Disappointment

Today I commenced work, rather late in the day to complete the battery compartment. After tightening a few nuts and cropping the overlong bolts, suddenly one bolt shattered under very light pressure.

Given that when asked, the store (Fastenal) claimed the bolts to be easily capable of holding 200lbs and probably good for 1200lbs, I'm rather disappointed. Needless to say, with a bad bolt, the whole batch must be condemned as suspect, particularly when it cannot fail. If the battery compartment failed, the consequences could be fatal.

Looking at the compartment so far, the angle bracket that came from the bunk beds that I'd previously condemned is probably 87° rather than 90°. This makes construction of a regular shape somewhat awkward.

Clearly this will have to be rebuilt. I think, sadly, it will have to be welded which is beyond my skills. Given that, I suspect it would be better to let the welder supply the steel as he would likely have access to better quality steel of a more appropriate style.

Generally, I find everything the Hillbillies installed in the bus was of pretty low quality and unusable in any shape or form. In many ways, it would have been better to have started with a bus that still had seats in it. Having experienced the conversion so far, I think I'd do it very differently next time. Having said that, I'm almost completed. I just need to add water tanks and the battery compartment. Then, there's very little else to do.

I had hoped to be able to do everything underneath myself but without welding skills, that's not possible. It's probably cheaper to get somebody else to do the welding than to buy a welder and to waste time learning how to weld. Given that I need the bus operational, I'm going to have to ask about welding. I hate having to use somebody else in my self build project.

Latest developments

Today it rained hard so I managed to check my bus leak seals. Aside from a minor drip over the shower windows, all those treated recently have been cured. That can be considered a great success! The remaining leak will have to be traced another day.

Another leak has resurfaced. A while ago, I sealed the cockpit roof vent and noted that cockpit leaks had been greatly reduced. A few days ago, I removed the plastic bag I had taped over the vent. Now the leak is back and just as bad. Given that Carpenter went bust in 2001, its unlikely that I will be able to obtain a replacement roof vent cover. I know exactly what the problem is - the vent cover is dented as though somebody trod or sat on it. I'll probably just do away with it.

The Rustoleum that I'd painted on bare aluminum has now begun to peel. It's peeling on the paintable caulking that had cured not many days before it had been painted. It's peeling off aluminum that had already been painted. It's peeling off plastic where it had dropped accidentally yet had appeared stuck fast. Let's just say I don't consider Rustoleum to be worth the bother of applying even if the paint was free! The worst of having painted with Rustoleum and wasted my money on it is not that waste of time and money but the time and money I'm going to have to invest in getting that garbage off the bus in order to repaint with another brand.

For the moment nothing can be done because almost all the work is outside. The minor stuff can be done anytime but I'm concentrating on the last big projects right now. Eventually I want to strip the Rustoleum garbage off but that is on the back burner.

Interestingly, I painted a different color of Rustoleum labelled as rust killing on the back bumper. There's rust showing through now. I know Rustoleum has a class action against them for selling a furniture restoration potion that damaged furniture. It can't be long before they get a class action against them for their other garbage.

Screwed to death!

Tonight I'm aching badly after having been screwing hard all afternoon. Indeed, I was still hard at work until the light expired on me at about 6-30pm. The evenings are definitely (or defiantly if Google autocorrect had its way) drawing in.

Achievements today - nothing especially notable. It was a continuation of yesterday, working on my battery compartment. I drilled a few new holes and installed more angle bracket and started on the lock nuts.

While I was there, I noticed what a rotten job the hillbillies had made of installing the cable compartment door. Did they just not notice that one end was a lot higher than the other? Perhaps (as I suspect) they just didn't care!

I looked at the compartment I am building and noted that the steel bracket is not a true 90° so its probably something the hillbillies got free or cheap. They'd built bedframes from this stuff and I can assure you that its pretty springy steel, having flexed it. It should be good for my battery compartment though.

Aside from installing more bolts - which was a case of drilling holes, putting the bolts in and tightening nuts - I installed lock nuts on 17 bolts. That took quite a while because I had to tighten the nuts by hand and do the lock nuts by hand too. The bolts are rather longer than any of the available 3/4 sockets so each nut had to be tightened using a spanner.

After tightening the nuts they were trimmed with my trusty and long suffering $15 Harbor Freight angle grinder. Would you believe of my original pack of 10 cutting disks I have but one left. That's how much use it has had!

I'm not worried about the springiness of the steel. When its all pulled into place and bolted, the springiness will be contained. What does concern me is attaching the cage to the bus. As I have already mentioned, welding is an interesting idea. Having thought about welding more thoroughly, its probably a better idea to get some steel rivets and to rivet the cage to the sub frame where its not possible to use bolts.

