Beep beep'm beep beep yeah

"Baby, you can drive my car
Yes, I'm gonna be a star
Baby, you can drive my car
And maybe I'll love you"

So sang the Beatles back in 1965, a full 29 years before the bus was even built. Today the horn worked though the horn button. Interestingly the brake booster didn't whir until my foot was on the brake so that's two things resolved or is it more?

Today I went inside the big black box on the right. That's where all the cables join. Having already fitted spade connectors to the separated horn wire and connected the red wire to the line that led to the actual horn, I found that the two horn ends will just clip together nicely using the spade connectors. Clearly not much wire was missing.

Starting the bus it was surprising not to hear the brake booster. Perhaps the air that was in the line is now not in the line? It did work when the ignition was off, which was good. So, the horn was connected properly and seemed to work so perhaps prematurely removing the red wire was  next. The only problem will be if the horn button is bad and the horn sounds randomly while driving. 

It was intended that I'd get to the disconnected video cable and the buzzer, using the space occupied by the buzzer for a new fuse panel. It was just a bit much sitting inside a hot cockpit though. It was 98.5F in the shade and I wasn't in the shade.

A few weeks ago, I hinged a pair of 10W solar panels and a trio of 10W solar panels. Today I changed some of the connectors and added connectors so it will be possible to connect one or all on each hinged set in order to generate power. I've used the standard SAE connector on one panel - that will connect into the solar system. The other connectors are some cheap low amperage connectors found on eBay a year or two back. They're not that good and certainly can't take water bad weather but they're fine for fold-out panels that are just placed in the sun, on the ground for a little temporary extra power. 

Adding up my solar, I have...

1. Two flexible mystery panels that have great claims but actually produce somewhere around 10-12W so we'll say two 10W flexible panels giving a total of 20W
2. Two 10W panels hinged together producing a total of 20W
3. Three 10W panels hinged together producing a total of  30W
4. Two 20W panels completely separate producing a total of 40W
5. Two 30W panels completely separate producing a total of 60W
6. A single 15W panel producing a total of 15W
7. A single 5W panel producing 5W
8. Two 10W panels mounted permanently on the bus producing a grand total of 20W

So, the grand total of power potentially available is around 210W of which with everything running all at the same time is going to exceed demand tremendously.

And finally, my tires are all around the same age. DOT 0210 means the 2nd week of 2010. Thus they're all 11 years old and undrivable so I'll have to get somebody in to change them. 

As of today, things that I know that need to be done...

1. Remounting the one sidelight above the side door and using rivnuts instead of self-drillers.
2. Replacing the push button switch and a voltmeter above the microwave.
3. Remove the buzzer in the console.
4. Clean paint off the windscreen
5. Complete replacing the brake lines.
6. Put the solar power wire to the driving battery compartment so the batteries can be kept topped up.
7. Rework the right wiper mount.
8. Replace the tyres

There might be more to do but those are the main things. I would like to put bars over the windows so we can call that point 8. I have to test the roof vent and if it fails, put a hood over it.

Well, things do seem to be coming along well. In that lot there's one big job - the brake lines and that's really about it. I put a temporary fix on one of the batteries but it seems to be holding so I might or might not rework that. As a friend says "there's nothing so permanent as a temporary fix".