Washroom Removal

After removal of the overhead racks, the washroom was the next on the list.

The dreaded washroom.....

Where to begin??? Again, I had heard horror stories about removing the washroom. I had talked at length to others who have gone through it. Dave, Peter, Jon, and others had given me tips and all had indicated that it was no fun. One advantage I had over them was that when Ken (the fellow I bought the bus from) had the engine out, he had the foresight to remove the tank. Thanks Ken!

So, this can't be that bad. It went in there, it has to come out, too! Just a matter of analyzing how it's put together and then take it apart in the same order. Right?

The most obvious place to start was with the door. It's hinge was screwed to the side wall, and on the inside, there was a bracket that was attached to the air cylinder under the sink that helped to keep it closed. I pulled the screws in the hinge, and unscrewed the bracket, and the door was free. Well, it's a beginning.

After the door came off, I removed the striker plate and found a microswitch in there. I realized it was attached to that nifty "WASHROOM" light on the outside, and when the door was closed, it was supposed to turn the light on to indicate it is occupied. Cool. I might be able to use this in the conversion. I carefully removed the light, and microswitch assembly.

The door jamb and header were next. The jamb was screwed to the front wall, and after removing all the screws, it separated from the wall, and came off easily. The header came out just as easily, having only a few screws holding it in place. The track remained in which held the header, and also held the side wall, remained on the ceiling for the time being.

The front wall appeared to be next. It was held to the ceiling track with some screws, and was also screwed to the side wall below the window, and to the floor. From my conversations with others, I was on the lookout for hidden screws, and found my first in the heater duct holding the front wall of the washroom. I only had to remove a small section of the heater duct to access the hidden screws. The screws in the floor were completely rusted away, and I had to pop them out with a cold chisel. They were no longer holding anything.

While we're here, this is the reason I will be removing all the heating ducts along the walls and also pulling the floors to clean the ductwork. This is just the beginning of the crud to come.

I was having a bit of trouble getting the wall to come free. I looked like it should just slide out of the ceiling track, but it wouldn't move. I opened the window and looked at the back side of the side wall track, and found my next hidden surprise. At the bottom of the side track was a screw holding the wall to the track.

This is a shot of the screw from the vantage point of sitting on the throne and leaning out the window.

After removing that final screw, I bent the channel piece out away from the wall, and was able to grasp the wall and give it a big tug. It came free and separated from the side wall. I pulled it free. The washroom area was completely open now.

I inspected the washroom unit more closely now that it was fully exposed. The waste paper bin seemed to be in decent condition, with only a minor ding and a loose rivet or two. I also found that the sink was there, too, but had been covered with a piece of stainless steel. Could this be a jewell in the rough?? Could it have been installed but never connected or used? Maybe with a little work, I could make use of the sink and waste paper bin in my bay configuration. I like the idea of having a place to wash my hands outside the coach; someplace in close proximity to the dump valves.

Further inspection of the plumbing below the sink indicated that it probably had been used, and covered later for some unknown reason. More than likely, it was because it stopped working.

I next turned my attention to the door hinge detail. It was screwed to the side washroom wall end and had a trim piece that was riveted over that. Not sure why the double piece, but removal of the rivets allowed the screws to be pulled and the main piece to come free.

The dismantling sequence was becomming less obvious. The side wall, mirror, and stainless steel unit were left. The side wall was held laterally in place by the track on the ceiling, which was attached to the ceiling by screws inside the channel in which the side wall resided. To get the screws out, the side wall had to be removed. It appeared the side wall might slide forward to remove it. Unfortunately, the stainless steel on the front of the wash unit was wrapped around the front edge of the side wall, and nailed to it, preventing the wall from sliding forward.

It appeared that the stainless unit would need to come out before the side wall could be removed. I began investigating how it was held in place. I knew there was supposed to be some hidden screws behind the mirror that held the stainless unit to the back wall, so I needed to get the mirror out. Peter told me he had slid his mirror out behind the side wall by driving a couple lag bolts into the plywood backing and tugging real hard. I removed the trim pieces around the mirror for a closer inspection. It didn't look like it would fit. I then removed the mirror access trim piece on the outside of the side wall.

There was no way that mirror was going to come out that slot. It was too narrow at the top. The wall would have to slide forward. But the stainless unit was wrapped around the front edge of the wall... Wait. This sounds familiar!