The things that factor into the riveting decision are:
1. I don't have a welder and the cheapest is $70.
2. I have never welded before and would have to learn how before I did anything on or for the bus.
3. I have no suitable face protection, no suitable gloves and no suitable smock.
4. As the steel is galvanized, I gather the fumes from welding galvanized steel are toxic.
5. Welders need a 20A power supply and I just don't have such a power supply at hand. I could install a 30A socket on the breaker box in the yard but that would probably take most of a day.
6. A new rivet gun and rivets are way cheaper than anything else at $30 for the rivet gun and maybe $20 for the rivets.
7. I am well used to riveting.
8. I'm unlikely to need to weld anything else.
9. A hand riveter does not need power.

So, it looks like I'll have to drop into Home Depot this coming week for the new riveter. My existing riveter does not work well with tougher aluminum rivets. Steel rivets are harder to use.

That's how springy the steel is! I can't wait to get this installed under the bus. I'll probably install some lighter steel bracket to hold the batteries in place. Holding them down can be done with a chain and a turnbuckle. I probably won't bother too much about water shielding as its unlikely water will splash upwards even on a wet day as the wheels are nowhere near the compartment.

I put it off as long as I could...

Then I crawled or rather rolled under the bus to measure the space available for my battery compartment as being 13.5 inches. Then I set to work.

The first thing was to shovel the sugar I dumped from my abortive sugar blasting attempt away. Scooping it up in a shovel set hoards if wasps that had been clustered thickly over it, buzzing around angrily. Clearly using sugar has hazards!

For the next hour or so, the steel for the compartment was measured and cut. The space needed is only 7x11 inches per battery but the compartment will be 19 inches deep - just in case more space is needed.

The next thing was to balance it all together and I must say, it looks pretty decent. After that came the drilling and bolting...

The plan is initially to have a plywood floor on the compartment as it'll initially solely be a cable compartment. Later, I'll replace the floor with something more suited to batteries.

Looking at the cross members underneath the bus, they seem to largely be closed box section with a few c section beams. That's not very welcome as it looks like I'm going to have to get my box welded onto the bus. On the other hand, having it welded on means that at the same time, a stouter floor could be added, stouter sides and my sections could be tack welded for extra security.

I plugged on until I was overcome by mosquitoes and darkness. Looking at my construction it appears the steel of my angle bracket is not a true 90° as the steel section is slightly wedge shaped. Given this is steel from the bedframes the hillbillies installed, I'm not surprised its not quite right. Nothing they used or did was right. I'll plug on and see if I can at least get the front square. It really doesn't matter too much if the back is angled.

That's what it looked like when I finished work for the day. There are still several bolts to install plus lock nuts. I'll have to go over all the bolts with a wrench later, just to make sure everything is tight. It's looking like the bottom will be held on by between 24 and 32 bolts. The top will be held together by a similar number. I think I can defy 1000lbs of battery to cause that lot to sheer. The extra long bolts will be trimmed after the lock nuts have been installed.

I had a casualty. One of my 4.7mm drill bits broke. Perhaps I should say I broke it. I'd drilled through a metal section and the section moved when I was drilling through the second piece. Needless to say, the drill bit objected. Fortunately I had a spare.

Unless I can get a lot done tomorrow, this underbody compartment looks like it could drag on for a couple more weekends. Having said that, its getting ever closer to completion.

In Tractor Supply yesterday I saw some very interesting U bolts. Those could come in handy for my water tanks. That is, of course, if I can bolt through C or I section rather than box section.

I'm beginning to think that I might have to investigate welding. The same nuts on the bus forums advised against Harbor Freight gasless wire welders but then they never think much of non premium solutions. This is of course typical of forums!

After completing the basic compartment construction, the next stage will be to investigate attaching the compartment underneath the bus. I'm expecting to have to trim some of the girder sections. Honestly, I can't wait to be rid of the hillbilly compartment. Left to my own devices, I'd have simply not put an underbody compartment. If I'd had the bus straight from the depot, there are a few things I'd have done differently. One thing is, rather than simply laying plywood over the central walkway, I'd have removed the central walkway!


As it is, the floor has a slight arch in the centre because of the walkway. As it had to be removed as one section, I couldn't do much about it without ripping up the entire floor. Having said that, I suspect that might have been a better option.

Lol. What a load of plonkers!

Out of interest, I had another look at the bus conversion forum online. Yup... They're still mostly plonkers. I put a simple question about paint and had answers from the outlandish to the ridiculous. Not one could name a barrier primer nor the best value economy top coat yet they all claim to have busses and all claim to have repainted them!

Today I visited Tractor Supply. I didn't buy much. In fact I spent less than $10 but in addition to 100 10-24 nuts and two M4 bolts. I got some 1\4x20 bolts, nuts and lock nuts. Thinking about it, I'd probably have been better off buying all my nuts and bolts from Tractor Supply as they sell them by the pound!

