Rust Treatment

Retro has a number of spots where water has leaked in, particularly in the bedroom along the rear wall.  The water soaked some of the wood, destroying it and also got under the floor wood and rusted the 14 gauge steel deck in some spots.

I am using a product called Ospho to treat the rust.  According to it's manufacturer it will convert the iron oxide (rust) into iron phosphate, which is a stable metal.  After treatment and conversion, I will paint the deck with some self-etching primer.    This may be a slight problem, since the metal is galvanized and most paints do not stick to galvanized metal.  The rust-oleum self-etching primer was the only kind that did not indicate on the label not to use on galvanized metal.    After I bought some I investigated further on the rust-oleum website and it said there that it was not for galvanized metal, but I am hoping that after treatment with the ospho,  the paint will stick.   In any case,  the paint will be under the wood floor and I am not concerned with appearances.  I was hoping for some additional rust protection, but if the paint does not stick, it means the galvanized coating is still good and that should protect against rust, particularly since there should be no more moisture standing on the steel.

I think I am going to embed some moisture sensors in the walls and floors around the water system and plumbing,  maybe even under the windows.   The sensors should be cheap, and I can build a little arduino based system to monitor them and let me know if a leak starts.

Here is the floor with some ospho on it:

I will post more pictures after this weekend.    These are from last weekend.

Here is what I worked on tonight:

That is fresh wet water from a leak in the rear window (left side,  right of picture)  from the rain we had a few days ago.  It is neat to have the walls stripped and see where the leaks are.   I am going to try to find some new rubber seal that goes around the window and holds it into the bus.  If I can't find new seal, I will work to clean up what is there and possibly seal it with an appropriate caulk.  I think I will be able to find some seal that will work, though.   The floor was dry tonight, so I wire brushed all the loose rust away,  vacuumed the dust and painted ospho on.   The ospho is fairly dangerous to work with - it contains phosphoric acid as well as other stuff.  It stinks and can burn skin, so protective equipment is required when working with it.   I put a fairly small amount in a paint mixing cup - perhaps 10-20 cc's or so.  Then I brush it on and work it into the rust.   I spread it pretty thin - it is about as viscous as water.  If needed I will go back and do another coat tomorrow, let it dry till Saturday and then spray paint Saturday afternoon.

I may rent a MIG welder this weekend and patch the hole(s) in the floor.   There is about a 4" hole where the water tank drain was,  and lots of small holes - perhaps 1/8"  where the wood was screwed to the deck.   I got a nice piece of 14Ga steel and a box of 100  #14 X 1-1/4  screws - exactly like the ones I pulled out of the floor. If welding the small holes closed is impractical, I have some JB weld to seal them up with.  I just don't want the wood of the floor exposed to the outside if I can help it.

 It is exciting to think that the step of installing new 5/8 marine plywood onto the deck is coming up - perhaps even this weekend!    I will probably paint the wood with some epoxy paint - perhaps I should let it dry for a week before installing the floor.   I will read about epoxy paint and try to figure out the best thing to do.

Progress!!

Well, it's been two weeks and I have actually made some progress on Retro.  At first I was sort of... stuck.   I figured I needed to get the bedroom cabinets out in order to remove the wall paneling, some of which had been water damaged.  There were screws holding the top of the front of the cabinets to the ceiling, but I was uncertain of how the rest of the cabinets were held in.   It turned out to be a stack of 1X2 furring at the back which the rear of the bottoms of the cabinets were nailed into.  The furring stack was screwed to the metal frame of the bus.   Using a prybar I was able to get the cabinets out without too much damage,  and when I replace them, I will screw the back to the stack of furring strips so that it can be removed more easily in the future.

After getting the cabinets out, the wall paneling came pretty easily, I had to cut some sections but mostly I was able to pry it off.    Some of the fiberglass insulation was soaked and moldy, all the rotted wood and moldy fiberglass went to the dump.   Fortunately the specially cut corners were intact and I can use the old wall panel sections as templates for the new replacement wood.

After getting the walls out, I took out the aluminum water tank, plumbing and water pump. Then  I ripped up the carpet - both the "nice" carpet in the walkway and the industrial soundproofing carpet which had been under the beds.    This exposed the wood underlayment of  the floor,  some of which had also been rotted away from water leaks over the years.

Now the metal floor of the bus is exposed and there are a few issues to take care of!   First there is about a 4 inch hole which had been cut for the fresh water tank drain / cleanout.   Having looked in the tank (uugghh!)  I am pretty sure I am replacing it with a shiny new plastic one, so the hole can be closed and a new (smaller) hole installed for the new tank.  I want to weld a plate into the hole (or over it perhaps) to restore the structural integrity of the floor.   Also,  the floor is rusted in several areas.   This will be a job for Ospho rust converter.   The Ospho will convert the rust into Iron Phosphate, which is a stable form of metal.   I will then paint the entire floor with a good rust-resistant primer.

In addition to the demolition on the bedroom,  I removed the Jacknife sofa from the living room.This will let me remove and replace the water damaged wall panels which were behind the couch.

This brings us about up to date.
The next few weeks will see us working on:

Continued removal of bedroom floor,  covering drain hole,  fixing rust, priming floor
Replacing wood sub-floor in bedroom
Replacing wood furring strips in bedroom
Demolition of walls in living room
Replacing wood furring strips in living room
Replacing window framing (plywood) in bedroom and living room.



Maybe I will update in one week instead of two next time.