I fall into this trap too often. They look the same, so I assume that they are, then, after I’ve clambered all the way up there with materials and tools in hand I discover that, alas, they are not the same at all and I need to climb back down, recut and repaint said material.
Grumble. I should have known better.
Skinning Skoolie Windows
Covering the skoolie windows turned out to be a bit more complex.
First, instead of simply drilling new holes, we needed to remove existing rivets that inconveniently lay in the way.
I tried grinding the back side of the rivet from inside the bus. I could reach some of them.
The ones at the top and bottom of the skoolie windows opening, however, I couldn’t reach. So I had to grind them down from the outside. And these 1/2″ rivet heads took a bit of grinding.
Once I got down to the rivet pin, I used a 3/16′ punch and a hammer to persuade the rest of the rivet to move on.
This was also tricky. The rivets on the bottom of the window held together three sheets of steel so the rivet pin kept getting stuck. I ended up drilling most of these out.
The spacing of these rivets were about 4″ apart and I wanted more of a pitch, so I drilled additional holes 2″ in between.
Skoolie Window Skins
Skin Prep
I had prepared the skoolie windows skins the same way I had with the sign and flasher patches: with shears, a grinder and self-etching primer.
I wedged the skins up under the rain gutter just over the skoolie windows. (I had bend them open a bit with a prybar) and then clamped them to the bus ribs. Then, using the holes already drilled in the bus as marker, I drilled through the skin material.
Drilling Holes for Skoolie Windows Skins
It was tough to jam the patch up under the rain gutter. In fact, on a couple I just couldn’t get them all the way to the top, so there’s a small gap there that I think I will fiberglass over to keep it weather-tight.
After finishing all the holes, I removed the clamps, put a bead of adhesive around the opened of the bus, then used clecos the reattach the skin to the skoolie window opening.
Riveting Skoolie Window Skins
Using the persnickety rivet gun again, I secured the skoolie windows patch in place.
It was tougher getting everything to line up as well here. As much as I am loving the clecos, they don’t hold well with multiple layers of metal. It was also tough to clamp the patches in the middle of the bottom. Thus, the “give” there created some inaccuracies in the drilling. The holes didn’t always line up perfectly, so I had to bore them out a bit more occasionally which slowed down the riveting process.
Conclusion
Sealing up the School bus sign, warning flashers and skoolie windows took about four days total.
As I have said, the shears, grinder and clecos were great assets.
In hindsight, I would have spent an extra $20 and gotten a better riveter.
Another note about the marine adhesive: It takes several days if not more to fully dry. It’s messy stuff. However, we used it for our floor patches, many without rivets, and they held up all winter with us walking around in there doing various wring projects.
Like most skoolie projects, it took longer than expected, not as neat and tidy as I would have hoped, but looks like it will work.
And I’m a better riveter now than I was a few weeks ago!
Thanks for reading, feel free to ask any questions or give advice in the comments below!
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