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Old 02-03-2007, 09:43 PM   #141
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Good progress today. Built the frame for the rear ramp/door, and the basic
structure for the ramp also. We can fold it up and down now!

This is being done after the tried and true engineering concept called “winging it”.

Most of it is built with 1” square steel tubing, since I have lots of it sitting here
rusting and I’m in the habit of using it wherever I can.

The first 1” uprights were tacked in place and moved a few times until I had a
good door opening. Then I added two more on each side -- you’ll see why in a
few days. There is also a piece across the top.



In the bottom left corner of the second photo, you see the beginning of the ramp
being welded to the hinge. There are two pices of 1" on each side, forming a
very shallow truss.



And pretty soon we have an outline of the ramp.





Finally, the angle grinder cut the appropriate hole in the rear cap. The idea is to
have the roof overhanging the door a tiny bit -- just enough to keep the rain on
the outside.


More tomorrow.

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Old 02-04-2007, 09:11 PM   #142
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Picking up where we ran out of daylight yesterday:
Remember that big slab of aluminum that looks kind’a “air cargo”-like -- the one I
rescued from the scrap heap at work? I’m pretty sure it is an air freight skid, yes.
Make that, it WAS an air freight skid. After quite a bit of cutting, drilling, riveting
etc today, it is NOW Millicent’s new door/ramp:




I’ve sure been looking forward to seeing that thing in place!
I can actually raise and lower it by myself (with considerable effort), but I intend to
put springs on it.
Now I can figure out the rear corners of the body and get on with the skinning.
Back in a week or so.
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Old 02-05-2007, 12:33 AM   #143
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That thing is HUGE! Looks good though. Winging it is my favorite way to do things too, but it never seems to work out quite as well for me as it did for you. You even have a great canvas for some sort of Kontraption mural now.

What's the plan for the lights? Are you just going to run a small umbilical cord into the door from the inside and then put them on it or what? It doesn't look like you have enough room to put them anywhere but on the door.

What I REALLY love is the hat, boots, and beard. You just seem to fit the part of kinetic sculpture builder and crazy bus building neighbor.
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Old 02-05-2007, 09:00 AM   #144
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Quote:
hat, boots, and beard


Oh. Oh, no. Now we're ALL mixed up. That's Peter, my Kinetic
Racing Partner-In-Crime. I thought I introduced him earlier.


THIS is me. No boots.


And certainly no Nutty Neighbor element to me, no sir!

The idea is to sneak tail lights onto the remaining bodywork
-- the narrow oval kind, turned vertical.

I gotta get to work!
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Old 02-05-2007, 07:16 PM   #145
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encouragement

It's looking great! I am always filled with excitment and anticipation to see your updates. Lately my wife and I are discussing how we will definately be raising the roof on our next bus. The best part is she is okay with the idea of a next bus . Not that I don't like this one.

Anyways... keep it up!

-Richard
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Old 02-06-2007, 07:03 PM   #146
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I'm not sure, but, I do believe that crazy old coot is flipping us the bird!!!

Hey elliot, are you maxxed out on elevation yet with this beast, because it seems to me that a kinetic art komand post just isn't complete without a big set of tail fins. Of course a scale replica of '59 caddy tail fins would probably have to be about 50 ft high.
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Old 02-06-2007, 09:05 PM   #147
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Not a bad idea and it would give him a place to mount some more tail lights How about running the exhaust up and out the tailfins too with the star wheel turned up for more black smoke off idle?
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Old 02-10-2007, 01:26 PM   #148
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Hmmm... I go out of town for just a few days, and the insults pour in!

Well yes, I suppose both Peter and I have been cultivating a Crazy Old Coot image!
However, it seems to work rather poorly with Sane Young Ladies, so a change of
strategy may be in order.

As for tailfins on Millicent... Would you settle for a Peterbilt grille and some swoopy
fenders painted on? I’ve had this crude illustration on my kitchen wall for some time now.
Oh yes, we have no shortage of fun ideas!


But I’ll pass on the black smoke. I don’t want to be THAT young again!
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Old 02-17-2007, 04:25 PM   #149
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It’s a Millicent Weekend! And I have to show some progress before lunch.

But first... It’s Confession Time. I want to Do The Right Thing and own up to my Responsibility.
I’m the father of Anna Nicole’s baby. There. That sure was a load off my ches....



Fiddled away the morning and finally got around to trimming the rear top cap and cutting
holes for recessed lights. Even a Third Brake Light, in case I can fool some Sweet Young
Thing into believing that this is a new Prevost instead of a 1992 school bus.




