We spent most of the week struggling to get the ceiling off. We tried every method out there for rivet removal, but it all came down to finding the right tools!

Drill Removal - Good for the walls
​On Monday, we did some more research on removing rivets since we were moving so slowly last week. We went to home depot and bought 2 brand new titanium drill bits in hopes they would be strong enough and not break. We used a punch to punch through all the rivets in the bus and then took the drill to drill through the centers. This worked great on the walls and we got them out pretty fast. 

Air Chisel - Not good for anything
When we moved on to the ceiling, the rivets were stronger and not allowing a drill to pass through them with the drill. We tried grinding but the sparks falling down in our face and the weight of the grinder really wasn't ideal. Feeling frustrated, we decided to get an air chisel on Tuesday (a suggestion from a youtube video). The air chisel was only about $25 so we thought if it could save us a bunch of time it was worth it. We excitedly tested the air chisel on the first rivet and FAIL. It kept slipping - it was obvious this was not the solution we were looking for. ​I think because we were upside down working on the ceiling we couldn't put the amount of pressure needed to get under the rivet head. Conclusion - we're returning the air chisel. 

Removing Rivets
We started our day at 8:00 AM dropping my dad off at the bus to get him back home. We then headed straight to Home Depot to buy a cone bit for the drill. We were told this would be the best way to remove the rivets. We got to the bus, tried our brand new $20 cone bit and in SNAPPED! We spent probably the first 2 hours of the day trying to figure out the best way to remove rivets. I had done research before hand, but nothing we were trying was working. We broke about 6 drill bits in the process.  We tried grinding them, but it produced so much spark it was terrifying and it wasn't working so well. Around lunch, Craig's dad came out and gave us a stronger drill and a whole set of bits he said he didn't care about. We started using a nail punch to punch through the center of the rivet. Then we took a drill bit and drilled through until the rivet spun or broke off. I'm still not convinced this is the best method. We still have tons more rivets to remove so there will be much more experimenting. 

Our friend Molly showed up around 3:00 to help out! She went to work on the rivets. I had already punched them out and she took the drill to them and the cats paw with a hammer. She killed it! She got way further than I did and got us way further ahead than we would have been without her! Go MOLLY! 

He didn't know I was filming him. This is one of many dance breaks to come! 

There was a lot of rust so removing the seats cleanly was not an option. After trying to get them out with a socket wrench and a crow bar, we decided that the grinder was going to have to do it. We ended up cutting out the seats and then using the crow bar and hammer to remove the rusted out sockets. It took most of the day to get out the 4 seats and 2 front barriers. All I could think was how glad I was there weren't 12 rows of seats! ​