Juicy Lucy, where all my hopes and dreams lie

[Rovobay]

Nice build. sub'd for more updates!

[TAOLIK]

Making some progress. I've been putting off drilling this hole FOREVER, but I gathered the courage to drill it yesterday.

I did use a 2" Grommet where it passes through the steel.

Below we see the grey water plumbing, one for the hole just featured (eventually to be bathroom+kitchen sink), one for the shower

I cemented all the Grey water piping yesterday.

The shower pipe goes above the grey water tank making it's way to the grey water tributary. I used hose clamps and put some rubber inbetween to reduce vibration damage.

The grey watear tributary


Which then goes to the Grey water tank

Note: This was a little crooked... I may have to redo this in the future.

The grey water tank is finally secured and fastened!


Glammor pic.


Propane Tank holder test fit/hole drilling


All of the holes have been drilled. Hopefully I'll have this mostly plumbed by the end of the month.

[Tango]

Yeah...those are some scary ones.

[dopamine16]

Aww, man I feel you on waiting on the drilling cutting the hole for mine was nail biting.
What I am jealous about is you have your roll a way's in your bus while you work.. Im in'n'out always banging my head on my entry way getting a tool. making progress.

[TAOLIK]

Originally Posted by dopamine16

Aww, man I feel you on waiting on the drilling cutting the hole for mine was nail biting.
What I am jealous about is you have your roll a way's in your bus while you work.. Im in'n'out always banging my head on my entry way getting a tool. making progress.

Hey Dope, good to hear from you. I don't remember if I've comented on your thread lately, but your bus is coming along nicely as always.

The toolbox's were a clutch upgrade(inspired by transcendence I believe), I obsessed over them for a solid 6 weeks, scanning craigy's every few hours until I got them sorted out. By the time I got the last one in, I was so happy to have my bus floor clear of tools and some amount of organization and sanity. Efficiency is still at like 72%, but that's a lot better than 26%. Once the bus gets close enough to done, I'll probably have to configure one of my trailers to be a tool trailer. It will be a little sad.

Since I'm already here I guess I'll post a petty update.
Propane holder draft 1

Added some revisions and finished up some empty areas waiting for welds. I put some angled brackets to support the propane tank mounting plate. I'm no engineer but I hear triangles=strong.


I got this underwhelmingly thin piece of 22gauge perforated metal so t he propane would have an escape path.


The plan is for it to look something like this


There's still a few more welds I need to buzz on before I paint it. I need an appendage to strap the regulator onto, I think I might make some walls for the sides as well. Need to do a dry fit to make sure there's ample space though, it's pretty close to the gas tank.

I've got a terrible fever, bus fever. I can't stop thinking about how delightful it will be to have a plumbing system. One day at a time.

[TAOLIK]

My life keeps finding new ways to keep me thinking "man this **** is crazy". I even found myself in Japan for a few days in November to attend a funeral. Anyway, I haven't gotten a lot done on the bus, but my mind is still trapped in the bus.



Propane 2 stage regulator, goes through a shut off valve, to flexible stainless steel hose, goes to 3/4" black iron pipe(or was it 5/8? I think 2/4).


Fastened to my compartment with a 1/4" stainless U bolt


Goes through the floor with a rubber grommet (I really don't enjoy getting those in).


a few progress pix







The front door is a work in progress. I got a plan though, one step at a time.

[BlackJohn]

Good job on the tank holders..and all you have accomplished thus far.

John

[Robin97396]

Definitely a nice job.

One step at a time is right. To many irons in the fire and nothing gets done.

[Rusty]

Looking great !

I might put an el on the yellow gas line where it exits the green valve just to ease the stress. It'll make a graceful U to the black pipe.

[TAOLIK]

Thank you all for the kind words!

Originally Posted by Rusty

Looking great !

I might put an el on the yellow gas line where it exits the green valve just to ease the stress. It'll make a graceful U to the black pipe.

And thank you Rusty! That is some very good advice, you can never be too safe with explosive gas. Though I'm not quite as concerned about a gas leak below the bus as I am within the bus. Still going to put that L on though..

[TAOLIK]

Well guys, it's been a wild 3 months, and the next 4-6 months only get more exciting. I decided to put a deadline on the necessities of this bus project by buying my wife and I a 1 month ticket to Vietnam in September! As of yesterday, my landlord has notified me she wants me out in June. I'm currently amid negotiating that to be July or August, but regardless my escape from work is coming very soon. Time to double down on the bus and power through more progress.

Regardless here's a poor walkthrough of what has been going on for the past couple months.

I cut a hole in tthe bus, this was a very nerve racking hole..


Then I stuck a water heater in there.



I built a rack for the water heater


Here's the watear heater inside the bus, the first of my wall panels is up!


On thanksgiving 2017, my grandmother passed away, so we had a unexpected 3 day trip to Japan. I haven't seen my family out there in 10 years so it was very nice seeing them. Turns out the passport office voided my passport (long story). Going to a foreign country with an invalid passport: 0/10 would not reccommend..


