There is now more light in the bedroom!

Today started off quietly with a fairly unhealthy breakfast of donuts and coffee. It is, however, the American way. The only way to be more American would be to eat Cheerios doused in Bud Light while wearing a baseball cap!

It was pretty hot today with a temperature of about 98F so I wasn't too eager to get out to the bus to work, given that the extraction fans are turned off. When they're on, the excessive heat becomes bearable as the air is moving and moving at quite a lick.

Going out, the first thing to be seen was a dragonfly. It's a shame this fine example didn't like me to get too close. 

So, I went to the bus with the intention of sorting out the horn and completing installation of the lighting wiring started yesterday. Again, sweat began to drip off me onto the floor and my arms were covered in a glossy sheen of perspiration. 

Eventually, after about 30 minutes the light was working and working off the same fuse as the other light. Both are BA15 mount bulbs but I switched the halogen bulb for an LED bulb from eBay. I don't think those LED things are very bright at all.

After that I was pretty exhausted with the heat and all the sweating I'd been doing. I had briefly turned the fans on but really needed to have put extra solar panels out to power them. My next task would have been to work on the horn. In order to access the horn I would have had to clear a way to the driver's seat and that was a pretty daunting task, to be honest. I balked on that for today. I had already balked on working on the main brake line.

It began to bucket down with rain. That was accompanied by thunder and lightning and a welcome reduction in the temperature. Going out to the bus after I checked to see if the leaks were still present around the lights and discovered it's not the lights that are leaking now - it's a roof seam. It is, of course, a seam I have not yet worked on. There are definitely two and possibly 3 roof seams as yet untouched. I will have to work on all of them. No point in being half-assed though with these temperatures I'm unlikely to be able to do more than one a day. In the case of the back, one seam is very close to a possible seam so it'd make sense to do both simultaneously. That'll involve another tube of seam sealant or possibly two. I will nail these leaks!

102F today and I went shopping

Today was a shopping day. Aside from needing things for work, I wanted some things for the bus. Oddly enough I could not find all the things I needed. 

One plan is to put 2 inch deep bars over the windows. Looking at the specifications of prisons, it is recommended that bars be 1 inch thick tool steel impervious to cutting and a maximum of 5 inches between the bars. Well, I'm using aluminium because it's lightweight and cheaper. Each window is 24.5 inches from top to bottom, approximately. I had originally planned on 3 bars but that's 6 inches away from 24.5 leaving 18.5 inches of free space. Divide that by 3 and that's a shade over 6 inches between the bars. That's too much! Thus it has to be four bars.

As bars come in 6 and 8 foot lengths locally and a longer length is needed the idea is to cut a diagonal on two sections then to use the Bernzomatic to weld the two pieces together. In order that the molten aluminium does not flow where it's not supposed to, the plan is to cast a mold using fireproof cement. Thereby is the problem. That was easily available in Lowes a few months ago. I saw it when I bought some concrete for a fence post. Now it's not there and the staff deny it ever was. I checked Home Depot as well with the same result. Plaster of Paris would have been an alternate solution but that couldn't be found either.

There was, however, no shortage of 2 inch aluminium. I have already got a short piece. Before going for my bold plan I wanted to cut it and weld it and get it perfect. No cement means that plan is on hold. Doubtless my bank account thanks me!

As the back of the bus is somewhat dark with the two half windows covered over, it was time to install another light. This one took quite a while to get installed that far. It has a switch built in and I'll probably wire it to the same fuse as the light the other side of the aisle. That way they can both be on or both be off. As I have a stack of LED bulbs I put one in though it's a halogen fixture. The only thing not done so far is to connect it to the power . It would probably be a good idea to frost the inside of the lens too.

It was pretty hot inside the bus. It was 102 when I went in there so after working for a while I ran the extraction fans and they made a huge difference. My sweat at one point was running down the bedroom wall as I worked. The wiring behind is not as yet connected. That's a quick job for tomorrow.  Originally the light switch for the other light would have been used to power on both lights but it just made more sense to have a light and switch each side of the door. This one can be reached from the bed.

