This is one hairy scary project. I can't stress enough how uncomfortable it makes me to cut a giant hole in my roof. Potential for leaks being my primary concern, especially since the hatch will be right over my bed. I purchased a voluminous amount of sealant. Butyl tape, Butyl caulk, rubber weatherstrip and 3 caulks of silicone. It may turn out to be the most weatherproof area of the bus when I am done.
Today I tackled the exterior skin.
Tracing of roof hatch frame
Tricky because my bus has an arched roof and the roof hatch I cut off the transit bus is flat.
So I drilled a hole to give my jig saw a starting point. The first hole is the deepest.
I found my first mistake after I had cut three quarters of the hatch. Seems cutting dead center of the rivets wasn't exactly the best way to go. Each beam has two rows of rivets (see first photos). One to fasten the sheet metal to the beam and the other to fasten the sheet metal to another piece of sheet metal. I ran into a beam with my jig saw. On the bright side, my guess that the roof was insulated was confirmed.
I removed insulation to view inner skin of the roof.
Then I started cutting the other way, since the beam was stopping previous progress. I came across a hose carrying a golden liquid. I don't know what it is or what purpose it serves. I am just glad I didn't cut it.
Here is the semi-finished product with roof hatch installed. (You can notice the grinder marks around the rim where I used a grinder to remove the rivets that held it to the other bus)
Now the second issue arose...The depth of the hatch frame wasn't the same as the depth of my roof.
So now I have to figure out how to bend the frame to fit the curve and how to make it go deeper. A light snow shower brought my work today to a halt. I will finish up tomorrow. I broke 7 jig saw blades cutting the exterior skin. Dan has let me borrow a sawzall to cut the interior skin. Now if I can make it all fit.
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