Getting under the lady

The first thing done today was to slide underneath the bus. The barrels secured in the old way are pretty darned solid. I looked into changing out the brackets but really wasn't feeling like it. As a semi justification, the white paint isn't yet fully hard and I don't have sufficient split washers. I'd spent quite some while putting two split washers, a standard nut and a lock nut on bolts. I'd got enough bolts and nuts but ran right out of washers. The lot for one barrel looks like thus.

The big problem with Rustoleum is that it takes forever to fully harden. It might be ready by next weekend. In the meantime it's a case of leaving it out in the sun as much as possible.

It shouldn't rain for a few days and the brackets are fully painted so I have few qualms about just leaving them out to dry. I looked at my previously welded barrel hangers and the paint was protecting most of them well. One had a little rust showing. Perhaps coverage wasn't complete there or it could be the slightly porous nature of Rustoleum showing itself.

Temperatures today were excellent. It was 73 inside the bus about midday. Later the internal temperature rose to 79. It seems elsewhere in the area, the temperature rose to an almost unheard of 80F. Quite a high for January!

Sorting out stuff on the driver's seat in order to make space for the next plan, 3 clothes hooks leapt out at me. One was put inside the front closet, one was put in the bathroom (shown) and one in the galley. Clearly I need to put one in the bedroom. Another thing needed is a towel rail or perhaps two. I did look at towel rails but they all seemed ludicrously expensive for something that could easily be constructed from two triangles of wood and a piece of dowel.

Looking around I noticed two strips of steel. Cutting them to exactly 31.5 inches long, they were easy to fasten inside the driver's window. An extra length is needed but that's a trip to Tractor Supply. They also need to be painted before they rust. I'd like to have had the bars closer together but there had to be enough space to put my arm through in order to beckon on motorists or to use toll booths.

Thinking about tomorrow, it could be a good day to put some of the brackets under the bus. It could also be a good day to make plywood panels to fit inside the rear windows. Then of course there's investigating the strange wiring under the bus and identifying the strange object connected to the drive shaft. If it's an external speedometer, it's probably worth removing and fixing the original speedometer sensor in the transmission unit.

I'll have to get some wire in order to get the backup horn working and I'll have to mount the battery for the ventilation system under the bus. There are lots of little projects to be done. The major projects are now all underneath the bus. I'll be so glad to get that done as my knees really are complaining when I get up and down.