104F and I'm sick as a dog

I work with kids who're very generous with their germs. I'm really unwell today but against my own advice I worked on the bus. I didn't do the underbus plumbing as the ground was wet. I certainly don't need to be wet as well as ill!

As can be seen, the plumbing inside the bus is complete. A handyman looked in and made derogatory comments but what the heck. I don't care if my plumbing isn't to whatever code might exist. All I care is that it works and is easy to maintain.

At this point, having done little other than a small amount of plumbing, I called it a day. What with the 104F inside the bus plus the humidity, the stormy weather and the virus I have, I was just about ready to hurl.

As I told my dad - between the heat, humidity, mosquitoes, illnesses and work, I just don't get much time to work on the bus. My aim had been April of 2015. It's now May of 2016.

Remaining to be done - ventilation, some power source, finishing the grey water plumbing. Those are first priorities. Next are welding a panel over the back door lower window, fitting a door unlatching system and then finally fixing the hillbilly wiring.

In other news, I found the bus title. That means I can now send off again to get it retitled as a motorhome. I really need to finish the sink plumbing and put in some ventilation!

Some people....

By way of a change, milady and her erstwhile junior companion and I went out for a meal. That, of course was followed by ladies favorite sport - shopping. Needless to say, today Lexington town center was blocked off by a children's parade or something. This meant I could not follow my heart and buy bus stuff. That, as it turned out was rather fortuitous.

Returning to the bus following a lengthy session at Walmart I set to work. The first thing I did was to install the U bend I created last time.

Following that, I looked under the bus and ascertained where to drill the hole for the drain. Reckoning on a good spot, I drilled a pilot hole that I could fill readily if it was in the wrong place. Checking underneath it was ideally placed. Thus I whipped out my masonry hole saw and within a few minutes that seemed like centuries due to my having to lie on my toilet with my head under the sink, I had a very nice hole that I quickly sprayed against rust.

Looking at my plumbing plan, it transpired that if I needed to remove the bend at some point in order to remove foreign objects, I would be unable to. That led to some fast replanning and a decision to use flexible pex tubing and screw connectors. That would also allow me to empty the sink into a bucket if required by simply redirecting the hose.

Needless to say, a trip to Lowes (hiss, spit) ensued. That ended up with my sitting on the floor of the plumbing aisle trying to find bits that fitted together. My mission was somewhat complicated by  customers asking whether I - clad in paint-stained pants, a riped and paaint-stained shirt and torn-up tennis shoes - was a plumber. One would have thought that as I wasn't displaying half a yard of arse crack the answer was clearly negative on that count! Another thing that complicated matters was the seemingly complete failure of Lowes (hiss, spit) to keep the right items in the right containers. At least one box had just one of the items I needed but buried under a sea of things that bore no possible resemblance to the description on the shelf marker. It was pretty much a lucky dip!

Leaving Lowes (hiss, spit) after what felt like an eternity but which could not have been more than a couple of hours, I headed to Walmart. There, milady has tasked me to find her some Mountain Dew. That's when the fun really started....

Walking along the aisles I found Walmart's last five bottles of Mountain Dew. I could carry four but the fifth proved too much of a challenge. Needless to say, I'd neglected to obtain a shopping cart. As there was no point in letting a single bottle of milady's favorite drink escape, I returned hurriedly with a shopping cart.

Having loaded all five drinks on the cart, which was not perhaps the finest in the world, I pushed it toward the checkout. The cart had a misshapen wheel that caused it to bounce in rather the manner of the Duracell bunny on crack.

The first checkout had a line as far as the eye could see The next was the same. I raced along the row of checkouts seeing lines that crossed the horizon at every one of the few that were open. Finally I reached he gardening section and their line was wrapped around several displays. I headed back to the first checkout in the desperate hope the line would have shortened.

