Remodeling the Roof, Part 2 - Entertainment

Before Michael painted the roof, he attached the base of what is to be our future observation deck. Yes, we are going to use ALL of this bus for traveling. No, we won't be on the roof while it's traveling, but when it's parked and secure, we'll have the option of going up top and viewing air shows, stars, whatever.

We didn't have time to construct the deck, but before we painted the roof we had to put on the brackets that would hold the deck. With 4" metal sheets, Michael constructed these brackets all by himself!

The only things he didn't construct were the stainless steel nuts, bolts, and washers. The picture above shows them spray painted with the same gray primer Michael used on the sides of the bus.

We located these brackets along the bus's existing frame. Michael grounded out the rivet heads and popped out the stems. Then we laid the bracket plate over the roof's holes to get the location of where we needed to drill new holds. As Michael was up on the roof holding the bracket in place, I was underneath with a sharpie placing a dot in the middle of the hole. Once we had marked the metal, we drilled the appropriately sized holes. Then we tested all 16 pieces.

Again we didn't put any sealant until all pieces dry-tested well. This time, we didn't use the black tar-like sealant/adhesive. Instead it was a WHITE goop that was only slightly less sticky than the bath fan's adhesive. But we were prepared with wet and dry towels and ruined just small portions of my shorts. When I wash Michael's socks, I still find hardened goop holding on for dear life. Well at least we know the brackets will stay up there!

Another project we did on the roof was to reverse the swing of the escape hatch. To get onto our observation deck, we will go through the emergency exit located in the master bedroom. It originally opened so that you would exit onto the rear of the bus. After switching it over, we will now exit closer to the middle and right onto the metal deck!

Michael wasn't the only one that got to do metal work! The following pictures are the new brackets we had to make for the altered escape hatch door. Uncle Frankie helped me out so much on this project. We sorted through his pile of scrap metal pieces and he showed me how to use the drill press & bench grinder! 

An open letter to my dad. "Dear Dad, Yes, the deck will have railing all around so that we will all be safe. This railing however will collapse when not in use so as to maintain our incognito stealth look."

After all the prep work was done, we were finally able to paint the roof. Well .... More like Michael was able to paint the roof. We used this fancy stuff called BusKote. It's similar to the paint used on roads to deliniate lanes. Within the paint are crystals. When the paint dries, the crystals surface and increase the reflectivity of the paint. This will help insulate the interior of the bus from attracting more heat! But this fancy paint has 3 parts to it. The Primer, the Reflective Paint, and the Clear Coat. And Michael did several layers of every one of those parts!

The roof, sanded and primed to be primered!

2 coats of Bus Kote

1 coat of Flexi-Clear sealer

We had a lot of excess paints and gave them to Dick. Michael totally overestimated how much we needed that we had a whole gallon of BusKote! But it was worth because it gets hot in that bus with the sun beating down on it.

Roof Remodeling Part 1: Functionality

Michael has never been a fan of all the junk that RVers and BusNuts put on their vehicles. He likes the "sleek" look, as he puts it, and wants as little (if nothing) up on the roof so he can avoid letting the world know that we are recreational vehicularists as seen below.

Too Much Stuff!

But we did have to desecrate our bus's roof by installing a bathroom vent on the roof. It will help eliminate odors and circulate any hot air out of the bus.


Step one was to cut a hole. Thank goodness our tall friend Jeff was there to assist. Standing at 6'4", he ripped through the roof. Ok, he also had the help of Michael's new Sawzall, a Father's Day present from Max and Simone. 

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But we did have to desecrate our bus's roof by installing a bathroom vent on the roof. It will help eliminate odors and circulate any hot air out of the bus.

Step one was to cut a hole. Thank goodness our tall friend Jeff was there to assist. Standing at 6'4", he ripped through the roof. Ok, he also had the help of Michael's new Sawzall, a Father's Day present from Max and Simone. 

Well thank goodness for weather sealant and adhesive! And no thanks to the Fleet Farm employees (at least in this one instant). Michael sent me to the store to get some sort of goop that would simultaneously adhere the fin to the roof and be waterproof. Who wants a flooded bathroom, right? I had no idea what to get so I asked. Unfortunately, the advisors at the store were just guessing themselves because they had never had to do something like this. I got the feeling that I should have gone to Home Depot and not to a place where 9 to 5ers go on the weekend to fulfill their man tendencies by buying as much gear and tools as they can to look as if they do fun shit. I still haven't pinpointed what Fleet Farm is. The most accurate and least creative way to put it is, "It's a Big 5 mixed with part Walmart and a splash of Home Depot and a pinch of Petco." Anyway, I got the wrong thing. It was an adhesive and water-resistant, but in tiny print it warned that it should not be under constant exposure to water. One of the criteria I gave the 2 employees!

Luckily Michael went in and found the right thing - a sticky globby substance that was a bitch to work with. We're not professionals so we erred on the side of more instead of less goop. 

Our Vent Drowning in Weatherproof Sealant!

Michael would slather the sealant onto the bus, then drop the vent and then push the bolts through, which also oozed the sealant through to the interior of the bus. I was inside under those bolts frantically trying to put 2 washers (one flat and one lock) and a nut through the bolt's threads. Why was I frantic? Because this miracle gunk dried in 30 minutes and we had to tighten it into place within that time frame. 

Michael had to fabricate 2 metal frame pieces onto which the 2 sides of bolts would latch. It took quite a while to test, but it was a good thing we did it before we applied the sealant. It definintely took about 2+ hours to test and widen holes where the bolts weren't fitting in properly.