Mark's 95 Carpenter International

[mchunt]

spencerforhire, thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.

[mchunt]

Started getting the insulation and the paneling in. Bunks are in. One interior light fixture and an exterior light. My brother is building a fiberglass over plywood shower pan for me. I'll be able frame the bathroom walls in once that is in place.

[mchunt]

It has been a while since my last update but I have made some progress. I have the closet framed in and I'm ready to start framing in the bathroom. I also have the breaker panel and the hot water heater, which means I'll be able to finish the wiring and start roughing in the plumbing.


I had thought about getting some automotive interior trim to use on the edge of the paneling where it meet the bus but everything I looked at was too expensive for me. en the I also thought about using vinyl piping like is used in making boat cushions. I think that would have worked out and I liked that it comes in a lot of colors but I ran across this white weather stripping and thought I would try it.


It was cheaper than the piping and with the white ceiling, I think it works well. It gives a nice clean look. The wall between the bunks and the bedroom is 3/8 plywood laminated with 1/4 lauan. I anchored it to the ceiling with chair brackets.


Closer look.


Here's the bedroom side, I'll glue carpet to this side later.


Back wall of the closet. I'm ready to frame it up with the electrical panel.


The lauan looks surprisingly good, I used natural stain and 3 coats of semi-gloss polycrylic.


My brother did a great job on building me a bathroom pan. He even sloped the sides towards the drain. He put 3 layers of fiberglass on it and I topped it with 5 coats of marine lacquer.



A picture facing forward. Shows how good the paneling looks, the unfinished will be eventually covered with FRP. You can also see the track lighting.


I've also picked up the cabinets which have been stained and finished. I'll probably wait untill all the framing is done before putting them in.

[bus-bro]

Both you and your brother do such nice work. You might be careful about posting though. People might start asking you to work on their bus conversions.

[mchunt]

Excellent idea for the trim work, I'm going to have to look into that. Love the luan too.

Here is what I was planning to use;
http://www.perfectfit.com/15308/1684...yard-roll.html
Not a bad price if you can use 300ft.

Fantastic idea for putting on the walls, makes it alot easier to run electrical lines and use standard house implements

Thanks. I used 2x3s and a lot of Teks 3" wood to metal screws on the horizontal frames and the framing to the window stanchions. All the other vertical framing is attached to the horizontal with 2 1/2" deck screws. I was originally planning to rip the lumber down to the width of the bench flange but the table saw I was going to use became unavailable. Up side was that it allowed me to use the cheaper standard R13 insulation without too much compression. Plus, like you said easier to run utilities.

[mchunt]

I got the exhaust fan intalled, that allowed me to complete the last of the inter-wall wiring.




The inside view. The lauan will be the subwall for the FRP panels which I'll glue on top.



I finished framing in the bath which means all the framing is done. Only one more plywood wall to put up at the foot of the bunks.






I ordered a 14"x14" corner sink, a faucet and a vent cap which should arrive in the next couple of days. Once all that is in, I'll be able to close in the bathroom walls. Pretty soon, I'll be spending a lot of time under the bus mounting tanks, plumbing and running wire. Nice autumn activities.

[lornaschinske]

Hey, you put my stove vent in your bathroom! Seriously, that was the kind that was in the old mobile home that my parents bought years ago. It was over the apt sized range and it worked great to exhaust the cooking grease/smells outside. I have a standard RV range hood vent over range in the Class C. It let cold winter winds in. BRRR not good. Now it's in the food cart and it will be replaced with one like you installed in the bathroom. I will order one for the Class C when I order the one for the bus.

You have such good taste in exhaust vents.

[mchunt]

You have such good taste in exhaust vents.

Thanks?

Hopefully it will be strong enough to clear the entire bus, ...of smoke or heat, is what i mean. If not. I might install a second one about the stove since they are relatively cheap (bout fiddy bucks).

I'm still having minor roof leaks and I think I'm going to apply an elastomeric roof coating, something like;
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053

http://www.lowes.com/pd_109965-29-70...7C1&facetInfo=

http://www.lowes.com/pd_139929-29-55...7C1&facetInfo=

The bus has new paint on it, painted last December, do I need to rough the roof paint up before applying the roof coating?
I think the answer is yes but I'd like to hear opinions. Also if anyone has had any bad experience with any of the above products, I'd like to know. Thanks.

