This is a lengthy post of photos for this section of the (replacement and fabricating of new baggage bay doors and bay framing replacement). Much time and planning was needed as I sat in front of my baggage bay area for days trying to figure out what to do and how in hell to do it. You have no idea what amount of time this took and the chances I took both removing and reassembling the bay doors. This is not recommended to do alone but you have to do what you have to do if you have no one to depend upon. I removed the bay doors Carefully as they are not that heavy but bulky as they are 5 ft. in length, and you have 2 loose doors to catch your fingers on etc. After removing the doors I removed the small vertical strip of siding on each door frame side of the doors and when I did you will see AGAIN what I found in this area!! It was the old usual of course because of rain water running down behind the siding and really attacking the bus frame material as well as the dissimilar materials of aluminum to steel. It just is not good after many years and no protection. I took the old doors and one at a time I removed all the hardware, (aluminum support hinges, door locking devices and door handles). Now I had to plan what in hell to do with them on the new doors and make them work. I also came up with a plan for replacing the vertical door struts on each side of the doors which rotted right out, wait till you see the piles of rust coming from inside the tubes as I cut them out. After assembling new insulated doors with all recycled hardware I could I had to come up with a procedure to remount the doors, Yep Alone Again. Well I got used to doing this work alone in a way and always had a plan in my mind what to do if I had to, and I did. Besides supporting the doors as I slid them on the rubber hinges I also had to support them on my back as they slid on, all this was a freakin ‘treat I would never ever think of doing again. You will get a glimpse also of the smooth siding on the right side of the bus all welded in place and the recycled wheel well rims all caulked in place to prevent rain water and dirt from ever getting to the new wheel well hoops I had rolled to the diameter of the originals. All this took months to do, much patience and sometimes just time away from reconnecting to the importance of this project to no one but ME. With so many projects being done in succession the new doors I installed they started to show rust on the new metal from the winter weather of about 4 months after fabricating and mounting them. So I had to grind them down with a grinder and quickly recoat them with rattle cans of primer for temporary use as the finish priming paint will be spray painted at one time and I could only work on one area a little at a time. You will see in some photos a comparison of the new doors that open way up further than the original doors that you had to stoop under and this was very dangerous as well to the head of anyone needing to do something in the baggage bays. I have a lot, I mean a lot of work ahead of me to complete prepping for paint and I’ll do it but I have to do it at my pace. During this 20 years of working on this bus off and on I have had 3 back surgeries, a heart attack, 5 months of Sciatica where I was bed ridden, Staph infection for 6 weeks from one of my back surgeries, neck surgery on my vertebrae, a hernia operation and got fatter than hell from sitting around, up to 256lb, at 5’8”. Oh yea, I also got COPD from smoking causing me much shortness of breath every day now. So, this is what I have been up against also for the last 8 years I would say, just when I got the oldest!! So anyhow if you want to know why it has taken me so long to accomplish all I have the above 8 years were all a bummer to live through and keep going. I told someone in one of my comments I never give up and I don’t. Oh well, enough of that fiddle playing, here are the photos of the fun I had with all its challenges of working on my baggage bay doors and framing. Enjoy, thigh is enough for the day. Thanks for reading this long son of a gun.