Removing School Bus Home Rust

Since we never intended to do any of the demo on our school bus home, I wasn’t mentally prepared for what we would find when we lifted the flooring of our skoolie to expose the metal floor. So. Much. Rust. If I had spent any time at all looking at other buses that were at that stage of the build, I would have known what to expect. Rust is common. These buses have spent years transporting kids who have been standing in the rain, spilling their water bottles, and vomitting into your new home. Lovely image, right? You’re welcome! Above, you can see the nervous look on my face as I walked into the bus for the first time to see it without the flooring. So much nervous energy in that space.

I know a lot of people grind it away, but we didn’t have time to do that. We were in the process of moving, selling everything we owned, and starting our homeschool year. My father-in-law had a great idea though. He found someone who agreed to sandblast the floor for $200. I’m not sure how much everyone spends on the supplies to grind the rust away, but this felt like a steal. The floors went from this:

Ignore the blue tape! This floor plan didn’t work. You can see our new school bus home floor plan here.

Below you can see the finished results. Notice the dark places on the steps. Those are holes where the rust ate all the way through.

Even now, with all the rust gone, it is hard to look at this stage of our school bus home. I was convinced we had really messed up by purchasing this specific bus once I saw those floors.

Before and After Bus Conversion Rusted Floor

Here is a side by side comparison below. I’m so happy with how they turned out and I feel like we got our money’s worth. One fellow bus conversion owner said it took her two days to get the rust out of her bus.

The next step was to put down paint that stopped the rust from coming back. Again, my father-in-law took the lead and found this yellow paint to help with that part.