First Day of Work

Yesterday we made good progress on getting Towanda ready for fresh paint.

Peter THOROUGHLY cleaned her, using Crud Cutter and a tool that a friend of mine invented; The T-Scrub (more info at www.vrhel.com). This device is powered by the water it uses to scrub...and it did a GREAT job on the bus.

Here's Peter's advice of the day: "A bus gets dirty like a car does. However a bus is a really LARGE vehicle, and takes a long time to wash, partly on account of all the corrugated ridgy bits. THINK about that, when choosing your paint color."

I worked, too, scrubbing my girl thoroughly on the inside with water (I used a hose with high pressure nozzle in the back), and orange cleaner in the front. I wouldn't exactly eat off the floor, but now when I step out of the bus I don't feel the immediate need for a shower.

I removed all the screws and plates from the ceiling and wall fixtures as part of the prep work required to get Towanda ready for painting. Much more to do on that score...

Late in the day, Peter decided to see what was involved in removing the seats. The aisle set of legs are bolted through the floor with four bolts, and the window legs are bolted to a metal rail. We have chosen NOT to unbolt the floor bolts, but rather to just cut the bolt heads off so we don't end up with a bunch of holes open to the ground that will later need to be sealed. Phooey on that!

Did I mention we opted for The Easy Button with this project? Whenever and wherever possible, that is. Why make life any harder than it has to be?

The window bolts were a tad devilish to access, but Peter finally figured out that he could easily get to them if the seat bottoms were gone, so four phillips head screws later, Peter was moving forward with the seat removal. Of course, feeling good about his progress was the cue for the Cosmos to thrown ye olde spanner in the works. Actually, Peter simply did his Dark Trick - he overpowered the tool, shredding the socket. Peter is a 6' 4", 220 lb Dane (I call him The Oak), and he has a long history of killing tools. We have a 6 foot crowbar that has a nice bend in the middle...yup, Peter used it to pry. Whenever possible, we try to buy tools that are bigger and heavier than usual, but they're few and far between. Peter's loppers are 4 feet long, and I can barely lift them. He's already broken two of the smaller kind. *sigh* The world simply isn't built for the under or oversized.

Broken tool and twilight = time to stop. Tomorrow is another day.