Sure enough, there was a checkout available. As I pushed the cart to the conveyer I became aware that my cart was dripping. Checking the bottles it transpired one was responsible. There was a trail of drips behind me. Picking up the offending bottle I discovered it was spraying sticky Mountain Dew very strongly from the bottom of the bottle. It was hosing down the checkout pretty thoroughly. Fair do - the cashier leapt into actio! She quickly scooped up the bottle and stuffed it into a plastic bag then moped up the trail swiftly with paper towels.

Needless to say, if I had left with the four I could carry, this whole incident might have been avoided. The funniest thing though - I messaged to friends that the bottle had been spraying and hosed down the checkout. That's not what their minds expected fro Walmart. Their imaginations went off on the lines of the People of Walmart website The imagined somebody standing at the checkout, urinating. The only time I have seen that is women squatting in the car park to pee.

Returning home I returned to work  on the bus. By the time I had knocked off for the night, the ex tubing was ready to install. Other than that it is time to work under the bus. That has to be done in the daylight however.

Is it a urinal or is it a sink?

After helping m'lady to tidy the front yard a little, I looked at the bus. It seems the front top flashers unscrew fairly readily though each is 7 inches in diameter and much larger than the sheet of aluminum I have. Either I'm going to have to fill the screw holes with rivets or something or I'm going to have to make some big plates to cover the whole lot. On the whole, filling the screw holes with rivets and putting small plates over the cable holes seems more logical. This time though I might use the correct sealant. Silicone sealant isn't really up to much. I've used a lot of it too!

The handbasin came to mind. It struck me the other day that the toilet might get smelly if I pee in it as well as poo. It might be a better idea to dispose of urine separately. Thus the handbasin made a return. That thing has been a real yo-yo. I toss it out then reinstall it then toss it out then reinstall it. Today I reinstalled it for probably the final time. Tomorrow I will put a waste tank under the bus dedicated to that handbasin. The plumbing can be done at a later stage.

In order to install it properly, it needed something called sink clamps and of course I had none. I did have some 10-24 bolts, some washers and an angle grinder though. Looking at the tracks on the edges of the handasin, it was obvious that a ground down bolt head would slide nicely into the grooves and the neck on the grooves would retain the bolt head. Thus I set to work turning some overlong 10-24 bolts (remember these are the bolts supposed to hold 1200lbs but which broke under light pressure) into sink clamps.

Eventually it was done and I bolted the sink to the woodwork that I'd cut for it in January of 2015. It fitted very nicely. The handbasin needs a darned good scrub having been lying in a chicken coop for the past 8 months. I did hose it off though and the back looked clean but the usable bit needs work.

This is what it looks like, installed. I need to put a U bend or S bend or whatever you like to call it plus a downpipe that goes through the floor and into the waste barrel. That could be interesting as I need to go from a big tube to a much smaller tube. Plumbing is not hard. The hard part is that there are so many parts that don't quite fit.

I was going to pick up some blanks to fill the 1.5 inch diameter holes where the faucets fit yesterday but the silly fellow in Lowes (hiss, spit) that wouldn't stop talking ensured I didn't. I am rarely bugged out of a store by an annoying customer but that was one such occasion. Somewhere I have a strainer for that sink. I'll have to find it. I couldn't find my 3/8 deep socket either. That'll be there somewhere.

Meanwhile, I had a look on the roof of the bus and noticed that the paint I put on has definitely faded. The Rustoleum seems not to be that great of a paint to be honest. There was a patch I had covered for a few months and I had removed the patch. That area is definitely darker.

Tomorrow's goal is to put the waste barrel under the bus. I precut the cable based on the fittings for the other tank so with luck this should go on a lot faster and a lot easier. I know how it all works and what the problems were and what the solutions are now. Indeed, it might be worth returning to the other barrel at some point to check that the nuts are tight or at least add some secondary non-slip nuts.

Remaining to be done (notice how the list is getting shorter)...
1. Finish the plumbing.
2. Remove the flashers.
3. Install the cargo tie downs.
4. Install some kind of fan for the kitchen and one for the bedroom - to extract the hot, steamy air (yes, really).
5. Figure out some way of unlocking the front door from the outside.
6. Consider some kind of electrical system.

