Custom Bus and Truck Panels · 2026-06-10
You pulled the interior paneling and found the rot. Here's how to decide between a patch and a full panel, the tools you really need, and where to source the parts.
Every skoolie build hits the same moment. You're pulling interior panels or cutting out the old floor, and there it is. Sometimes it's a little bubble. Sometimes it's a hole the size of a softball that you could put your fist through. Either way you're at a fork, and picking wrong costs you money if you over-build it or time if you patch it badly and redo it in two years.
After watching hundreds of conversions come through the shop, almost all the rust you'll deal with lives in three spots. Worst first:
We'll take them one at a time, with a simple rule for patch versus replace.
These are thin sheet steel, usually somewhere in the 18 to 20 gauge range. The factory panels have a return lip top and bottom, and they're held to the body posts with screws and structural adhesive. Rust starts at the bottom lip where water sits, then creeps up.
If rust covers more than about three feet of one panel, replace the panel. Patching that much takes longer than swapping it, and you're welding new steel into tired old metal, so the repair comes out weaker than a fresh panel.
Wheel wells are a stamped shape with a flange wrapping the opening, so a clean patch is hard. The usual move is to cut out the rotted section, the lip plus four to six inches around it, and weld in a repair panel. We stock those for Blue Bird, Thomas FS65 and C2, International, and most of the common buses.
Mark your cut at least two inches past the rust you can see. The visible rust is the tip of it, and the metal around it is thinner than it looks. Cut with a plasma torch or a thin cutoff wheel, grind the edge to bright steel, and dry-fit the panel before you ever strike an arc.
When the outer well comes out, look at the inner fender behind it. It's almost always worse. Most builders do both at once, because reaching the inner one later means cutting your fresh outer well back out.
Dog houses are the engine covers inside the bus. They're thin sheet steel, and they take a beating from heat and vibration. A dozen screws and they're out in a few minutes. When one is rusty it's almost always easier to swap the whole thing than to patch it, because the shape is too fiddly for a clean repair.
The firewall is a different animal. It's structural, usually heavier steel, and patches on it are normal and fine. Just watch what's on the other side first. Brake lines, fuel lines, and wiring all live back there. Throw a fire blanket over them before you weld.
Not a quick tack job. A real repair:
For the common buses we stock panels in standard sizes. The part number is usually stamped or stickered on the back of the original, so check there first. If you can read it, look it up and order the match.
If the number rusted off, measure the panel and send photos from three angles. We'll match it to a stock panel or bend one to suit, and we ship from Ohio.
Send the part number, the year, make, and model, and three photos. We'll quote the stock panel or a custom bend.
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