Best Home Yet

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The door opens to reveal five drawers. They are actually boxes made of 1/2 inch plywood that were glued and stapled together. They are 7 inches tall and about two foot square.






First off, drawer glides are expensive.

Instead of the conventional approach to making a set of drawers, I chose to make a face frame with one inch ribs. I then installed shelves made of 1/2 inch plywood in those spaces.

They are supported with screw strips on the sides and back. Because the shelves are 1/2 inch and there are one inch ribs, the drawers can not slide out. That was a cheap and effective way to get a bunch of drawers. Also, you don't have to fuss with them in order to remove them. Just lift the "box" out of there.



Another view of the drawers.







Yeah! I know! Why aren't the insides of the doors and the sides of the drawers stained? I gotta save some stuff for later.

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Here's a view looking rearward, with the curtain closed. If I wanted to, I could close the front bedroom curtain and the back one and run that roof air on high and make a little refrigerator. I bet that would be useful in Arizona in the summertime.

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More clothes than any one man should own.








So, there was a time that I would run out of clean clothes in a month.

Naturally, I would then go to the laundromat. I like laundromats. I like the atmosphere, and the diverse blend of customers that use those facilities.

What I DON'T like is how long the machines take to do their job AND how many quarters I have to feed them.

I did a little calculation, and realized that it was easier and cheaper for me, and more fun, to go to the local Goodwill store on Sundays where I could buy garments for a dollar a piece.

Well, guess what? After many months of doing that, I now have mountains of clothes. So now every week I get rid of clothes. Soon I will only have enough clothes to fill half of my closet.

You know what that means though? Yes, I will have to go the laundromat even more than I did before. At least I will only need one machine.

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I just realized that I am out of pictures. Is it time for a funny anecdote? Wait! Here's a picture of Shawn and me. I'm the little guy. My dog Emma is in there as well.








Gee, I just got a request for a funny anecdote. So here it is:

When I was in high school, I stole the janitor's large key ring off his desk. Naturally, that gave me access to anywhere in the school.

Once the neighborhood kids figured out that I could open the gym on Saturdays, we all would go play basketball. It worked for a long time.

But that is not the story I want to tell you about.

This is it. Having the ability to go anywhere, I started exploring the whole building. I found a room that had a bunch of big air vents in it. I started crawling around in them and discovered some secret areas.

One of them was a vent to the gym. It was very near to the ceiling. It was probably 25 feet up. It was way above the bleachers.

Well, for two years, I had some of the biggest laughs of my youth. You see, I would crawl up in to that vent during basketball games between our high school and other high schools.

So, I'd watch the game for a while, and then (only once or twice a game) I would wait for the opposing team to throw a basket and I would blow the whistle that I would carry with me, just as the guy was going for the basket.

Naturally, he would turn and look at the referee. The ref. would look at him, then the ref. (knowing that he did not blow the whistle) would look into the bleachers.

Of course, he never found anyone in the bleachers blowing an unauthorized whistle. That's because it was me hidden in the air vent way above.

Yeah, I did this for two years, and laughed heartily every time. How I got away with it is, I NEVER told anyone that I was doing this, and I never gave away my position, because I never blew that whistle more than twice during any game.

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I do indeed have two roof airs, However the 30 year old one in the front has died.

I am going to do the electrical systems soon. I would like to be able to plug in to a 50 amp service as well as a 30 amp service. I really don't know much about that stuff. I guess that I will learn.

Paint? I will paint it, but I want to keep the bus covert. I want to keep the original paint scheme and give the impression that it is still an emergency management vehicle. On the metal that covers the outside of the windows in the middle of the bus, was painted "Johnson City Emergency Response". I want to either paint or stencil "Strong Command Center". Also, the color, white, is the best for a roof on a vehicle.

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I feel pangs of inadequacy from not having any more pics of the build. So, here are a few that you have not seen.

I spent way too much money on this Dodge. It leaked and rotted, from way before I even bought it.

I flew to LA to buy it and drove it back to TN. in the winter. It is surprising how cheaply made, these things are. I have heard it described as "sticks and staples".

After having dismantled it, I see what that means. I can imagine that if this thing were to tip over on it's side while speeding down the highway, it would break up into a million little pieces.

If the same thing happened with my bus, It would probably slide and make sparks. Then, the tow truck would just set it back upright, and I would drive on down the road.





Going to the junkyard soon.

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Here, you see that the engine and transmission have been removed and sold. Notice the curved aluminum roof that I had to build just so I could sleep in the bed area. I have stripped this dog of everything I could use or sell. Leon is coming this week to haul that sorry vehicle away. He is excited to get it. I hope he makes a bit of money out of the scrap metal. There is a lot of aluminum there.






