It doesn't seem that I did much this weekend but let's run through the things I did do.
Last week having discovered what lights do and don't work, I'd bought a pile of bulbs. I replaced two non-functioning panel lamps so now the whole of the switch panel can be illuminated. I replaced the two bad side light bulbs on the one side of the bus, finding as I did so that the red side light is probably in need of replacement rather than of a new bulb. This is not a major thing but I like everything that should work to work.
The toilet floor is now screwed down fully and I completed the silicone caulking around the edge of the floor and the door. This looks a load better and will be rust and rot resistant.
I moved the bath and started to cut the plywood near the end of the bath so that the entire of the bath can rest on plastic rather than on wood as an anti-rot thing. I started this with an ordinary saw and proceeded quite well but later decided that having spent 3 hours making quite an impression that a circular saw with the depth gauge set would probably have been a smarter idea, I borrowed one from my girlfriend's sister's boyfriend and had that wood sliced to perfection in minutes. A few more minutes with a pry bar and then a chisel to trim the lower layer that didn't get cut with the saw combined with removing the screws holding the wood down and the floor was ready. Well, almost. There was a drain hole cut through the floor but in totally the wrong place. That had to be filled.
On the subject of filling, I also filled the hole in the side of the bus that the hillbilies had cut to pass a water pipe. If astute readers remember, the plexiglass window replacements the hillbillies had used had been secured into place with wide strips of aluminum. Cut into short lengths, two lengths covered respectively the inside and outside holes. These were glued into place with silicone sealant and then riveted. Outside, the rivet heads were covered with epoxy resin. Between the two riveted patches, I squirted some of that DAPTex garbage. It might or might not set but whatever it does, it will provide a measure of insulation.
The drain hole in the floor was a bigger issue. Though it won't be carrying weight, I patched the hole with 1/4 inch thick aluminum. That was glued into place with silicone caulk the holes having been pre-drilled while the patch was above the floor. My girlfriend's sister's boyfriend held the patch up underneath the bus and I popped the rivets through the three holes that matched. The fourth was marginally off but three was enough to hold the patch while I drilled a further few to bring the rivets up to 12. A herd of elephants could do a fandango on that patch now and it won't let water nor fall through.
As there was now a recess in the floor, I filled it with DAPTex since it won't actually stick to anything without dripping, dropping and falling. Checking it three days later - the stuff still had not set. That stuff is the most appalling garbage I have ever encountered. I tried it to seal windows and it dripped and dribbled instead of foaming and caused a horrendous mess that it will take days and a coat of paint to repair. I tried to use it to level up a depression and it just became a jello-like substance that I can probably scoop out with the fingers of an underspecified hand. It was pretty much like a very soft marshmallow. Useless!
I never got round to cutting planks for the bathroom floor. I went out to get them and encountered two issues. The first was an oil leak and the second was one of South Carolina's suicidal drivers. Coming downhill on 321, heading toward the I26 overpass at slightly under the 45mph speed limit, a black pickup drove from a McDonalds toward the center of the road. I remember stomping on the brake, knowing that I could not possibly bring 26,000lbs of bus to a halt in the space allowed and hoping that the pickup driver wouldn't die. I was absolutely certain that a collision would occur and that the pickup truck would get severely mangled and thrown God knows where. None of that would have been any fault other than of that stupid driver. Anyway, to my relief, he made it out of the way and incurred the wrath of the driver in the lane beside me who was far enough back not to have been able to see him coming. Had the hillbillies not moved the horn button from the center of the wheel to the door control, I'd have been pounding that horn.
So, next time you see a big vehicle remember that they take longer to accelerate than a car and way longer to brake. There's a damn good reason I drive fractionally under the speed limit and that is to give myself more chance of stopping my big vehicle without killing anybody. Remember, my bumper is 3 feet above the ground. My wheels are 3 feet diameter. If you stop suddenly in front of me, the first I will know is a bump-bump as my front wheels go over the roof of your little car, crushing you to death in the process. You'll be dead and won't have to worry about your asinine actions. I'll have to live with the nightmares you created for the rest of my life.
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