Once the interior light is fixed I should work on the brake lines. I'm so enthusiastic about going under the bus to work on it that I'll probably fix the horn, remove the cockpit buzzer and all that good stuff instead. 

Hoorah! The window panels are fully rivetted.

It was 96F in the shade. Working in the sun for more than ten minutes in a session was unbearable. Thus it became a case of removing 4 self-drilling screws, drilling the hole out, squirting some seam sealant into and around the hole then popping a rivet in, riveting and then rushing inside after each batch of four.

Yesterday I'd found 14 available rivets so today it was time to have a good hunt on the cockpit floor as I recall tipping a container of rivets on the floor. Well, sharp eyes and hunting through the things piled up on the floor yielded more rivets. I needed 24 and by the end of hunting I had 25. 

Hunting inside the bus there were two packets of rivets and some rivnuts I had totally forgotten about. The big bonus of the day had been finding the short rivets. There were a lot of longer rivets that could have been used in a pinch but I didn't and that was another bonus.

With rivets instead of self-drilling screws the panels are much more secure and cannot be removed by idle no-goods. They also can't accidentally come unscrewed in transit.

There had been a problem with paint from a spray can attacking the finish. Today I pulled out my can of white Rustoleum and sprayed one rivet. That went well with no reticulation so I continued on until the spray can was empty.

Next I pulled out a can of Krylon white paint (also claims to have a primer) and sprayed one rivet. The paint on the rivet is just fine. The paint around the rivet is reticulating. It seems the culprit is the Krylon paint. Clearly it seems to be self-etching. I shall just have to get more Rustoleum and skip the cheaper Krylon. It's probably not worth trying to fix the damaged paint. I'll just wait for time to peel whatever is going to come off, off and respray then and only then.

The next task, I'm not sure about. I really should be thinking about brake lines. At least as far as the differential.

 

Leaks possibly stopped

Today got off to a very strange start. The usual compressor was not available but there was a smaller compressor available. That had refused to work for me before but what the heck, why not try it again and fix it if it doesn't work. Well, that started a morning (and an afternoon).

The compressor was at the back of a shed that for 5 years the doors have been opened, things have been thrown in and the doors closed. Thus it was piled up waist high with all sorts. A lot of absolute trash went into a pickup truck ready to go to the dump. Lots of cardboard boxes that had held tomatoes, some wooden boxes that had held corn were in there too as was torn-up plastic sheeting and an old Harbor Freight 900W generator that somebody had dismantled and not put back together. All went in the back of the pickup for a dump run.

Then the wood that had been lying flat was stacked neatly - aside from one massive sheet that was just too heavy to handle. That got dragged to the house and put down where it would be beneficial as a piece of flooring. This all took til well past midday. Then there was a thunderstorm and a torrential downpour. To cap that off the lights went out too.

When everything had dried after the storm the stepladder made an appearance and I ascended to check out the leaking red top marker lights. As I suspected they weren't screwed down tightly. That was fixed and subsequent observation will tell whether there is still a leak at the back of the bus. With luck there won't be.

The tiny little compressor takes an age to fill. It hadn't been started in years and needed a little fiddling to make it work. When it did work it sputtered but then after resting for a while seemed to pick up and work reasonably well. For the riveter it worked really well. The air drill, however, did not work well. That needed a bigger tank.

The self-drilling screws used to install the panels on the driver's side of the bus were removed, the holes enlarged with a drill bit and a little sealant applied to the holes before the new rivets were installed. 

The mandrel on one rivet decided to snap rather than break off cleanly. That was annoying! In the end that was cleaned up with the angle grinder. The areas where I'd put permanent marker to aid drilling the holes were sprayed with Rustoleum white spray paint. For some unknown reason that decided to reticulate. The paint underneath is Rustoleum white brush-on paint on top of Rustoleum universal primer. I have no idea what that's all about! On the other side, rather than spraying with the now suspect spray paint I shall simply wipe the black marks off with alcohol.

The other side was not completed today as there just aren't enough wide rivets to do it. Initially I couldn't find my short, wide 3/16 rivets. Then I found they'd spilled over the floor in the bus cockpit so it was another task to pick them all up. At the moment I think I have 10 and to complete riveting panels I need 24. Things are mounting up that I need to go to the shops for so I'll add those to the list.

