As we tackled our “vacation” renno project, we uncovered the carpet on our stairs were hiding years of moisture and rust damage to the bus. Here’s a little before and reveal to set the scene. ?
Luckily, my dad was well prepared to handle such issues, but the additional work did set us back on our punch list for the week. First we taped up the stair area to attempt to contain the metal flecks that were going to FLY when we took the wire brushes to it. We also kept the shop vac running near the stairs the entire time to keep the dust down too. 
Once we had removed as much as we could, we used a Wax & Grease Remover to create a clean base for our paint to adhere to. Then, we used the Por15 brand Rust Preventive Coating. We followed the instructions and applied 3 coats, applying each subsequent one when the first was still slightly tacky versus completely dried. This stuff is potent! I’d advise wearing latex gloves, covering any surfaces you don’t want painted, and plan to use a few disposable quality paint brushes for each coat.
Once the paint was dry, the matter of finding stair treads was complicated. The closest thing we could find was both too long and too wide. But we got the green light from our master technician to order it anyway. The Wooster Stair Tread we picked has great grit/anti-slip and a nice yellow tread at the front and they were $70 each. I did save the topmost tread from the previous install, and cleaned it within an inch of it’s life as we couldn’t find a good replacement.
Since the parts arrived after our week on the farm, my dad generously worked on this in his spare time (notice how dark it is outside) and he trimmed each piece to fit. He even took the doors off the bus to install the bottom stair flush from side to side. He used by-the-foot rubber to cover the vertical rise on either side, and then sealed the seams with caulk. The work really is impeccable. 