Ok, so back to plan Q. One of the three (mirror, wall, stainless unit) had to come out in order to get the others out. Maybe while I ponder this, I'll just remove some of the more obvious fasteners and trim pieces and see where it leads me.

The remnants of what appeared to be an arm rest for the rear seat was still attached to the side washroom wall. I was unable to figure out how to dismantle it to gain access to screws, but it did disintegrate nicely with a little persuasion!

I found some hidden rivets under a trim piece above the floor pan along the outside wall. There was a similar set of hidden rivets along the front of the stainless unit. Also, the channel which held the front wall was still riveted to the side exterior wall, under the window, and along the ceiling. It was no longer needed. All of these rivets came out nicely, but offered no further clues.

There was some unnecessary trim under the window handle, and in the back corner where the mirror met the exterior wall. There was also a piece of corner trim along the top of the mirror. All this was removed, along with the last section of window latch handle trim.

After removal of the previous trim pieces, I found that the stainless unit back was riveted to the exterior wall. These were removed.

With all the excess trim pieces removed, I studied the situation and decided that the mirror was not held in place by anything other than the bottom channel in which it sat, and possibly some adhesive on the back. I slipped my fingers behind it and tried to push it forward. It moved slightly, but struck the back edge of the side wall slightly. With a little persuasion by a large flat screwdriver, I was able to coax it to move away from the side wall enough to allow it to pass, and it came clear of the back wall and fell into my hands. Simple as that! I was left with a hole in the back panel which exposed the insulation that covered the water tank. There was a lot of soot on it, indicating it had not been sealed very well. The insulation was discarded, leaving the tank exposed.

With the mirror out of th way, I could clearly see the rivets holding the back of the stainless unit to the back wall.

So now, it was a choice between the stainless unit, or the side wall. It didn't seem to me that the edge of the stainless unit that was wrapped around and nailed to the front edge of the side wall had been bent in place. It appeared to have been manufactured that way. This would indicate the side wall went in after the stainless, and hence should come out before the stainless. I pulled the nails holding the two together, and then removed the trim pieces along the outside bottom edge and back corner of the side wall, and gave a mighty shove laterally on the wall from the inside. It moved! How about that. With little fanfare, I pulled the side wall away from the stainless, and out it came.

Oops. I forgot that the pneumatic door closer was attached to the side of the wall, under the sink. Attached to that was a 1/4 inch air line that was connected to a bulkhead fitting that goes to the engine compartment. Notice the operative words here are "was". Darn stuff must have been brittle cause it snapped that air line off clean. Oh well, I didn't need it anyway. I'll just have to get a plug and put in the bulkhead fitting.

Well, that pretty much leaves the stainless steel unit left to remove.

I had originally decided to leave the cover on the sink to reduce the risk of damaging it, should it be in decent condition. My curiosity finally got the best of me, and I decided to remove it to see what I had there. I found that the sink was indeed used. But I also found the faucet and original soap dispenser in there. If it works, the soap dispenser would make a nice addition to the bay wash unit.

I had hoped that I could just lift the unit out of there at this point, but alas, that was not to be. The chute was hung up. There were vents attached to the lower part that would never fit through the opening. The lower part would have to come off.

Peter had warned me about this, too. He said that he finally took a cutoff tool and cut a ring around the inside of the chute a few inches below the rim. Sounded like a good idea to me. I started to cut it. It was slow cutting, and ate my first cutting disk before I was a quarter of the way around. There must be a better way. In the imortal words of Pooh, "Think, Think Think!"

The chute appeared to be attached to the main part by rivets below the rim. I had initially removed these rivets, but was met with some resistance when I tried to separate the two pieces, so I then turned to the cutoff tool. I guess I didn't try hard enough. Using a large flat screwdriver, I pried up on the overlapping lip. The chute moved, and I was able to push it down into the engine compartment where it could be retrieved and discarded. That's one piece I'm not going to salvage!

With the chute gone, the main unit pulled away, and was free.

The washroom was gone! Only the hole and floor pan remained (and a few fittings) along with some really disgusting crud!

The stainless unit was too big to get through the door without risking damage, so I cut it in half. I left enough room that I might be able to salvage the sink side for retrofitting into the bay. We'll see. Notice the pile of scrap in the background.

More to come when I remove the floor pan. Don't know when that will be.