That's it - just six items after the next drum has been installed. I did think about an underbody water tank but to be honest, I think jerry cans are just fine.

And of course... No news from the DMV about retitling! No contant - nothing. It's as though my letter vanished into thin air. It's all well and good though as I can get it ever nearer completion prior to their inspection.

Some strange adventures.

Today was a day that was really odd. It started with my aiming to go to Greenville to try to get my Mac fixed at the Apple store. That's not what actually happened though. As soon as I started the engine, a light came on telling me to get my engine serviced. Thus, I went to Autozone where the problem was diagnosed as a faulty fuel sender unit costing $160. Well, that seemed strange since clearly my fuel gauge worked well. Next stop was the dealer who confirmed it was the fuel sender unit and that it would be $610 to get it replaced (including taxes). By then it was getting a bit late to head to Greenville and since the fuel gauge was still working, I decided to leave it until such a point as it actually needs replacing.

Being in Lexington itself then, I headed to Best Buy where I noted the cheapest Macbook (10 years younger than mine) was $800. Still some way to come before they will be as affordable as a $199 Windows laptop! As usual all the staff completely ignored me from the greeter by the door to the individual in the computer section who was too busy picking his nose to be bothered. Plenty staff just stood idly around chatting on their cellphones and watching customers enter then leave the store having never been asked if they needed assistance. I left too even though I knew what I wanted to ask about since Best Buy clearly is not interested in doing any business.

Leaving Best Buy, the next port of call was Home Depot where I actually found the turnbuckles I so desperately needed. Seeing as Home Depot's turnbuckles which apparently will hold 130lbs had loop ends rather than the closable ends I needed, I had to go across the road to Tractor Supply for some connectors. Et voila - now you can see what is going to be on one side of each waste water drum!

The top left screws into one of the body skeleton cross members. It's a clamp designed to anchor a steel cable. It will hold a chain very well. The next bit is a 130lb turnbuckle. The last bit is a link I can use to connect the turnbuckle to a chain. I will use three like this on one side of each barrel. The other side will have a plain clamp to attach the chain to the skeleton.

I returned home in enough time to work toward putting the barrels under the bus. The first thing achieved was to attach the water tubing. After that I installed the breathing tubes. Sounds simple? I most certainly assure you it was not!

The water tube was pretty easy - just a matter of drilling a 3/4 inch hole in the center of the big cap then screwing in an adaptor - the cap is ready threaded. Then the angle was installed. The other side was far more interesting. I spent ages trying to unscrew a metal ringed cap before discovering after 20 minutes that it simply levered off, revealing a cap with a cross in the head. It took a few minutes to make a screwdriver out of steel to open the cap. The goal was to put a hole through that cap in order to install a breathing tube. 

To cut a long story short (chorus of Thankyou Jesus echoes around the room), my original plan had been to drill through the cap and install a threaded tube through it, tightened by a nut on both sides. Well, that didn't end up working but the plastic hose barb that I'd bought screwed very nicely into the hole I'd slowly made with a drill then enlarged with a file and a stanley knife.

By the time darkness fell, I'd put two breathing tubes and two fluid tubes into barrels. The next thing and I left this until tomorrow is to mount the barrels underneath the body. Interestinly the threades on the cable clamps seem to be 7.2mm or 0.29 of an inch. I don't have a drill that size but I can borrow one. My game plan is to drill a template in some flat steel then use that to drill the holes under the bus. 

The second barrel will not be installed tomorrow. Just the one. The second, I need to buy 6 more cable clamps for. Tractor Supply did not have enough to fulfill my needs. I gather they have deliveries on Thursdays so on Friday I can imagine I might be installing the second barrel. Having done that, I might put the sink that I removed, back in the bathroom as it's just the perfect place to use as a urinal! 

Although I am unlikely to get my Mac working before I head back to work on Monday, I should at least (if plans go well) have some improved plumbing. I don't know about the main breaker box but things are looking promising!