Today was a series of small things done that in themselves represented nothing major. What they were, however was a series of projects that were finally completed.
The big failure of the day was the Chinese 5W water pump. This was purchased new on eBay and took until this week for me to try it. It was purchased on December 20, 2020 at 11:56am. It arrived on December 27. Today I heated the end of my plastic tube so that it could be expanded to fit the plastic pipe on the pump. When it cooled it would not slide off so there was a pretty good seal.
Trying the pump with just my fingers, it didn't seem to produce all that much air pressure. I tried it with the inlet in water and while it would pump water if the tube was full of water and barely above the water level, it didn't have the power to pump it, even when powered directly from a battery capable of providing 14v at 60A. It seems somewhat of a disappointment.
One of the other small jobs was to put the panel back over the electrics inside the bulkhead. That went on easily enough. It was just something that had been waiting to be done for a long time. While I was at it, I fastened the top screw of the wood panel that went over the window on the right of the door. I saw no need to do away with that even though I now have steel over that window. I looked at the back door and wondered about replacing the glass in the top window that has steel on the outside with thin steel or perhaps aluminium on the inside. I knew I threw away that thin steel from the old fridges too quickly. I'd taken it off, cleaned it up and painted it about 4 years ago and threw it away last year because I couldn't see that I'd ever use it. But that's a couple of jobs done.
The last job was to remove the old vent bottom inside the cab. I replaced it with my new vent bottom that came with my new vent. That's the vent I bought 4 years ago and installed earlier this year.
The new vent cover looks pretty good. I sprayed it white although I suspect it might be stainless. Around the edges the original bare steel of the bus can be seen - the vent cover had been installed before Carpenter painted the bus. I put the old vent in the car and next time I'm in a paint store I'll try to get paint the same colour. With that I can brush paint on that's the right colour. It's not worth using a spray for that particular site.
The major jobs still to be done are tyres, brake lines and the right wiper mount. The small jobs waiting to be done are doubling up the solar inputs, replacing a couple of switches and a voltmeter inside and wiring the solar charger to keep the driving batteries topped up. The only other thing is bars over the remaining side windows to make the bus more secure. That's really about all that's left to do.
As far as the tyres are concerned, I asked if crossply tyres were available. After that I heard no more from the tyre place. I guess I'll just have to go there after Christmas. As generations have found, the only thing that really gets business done is a personal meeting. I have never had any success from online job applications nor mailed in job applications. The only way to get jobs is by meeting the guy that actually does the hiring. When you're pawned off to HR or computers or bits of paper they're just yanking your chain. It goes the other way too - several emails and no sale means they probably think I'm yanking their chain.
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