The Broccoli Bus

[M1031]

East bound and down.... Loaded up & truckin'..... We're gonna do what they say cain't be done...... We got a looong way to go and a short time to get there.... East bound just watch ol' Bandit run!!!!!!

[aaronsb]

Man I take a few days break from hammering rivets into the bus and the thread devolves into deliverin' moonshine. Or something.

You know I tried making biodiesel once and decided it was a pain in the ass. As long as I have some money in the account, it's a great feeling to just refill at a flying J and tank up with one of those huge to go cups from the soda machine.

[aaronsb]

So just to keep folks up to date:

If the intercooler on this thing was a snake it would have bit me in the ass. Well played, bluebird, well played.

It looks pretty large.

[Docsgsxr]

Do you have an issue with your IC unit? Or are you just showing us it since you were underneath there? (note, I didn't look back in the thread to see)

[aaronsb]

I'm not having any issues, mostly from my lazy glance around the engine compartment, it appeared I didn't even have an IC - I thought I would need to add one and thought about an air-water IC. But, now that I actually bothered to check a little harder, I'm finding a rather substantial air-air IC sandwiched between the radiator and the fan.

Originally Posted by Docsgsxr

Do you have an issue with your IC unit? Or are you just showing us it since you were underneath there? (note, I didn't look back in the thread to see)

[aaronsb]

Started pulling up the floor this evening after a day of riveting corner joints and lots of miscellaneous bits. I'm back to working by myself for now.


I am impressed by both items:

How saturated the plywood is, and how heavy they are.
How the steel decking has managed to stay as intact as it has.

[aaronsb]

I forgot to mention today was sort of a milestone because I took the welder out of the bus after finishing seat belt mounting points, which was the last thing for a while.

[bansil]

Originally Posted by aaronsb

I forgot to mention today was sort of a milestone because I took the welder out of the bus after finishing seat belt mounting points, which was the last thing for a while.

you just cursed yourself .....when ever I say that Mr. Murphy shows up bearing gifts

[aaronsb]

Nah I'm fine because I left in the weasel words "for a while".

Originally Posted by bansil

you just cursed yourself .....when ever I say that Mr. Murphy shows up bearing gifts

[admiller]

Originally Posted by aaronsb

.. I'm eventually aiming for a rather spartan interior that is serviceable and has technology in it to make things easier.

You are truly a man after my own heart.

I want my future skoolie to be packed with tech.. Full LED lighting, multiple rear view cameras, multipurpose devices (27" imac on a swivel arm used for computer & TV)

Im not sure what you are going to do on your ceiling but the profile of your bus reminds me a little of the Scenicruiser. A similar pair of forward facing windows/skylights would look awesome on the hump.

[aaronsb]

Well that was kind of a pain in the ass. Another couple days on my hands and knees should get the floor clean and primed. Its surprising how wet all the plywood was.

Any tips on how to easily extract all the random bolts, nails, and crap from under the bus if its got a full span cargo area?

Also, how about those auto sanders? There are carriage bolts through the plywood that won't be tight now. I am half thinking of pulling them out, but then the fact that sanders count as approves traction devices in a lot of states makes me want to keep them.

[aaronsb]

Yeah I've always liked the scenicruisers. You know my favorite aircraft ever is an IL-76, because of the nose windows below the flight deck. I wish commercial jets had windows that faced forward or up for the passengers somehow.

Originally Posted by admiller

You are truly a man after my own heart.

I want my future skoolie to be packed with tech.. Full LED lighting, multiple rear view cameras, multipurpose devices (27" imac on a swivel arm used for computer & TV)

Im not sure what you are going to do on your ceiling but the profile of your bus reminds me a little of the Scenicruiser. A similar pair of forward facing windows/skylights would look awesome on the hump.

[aaronsb]

Got some goodies!

New tail lights still on the way.

[Docsgsxr]

Gotta love it when the little stuff starts coming in! Soon it will be the big stuff!

Enjoy installation with patience and beer (but they don't have to be in that order!)

-Doc

[aaronsb]

8 hours of needle scaling rust, air chiseling old caulking, nail pulling, and scraping. Then, another couple hours of applying a gallon phosphoric etch and prep.

Finally, brush clean and roller on two gallons of kills 2 latex primer.

[aaronsb]

I was thinking instead of vinyl flooring and the usual, I'd shoot down some shake and bake polyurethane truck bed liner like upol's raptor liner. Obviously, I'll still be laying down an inch or two of hard foam.

That way, I can pretty much hose out the floor if I have to. Then, on top of that some bamboo rugs. Any thoughts?

[aaronsb]

I spent some time cleaning up stuff, got the dash area decluttered because it was collecting a lot of tools and radios and crap. It feels like it's getting time to shift gears a bit - some exterior work and then start on interior more.

I decided to use u-pol raptor bed liner on the roof. The white stuff. It should be tough and seal things up really well. Depending on how next summer goes, I can throw a coat of that heat reflective paint on top of that, but for now the truck bed liner will work fantastic to seal any leaks through the rivets and whatnot.

[r_w]

Only problem with white bedliner is it has very little UV resistance. Line X won't put white outside or makes you sign a waiver cancelling the warrantee.

For the floor, I am going to do bedliner or peel-and-stick roof ice dam as a poor man's soundproofing. Maybe a combination, peel and stick on the flat and bedliner on the wheel wells, fuel filler, wall seams, etc.

I am still looking for a cheap something to mix into bedliner to make budget lizard skin. To do the floor of the bus in lizard skin and the roof in buscoat would cost more than I want to pay for the whole bus...

[aaronsb]

According to upol, it provides "excellent" uv protection. I wish that was quantified a little better but I've had raptor painted bits exposed for years at at time outside without fading. I also plan on adding another coating to the roof next summer as well.

http://www.u-pol.co.uk/documents/datash ... TDS-US.pdf

Do you think maybe their UV claim is for black only?

Originally Posted by r_w

Only problem with white bedliner is it has very little UV resistance. Line X won't put white outside or makes you sign a waiver cancelling the warrantee.

For the floor, I am going to do bedliner or peel-and-stick roof ice dam as a poor man's soundproofing. Maybe a combination, peel and stick on the flat and bedliner on the wheel wells, fuel filler, wall seams, etc.

I am still looking for a cheap something to mix into bedliner to make budget lizard skin. To do the floor of the bus in lizard skin and the roof in buscoat would cost more than I want to pay for the whole bus...

[r_w]

If the white is UV resistant, let me know because I have been looking for one that is and haven't found one yet.

All of them so far have said the UV protection is in the tint and say to not use anything lighter than desert sand or light grey.