It's colder than a witches tit today!

It has been below freezing for several days in a row. It's highly likely that I won't be doing any welding tomorrow. Today was just plain miserable most of the day. It was made even more miserable by a stomach thing that fortunately cleared up by 4pm.

Thus, at 4pm I headed out to Walmart, being slightly surprised that my car battery actually started the car. It didn't want to but it did start. So, while the mechanics at Walmart changed my battery (which was free), I went shoppng and got 4 more blinds and 4 mounts for my blinds. The cheapest blind at walmart was $3.95 but these were $4.95 roller blinds. For the other windows - in the shower - I suppose I could use the $3.95 blinds but I haven't given that much thought. I'm thinking more in terms of how to attach shower curtains to the ceiling.

Looking around Walmart, I saw some very interesting things but my mission today was explicit - blinds and battery. If I don't stick to my list then it's likely that I'll spend too much. Income is not unlimited and the last paycheck I was given has to have special consideration as it was printed incorrectly. Apparently it'll be OK with the issuing bank because they know of the error. My bank might be another matter entirely though!

Of interest were another D cell lantern for $20 - mine works very well though with just one, lighting is limited to a small area. For the potential battery I looked at the EverStart Lawn and Garden battery for $20. It was interesting but did not state its capacity at all. Given that all I would need to power would be fans and phone/tablet chargers I really don't need much power. I could probably get away with a 20ah standard battery and use only 2-3 ah out of it. Indeed, I could probably - if the USB connectors would handle voltages that low - use a 6v battery. That could even be a DIY battery made of NiMh AA cells. Now that would be definitely worthwhile. I have a pile of NiMh AA cells that I don't use.

As it's perishing cold right now, I was looking at alternate heat sources for my bus and chanced upon a Coleman gas heater. The one of immediate interest seems hard to obtain. It's called the Coleman SportCat but nobody seems to stock it. It takes a different size of gas cartridge and offers 14 hours of continuous heat per cartridge. That's definitely doable.

I'm not too keen on having multiple standards of gas cartridge or indeed multiple standards of anything but sometimes it is necessitated by cost and availability. Apollo 13 discovered to their cost why different standards are a very bad idea when their spaceship had a mishap. It turned out that the lunar lander air filters had a different fitting from the command module filters. Thus they had to rig up a solution in order to make the wrong filters work in the command module just to survive.

Clearly I need to add some more fire extinguishers but that was always the plan anyway. I did wonder whether I should build a bay under the bus to hold a couple of 20lb gas cylinders. Plumbing for gas needn't be expensive or hard and is very possible. The gas cooktop could be installed above where the fridge or cooler will be situated. Indeed, I looked at coolers today and saw one that would do that was $22.

In mind today were the schoolbus flashers. The plan is eventally to intergrate them into the turn signal and braking light systems. The existing reversing horn needs to be tested and connected to a switch on the control console. That way I can switch it on when reversing and off when not which would also give the option of having it sound when necessary and not when it's not or not when it's dark and would unnecessarily cause noise. There's a lot of systems work that could be done.

The aim right now is to get the blinds and shower curtains up. That will get the bus pretty much ready inside. I would like to have the battery/cable compartment refitted but this is not essential right now. I think with the blinds and curtains in place, I will be able to reregister the bus as a motorhome. I will want to put a couple of extractor fans - one over the cooking area and one in the bedroom but those can wait a little while.

If it's a nice day tomorrow (which it should be) the plan is to install the blinds and possibly get started on replacing the battery/cable compartment. The compartment will take a while. I need to experiment welding very thin sheet steel because the aperture under the bus created by the hillbillies is way too big for the new breaker box compartment. The new battery compartment will be quite small as it doesn't now have to carry a battery big enough to power the cooking systems.

It's always a toss-up which way to head with design and one person's error could be another person's salvation. I don't like gas - never have and probably never will. On the other hand the cost of a battery setup capable of powering a microwave would need a battery capacity costing $500 while my electrical system will cost maybe $50. A small battery such as the one planned could be charged from a smaller solar panel. Indeed, solar in this instance would work. This is even cheaper than the generator system I had planned earlier.

The only issue I am likely to have with tomorrow's welding is that the bus is probably beyond the reach of just a single one of my two 20A cables. One cable has Nema 5-20 connectors at each end but the other has a Nema 6-30 on one end which won't connect to anything other than the planned connector on the bus. The solution there will be to start the bus engine for the first time in 3 months or so!

I can honestly say that I am looking very much forward to getting the bus completed and ready for action. I want to see if I can get it ready and reregistered in time for the Battle of Aiken so I can take it for the whole Battle of Aiken weekend.

I'm not an expert

Definitely not an expert at putting on window privacy film! Having said that, it doesn't really matter how it looks from the outside as long as people can't see in easily. I think I'm going to have to order more because the roll is too narrow do do my side windows width wise and too narrow to cut in two and do length wise over two windows. In other words, there's a lot of waste. It's also not going on all that well. It's crinkly and very hard to separate from the backing film so its going on with crinkles and air pockets no matter what I try.

Some would say that I should produce money from my imaginary cornucopia to pay somebody to do it. I say, its an old bus. It's only ever going to be an old bus. It doesn't matter as long as it gives me privacy!

From the inside it really doesn't look too bad. I did another window and then darkness fell together with torrential rain and a thunderstorm. That put an end to work for today. I returned to the house, drenched in sweat because though it was cool outside, it was hot inside the bus.

It's clear to see the difference privacy film has made to the bedroom. It's also freeing my sheet of hardboard that I'd had over the windows for privacy. I'll have to see how long this film lasts before fading.

The paint in the bathroom is dry and today I attacked the cockpit, putting up the last metal sheet and caulking gaps in the closet. I also tidied the cockpit and swept out a lot of sawdust. Everything in there needs a good wipe down with a wet rag and I mean everything. Drivers seat, controls, floor, walls, dashboard etc.

Without a shadow of a doubt I'm rapidly coming toward the end of internal construction! I can't wait to take her out to get her registered as a motor home!

For the first time in 2 months I started the engine. It started in around two seconds! For the first time in 4 months I moved the bus. As the front has single wheels, they tend to sink into the ground so I backed her up, turned the wheel and drove her forward. It appeared she'd sunk 1.5 inches into the ground.

I had a look at changin over the alternator belt but wasn't sure how to so I didn't try. Closing the hood, I felt something prick my arm, looked down and saw a big black fly. I shook my arm and it flew away, leaving me with a puncture mark and a sore arm. There's probably a hornets nest somewhere. I noticed several dead hornets in the cockpit. I'll bet they're either in the air ducts or underneath the bus.

While it rained, I noted I have a leak from one of the windows that I moved. Not a big leak but one that I'll look into tomorrow. The cockpit leak isn't bad since I taped a bag over the roof vent.

Tomorrow? More of the same... Cleaning and window tinting.