Now the corners below the cap. After Lunch.
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Old 02-17-2007, 10:18 PM   #150
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When I made the doorway for the tailgate, I built it “in mid air”. That is, I just
barely attached it to the bus, concentrating on making it fit the tailgate. I even
moved it a couple of times by cutting the tack welds and "leaning on it" a bit.

Everything fits now, so it is time to attach the doorway properly to the bus. For
this I picked up a bunch of steel plate remnants of 6" x 24". I don’t have a number
on the thickness, but they are thick enough that I don’t burn thru them so easily.
And they are stiff and strong without triangulation.
I’m welding these into place so that they bridge the gap between the doorway
and existing structures.
And also between the doorway and the new corners.
Oh yes, the new corners. I’m still working on that, but you may be able to see the
new 1” square tubing that the skin will be attached to.

In this photo, you see one of those steel plates on the floor in the foreground. I
just clamp them into place and weld. Any excess that gets in the way can be cut
off later. Here you also see that I have begun welding in the plate that fills the
wedge shaped gap that resulted when I beavertailed the floor. Yes, “beavertail”
can be a verb. It’s not a triangular filler panel; it’s rectangular -- the rest is
underneath, where it will eat very little. We’re not building an airplane here. :P



This is the left side, head on. You can see that the doorway is built up from three
pieces of 1” tubing, and the opening is a couple inches narrower than where I cut
the body. I plan to put this gap to good use -- stay tuned to this station. On the
left, the new skin is just slightly curled towards its final position.



I know these photos are not very good, but here is the right side from a bit more
of an angle, and closer. You may be able to make out the new 1” square tube
corner framing here. Or not -- it's directly below the red marker light. I'll get better
shots later.



Man, I’m sure looking forward to wrapping that skin around the corners so we
can see just how ugly that turns out!
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Old 02-18-2007, 02:51 PM   #151
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lift gate?

If you have air brakes on your bus why don't you but a couple of air cylinders on that tailgate to raise and lower it. Canti-leavered on each side would do it. There are plenty of them on Ebay. If you use small lines like 1/8 inch then it will raise and lower slowly. Heck you wouldn't even have to use a valve, you could just put quick disconnects on the up or down side. No hydraulics, no pumps, no leaks. sportyrick,
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Old 02-18-2007, 09:41 PM   #152
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That's a great idea. But it requires that there is air in the system. After a day or two of
opening and closing, I would have to start the engine. So my thinking is to counterweigh
the tailgate with springs, so anybody can open and close it anytime. That's what the
gaps on the sides of the tailgate are for -- the springs live in there. Just a few more days
before those springs go on, I think.
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Old 02-18-2007, 09:44 PM   #153
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You amaze me. I can't wait to see the whole thing skinned.
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Old 02-18-2007, 10:06 PM   #154
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All right, those rear corners are finally done. We just wrapped the skin around
to the 1” square uprights I installed yesterday. There is one main strap that pulls on
the angles that are C-clamped to the skin, and several small straps that help get
it snug. Even a wood block, for some dumb reason or other.



Here is the other side, and you may be able to see the main strap better -- the
one that is hooked to a C-clamp.



With the skin as snug as we could reasonably make it, we installed rivets thru a
piece of aluminum flat stock for reinforcement. Yes, Peter is here again.
The last step was to cut off the excess skin with the angle grinder.



The result looks better than I deserve. (Only the left side is complete in this shot.)
Sometimes, winging it works!
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Old 02-18-2007, 10:12 PM   #155
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Have you thought about either adding a rub rail or removing a rub rail? Removing them would be purely aesthetic being that you have them down on the bottom with such a huge gap where you re-skinned followed by the roof on top. Removing them might add that Prevost look. Adding another one or two up on the skinned portion would also serve to balance out the look while providing some reinforcement which might not be a bad thing either. I dunno....I think it really is just a minor detail. The bus is really starting to take shape.
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Old 02-19-2007, 10:50 PM   #156
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How do I tell his children that their daddy has been reduced to a pile of charred bones?

