A little progress then a roadblock

The first order of the day was to replace one of the reversing lights and to make sure the other was properly screwed down. That all went fairly smoothly and quickly with my being quite surprised to find the backing on the left reversing light had been a thin hardboard shim. That was very strange. My new lights have built-in foam shim.

Just as I was standing back, admiring my work I heard a vehicle coming down the twisting dirt track that serves as a driveway. As the vehicle slowly approached, it turned out to be the postman or in the particular instance the post lady. She handed me the mail and I knew instantly what was in the box I was handed. 

It was the new sticker I'd ordered for the back. Stay back 300 feet. I think my stencil message was probably readable from a greater distance though. I didn't get it quite straight but since the right reflector and right brake light in the lower right quadrant are higher than those on the left, I'm not really bothered.

The next step was to go up on the stepladder to replace the three marker lights. That's where the day ended on a note of abject frustration. The leftmost marker I'd already replaced and had had problems with before. I'd replaced it when I was particularly hard pressed for money and had replaced it with a trailer light. The protective bracket had come off when I was doing that and I'd stuck everything back together using silicone caulk. That, fortunately came off easily. The left hand screw was very rusted and was supposed to be stainless. That had no purchase on the left hand hole either. The right hand screw did bite though. They both came out easily.

Various problems ensued and were mostly resolved. The problem that had me finishing for the day was that the hole for the screw in the new light unit is smaller than the screw and cannot be enlarged. This means the solution is probably going to be to put in a pair of 8-32 rivnuts. I know I have the bolts. I just have to drill out to the right size. In this instance, 1/4 inch. The other issue will be tightening the rivnuts. I'll have to see what I have that I can work with. I have a rivnut tool but it's likely only good with aluminium rivnuts. I suppose by using two wrenches, a long 8-32 bolt, two 8-32 nuts and a washer I could put them in manually.

Well, a one day job turned into a multi-day job. That's standard with this bus conversion. One good thing though about my late night rivnut hunt - I found I'd left a light on inside the bus. That's one of the solar-powered expensive LED bulbs and though the mount was warm, it showed no signs of failure. Switching to bayonet bulbs was the way to go.

One of the tasks I had that I was not looking forward to was digging out the expanding foam that I'd sprayed in the cable compartment in order to try to cut down on heat. Pulling it out with my fingers took an age and I only pulled out what was necessary.

Eventually the cables to which I needed access were free of expanding foam. That xylene foam is a total nightmare. I would recommend anybody considering using it for anything to have their heads examined!

So, successes and frustrations. I'm slowly moving forward. When I have the lighting all sorted out - especially the roof mounted side marker lights that I believe are leaking - then I can move on to replacing the leaky roof vent. Once that's done it'll be time to put panels over unused windows then to mount the second battery and its flame shield before fixing the right wiper mount and moving on to completing the brake lines and getting the tires changed. There will still be minor internal electrics to work on.