Tomorrow it might be possible to install some rivets, not necessarily all and of course hunting on the floor might find a few more but it's unlikely to be 14 more.

I made enquiries about something to put over the remaining windows. To be honest I have not been greatly impressed with the results. There seems to be a very limited choice of options. To use flat bar stock would involve welding the flat bar stock. I could so that with my Bernzomatic though how strong the weld would be is anybody's guess. If I do that then I'd want to form my welds properly. To do that I think making a mold with fire cement would be the way to go - especially since with just three bars of two inches width per window I will have only three welds to do. Bending the aluminium seems a good idea however it seems even heated to be a difficult materiel to bend accurately.

At this point the remaining essential tasks are:

Brakes/lines

Tyers

Wind shield wiper pivot

Fix the horn

Minor internal electrics

I think I took care of the leak today and I'm heading toward properly securing all the sheet metal.

I also need to:

Clean the windshield of paint

Remove the back door buzzer that sounds constantly

Fix the voltmeter above the microwave

Fix the attachment points for the control panel top.

Add a small fuse box to the control panel for my extra switches - to replace the individual fuses.

Add a second light to the back of the bedroom

Caulk and paint in the bedroom.

Things are definitely getting done and it is all coming together. 

Another outside session and another needed.

It was another 94F day today but it was time to head out and work on the bus. Today the plan was to install the last two metal sheets over windows. The first was the short, 58 inch sheet. The second was the longer 88 inch sheet. The first gave hardly any problems. That went up sweetly and easily, having learned the lessons of yesterday. Once it was up, I pulled it down and pulled out my two ends of tubes of Dynatron caulk. Using the last remaining caulk from once which ended up producing a 12 inch line before it was out, the second was put in the caulk gun only to find that really had come right to the end. Nothing for it but to open the very last tube of caulk (until such a time as I go shopping again). The caulk was applied and the panel screwed back down.

Looking at the end of the panel, it didn't look square with the bodywork so the set square came out and I found that the body isn't quite square. Well, that's no biggie. It's accurate where it matters.

With the smaller panel in place, putting the bigger one in was the next issue. The new one covers three windows not just two. Just drilling the holes was a challenge as there was nowhere to lay the thing flat. It also flipped and flopped about the place lie a Viagra dependent who's been off Viagra for a few months. Eventually though it was marked out and drilled using my giant sawhorses as a stand.

Some have wondered how one person can maneuver such big sheets of metal solo. The answer for the smaller sheets is I have a 150lb magnet from Grainger that I bought a year or two back having seen some YouTube things about magnet fishing. It really came out and showed its worth. Attaching it to the bus body it was possible to rest the far end of the shorter sheets on it while fastening the near end to the bus. 

conncector

With the bigger sheet though I used the magnet on one end, I had the sheet propped up on the stepladder on the other. It wall worked reasonably well though I did get one end of the sheet about 1/4 inch higher than it should have been. It's unlikely anybody will actually notice though.

So at the end of the day both sides have panels screwed into place. All the small panels are also caulked. The big panel need caulk but will get it on the ends but not the middle for purely practical purposes. It's just too difficult to maneuver. 

The next step after testing the lights all still work and that no wires have been damaged putting panels into place will be to rivet the panels. That will require 44 broad head short steel rivets. I think I might have enough.

Inside the bus it was 95F which is hot but pretty much in keeping with outside temperatures. Idly checking outside temperatures with an infrared thermometer, the body that was in the sun was 112F and in the shade it was 86F. The white paint does seem to be working.

At this point, projects remaining to complete....

• Test the roof vent and put a shroud if it leaks.
• Fix the horn
• Rework the right wiper mount
• Complete replacement of brake lines
• Pass a wire from the battery compartment to the central house battery connector.
• Wire solar charging wires from the cockpit to the battery compartment
• A few small very minor electrical fixes

Aside from that I am thinking of an expanded or perforated metal screen over the remaining windows. It would add to security and peace of mind. Another thing is that since the bedroom is now pretty dark, I might add a third bedroom light, wired in with the one over the closet area. Needless to say I still need to caulk around the plywood patch installed. That patch hasn't gone wonderfully flat but it'll do - nobody will see it but I will caulk in order to dissuade critters.

