Greetings! I've made some serious progress and went on a true adventure with my bus. This last week I drove out to Merritt, BC from Seattle. My bus did great at made it up the steep mountain pass in third gear. Slow but steady. Discovered my brakes are definetly shot as we headed home Monday, but made it safely all the way back mainly engine braking and leaving tons of space. I sure won't let that happen again..
I managed to have some anchor points welded in thanks to my brother, before I left on the trip. So I could secure in my bench after some minor alterations. I also managed to install a driver seat at the end of June and have since made 2 attempts at engineering the back for it, with very little success.
My fold down driver seat idea is seeming unfeasible. But I've not entirely given up hope yet.
I've been using rivets as well as nuts and bolts for the metal work and metal angle from Home Depot for now. I have a family who owns a metal shop so I'm fortunate enough to be able to go through their scrap bins. I'll likely be ordering better quality metal moving forward. My brother is also willing to teach me to weld and I can find a welder to borrow for sure so securing things should be ultra easy. I have to plan exactly what I want to be installed forever though..
I was able to install some insulation where the heater/cooler used to be up front, and started installing some 1/4 inch plywood covering but I might go thicker. Think it helped a little with the engine noise but knocking that down more will be great.
I definitely need a real door locking situation. We used a rope wraped around a bolt on the door and a clip the whole way there and back and it was rough. And a crappy bike lock to secure the bus which was a real hassle.
The front passenger windshield was already cracked but upon removing the pump for the door system, it was accidentally shattered further. I managed to get someone out to cut a new glass piece and install for me right before we left
We were searched at the boarder going into Canada but otherwise weren't stopped by cops until about 1000 feet from our destination. He was checking people going to the event and made it clear that our American way of throwing everything in the back and calling it good wouldn't fly in BC. In Washington seat belts aren't required in a registered motorhome but in BC they are. After explaining I had all the tools and hardware to install seatbelts before driving anywhere (haha) he ended up giving me a warning and driving my two friends up the hill 1000 feet into the festival. So I got to roll up in a bus and my buddies were delivered in a police car Haha
So far so good in my skoolie life