This is fire country, so when I weld or grind, I keep the garden hose near by, with
a squeeze nozzle, and the faucet all the way on.
Millicent’s tailgate was in the horizontal position, resting on a sawhorse, and my
Able Assistant was under it, measuring something. I was topside using the
tailgate as a work bench and burning holes with my trusty Lincoln Spark-O-Matic.
Buzzz, buzz from the welding.
Suddenly I hear a different buzzing or hissing from underneath, and Peter cries
out in distress.
Oh Dear. I have electrocuted one of my best friends -- and a darn good helper he
was. I look underneath, expecting to find a smoking carcass.
There sits Peter on the ground, holding the garden hose, which he SAT ON and
filled his hip pockets with ice cold water. :P


Hey, that suggestion of cutting sheet aluminum with a plywood blade running
backwards in the SkilSaw instead of an abrasive wheel -- it works slicker than hot
buttered bikinis! I seemed to get more burrs as the wax wore off, so re-waxing
often is a good idea. Fast, neat, no dust or smoke or smell, not even particularly
noisy. Thank you for that info!


Roughly the rear half of the bus is skinned now. It’s slow work, drilling and pop-
riveting. Some work is wasted or done over for no good reason. I read that
Thomas Edison also made a few false moves before he got the light bulb to glow!
I wound up cutting away two of the eight diagonals I had welded into window
openings for extra strength -- I needed vertical pillars there to join the new skin.

The skin goes down behind the rub rail and up behind the “eyebrow” above the
window openings. Drilling out all the rivets along the top of the upper rub rails...
-- kind’a provided an answer to that suggestion about removing all the rub rails
for a smoother look. I’ll just have to be real smooth myself!

We wedged the rub rail away from the body a little bit, and slipped the skin
behind it.



Then we bowed the skin out until we got the top of it under the eyebrows. Note
that the skin is just barely into the gap under the eyebrow.



This was the toughest part. Like the first skin panel that I trial installed a while
ago, we had to drive the sheet up into the gap under the eyebrow. We did this by
beating upward on the scraps of angle that we C-clamped to the sheet. Here it is,
finally as high as it will go. No rivets along here -- it’s just wedged in there. And I’ll
probably caulk it.



Now we could rivet it in place. First at the rear-most pillar, and then we made it
as tight as possible with a ratchet strap before putting the rest of the rivets in.



Maybe it looks goofy to have window eyebrows where there are no windows, but
guess what; I DON’T CARE!
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Old 02-19-2007, 11:08 PM   #157
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Looking good!!! Hey, Mr Naess, you still have those jacks with the roof lift guides? Sometime here in the future I'm going to definitely be using your method to raise my roof and was wondering as to the availability of say "renting" those jacks for say... Oh... Shipping with a refundable deposit to cover the original cost of the jacks? Refundable upon return of the jacks to you???
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Old 02-19-2007, 11:35 PM   #158
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I'd be happy to lend them out. Les is already in line, and Kevin -- both in Washington state.
But postage would be considerable -- that stuff is heavy!

Actually, I'm convinced the big jacks are not needed. The roof is not all that heavy.
Two of us jostled it up and down a bit when we were trying to get the corners just so.
For the jacking, I think you could use some old scissors jacks or just about anything.
In fact, I bet you could use a 2x4 as a lever with some miscellaneous wood blocks.
Or six sturdy guys fueled by Domino's pizza. Specially if you are not going up as
high as I did. (Remember, I went up about 30" and back down to 23" -- a detour which
turned out to be entirely unnecessary. )

So all you really need are guides. This part I believe is important. You want the roof
to go NOWHERE BUT STRAIGHT UP (AND DOWN). My guides are made to accomodate
that 30" movement. With a shorter lift, you could make guides that are more stable.
Give that some thought, and then we'll get back to it.

Oh yeah, the best would be if I could visit you, like I may do with Les and Kevin
(Kevin is one of my Kinetic Sculpture Racing pals). But Illinois... that won't be until
April 2008, when I plan to take Millicent to Baltimore.
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Old 02-19-2007, 11:43 PM   #159
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Are you using steel or aluminum pop rivets? Also..backing plates or no? I sure do hope you have an air rivet gun...
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Old 02-20-2007, 12:16 AM   #160
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1/4" aluminum with steel mandrel.

No washers. Many places we cannot get to the back side anyway. I'm using
different lengths, depending on how many layers of steel are there.
Now, on the rear corners, where we bent the skin 90 degrees, requiring
quite a bit of force, there is a full length plate on the outside, to make it
nice and flat and secure. I can take a close-up of that if you like.

And I don't need no stinkin' pneumatic riveter -- I have Peter.
Actually, it takes very little force with all the leverage of this two-fisted
tool. The tool is slipping however, after just 300 or so rivets, so I may
need to replace the jaws.
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