The bus is back!!!

Damn. rivets. All 50 of them…

The Ford dealership has had the bus for the past 5 weeks… frustrating, but they are cool guys and did good work. New tires, new batteries, ball joints, WHEELCHAIR RAMP REMOVED!!!, and few other odds and ends. The mechanic said it was in good shape. No rust, well maintained and solid mechanical condition. Feels good to have it gone over and come back driving nice.

I’ll take the Cobalt please.

To be honest, I was kind of dreading getting the bus back. Prior to taking it to the dealership I was working on removing a shit ton of rivets that keep the thin layer of fiberglass and seat brackets fastened to the metal framing. I broke a few carbide drill bits trying to remove them and didn’t get one out. Totally defeated.

Turns out cobalt bits are not has hard as carbide but less brittle. The key was punching out the pin and then slowly drill the aluminum.

Farmer Ted.

Them rivets got to go.

done.