Half the job outside

The plan had been to do more, including the work that needed doing inside but the heat was horrible. It was 94F in the shade and you can bet it was worse working in full sun. In fact several times during today's activities it was necessary to take a break and get into some air conditioning to cool down.  

The first activity involved one of my two shorter sheets of metal. This had the middle holes and right hand end holes drilled. The left hand holes were left alone because another sheet of metal would be sitting on top of that end and it would thus be easier to drill the holes all in one go.

The first sheet went on requiring a break after drilling the two lines of holes because that was done in full sun. Putting the sheet on was done in shade. That was easier but it was still necessary to take a break after. 

For those that don't understand working in the heat, it's important to take a break as soon as one gets a slight bit of muddle-headedness, exhaustion or tiredness. Heat stroke and death are not too far away in the heat.

Having temporarily installed the first sheet it was time to drill and install the second. Again, breaks were plentiful. It's only two sheels of metal and 16 screws. "It's only" is what kills though. The battery from my Harbor Freight battery drill did not seem to last too long. It could be that battery is the old one from my first Harbor Freight battery drill. That drill, if you remember worked right up until the clutch gave out.

Eventually, after a couple more cool down sessions, the second panel was temporarily installed. Once that was all done and the fit checked, it was time to take it all off again. 

Straight after taking it off I went around the last three pillars with Dynatron caulk. Then I put the sheets of metal back again and screwed them down. Putting them back up was a shade easier than the first time because the caulk held them more in place. Even so, when the second piece was out of place and held by caulk it was a fight to get it back into place.

Tomorrow there might be time to do the other side. Having worked out a technique for this side, the other might be easier although one of the sheets of metal is a third longer than the longest used today. That will require a mildly different technique but shouldn't be too hard. By the way, as with everything, I'm doing this all solo.

Inside the bus with the windows sheeted over and the blinds removed, the view looks really dark.  I might add an LED light connected to my solar panels so that when the panels are producing power, the light is on. That would provide a natural wake-up light. I'll have to think on that one.

With the new wood panel in place, there's no chance of my rolling over in bed and putting my foot, knee or elbow through the glass. It's currently fastened with a single screw and some glue at each end but I'll put the other screw when I find it and some caulk then touch up the paint and of course remove the blind attachments that I nearly impaled my head on last time.

The next task will likely be the metal sheeting over the windows on the other side of the bus. With all that lot in place there's plenty real estate outside for text or graphics if I so wished to put them. With all that white painted metal there should be a ton less to absorb heat. It should also be quieter in the rain.

One thing was surprising about today and that was the metal put on on just one side needed an entire tube of caulk. I have one tube and two possible little bits of two other tubes of caulk left. It might be advantageous to get more. With the cladding out of the way there's the bars or whatever to go over the windows that will be remaining, the brake lines and the underbus wiring left to do. That should be the end of the major tasks.

Redoing the wiper mount, fixing the horn and a few bits of internal electrics don't sound like a huge deal. They might not be or they could turn into multi-day ordeals.

Well that was pretty mysterious!

Yesterday I had a message that my aluminium sheeting was in so I went and picked it up. I have to say I almost had the wrong vehicle. I'd ordered 4 pieces of .08" aluminium sheeting measuring 24.5 inches tall by 87.75", 59.75 and 58". I also picked up some white paint and some more Cosmic Pink for the bedroom since my old bucket of Cosmic Pink had seen better days.

The first thing done yesterday was to paint the aluminium on one side only with self-etching universal primer. That was pretty easy though as that primer was only available in spray cans, it did eat up between the 4 sheets of aluminium, about 3 spray cans.

Today I used the white paint I'd bought the other day and painted all four sheets. I have to say it took a very long time with a 1" brush but it was done. It really wasn't worth hunting for a bigger brush. At the end of the day that brush would work and I'd have to wait for the paint to cure, not just to dry. It should be cured enough to be usable tomorrow though it was dry within a couple of hours.

