Maybe I should have built an ark?

It was bright sunshine when I started work then suddenly in the matter of seemingly seconds, the sky darkened, thunder rolled and down came a torrential downpour that had me scrambling to put tools away, close doors etc and hide the air compressor under the bus where it wouldn't get rained on.

I went to the back of the bus to check for water ingress from my new sheets of steel and found none. That was very encouraging. That now meant I could add more caulk to the inside of the bus where the steel sheet meets the window frame and seal up inside.

The compressor was pulled out as the old sheet of fridge steel would be reused although the steel bars used to space it away from the window in order to accommodate the bulge of the rubber gasket were removed. The steel was then riveted to the inside of the door, or rather a start was made just before the downpour.

As soon as the downpour happened it became a mad rush to get everything out of the way. Tools got shoved in the back of my car and the compressor got shoved under the bus. I still got absolutely drenched. A little later when the rain eased I went back out, locked the back door of the bus and put the compressor in the shed.

On YouTube there was a very interesting video in which somebody used a 10W solar panel and a small battery to run a 12v tyre pump. The battery was small enough that it probably wouldn't have powered the compressor at all well. As a demonstration of a concept, it was fascinating. I'm pretty sure that I could do something like that with my existing 12v system though definitely need to upgrade the batteries. I really don't know what's going on but the lead acid batteries seem to be pretty worthless. It doesn't seem to matter how much is spent on them. Pretty much the same can be said about charge controllers.

One of the things I did today was to remove the old windows from the bus. I put them beside the shed. There's no need to put them inside as they simply won't degrade. While I was at it, I asked myself the question as to why I was even keeping the old fridge steel. I spent a lot of time and effort obtaining it and probably a not insignificant amount of money painting it against rust. The fact is that I now have a decent quantity of 14 gauge steel.

That thin fridge steel is just about as floppy as a viagra dependent and just about as worthless. I tossed it in the back of the pickup and will simply take it down the dump on my next visit.

My next step will be to complete riveting the steel inside the door then to finish sealing inside the other window replacements and to rework my old wooden baffles before putting them back in place.

While I was there, I looked at the curve in the back door. I think if I mark exactly where the bend is and wedge the steel sheet between two of my many lengths of steel, I can tap the exposed short length with a hammer all the way across its width to curve it. Then it should fit the door precisely. I'll have to do the drilling first, however. Once it is drilled, I'll stand it on the hinge and door handle surround to drill the top locating holes. After that I'll cut the steel so there's a gap above the hinge and the door handle surround. Then it'll be a case of painting and installing.

Having done the top panel of the back door, the next step will be to replace the roof vent. I still have to replace both back-up cameras and put a power lead for a roof mounted solar panel.  While I'm at that, I also need to replace a non-functional clearance light.