Day 5

     Today I took after the back 4 rows of seating. I wasn't going to do anything about the seating for a few weeks but after going up and down the isles a couple times while planing where I was going to put the camping gear I found it was just to tight between the seats.  Taking some rear seating out would give tons of room to accommodate anything I could think of bringing and it would be easy to load in and out from the rear door.

    The seats are bolted down with 8 bolts. 4 through the floor at the base of the legs and 2 where the seating meets the support rail on the wall.  It was really pretty simple to remove the bolts as a few would just break but most easily come loose. I worked from underneath the bus with my Milwaukee cordless impact while using a pair of vise grips inside the bus to brace the bolt heads.  I removed all the bolts in the last 4 rows and I started pulling the seats out. I was surprised as to how light they actually were. A quick clean of the floor and some caulk to fill the bolt holes in the floor so no critters try to stake a claim on the place and it was time to get the camping gear loaded.

     With all the gear loaded and a few hours of daylight left to kill I headed out for a quick bite to eat and then started putting up the ceiling insulation. To line it with the foam I cut the 4x8 sheets down 6 inches to 7 ft 6 inches and literally arched them into place. They stay up by tension and hug the roof line nicely. I have used 6 sheets to do the majority of the ceiling and just have the back foot over the rear door and the area  over the driver to finish.  I left these area undone for now until I decide exactly how I want to finish those areas. It looks pretty good and my daughter is sure to love the pink color. I will live with the pink for now knowing that I will be finishing it with something nice down the road.  It was a productive day and as I finished up I sat down in the rear doorway to watch the sun setting  and the moon which had already risen and enjoy a few minutes at the end of the evening.

     I'm so excited to pick up the kids for our first trip tomorrow. I will be surprising my kids with the bus when I pick them up at 9 a.m. They know where going camping but I haven't said a word to them about the bus.