Subfloor… regret.. or no?

“Jake! I don’t have a license”… “I trust you.”

Hello! I have started to dig back in on the bus, the other day I finished tearing out the thin fiberglass along the wall. I noticed a bit of rust and some metal in very poor condition above the wheel well. Makes sense, the tire spray eventually will find it’s way between the flooring and siding. The insulation and thin fiberglass dip below the level of the subfloor and it’s not clear to me how I’ll determine where any gaps might be and the best way to make repairs.

Subfloors on shuttle busses are made of plywood, which seems odd, the bottom the vehicle is exposed to so much water. Many people that build out campers on a shuttle bus frame replace the subfloor or at least spot replace areas of potential rot. Makes sense, plywood would only last so long. My plan was to tear up the non slip adhesive flooring and get a good look at the shape of the plywood.

When I started pulling up the flooring I was surprised to find a layer of vinyl laminated to the entire subfloor. Kind of an unfortunate find, this doesn’t allow me to see the quality of the plywood underneath the vinyl…ah well, I decided I’ll just tear it all out. This will give me confidence to continue the build out, a chance to take care of any rust on the metal supports and easy access to all of the wiring harnesses I need to either remove or reroute. I decided to make a test cut out to see what will work best to remove the subfloor.

test cut.

Much to my surprise, the plywood was laminated on both sides with vinyl. A nice plywood sandwich between vinyl, which makes a lot of sense, protects the wood from the elements. I’ve watched a fair amount of videos of people doing camper build outs on shuttle bus frames and have not seen this before. This little section of plywood was in perfect condition… ugh. Should I patch this and leave it all in place. Did water get into the flooring by the wheel well? Are the metal supports in good shape? If I don’t remove the flooring how will I get to the area between the wall and flooring that likely needs work? Hmmm. Fuck it, I’m gonna tear it all out.

Here we go. No turning back now. Also, I didn’t bury the angle grinder into the fuel tank and blow myself sky high. Wait, would diesel explode?

Like many aspects of this project have been and will be, as you get rolling and learn techniques and how it’s put together, you get faster and more efficient.

progress.

As I tore more of the flooring out, I could feel regret seeping in. The plywood was in such perfect shape, super heavy duty, and encased in vinyl. With that being said, I’m sure in the end I’ll be glad to have the opportunity to see the true bones of the truck and clean up any rust and have access to stuff that would have been otherwise difficult to reach. I think…

You’ll never have easier access to the spare.