The other thing done was to paint the one side of the board that I'd prepared for the inside of the bedroom window with Cosmic Pink. That worked pretty well but it did need two coats. With some trepidation I held it up against the walls in the bedroom and it was a perfect match. Full marks there!

After a while the board was dry enough to stand inside the bus and I put two of the aluminium panels inside too - for easy access. It also served to separate them so there can be no confusion when I start to install tomorrow. One side has 4 windows that I'm covering and thus needs one 58 inch sheet and one 59.75 inch sheet. The other side has 5 windows that I'm covering and will need one 58 inch sheet and one 87.75 inch sheet. 

Once the metal sheets are in place I'll install the wooden sheet. That will take two self-drilling screws, some adhesive caulk and some gap-filling caulk (not Great Stuff).

The mystery mentioned earlier was at the back of the bus. There is absolutely no sign of water ingress anywhere yet one of the solar panels standing up at the back in the middle of the aisle, close to the door was full of water. That was incredible! I have no idea how that got there. The only thing I can think of is that there is a leak - possibly the very back seam. I can fix that. I have caulk. I just need to get up there with the ladder and a wire brush in the pistol drill. 

After the windows have panels I might re-enforce the panels by riveting a small strip of aluminium along the bottom edge. The tops don't bother me. They're hidden under the gutter. The plan is to put aluminium strips - three of them - across each window. That way the bus looks more prison bus and has a more secure feel. I don't think many would bother with a white prison bus.

I'm still pretty much against any labels on the side. I don't need people to know anything or to have reason to ask anything. Just let them work with their own imaginations.

I go back to work in a few short weeks and I have a lot to achieve before that. I want to get the windows completed, the brake lines completed, the underbus wiring done and the leak fixed. I also want to untape and test the roof vent to see if it's good or whether I really should replace it (again). Then I have stuff I can work on at leisure in bad weather inside the bus. That's a bit of wiring though. I do want to work on the wiper pivot too. That's slightly skewed which causes issues. 

Dreadful rain

Today was horribly rainy. It was forecast to be 80% rain as is tomorrow so not a whole lot got done in the dry. I did work on some plywood and had to use a manual saw because of the wet and my not wanting to have the shocking experience of an electric saw.

A few days ago, the 8-32 tap that I'd ordered, arrived so I set to work and within a few minutes I'd fixed the 8-32 thread in the aluminium rivnut that had warped due to over-tightening. The light was reassembled and just in the nick of time because shortly after down came the rain.

In a gap between showers I grabbed a small piece of plywood. This had originally been destined for a kitchen unit I'd been building in the house. That had been put on hold because Lowes (hiss, spit) wood - even the 2x4 - was warping badly. Even the stuff I'd laid flat in order that it would dry straight had warped. Clearly something is amiss at Lowes. Maybe they're just buying wood from China? Anyway, the project components had lain abandoned in the storage shed for the best part of a year.

I would, normally, have gone and bought OSB since the rest of the wall in the bedroom is OSB but I'd better back up a bit. I'm going to skin over the back windows, four windows on one side and five on the other for several reasons and the top half of two windows in the bedroom had been left uncovered and usable. Last time I slept in the bus - a couple of years ago - I almost put my elbow through the window so I decided to skin over the inside also. Currently the $10 OSB that I used to buy is going for $45 in ripoff Lowes. Thus I'm going to use what I have at hand. That's a piece of plywood from a partially constructed kitchen unit project that I abandoned.

The weather was awful - intermittent rain and sunshine. Clearly cutting with an electric saw was no good. Indeed, that might well have turned out to be a shockingly bad idea. Thus I went for the manual option of an ordinary hand saw. I like manual tools. No thief would ever steal a manual tool because he likely couldn't fence it. 

So I'd measured my aperture at 55 inches by 13 and I'd marked my wood. During the cutting process I lost count of the number of times I had to grab the wood and my tools and run for shelter. 

The wood cut quite well and keeping the saw at a fairly shallow angle, the cuts came out straighter than if I'd used an electric saw. This and the controlability is why I prefer manual saws. I use electric for speed but for sheer craftsmanship manual cannot be beaten.

