A pause in progress

The first bus thing to happen today was that I painted primer on the back side of the sheet of steel intended for use over the back door window. That went on just fine but probably won't be dry until tomorrow. Thus, no photo as the color is the same as the last posting and it's just the other side of the sheet of steel.

The next thing done was to cut and form the new brake line. That, of course, was where all the fun began!

The intent was to remove the front brake line by undoing the nuts on the bolts between the two brake lines. That plan came to a screeching halt when I discovered both front and rear brake lines have to be removed simultaneously. This is not made for easy maintenance! That gave pause for thought. 

Clearly the back brakes cannot be rendered non-functional without a temporary brake in place hence these two concrete blocks. How well they'll stop a bus from rolling I don't know but I'm certainly glad to be parked on flat ground!

Still not moving the bus, I cut the brake tube I'd bought the other day, using my tube cutter. That worked pretty well to be honest. I even got the tube cut to just a shade over the length it needed to be which was fine as it allows for errors. Bending using the Harbor Freight tube bender was really straightforward though it does have a tendency to scratch the protective coating. Perhaps a roll of tape might help there. I just sprayed the scratched areas with Rustoleum rust-killing black primer.

Having cut and bent the tube I put the tube armor on the tube. This is a length of coiled stainless steel spring by the look of it. That came from eBay while the tubing came from O'Reilly's. This, of course is where I made a rookie mistake. Compare the pictures to see the mistake!

I forgot to put the flare nut on the tube before I flared the tube. Speaking of flaring, I'm not happy with the flare that I did. It looks a little lop-sided so I want to revisit that another day. This is a project I do not want to rush as there is zero tolerance for errors,

Meanwhile, nosing around under the hood I found the fuel filter. Looking behind it there's a blue cylinder hanging down. It would not surprise me to discover that this is where the manual priming pump is located. I believe that unscrews to reveal a rubber bulb that can be squeezed to pump diesel into the engine. Why it's on the driver's side baffles me because the fuel tank is on the passenger side. Somebody didn't know what they were doing when they came up with the design!

So, what I can get on with next is the new crossview mirrors. For the moment the other two projects are on a brief hold.

Brakes have to be 100% right or they're 100% wrong. Thus even if I end up making an absolute duplicate of the line I just made, I might make it better. I was not 100% happy with the flange I made. That's one thing I might do after posting my blog entry. The paint, of course, I have no control over - that'll dry when it dries and it was still tacky when I last touched it. None of this is stuff that can be rushed. It may seem that progress is glacial but I'd rather be glacial and get it right than rush it and get it wrong. I also value learning and doing it myself over paying somebody else to do it.

The mechanical things remaining to do...

1. Complete replacing all the brake lines. This is under way.

2. Put the panel over the back window.

3. Fix the backup cameras.

4. Replace the roof vent,

5. Re-work the passenger side windscreen wiper as it's not straight from my last efforts.

6. Possibly install a 10W flexible solar panel on the roof at the back as an experiment.

7. Complete installing the flame shield over battery holder 2 and ready that for a second battery.

Other than that, the rest is all electrical and inside the bus.