AGAIN, LOOK AT PHOTOS 1ST, THEN READ THIS IF YOU WISH FOR EXPLANATIONS.
I am being as thorough as I can be is just my nature and I am sorry for the length of all this information but I believe it will help many needing this for food and thought for their own interest in converting a bus or how to repair their bus now if needed. In years to come, (and not many) a lot of these ole girls will require some major surgery to make them roadworthy. NOT ALL of them but many that have been neglected in the past. OK, enough of that, now on to my repair story.
The beginning photos show my view of the bus when I really got into it at home after believing the previous owner everything is great on this bus, I was so damn excited about owning a real eagle bus of my own. I just knew I could FIX ANYTHING, and I did and still am!! Anyhow you now see my alternator compartment as purchased with an undersized (Car Alternator I imagine) used to charge bus batteries.
Well now this is mine, I opened the door again in this area, and just moved by hand the main charging cable to the batteries on the alternator and the cable, (broke off in my hand). The wires inside of the rubber casing were very, very brittle and I am just sure now that I have another serious problem to solve. Looking at the actual compartment housing the alternator also showed I had real rust issues, (What’s freakin new here), anyhow after days of sitting again and planning or trying to plan what in hell to do I finally come up with a design in my head and the end result is exactly as I had imagined for a couple of weeks that it took to upgrade this area.
Now with this broken cable in my hand and that crappy wiring panel box over the engine looking me in the face I know I have to also plan to (rewire the entire bus). Jesus, what in hell did I do to deserve this $30,000 albatross and what do I do now?? Scrap it?? Well losing all that money just was not an option so now as stubborn again as I always am and have been at every part of the bus worked on so far I choose to just grin and bear it, but I admit, there were a few tears here every now and then. No man likes to be beat down at this cost, I will prevail and bring this ole neglected girl back to life to live way longer than I ever will.
The alternator compartment adjusting decking was really bad by now after all these years, once rust starts, unless cut out and recoated will continue like cancer in a human and after all the years of working on this bus from one end to the other the rust just continued traveling and eating up my bus ahead of me, but I was catching up you bastard. You are now seeing the important end of my not knowing what in hell I was inspecting and purchasing with my heart instead of my brain has now taken it’s toll and now I must pay for that ignorance. I have paid, over and over but I am now giving everyone that has the stomach to see these post the knowledge of how to inspect for themselves if they watch them over and over. I will never get back the years of my life spent working thousands of hours under this bus but when I sit here sending out this information to you I get rewarded knowing no one, no one has to go through what I have and still am but you now have knowledge of what to look for, how to repair and what to “RUN THE HELL AWAY FROM’. Well back to the business of this post.
Knowing even the lower decking etc. of this compartment is rotted throughout, I also took off the back bumper which was to be replaced with my design as I intended to make an access door for this area so you can easily adjust the alternator belts when they stretch. Inspection of this and adjustment will now be much easier in the future for my wife’s next husband. Hahaha
I now have ruined my 1st grinder and went and purchased a newer stronger one as the older one has certainly paid for itself with the abuse I gave it. It was a 4” grinder and I used 6” cutting wheels on it. Do not ask how many leather gloves I have cut through and cut fingers I got over the years. I did it with a grinder that was clean cutting over using a torch and besides, a torch will not cut through rust very well and blows all over hell and on and on. Who cares how much time it takes to do what I do at this stage, I am not holding up anyone on my progress.
It took much time to figure out how to match the back curve of the alternator compartment but as you see I did this by tack welding clips around the inside diameter of the Eagle curve and then took 11 ga. Strap steel and bend and tack welded to clips. I then took 1 ½” tubing, cut slots in it at 1” intervals about 90% through the tubing. I bent this to the curve also, tack welded this to the inside facia and continued with an outside facia and tack welded it to the bent tubing. Then I had a hell of a lot of welding to do to make this all one solid piece as if rolled it with a machine but it was sure a lot of work to do and a lot of welding.
After cutting all the old crap out of the alternator compartment this compartment sure looked naked and funny with it all gone. There are photos here also of the actual decking removed from underneath it when I cut it off. Rust just does not stop on its own once started. You have to kick it’s ass or be in denial but I just know a lot of guys will be looking at the back end of their buses tonight after reading and seeing all these photos. Do this before it is too late and something falls off into the road and into someone else’s vehicle behind you. I am just saying here. Be informed and cautious and safe for your vehicle and all around you when you travel.
Getting all this done above becomes a reward when you start to see the end result and when this area is all painted and now with a new heavier duty alternator installed I feel good about looking at this and with all my newly designed access doors all assembled, I am thinking as I look at it was it all worth it?? “HELL YEA”.
I know, another long post, but I hope you at least enjoyed the photos. Enjoy.