There is a slight gap under the plywood because of the cut of the OSB underneath. That won't notice when the gap is caulked and the metal sheet put on the outside. Two screws in the middle will fasten the plywood to the bus and I'll use construction adhesive at the ends to fasten it to the bus and the other woodwork. It goes against my philosophy of everything being removable with a screwdriver but these adhesives rarely hold things that strongly.

Having cut the wood I went to paint it with the remains of my pot of Valspar Cosmic Pink. That did not go well. It seems that the paint had settled and solidified since I used it last in 2015. It had not evaporated. Instead everything had gone solid. After spending a long time with an electric paint stirrer I did break up the solids but even so, not enough to make the paint usable. I guess I'll have to (shudder) part with more money and buy a small pot of Valspar Cosmic Pink. This time though I'll probably buy oil paint.

Meanwhile the battery terminal connectors arrived for my thicker cables. That means I can replace the puny connectors not designed for heavy use that I'm using on one of my batteries. The Anderson 30A power connectors I'd ordered seem to be being drop shipped. I'd hoped to avoid that nonsense! I am familiar with the trick - the connectors are advertised at an irresistible price then the ship date keeps being moved further out and then in a couple of months they do actually arrive. That's the problem when you buy online.

The other day I found a long cable I'd put in cable wrap that was destined to go under the bus from the driving battery box to the junction of my two lithium batteries. If the lithium batteries will last a year of use then I might put an extra one in with the driving batteries or maybe even just switch the existing batteries forward to the battery compartment.

Meanwhile an interesting thing happened. I now have two batteries connected in parallel. I turned on my extraction fans and all the power went off and the lights went off for a few seconds. Then it all came back on again. I had 3 lights on with a maximum draw of 0.3A between them. My twin 2.5A fans came on for a total consumption of 5.3A according to the book. The controller is good for 20A. After that, the voltage in the battery declined while the fan was on but bounced right back when it went off.  I am thus wondering if the 20A fuse connected to one of the batteries somehow blew or whether I tripped one of my self-resetting breakers. The next dry spell I shall have to check that fuse.

When I have the metal sheeting ordered, painted and attached over the windows and the security bars put over the others I shall be freer to experiment with my extraction fans. It might be that the powerful fans I have just don't work that well at removing heat. They work well at extracting air but my old CPU fans did that quite adequately. It could be that I might be well advised to use lower-powered fans running constantly. I shall have to experiment.

Paused by the rain!

Today's plan was to install the new battery. I would have liked to have completed the two lights that need attention but the tap I ordered is still winging its way across the USA toward me. The internet allows me to buy components from all over the country and all over the world for my bus. This part comes from Minnesota, apparently.

So, the first thing done was to weld three nuts onto each corner of my flame shield - itself welded from various pieces of 1/16th steel. The problem is that the battery hanger has a cross member at the top and the flame shield has to go underneath it. I'd gone through a lot of weird and wonderful designs but then realised a flat plate is the simplest and it could be stood off by nuts. While I could have just put the nuts on bolts and done it that way, it sounds simpler than it was. Getting the holes in the underbody lined up with the holes in the plate would have been more challenging.

What I did was to drill a hole, put a bolt through it, tighten the nuts on the bolt the other side of the hole then arc weld the nuts together and to the panel. Then I removed the bolts and drilled out the thread in the nuts. For those with curiosity, the bolts are 5/16ths.

Having done that and painted the steel red, down came the rain. It had looked a bit worrisome earlier so everything had been packed away a few minutes before the steel was painted.

A while later, the rain had ceased so, not feeling like rolling under the bus immediately - the tarp I'd been using was pretty wet still - I decided to put hinges on two more solar panels. Again, these are 10W panels but they are bigger 10W panels than those I hinged a few days ago.

The advantages of hinged panels are numerous. Easy portability and the ease of putting them on a flat surface to form a tent are just two. I'll have to modify the electrics at a later date.

The tarp dried fairly swiftly so after having completed work on the two panels I rolled back underneath the bus. Have I mentioned yet how much I hate lying on the ground underneath a bus? There is a cable there that needs some cable wrap. I didn't have it to hand. What I'm trying to do at the moment is to complete all my outstanding jobs.