The 1\4x20 bolts will carry way in excess of 1200lbs before sheering. Again, looking for the sheer strength online produced very dubious looking figures. My usual go-to source of The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics didn't have anything bar a definition of sheer strength. Perhaps my engineering handbook would but at the moment it cannot be located.

The 4mm bolt did the biz. This screws into my electro magnet nicely. The bolt is a shade too long but I can always space it off with washers or even trim the bolt a shade with my angle grinder. All I need is to bolt one to a steel bracket and the other to the underside of the latch and the bracket to the bulkhead beneath the latch and its a very simple electro unlocking mechanism. They always say to keep it simple!

If the dual electro magnet affair works as hoped then it would be possible to add remote unlocking. Remote locking could be more challenging, however.

Thinking about a pull on the front door to close it, I realised that as I have a penchant for large size keyrings, I could put a small hook on the outside of the door and use my keyring to pull it shut. Thus I would also be more certain of not locking my keys in the bus!

Spot the silly

I goofed. My plan had been for two electric magnets set to repel each other but being extremely risk averse I ordered just one. If I had ordered two, the lock would be working this weekend. The magnet worked well on the test. Incidentally, attaching it has been solved as it seems to have a threaded hole. I tried an M5 bolt but it was too big so I assume it's an M4. Being from China, its unlikely to be an imperial thread. The plan is to screw one to the underside of the latch and one to a bracket under the latch then when powered simultaneously thge two should repel each other with sufficient force to spring the latch.

This weekend the plan is to install the skeleton of the new battery/cable compartment after demolishing the old compartment. Because of the fact I'll be using bolts, the skeleton will stand inside of the aperture by about quarter of an inch. The compartment will not be waterproof but will be splash proof. The floor might end up as wood but that's not definite and might not remain wood forever.

The water tanks remain problematic. I can see a company in Ohio offering 15 gallon drums for $30 each. The company website is broken so its not possible to make enquiries. If shipping is $20 a drum as normal then they're still way cheaper than specially designed tanks. If I used 4 tanks then $80 of shipping would cover 40 gallons of gasoline or approximately 800 miles of driving which wouldn't really cover the distance.

Meanwhile, local enquiries about tanks are yielding nothing. Online enquiries are yielding very suspect websites and strange looking craigslist deals. It's looking rather challenging at the moment. On the other hand, just about everything on the bus has been a challenge.

The bus has definitely been a learning experience. While I haven't got everything perfect, its pretty good. The paint has been a problem that was not entirely unexpected. I'd had doubts about painting over cellulose due to things I've heard. Ideally I'd use cellulose paint but since it seems not to be available in gallon cans, I'm stuck with other kinds of paint. Clearly oil paint doesn't work too well or it could have been Rustoleum being a bit weird. I'm wondering about a barrier undercoat.

Sheer strength

Not knowing the sheer strength of my 10-24 bolts, I asked Fastenal who were the suppliers and they reckoned on 1200lbs. Thus, they seem ideally suited for my battery compartment. I will, of course put them in multiples, just in case. I had a feeling they were the right bolts when I bought them. In any case, steel rivets would have had a sheer strength of 700lbs.

Yesterday I spoke of the difficulty of getting work. Here is a prime example: I applied online to one of the jobs advertised as being local and had this response.

Clearly I applied for a position on Indeed.com. That's evidenced by the email subject of "Patient Relations Call Center Representative job in Columbia, SC". I receive an email telling me to "come in and apply for this position." So, which is it? A job I applied for or a job I didn't apply for?

Obviously it was a fake job put up by an agency that leaves honey traps to collect resumes. Aside from this being exceedingly dishonest and immoral, they expect me to come to an office over 20 miles from my home and 40 miles from my job, at a time when I will be at work. It's incredibly rude for them to expect me to miss work just to come to waste time and money on a visit to an office without it being an actual interview with an actual employer. If the job was actually working FOR Roper Staffing as a bona fide employee at their office then OK but a spurious visit? Good God, if they think I have time to waste plus gas money to waste on whatever this is, they're insane! Sadly, this kind of thing is so common with agencies that I skip any advert that looks like its from an agency. Needless to say, that leaves very few genuine jobs online. In 20+ years I have never had anything from agencies bar my time and money being utterly wasted.

Hence, since admin and senior admin seem to be treated by South Carolina employers as a "women only" job, I'm building the bus so I can get a job with more forward looking, modern world employers. Indeed, its so bad in Columbia that I rarely apply for jobs here. As an example, I applied for a job, had an email requesting me to ring to book an interview and was told there were no jobs. My lady friend rang 30 minutes later and was told there were lots of jobs and to come on in. That's just one of many examples of sexism in Columbia, SC.