Thursday, December 18, 2014

A target date

I've decided on a target date for my bus being habitable of January 1st. It's something I will work toward but I fear it's not an achievable date. Still, without targets and ambition, where would we be?

The original idea was to finish the painting on Saturday but due to inclement weather forecasts, this is probably not going to be possible. Instead, the goal is to empty the interior of items that have not been removed from when I moved the lady in my life from one house to another.

The next stage will be to drive the bus to a different area on the property in order to access electricity and thus use the reciprocating saw with the scraper attachment to remove the nasty vinyl floor tiles. Vinyl tiles on top of wood on top of metal just does not work. it traps moisture and the wood disintegrates.

Once the vinyl tiles have been eliminated, the plywood underneath will be sanded with an orbital sander. That will tell me where the edges of the boards are and which boards need to be removed - also where the screws are that hold it down. The goal is to remove any boards with rot and fasten down new boards where the old boards were. Plywood should keep the floor from passing too much heat outside.

Another couple of interior tasks will be to replace the non-working driver fan. Then to rewire the amber flashers and rear red flashers to be parts of the turn signals and brake lights respectively. Then there's always the question as to why there's extra internal metal added to the bus. My suspicion is there's no valid reason but as always, proceed with caution though that metal looks as though it would be excellent to replace the windows with.

There's a whole load of things to be done inside and outside the bus, irrespective of the weather. One task is to fix the horn. It has a connector that barely makes contact and the connector doesn't hold together well. That's a prime candidate for some extra wire and some adhesive tape. Then I should have a working horn. Truth be told, there's enough work to keep the bus situated where it is for several more weeks. Having said that, it's best to move a bus about twice a month just to keep everything in tip top shape. Thus, having finished the paintwork, possibly on Sunday, it will be time to take the bus to Lowes to pick up some plywood and maybe some treated 2x2 since metal angle bracket seems expensive and hard to obtain. The goal is still to have the bus livable by January, even though that date may slip by a month or two.

2 comments:

  1. While you're at Lowes, check out their furring strips 1 x 3 x 96 (Actual: 0.75 x 2.5 x 96). They assemble well with predrilled holes, 1-7/8" coated deck screws, and a thin coat of liquid nails where the boards come together. I found them much easier to work with than the 1-1/4 x 1-1/4 square deck spindles they sell-- not even close to a true 2 x 2. The furring strips come bundled in groups of 6 for $1.86 per 8' piece. Pressure treated 2 x 2 were over $3.00 per 8' piece last time I checked.

    Here is a picture of the furring strips in action:
    https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-zItXdCTkecY/VJBuFnZf-SI/AAAAAAAAEWs/vN9x3VgrjLE/w1148-h861-no/20141216_113744.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. I was at Lowes earlier but just saw your comment. I shall look. This sounds interesting. It could well get me back on track with my errector set idea.

    ReplyDelete