Sunday, December 21, 2014

A day of little fixes

Today was one of those grey days that ended in the drizzle and miserable weather that I though I'd left behind when I left Britain to commence my life in the New World. It's high time this weather ceased! Needless to say I did go outside and work on my bus after a shopping trip to Lowes.

On Friday, on my way to Pelion, I'd picked up a can of spray for the wheel arches since the coatings looked in poor condition on the rear arches and non-existant on the front. It was a big, expensive can and barely coated the two rear wheel arches. I'll have to have another look but it looks as though one of the front mud flaps is missing on one rear wheel.

Otherwise, I fitted the new reversing light assembly, finding that it needed a new screw hole. Of course I started by fitting it upside down and putting extra screws through holes that should not have had screws. Then having discovered that, I was very lucky and had not stripped the threads for the lens cover. I drilled a new hole and screwed the assembly in place. Then I used the two other screw holes in the assembly and found that the center hole for the back which was larger than needed pretty much accommodated the other two screws. They held on though so the assembly is secure though I'll probably drill at least one new hole and put a screw through. The screws I'd bought for the task were too short so I had to ferret around in the box of screws rescued when I disassembled the previous interior.

Having done all that, I looked intently at the front door as to why it would not seal properly. It appears that the seal has been put on at an angle. Probably yet more of Carpenter's workmanship. I had a look at the strangely installed components - windows that aren't quite square with their apertures, supports that aren't vertical nor centered, cuts to the steel that aren't all that accurate. It's definitely a hand built bus that shows questionable workmanship. Thank goodness the bits that matter are by International and not by Carpenter!

Just as the light was fading, I spray painted the front grill and areas that would be tricky to paint otherwise. The paint really isn't drying well today. Too chilly, I reckon. I tried some of that foaming sealant on the mis-set window. It didn't foam - more dribbled. Maybe it's too chilly for that though I was comfortable in a shirt and windbreaker.

The bus has now been fully emptied. Tomorrow I shall commence removing floor tiles. If there's time after that, perhaps sanding too and then definitely sweeping all the garbage out through the back door. Ideally, an electric blower so I don't have to breathe fumes.

Speaking of fumes, Lowes had a board set up for people to "test" spray paints. There, I saw a couple busily "testing" many different colors of spray paint. I had very much the impression that the "testing" they were doing was based around inhaling paint vapors.  

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