Spring Progress

I firmly believe that I got much more done on the bus when it was 20 degrees outside. Now that spring is here that means warmer temperatures and the beginning of kids organized sports, and I use the term organized very loosely. For the past month my Saturdays have been consumed by watching pre-pubescents chase balls of differing sizes is an air of semi-organized chaos. Great for them to get the energy out and run around, but it seriously hampers production on the bus.

All that being said I have been able to steal a few hours here and there to work on the bus so I have made some headway. That coupled with some serious negotiations with the wife I have been given “sports amnesty” for the past two Saturdays. But it was at a considerable cost which will be extracted from me over a drawn out time frame, but still worth it.

I have begun to work on the interior walls and finish up some final wiring and secure the furniture.

I have set up two plugs behind the fridge one is shore power 110v and the lower will run to my 2000 watt inverter. I made the decision a couple months ago to sell the propane/elec fridge and move to a dedicated 110v fridge. Running the two Trojan 6 volt batteries coupled with the new efficiency of the smaller fridge I am hoping for the best.

The passenger side wall was more complicated with all the wiring that runs down that side I had to compensate for the wall thickness, but it turned out pretty good.



The last great step forward was installing the stereo and getting the rear view camera hooked up and working.
The stereo will play DVD's, Ipod, CD's and radio. After manuvering the behemoth a few times I knew I wanted a better view out of the rear while backing up. The voyager color camera works great.



Two Coats and a Loft

For the past few weeks we have had some seriously awful spring weather. For the last three days it has snowed every day. Today is snowed litterally all day long.

What I have been working on is getting the inside ceiling painted and building a loft for our youngest.
It is really just a bunk but in selling it to my daughter I sold it as a loft so it will now and forever be known as the loft.
What I did was use 1/8 inch 2X2 angle to build the frame then secured it with grade 8 bolts to the frame.

The frame turned out really great and I will use some 3/4 plywood to complete the loft, yes the loft.

Floods

Since my last update I have working on getting the windows finished up. Last Saturday I removed all of the windows and window skins on the right side and cleaned all the 20 year old caulking, let me tell you that stuff does not just fall off. This took a ton of time but now that it is sealed up right I won't have to deal with it ever again.
This took almost a full Saturday.

The next job was to convert the red and amber flashing lights to flood lights that can be used when parking at night or loading and unloading.
First I removed all the flashing light wiring and used two Hella switches that will match the switch for the front auxiliary lights.
Also wanted to set up the rear camera that will be run through the stereo and add the new LED marker lighting.

Gimme some skin

Today we worked on getting the windows skinned. Originally I had the idea of taking .080 aluminium in large sheets and covering the windows. As I read of other projects I found it better to skin each individual window. This last week I took two 4' by 12' sheets of aluminum to Complex Fab and had the window blanks cut out.

I prepped all the aluminium with primer and put one coat of Rustoleum Hammered Brown. The hammered look will be great for hiding some of the imperfections.

My helper today was my daughter and I could not have done all this without her. Riley helped me take the aluminum blanks and use 1/16" aluminium angle to secure each one in place of the old windows.

The last part of my day was getting the back of the bus painted so I can install the Voyager rear view camera. I am using Black Jack 10 Year White Siliconized Elastomeric Roof Coating. This is after three coats so I will definitely be using a primer when I get to the rest of the roof. You can see the corner of the back where I rolled some of the hammered brown to see how it looks. I am really pleased with the Rustoleum paint.

Something intersting we found out. Each window weighs over 15 pounds and the window skin with the brackets to secure it to the window frame weighs just under 6 pounds. By changing out the 10 windows we will be saving over 100 pounds when you consider two emergency exit windows.

Not that this big girl is watching her weight, I'm just saying...

Like a fat kid attacking a twinkie

Christmas came in February this year!

Three weeks ago I ordered a custome built 36" dinnete and table.


So what do you do when you get your custom built booth home??


You cut it up.

I attacked that booth with a jig saw like a fat kid attacking a twinkie. (I can use this analogy)



The problem with where I am putting the dinette is that there is a big wheel in the way so I need to make some adjustments..

Then I decided to take a swing at the windows .

More go go juice

Today I worked again on the electrical for the bus. I have run 99% of the wire with just one more line of 110 wire to the rear AC unit.




I am running two 6 volt Trojan batteries. The two batteries were almost as much as I paid for the bus but very well worth the money.

The ability to run deep cycle batteries are a great assett when dry camping. I will also be running a 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter.

I also ran a power line to the storage compartment so I can see what goes bump in the night.

Butt Crack and Therapy

For the past 40 plus years I have done my very best to keep the white fleshy part of my back side covered and not out for display like the underwear from some prepubescent skater dude. As time has marched on my efforts to keep the east west divide that is located south of my Mason-Dixon Line covered has become more then my Levis can handle.

So I have been dealing with snide comments from my kids about my alternate life as a plumber, moon coming out in the middle of the day, good place to put a screw driver… etc. And then I got a neighbor that likes to honk when she drives by and my fair skin back side is reaching for light from the dark recess of the dungarees, yea you know who you are.

What then does a middle aged guy do that just wants to get some work done and occasionally reach down below the knee? Well I got a neighbor that works for the railroad and he swears by his Carhartt overalls, so I gave them a try. No I am not talking about the seersucker overalls railroad Bob wears with the red bandana these are nice blue overalls that fit over your boots, great pockets up front and the fly has got to be 9 inches long, they can’t be beat.

Now my kids are telling me that I am causing them irreparable damage by wearing these magical crack hiding wonders in public. They tell me they are going to need therapy to deal with the damage I am causing. My thoughts are if I am building a bus into a motor home and they are living with a big yellow bus parked next to the house my choice of pants will not send them straight to the bell tower their sophomore year of college.

Besides that I rock these overalls.