The Recycled Wood Floor

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the wood for the floor came from disassembling production "flats" which are sort of light moveable walls for sets and such. Nando and some friends broke up flat after flat and collected and cleaned each 1x4 of nails and staples by hand and then sanded them.

The walls and floor are insulated with foam and a layer of luon, the walls were framed with some wood molding to cover the metal lip that the original seats were connected to and also to hide the space between the luon and the foam insulation.

Insulating the Floor and Window Tinting

After we treated the rust we laid a layer of insulating foam board, then a layer of luon (which is a thin ply wood) then we nail gunned our wood floor. The luon was obtained from the installation we did for Art Basel Miami week 2008, the wood floor was framing from production flats.

The work area: Chris'dog Chica and Pedro's table saw.

The front of the bus with insulating foam and WVO tank.

The insulating foam.

Luon as panels on the walls from floor up to windows.

Cutting the luon to size.

We had a number on curious visitors always popping their heads through the back to see what was going on. We contacted the land owner across the street from our house and traded him one of my paintings in exchange for letting us park the bus on his land for a few months. All the neighbors and their kids watched all the building process. At first folks were dubious, but as they saw things coming along everyone became really friendly and encouraging.

Luciano helps his father with everything with such an innate knowledge.

Luon on walls.

Luciano with bus keys on a lunch break.

Persephone on the watch. Little does she know the bus is her new home.

Chica wondering what to do with herself.

Luciano curious to play with Gabriel's paints.

A self-portrait with Nando.

Flying paint brush.

Mango tree.

Nando has spent so much time at the table saw, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even use the guide any longer. He often needs an extra set of hands but mine are full so the chemical barrel suffices.

Luon and wall paneling almost complete.

Window tinting.

We sold our car and part of the payment was tinting for the windows.

The tinting has been really good, it helps keep the bus like a Trojan horse.
During the day no one can see inside, but for night with any interior lights on you can see through. So curtains are in order.

Waste Vegetable Oil Tank

By suggestion of a friend of a friend who has also converted a bus to run on WVO(waste vegetable oil)

we used a guy up North from Miami to do our conversion. He was super nice and we explained that we had little money and he gave us a price and we thought it fair.

We took the bus to him and gave him half of the money and after he was finished gave him the rest of what was owed. We were so excited about the tank and running on WVO.

But, of course there has to be a "but":

the tank was suppose to be 100 gallons, when we filled it up it only took 70-71 gallons of oil.

The tank was suppose to be flush to the window and designed to be like a sofa or bench, as to keep the oil warm and function as a piece of furniture, but it looks as though it was installed upside down and the bottom comes out too far and the top does not reach to the top. Very awkward.

Also, he cut the heater line, used "used" parts that we were billed for as new, over piped everything and every WVO person we meet who looks at our system says "wait, why did they do that."

Worst of all: The mechanic who did the install, this super nice Lebanese guy with the sweetest little children calls us up cussing and swearing that he over spent and we should pay him with no receipts or anything in writing.

It stressed us out for a little, but realized that we had more important problems to attend.

Here is the tank.

total cost with installation and lots of BS: $4,500.00

twice as much as the bus cost.

Preparing the floor

Once the seats were out Nando stripped the rubber out from the center and started removing the rust.

We pressure washed the inside, put a rust converter, then painted the floor with Rustoleum.

Nando scraping the rust off the under side of the bus, just before he got a shard stuck in his eye.

Nando learned to weld from his friend Rudolph Kohn, who helped him weld these metal boxes that act as a secret compartment in the bus.

Floor with rust converter and the start of applying Rustoleum

FIN, a hopefully rust proof floor.

Removing the seats

The task of removing the seats was probably the most time consuming and challenging.

Nando used an angle grinder and just cut the heads off of each bolt.

Fortunately we had help from our friend who was visiting the States for the first time from Tuscany.

The first seat out.

Italiano.

Number Two.

We had the bus parked behind our friends warehouse in Wynwood.
It was short lived, since there were other retailers and a hot headed Colombian with over gelled hair and pointy leather snake print boots. Should of got a picture of him, but at least I have one in my mind. 

Luciano was strapped to me all the day. So the rest of the work went undocumented since I couldn't bare the weight and heat of the asphalt another day.

Thanks to Lale and Carol for letting us use their warehouse parking lot!