[lornaschinske]

I used Henry's Solarflex (I got mine from Home Depot). Did not rough up the roof. I used Snow Roof's elastometric on the Class C. Did not rough up the roof either. But it needed a primer due to all the patching and seam sealing that I had to do on it. It also had about three different types of roof coating/patching on it so the Snow Roof primer was needed for that as well.

[mchunt]

I ended up going with the Black Jack Roof-Gard 700. I put 2 coats on but that only used about half of the 4.75 gallons. I'm debating putting more coats on but I haven't seen anymore leaking. At least from the roof, the brakes are another story. When I cranked the bus up a couple of months ago the brake alarms went off and wouldn't stop. Checked the fluid reservoir and saw that it was empty. I refilled it, pumped the brakes a couple of times and it was empty again, ended up being a hole in the brake line.

Pulled an 8 foot section of brake line out over the weekend. I wasn't able to find one section long enough so I've ended up getting a 5 foot and a 4 foot. Should get them put in one night this week.

Next up, plumbing. Taking the last 2 weeks of December off, hope to get the water plumbed and the electrical lines run to the box. With the brakes fixed I'll be able to drive the bus to my brother-in-laws place to get brackets for the black and gray wter tanks welded in.

[mchunt]

The brake lines have been fixed, we found 3 differnt leaks before it was all over and replaced 3 lines. But now everything is holding, no fluid loss, no brake alarm.

I was able to get the water supply lines roughed in. I chose CPVC, I'm familiar with it and had some around already. I also got the main vent/drain in.
I put a little faom around it to seal up any holes and guess I put too much. I turned into something from "The Abyss".


I put in a 120V 20 gallon water heater. Put a valve in the cold feed line so that when closed the back flow from the tank will feed the toilet. Also added a tee and valve to the hot output so that it can be opened to vent the tank for the back flow.






Also, put in the forward bunk wall and the sink base.

[mchunt]

My helper.

[mchunt]

I may have gotten carried away with the number of circuits I used.




I ended up with 7 15A and 5 20A.
The 20 amps are; Rear A/C recepticle, Front A/C outlet, 20Gal Water Heater, Refrigerator outlet, and Appliance outlet (microwave/toaster oven).
The 15 amps are lights, regular utility outlet and 1 external GFI and 1 bathroom GFI.

That was a whole lot of wire tinning that I'm glad to be done with. Only thing left to do on electrical is find a good way to connect the chassis ground. Any suggestions? Does it matter where it is connected? Should I just put a bolt trough one of the holes in one of the main beams and attach the ground to that? Or can I use a self-tapping screw to connect it to one of the floor supports?

[thommassey]

Originally Posted by mchunt

Just a couple of pictures of the 2 x 3 framing and the wiring.

Were these vertical studs screwed/lagged from the outside through the window rails? Any adhesive in addition to ?

[mchunt]

The vertical studs are each screwed to the stanchions with three counter sunk 2-3/4" Teks screws, from the inside only.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_276838-2191-...3D1&facetInfo=
Then I ran a couple of deck screws up through the horizontal into the bottom of each one or toe screwed into the horizontal.

I didn't use any adhesive, the studs sucked up really tight. I don't think they are going anywhere for a long time but some liquid nails certainly wouldn't hurt anything.

[chev49]

As far as chassis ground, I ran a welding cable which had 1/2 inch diameter copper core (outside diameter almost an inch) the length of the bus, and ran stranded cables in the front, middle and rear, to the frame, the skin, and also to the generator, converter grounds, and the12v and 110v panels covers. I figured this is way overkill. My last busses i did not do this and had no problems, however, i had 100' of this expensive cable...

[mchunt]

chev49, Wow, that is much more then I expected to have to do. What did you do on your previous busses?

[chev49]

I just ran one 12v and 110 volt panel ground to frame and skin. and if i remember right i only had one ground fault curcuit in the last one which was a flxible.

[thommassey]

See if this helps. Thanks for the link to the fasteners. I still may go metal studs, not sure yet.
http://www.naffainc.com/x/CB2/Elect/250-66.HTM

[mchunt]

A few new shots.
From the driver's seat.


From the bedroom looking forward.