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.