The flame shield went into place but what a performance it was. I had to hold it in place with one hand while sort of sitting up and wiggle a bolt to mark the underside of the rib above. I'd tried using a G clamp to hold the steel in place and it didn't work. Two might have but I didn't get it to stay long enough with one to get a second into place. Bear in mind I was lying underneath and didn't want a 5lb lump of gravity-assisted steel smacking me in the face. I'm ugly enough without that!

So, having bolted the one corner into place I did the next corner and then the other end. That worked just fine.

Originally I had used a red battery connector pair. I did buy some more for this job but cannot locate the pair I'd bought. Annoyingly I remember seeing them a few weeks ago. I looked where I thought they were but they were nowhere to be seen. Tomorrow I'll put my hand right on them!

In lieu of the correct connectors, with the aid of a voltmeter so I could check for polarity, I hardwired the battery into place. I didn't bother wrapping those wires because one was tucked out of the way and I'm planning on putting a new connector in. As one of my friends says though "there's nothing as permanent as a temporary solution".

Having connected the second battery, out of curiosity I set my extraction fans going. What a difference. The battery voltage did drop but I had two lights on, it was already dark and the drop was very slow. The second battery project can thus be considered a success. The solar panel side-project is also a success.

Today I cut out two of my projects. Now I have the lights to complete (when it gets here - probably on Friday). I have to complete the brake lines. I bought some brake line the other day but I need more. I have the wiper pivot to work on. The roof vent needs verification that it works or resolution if it does not. If it does not, my next solution will be to put a solar-powered or rotary vent. There're also some electrical things to do and, of course tires and derusting the brake pistons.
 

Down came the rain

Today I had hoped to replace my two red side marker lights. I did just one because just after I had completed the job, down came torrential rain.

Side by side, the color difference between the lights is obvious. The old lights had darkened so much that they were orders of magnitude less bright. Not a good thing for lights intended for safety use.

On the side of the bus, the difference is very clear between the old and new lights.

Well, there are two more lights to work on. The first is another darkened red light but on the other side of the bus. These are so much simpler because I can do them standing on the ground. They're not up in the air on a ladder. After these two I have one top side amber clearance light to rework - all that needs is the mounts to be adjusted and it'll all be fine.

After this I have brakelines, tires, second battery, right wiper mount and window sheeting. Speaking of window sheeting, I was just quoted nearly $1,000 for aluminium sheeting for the windows. To say I feel a little stunned is putting it mildly. When I bought aluminium sheet for my front (replaced) windows I was charged $72.75 for a sheet of 0.08 5052 aluminium measuring 24.5 x 31 inches. Today I was quoted $86.90 for a sheet of 0.08 5052 aluminium measuring 24.5 x 59 inches and $117 for a sheet 24.5 x 87 inches. Given the difference in the quantity of aluminium, the majority of the cost has to be cutting prices. 

Checking online, a sheet of 4'x8' 5052 in .08" is priced at $286. 8 feet is 96 inches. Given that out of a sheet of 4x8 one can only cut a single 59 inch length or a single 87 inch length, that's actually not that bad of a price. I certainly couldn't do it. 

Other options do exist, however. That would have been my preferred option. It would be possible to get some steel roofing sheet and to solder that with my Bernzomatic to a piece of steel barstock and to join individual sheets together using a strip as a patch that is soldered on. It would not be quite as light as the aluminium but the bottom edge would be stronger. It would also be possible to weld steel bars together to make the length up. It's more work but would be potentially cheaper.

In terms of cost, using Lowes (hiss, spit) as the source, material costs would be...

$12.98 for 36"x24" galvanized steel sheet.

$8.50 for 48" of 1.25" steel flat 1/8 inch thick.

To cover 10 feet of windows I would need five lots of the flat steel and four lots of the steel sheet. That could come to $42.50 of steel flat and $51.90 for steel sheet. Welding the steel flat end on end, perfectly would be an interesting challenge. The sheet need not be that challenging. Simple soldering would work just fine.