Behind the Dodge is the 1953 trailer that I had. Behind that is a 1972 Yellowstone trailer that I used for the recording studio. It is now, my last storage area. There will be a lot of stuff that I will be giving away, as I do not have room in my bus for too much else.

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All right, here are a few pics of the outside of the bus.

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Wow, there is a lot going on here, with all this work and stuff. I'm gonna take a break and tell you of a funny incident.

To begin with, it was my dad who was always the disciplinarion in the family. The rules were clear, even for my mom. It was very rare that she ever raised her voice, much less, that she actually scolded either my brother or me.

There was this one day, however, that I happened to walk in the kitchen and saw an opportunity to have a little fun (at my brother's expense).

I was amazed to see my mom pointing at my brother, Phil, and actually screaming at him vehemently. It was so uncharacteristic of her.

Well, Phil saw me enter. He had a look of terror on his face. I was to the back of my mom, so she did not know that I had entered the kitchen.

It just so happens that I had been presently eating a bag of Cheetos. So, I got this great idea!

I'll hide behind my mom (who still doesn't see me) and stick two Cheetos in my nostrils, and two of them out of my ears. It wasn't as easy as it sounds to put them things there.

All right, so now I wait for the perfect moment, when my brother is at the height of his terror, and I pop up to look at him, with the adornments in my orifices.

What does he do? He bursts out laughing!!! Boy, that pissed my mother off!!! He points at me and says, it was HIM! Of course, I was very adept at removing the Cheetos, and just stood there eating them with a completely innocent face.

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Yay, I got some pictures today of the Dodge going Bye Bye. Leon and a friend came to pick it up, (literally). Here are the pics.

It had no wheels or tires on the back. I mentioned this to Leon, and he said "don't worry about it".





Lucky there were two little metal wheels on the bottom of the back bumper. That was the only thing that kept the plastic gasoline tanks from getting crushed.






OK, Here are the rest of the pictures. You should have seen this (circus act).

The Dodge stuck out 10 feet behind the end of the truck bed. The back wheels (drums) barely fit on the bed of the truck.

When Leon and his buddy left, Shawn and I watched that Dodge sway from side to side, while it was sitting on that truck bed. He suggested following them guys to make sure that it didn't fall off. I said that there was nothing that we could do, if it did. I never want to see that thing again. Bye Bye! That's Leon in this pic.













There it goes, leaving the parking lot. This event was one of the highlights of my day. I asked Leon what he could make off this metal heap and he said $600. That was so cool. I was really glad for him. To me, it was just something I needed to get rid of.

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Today, the propane tubing was run, and the three catalytic heaters were installed. Shawn did all of the work today, as I was busy finishing a thread about my brother's Volvo C303 military vehicle that he turned into an extreme expedition vehicle.
This first pic is of the back of the fridge, where we had to install a 3/8 male tee to tap into the propane line to feed the bedroom heater.







Shawn went to Home Depot today to get some parts, and decided to buy this nice tubing bender. I am glad we had it for today's project, but it is a tool that I will not use for a long time now. Here is what it looks like. It was $12.

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Here is one of the heaters installed on one of the kitchen cabinet doors. Yes, it can still open, a little.






Here's a heater at the foot of the bed. Dig the exposed copper tubing! I could hang a towel on it. That was the only way we could run the feed to the heater. I kept the same design element on the front room heater as well.






This is a view of both the bedroom heater and the kitchen heater.






A couple of views of the front room heater.








Oh, look, There's my pretty girl Emma.

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Hi, Y'all. I have moved to the boonies of Tennessee and will not be doing any more work on the bus until I get things straightened out. I no longer have access to the shop I used to work at.

Fortunately, most of the carpentry work has been done. Now comes the plumbing and electrical. It may be a while before there are new pics, unless of course, you want to see the underside of the bus.

Please reply if there are any specific parts of the bus you would like to view. I do have electricity and a water source. The toilet is hooked up to the waste tank. I have a portable tank on wheels with which I can drain the waste tank into a septic line. I have internet capability, but no phone. I guess I am camping out.

I had the opportunity to drive the bus 100 miles altogether to get here, where I am now parked. It was somewhat nerve racking. I kept too far to the right hand side of the road. On narrow country roads, I found myself almost running into ditches.

I will have to learn how to drive this thing better. The bus ran great. I must say, though, a diesel engine and air brakes, are WAY different than my little pickup truck.

The very next project that I will tackle is getting the big brake lights in the back to work. I will have pictures of that project. It will be a mind bender as I totally suck at electrical stuff.

I DO have a temporary electrical panel set up (30 amps) that handles one roof air and will handle two electric heaters. I also have the propane heaters hooked up. So, I will make it through the winter.

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These next many posts will be dealing with the mechanical aspects of my bus.

I wanted to tell you all that I found two Bridgestone 16 ply steel belted and steel walled radial tires for the front of the bus for $100 each They look brand new.

