What have you done to your bus this week?

[muldoonman]

worked on passenger foot slide, replaced a few clearance lights, got coach inspected. Fixing to change fidels in gen set and taking coach in to Prevost / Houston (friday)  for oil and antifreeze change for a beach run this weekend.

[chessie4905]

   Removed woodwork from dash area; thank goodness builder made it possible to remove without destruction, although some effort, including removing those wooden rounded plugs to access screws for removal. Pulled woodwork to remove and repair driver's dash defroster leaking heater core. I'm going to thoroughly clean and paint inside area and service blower motors. I'm going to look into what I would need to do to hook up a compressor and condenser to the AC evaporator that rests on top of heater core.
   Also removed about 5 pounds of dirt/grease caked on front of rear bulkhead from years of leaking pinion seal. Previous owner had it fixed  before I bought it. Rebuilt DD3's going back on next week after finishing scraping an cleaning and painting suspension beams and bulkhead areas. Oh, and making new  to replace the severely worn/gone flap on bottom of bulkhead in front of engine. I did notice one of the engine oil leaks is from piece of gasket hanging out between bellhousing and engine plate. That is a project for the future and is going to require trans removal. Lots of labor for a lousy gasket failure

[OneLapper]

Absolutely nothing. 



Now, where did I park that thing?  *Ugh*.  Lost it again. 

[lostagain]

Drove the bus to Butte, Mt to move our son to Montana Tech University. He is doing petroleum engineering. 450 miles each way from Blackie, Ab. Spent 2 nights, 1 at WM, the 2nd on the street outside his apartment. Beautiful historic buildings from the copper mining days. Well worth a visit if you are driving by on I 15 or I 90. Also see the Berkeley open pit, and the mining museum.

JC

[OneLapper]

Why black A/C shrouds?  It seems to me they just absorb heat when you need A/C the most on a bright sunny day with no shade.

I have two AC units, one white cover and one black.  Heat radiation aside, the black unit isn't nearly as noticeable on top of the roof!   Huge difference.  The white unit never 'blends' into the scenery.  You can see it from every angle, in every picture.  The black one just seems to disappear, much more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. 

Sean. Why did you pull the mini-splits?  Was the last issue with them the generator capacitor?   Sorry for the thread jacking Scott. 

[Seangie]

I have two AC units, one white cover and one black.  Heat radiation aside, the black unit isn't nearly as noticeable on top of the roof!   Huge difference.  The white unit never 'blends' into the scenery.  You can see it from every angle, in every picture.  The black one just seems to disappear, much more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. 

Sean. Why did you pull the mini-splits?  Was the last issue with them the generator capacitor?   Sorry for the thread jacking Scott. 

Mark - I'll post a separate thread with the issues but bottom line is the freon lines were threaded (not brazed) and over the bumps and bruises of long drives, no matter how much I tightened them (to spec or tighter) they kept coming loose enough to let the Freon out.  If I had AC tech skills and tools and knew how to pull a vaccuum and fill myself I may have kept it longer.

[Taibob]

JC
In regards to what you said about Butte ,Montana.
I passed throught last June on Hwy 15 ,headed for Calgary AB.
Sorry , but I did not stop for the scenery, as I had the hammer down getting a run at that 10 mile hill going north.
Regards
Bob

[eagle19952]

it is my understanding that Fantastic went to the darker tinted vent covers because they did not suffer the same rate of UV deterioration as the white. I have seen the whites and clears just disintegrate to a touch...when they are done they are brittle to crumbles...then you have a big hole for rain to get in...
On my fantastics I have put  Velcro strips around the plastic perimeter insert, and use a square of vinyl/naugahyde fabric that matches my ceiling to use as a cover to block heat and or light when not in use. My one vent is also my shower vent.
It works out well to reduce AC losses or heat migration. and controls moisture too.

[oltrunt]

I built a slide out for the bed.  Queen length, standard width.   Jack

[Gordie Allen]

http://this-old-bus.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-past-month-has-been-busy-oneboth.html

[oltrunt]

Gordie, I'm a newbee.  I can see that you let no moss grow and I'm sort of the same.  Could I ask you a favor?--how do you post pics here and is it OK just to ad them to text?  Thanks Jack

[Miss Scarlett]

I put on a little Sheilashine

[robertglines1]

Buttoning up engine cooling system! Soon be time for final engine control wiring. Little steps---  Engine doors back on soon-1st time in 2 years.   Bob

[Iceni John]

Today was a good day.   Further to my post here two days ago, I went to SolarTec in Northridge and bought eight Sharp ND-255QCSBX solar panels.   One panel has a small flower-shaped blemish mark on one of its sixty cells, and I can't see anything amiss with the other seven panels at all  -  so much for them being Grade B cosmetic blems.   Two kilowatts of clean silent power for the next few decades  -  woohoo!

Today I also finished my roof depainting.   If anyone here wants to hand-scrape 350 sq.ft. of roof down to bare metal with a 1.5" scraper, I would STRONGLY suggest you find a better way!   Unfortunately I had no choice because my bus is in an RV storage yard, but it's another job now done.   The painting will be easy in comparison.   When the roof's painted I'll make a walkway between my two roof hatches, then the PV panels will be hinged to it so they can be easily raised to face the sun.

Oh yes, one more thing I've almost finished is the propane conversion of my emergency generator.   I'm making a 90-degree adaptor to mount the air cleaner onto the propane injector-thingy that sits on the carburetor, and the Garretson KN demand regulator is now neatly in place.   I want it to look like it came from the factory this way  -  the conversion kit's instructions say to cut the main frame tube to clear the air cleaner, but there's no way I'm going to do a hack redneck job like that.   I test-ran it on propane a few days ago, and it seems to run quieter than when using gasoline.   I hope this generator will never need to be used when my solar system is up and running.

John

[eagle19952]

Replaced all Negative and Positive battery clamps
cleaned and serviced batteries
Equalize battery charge cycle
Replaced 2T AC Compressor....acid wash...
replaced 50 amp AC breaker
cleaned/sanitize fresh water tanks...filled in case of hurricane...SW FL.