The difference in price is less than $100 versus over a thousand. That's really quite something to think about! I think the answer will be to buy a sheet of galvanized sheet and two lengths of flat then to try soldering it all together. If that works just fine then it would be worth going further rather than spending $1,000 on aluminium.

A side project...

Today I got on with a side project I'd been thinking of for quite a while. As many of my regular readers will recall, I have quite a lot of small solar panels. Thus far I have...

2 x 10W the same size

3 x 10W a different size

1 x 15W

2 x 20W

2 x 30W

1 x 5W epoxy panel

That is in addition to the 2 x 10W permanently mounted on the back wall of the bus. Additionally I have two flexible panels of different sizes producing somewhere around 10W though they came from Chinese suppliers that sold them as panels of greater wattage than they actually are and who peeled the labels off to further their lies.

The 15W sat for a long time above my windshield until a vandal cracked the plastic bezel. After that I removed it. It still works but is damaged. The two 10W panels I bought to fit the space but then found they were too big. Thus I ordered the three 10W panels but when it was time to mount them, because of the way the front of the bus is constructed and because they were taller than the 15W panel, I could not employ them. 

The two 30W panels were always intended to sit inside the windshield when parked and that's what they do quite well.

The two 20W panels were cheaper and intended to be sat on the ground outside. 

So, I currently have 185W of solar power that I can use. Parked I can get away with just the 20w on the back wall. I leave the two 30W panels plugged in, just in case though.

With that mass of smaller panels I decided I needed to work on them so I can employ them beneficially.  Thus today I fastened the 3 x 10W panels together with hinges.

I didn't get the hinges perfectly aligned and used only one hinge. On the other hand, the panels are small enough that using one hinge should not matter too much. 

All the panels fold down quite nicely together, even though the hinge sticks out a little. I was limited in how to do this as I had to drill holes in the surround without damaging the panel. Then I simply riveted the hinges to the panel.

Three panels together was good. I have to say two together as a tent - as they were before I added the third panel - is probably ideal as they could be placed as a tent on flat ground to get the sun from all angles throughout the day.

I have around 170W of solar that I could possibly use. On a hot day with the windshield facing North and 60W of power coming from the panels, my extraction fans can be on all day!

People seem to think my small panels aren't up to much. In fact they're perfect. There's absolutely no need for massive batteries or massive numbers of panels when one's electricity usage is as low as mine. Heavens, even when I lived in a townhouse with all the mod cons, my electricity usage was low. The biggest burner of power were probably the fridge and the water heater.

This is the kind of bill I'm used to for electricity. I spent less on electricity than the basic facilities charge. That always used to rankle. 86KWh was mostly the water heater. Over the 32 days of that bill that works out at 2.86KWH a day. 

Just for fun, 2.86 KWH over 8 hours would be 335 watts. That kind of power could be produced by 4 x 100W solar panels. Change cooking and water heating to gas and that electricity usage drops right down. Switch the water heating over to direct solar and it drops even further. There's just no need for masses of power. I'm pretty sure I could run a house off the panels I have.

Win some, lose some

Overnight I had a nasty thought that the vent I have just installed might actually be worse than the original vent. It looks really good with strong louvers etc but then I thought of the wide gaps and the way the louvers appeared designed to send the water backward. I suppose they could be intended to channel water to the edges but one dent and it'll all go down into the cabin. 

I'm looking at this vent and literally wishing I'd tested it before going to the effort of installing it as I currently feel this might not be a great addition to the bus. 

It all feels like I'm following the same path with everything. I buy something then find that it's not quite what I want so I buy something else and that's not right either. Eventually I end up with something that'll do the job well. 

Other people have the same problem with roof vents. I see exactly why some people rivet steel over the vents. The only problem is the vent is there to keep the insulation dry. 

So, what to do? Well, I could put an untested new solar fan vent in place. That would work - perhaps. Another thing that might work is some kind of shroud over the vent. I could, of course, be totally wrong. Though I have the vent covered in tape right now because we're heading toward stormy weather, I'm tempted to go up there with a watering can and see what happens. I just have to pick a hot, dry day when leakage inside will dry fast.