Out of battery power!

Today the plan was to remove the floor tiles using the scraper in the electric saw. As it was belting down with rain, it seemed more appropriate not to run an electrical cable through puddles to the bus. Thus I spent the day removing the plywood panels the hillbillies put around the inside of the bus below the windows. They certainly had a thing about using 3 inch self-drilling screws to attach 1/4 inch plywood to 1/32 thick steel plate.

At the back of the bus, covering the access panel to the driver's side light cluster was plywood attached with no fewer than 50 screws. Clearly the morons didn't consider for one moment that they might need to perform any maintainance. I managed to remove all but quarter of the panels and filled a large container with screws before the electric drill I had been using ran out of power.

I'm considering getting a real electric screwdriver on the basis that the chuck on the drill was one of the funky keyless chucks so the chuck kept coming undone. If it could be charged or run from the bus power supply, so much the better.

Some of the screwheads had been covered over by glue which had to be cleaned off using a brush in the drill. That worked pretty well. The heads had to be cleaned out with a nail in order for the screwdriver to achieve purchase. I have absolutely no idea how many screws I removed. I do know I have more to remove tomorrow.

Beneath the plywood is metal sheeting. Unlike the bus, this is not painted. I'm undecided as to whether this is a hillbilly addition, an aftermarket add on or original. I'm tending toward thinking that it's not original because it's bolted on a little crudely. On the other hand, as there's a fish transfer on one of the sheets of metal that was clearly put on by a child, I'm a little puzzled. All will be revealed though, when I remove the first steel sheet to see what's underneath.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of water leaks at the front end. One small leak that probably comes from a window seal that drips on the fuse box and a bigger leak that dribbles somewhere around the brake pedal. I'll just have to seal the heck out of everything after the painting is done.

At the moment I'm puzzling over rewiring the top flashers into the braking and turn light system. It was mentioned that they might overload the wiring or the fuses. The fuses can easily be upgraded. The wiring is a little trickier. It might be possible to use LED bulbs in place of the filament bulbs as this will lower the power usage tremendously.

Another thought is about the power system. The bus uses two car batteries so either that means it has a 24v system or that it needs about 60amps to start. At some point I need to install some 12v fag lighter sockets to power my GPS unit, to charge my phone etc. That will be complicated by a 24v system.