11.04.15 - Painting the Floor - Day 8.

Today we needed to get the floor and interior prepped to lay a new subfloor and insulation, so our first stop was Lowes to get supplies (wire brush attachment for drill, sanding supplies, Rustoleum, etc).

We got to work cleaning up the remaining small rust spots (mostly just small areas around the seat bolt holes) and treated them with some fancy rust stopping agent the welder graciously gave us. Of course I didn't take a photo of the bottle, but if you're interested, I can look at it later and give you the name. The stuff is pretty cool…it turns active rust into a black hard substance and essentially just stops it in its tracks.

Once we treated the rust, we took a break to let it cure and sanded the walls to prep for a quick coat of white primer. (We plan to cover the walls with wood panels later, but for the time being we figured at least a coat of paint would help it feel less gross.)

When the floor was ready to be painted, Christian went around with a foam brush and laid a thick layer of Rustoleum Heavy Rust Metal Primer along the edges. I followed closely behind with a roller to coat the entire floor.

We wanted to add a second coat, but it got to be pretty dark out before it was anywhere near dry. We also have an appointment with the mechanic first thing tomorrow morning to remove the remaining heater, so we didn't want to worry about them walking through tacky paint while they work.

We're SO happy about our progress today, though it doesn't feel like much given our dwindling timeline. Just having the floor ready to lay out the subfloor gives us hope that we might have some vaguely livable vehicle by the time we have to hit the road a week from tomorrow.