I will have them mounted at a later date. I think, just for kicks, I will take photos of my nice (almost new) tires.

I hope you don't think that is too dorky. I know that they are just tires. They sure are pretty though. OK, so I'm a fanatic.

Hey, while I am at it, I'll take some of under the bus. There are three air tanks under there. I presume they are for the air brakes. Perhaps there will be things under there that you brainy guys can explain to me.

I can also show you how we shored up the waste tank. Gee, another (albeit no so glorious) expedition in the "never ending story".

There is a door on the driver's side that has nothing inside of it. I sure would like to know what that was for.

I also think there is an oil pan heater and another type of heater for the engine.

Has anyone ever heard of this oil additive called MotorKote? I got some.

I was also told to add one quart of transmission fluid to the tankful of fuel to raise the sulphur level. What's up with that? I have not done that yet.

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It does make sense that that door in the front is for access to steering. By the way, It is not easy to drive because there is a lot of play in the steering wheel. I will investigate to see if that is something I can adjust.

On the horn cover, it say Ross Cam and Lever steering. I have no idea what that is. I remember on my 1959 Ford pickup truck, I adjusted the looseness by loosening a jam nut on the steering box and tightening the screw down a little. That fixed it.

I know nothing about this big beasty I now have. I will have to get in there and look around. Usually, I can figure things out if I look at it long enough.




Here is a strange thing. First of all, the only brake lights I have right now are two little lights (4 inches in diameter). They are where the license plate is. There are also big brake lights and turn signal lights above that. Shawn and I are going to try to figure out how to hook those up to the brakes.

The weird thing is that when the motor is running and the parking lever is on, those little brake lights stay on. I find that odd.

It will be a challenge, yet rewarding when we get that stuff straightened out. Shawn did say that my turn signal lights work. Those must be the big yellow lights.




So, if I understand this correctly, if I was to lose air pressure while driving, a spring mechanism would put the back brakes on automatically.

At least I could steer off the road, or at the very least not crash. Does that spring mechanism lock the back brakes full on?

I admit that I am ignorant about the mechanical aspects of this bus, but with looking and studying, I will know a lot. It is kinda like teaching myself how to play accordion.

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Yipee, it was sunny today. It inspired me to clean the house (bus), do some decorating, and crawl under the bus for some photos. Let's start with the decorating.

This is an abstract piece I made. The red corner pieces came from an old lampshade. Those pieces are 90 years old. I hung this piece on the top window of my back door.






Here again is the piece you just saw and to the left, in the kitchen window is another. I call that one, GoldenRod, The Tree Of Life.

As you can see, I had not cleaned the kitchen countertop yet. That came later.






A close up of GoldenRod.






In one of the bathroom windows, I hung my flying saucer. This one also won a ribbon at the famous Wilson county fair.






In the front room, at my control desk, behind my little tree, you can see a round, colorful piece.

Hey! What's that screw gun doing in the picture?






Before we go outside, Here a photo of Buddy and Emma. Emma is on the engine cowling.

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OK, Let's have a look at the almost new tires I got for a hundred dollars a piece.







Shawn seemed to think that there was not enough tread on them. To me, they look like those Michelin tires that came on those tour buses I have seen.





A view of one of the sides. They are 11R 22.5 size.

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Let's go to the bus now. This door is in the front on the driver's side. I call it the door to nowhere.







Here, that door is opened.






There are some big steering arms in there. I hope I got a picture in here of the "drag link". I know what tie rod ends look like. I'm thinking that the drag link is the rod that connects the two wheels together, but what do I know? Maybe the "drag link" is a website for men who wear women's clothes.

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Dive, Dive, Dive! We'll start at the front and work back.


The white thing is the back of a loudspeaker mounted on the inside of the front bumper. To the right of that are the bus horns. On top of the speaker is part of the steering. What part, I don't know. This is what's on the other side of that metal wall when you open that little door in the front.







Oil filters. The oil, oil filters, transmission fluid, and transmission filter were changed about 100 miles ago.






This is a Cat 1160 motor. People tell me that that is a GOOD motor. I wonder what that rectangular box with the silver thing on the side of it is.

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More in the front.


Well, this looks pretty boring. Exhaust pipe transmission pan, and that little box on the right as we are looking at it. I don't know what that is. Oh yeah, this bus has springs for suspension. The shock absorbers are probably original. Do you think it would be a great improvement in handling when I replace the shocks?






Front wheel, driver's side.

Big springs, old shock absorber, air brake actuator. What do you call that big steering rod that is connected to a small arm? It looks pretty clean under there. I think this bus was well maintained. The kingpin would be what holds the wheel to the axle, right? I know that on cars, you jack them up and wiggle top and bottom to check looseness. I'm gonna have to get Big Boy Wrenches to work on this thing!