POST # 66
A NEW LOOK
Our bus was professionally converted by Hercules Coach in KY back in 1988. They did a pretty good job, but we had grown weary of the old tile the carpet in the front entrance of the bus...we wanted a fresh, new look. We had been thinking about doing this for the past couple years, but we knew it was going to be quite a job and we really didn't have the time to deal with it until now. So last year when we had the backsplash put in the kitchen area we asked our tile man for a quote...which seemed very fair and doable. Next we had to decide on which tile. After many trips to Home Depot and Lowes and after buying and trying several different patterns and styles we found what we wanted.
It was my job to take out all the old tile, which came up pretty easily, but even so - that took about 2 full days. Then I had to take up a sub floor that was below the tile, then I also had to scrape off the old glue. Most of the flooring beneath all this was in great condition, but there were some areas that needed new plywood - such as in the hallway where there was previously carpet and in the bathroom. The bathroom had tiny tiles and a very poor subfloor. It wasn't even level, so that in itself was quite a project. Working on the hall and the bathroom took another two full days.
My wife and I decided as long as we were this far along with a remake of our interior that we wanted to replace the bottom half of the interior side walls which was a felt-like upholstery material that was discolored and dirty and really needed a facelift. We decided on Wainscoting. Removing the old felt material wasn't too bad until we reached one section under the window where there must have been a leak at one time. That wood was rotten. I replaced that. The water apparently ran from there to behind the driver's seat where I found a piece of metal that had some pretty bad surface rust, so I cleaned that up and treated it with Rust Bullet. Then I had to rebuild that area with new wood. It took me about 2-3 days to do all this and install the new Wainscoting which looks REALLY GOOD!!!
You will also notice in the driver's area on the floor, when I removed the old carpet that had been there I found holes where other seats had been mounted through the years and where the old shifter use to be and no one bothered to cover those holes...so I took care of all of that. Now everything there is sealed with new wood and was made level for tile.
We decided to put Johnsonite Rubber Stair Treads on the first two steps coming into the bus which I bought through a company called Koffler. We've seen this on the newer High-End RVs and Prevosts. We liked the look and felt it was safer option, especially with our grandkids (or anyone for that matter) stepping into the bus.
We are so happy with the end result! Our tile man (who has over 30 years of experience) did an excellent job. It took him 26 to lay the tile. I was amazed that he took about 3 hours to measure and form the lines prior to laying the tile. I was the official string holder. Once he that done, most of the tile went down pretty quickly (one day), until he got to the entrance. That was tedious and he's a perfectionist, but it turned out great!
This was the third largest improvement we've made to our Eagle since we got it. The first was replacing the engine (which I did myself along with Gary and Eric), and then having the front end rebuilt by JB.
(I will have to spread out the pics as each post only allows 8 per post).
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Manny & Darlene's
1972 Silver Eagle 05
VIN # 8851
8V71 / HT740 4 Speed Automatic
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