Awhile back I got some cheap tickets to maui, here's a february sunrise in Hana, Maui


We made a nice hawaiian breakfast after


I love passion fruit (lilikoi)


Plumbing in progress (I did a better job on the copper pipe, featured later)




Perspective change




Framing for our lower dresser






Framing for our Mid dresser


I got a tool for bending copper, much cleaner bends.


Here we see the beginnings of my bathroom/bedroom divider


Back to front


Another redundant picture


With 3-4 months left, I haven't an hour to waste! I'll come back with more halfassed pictures later. Thanks for looking!

[Tango]

Sorry about the sorry landlord thing, but it sounds like it was very...motivating. Rock on!

[TAOLIK]

Originally Posted by Tango

Sorry about the sorry landlord thing, but it sounds like it was very...motivating. Rock on!

Thank you Tango, Rock on I shall!

It has been 5 days and 4 nights since my landlord informed me that I'm to move out in 90-120 days. In my efforts to increase my efficiency, I have decided to exercise full sobriety until I feel the bus is at a point where I can relax. As of today(Day 5), this is my longest sobriety streak in 10 years! Not that a glass of sake and a puff of bud here and there is necessarily a bad thing. I share this with you to reinforce my constitution. Vivid dreams are pretty crazy.

Here's what I've gotten done in the past couple days.

I took all my batteries out, smothered them in baking soda and cleaned them with reasonable thoroughness and replaced my very corroded zinc plated straps with stainless steel straps. I also added some wooden support brackets.


I got the majority of my welds done on my bathroom/bedroom divider. I also added a step to use when going to the bathroom using our "master bedroom door". I got a commercial handwashing sink which fits in there, but I don't have any pictures at the moment..


Yesterday/Last night I got the basics of my crooked sink framing done. Before work today I cut out a hole in some wood I inherited from one of my grocery store customers back when I was a Japanese food salesman to fit my sink in.



Very happy with how it looks with the sink in.



Here's a picture of the current state of the bus.



Yesterday was a big shopping day. I picked up a bunch of
-1/2"x1/8" angle iron
-1"x1/8" angle iron
-1/2"x16g square tubing
-1/2"x16g round tubing
-1"x16g round tubing
-2"x1/8" flat bar.
Due to a miscommunication I got about 33% more than I planned to, but that's okay.

I also got
-enough vinyl faux wood flooring to finish flooring my bus
-my propane gas range
-vent hood,

And today my Dickinson marine P12000 propane furnace is arriving!!

The sorry state of my bank account (or should I say credit cards) need not be discussed.

Much more progress to come!

[Tango]

Smells like progress to me! Just keep hammering at it. There will plenty of bud & beverage time when you are done.

[skuld]

Looking good. I'm jealous of the metal framework you're doing. It looks great. Curious to see how it all comes together once covered.

[TAOLIK]

Tango: Your encouragement has helped me push through the rough patch.
Skuld: The hardest part of welding is buying a MIG welder, the rest is easy..I mean straight welds and even angles are hard too, but I've made my peace that that's beyond my skill level/workbench/equipment.

Well..Life has been eventful to say the least. I have now been sober for 6 weeks and productivity has risen considerably. I have been sleeping better than I ever have, and my mild withdrawel symptoms(mainly headaches) have ceased. One week into it though, the sky came crashing down. Sometimes I get this feeling that the world revolves around me. I got into a silly fight with the giant manchild known as my boss and he ended up firing me and closing down the restaurant- compromising everyone's job stability, loyalty, and commitment...then 3 days later I was asked to return. My boss's short temper cost a lot of money to his business, and some very good workers.. But whatever, life goes on as long as I keep getting my paychecks. To my future employers reading this, I am an honest hard working person and I will not say anything behind your back I wouldn't be willing to say to you in person. To my current boss: 通訳いかがでしたら、教えて下さい！

That said, it seems like a good time for an update. With how much time I stare at my bus as a deer does with headlights, you'd think I have more pictures.. I am sorry I just have not been on top of my picture game. I am however determined to move into the bus by 7/1.. so much to do!

I believe we last left off around here.


My propane heater arrived, dickinson P12000, this thing is HUGE, flip phone for reference.


So I modified the shape of our closet to accomodate for the size, it now has a 45 degree angle to adhere to proper clearances.

More modifications has been made to this since, we'll address those later or something.

I made these mounting brackets for our hanger rod, made with 1.5" angle iron I think.


Testing out the closet, you can also see the base for our upper bedroom cabinet.


I got my range vent hood, it is way too big.


So I cut er up


Cleco'd


And pop rivetted together


Old progress pic of kitchen counter/kitchen cabinet


A more recent picture with drawer slide mounts and holes drilled, I really hope my margin of error is close enough..

Our Kitchen cabinet

Below it I put in these 1/2" round tubing to hang pots or something on


and a curtain rod above the sink


I decided it was a good time to do a battery box cleaning. So I took all my batteries out, made it rain baking soda, wiped everything down, cleaned the box and redid it. I also added wood supports and replaced my old tie down straps with stainless steel tie down straps. To anyone reading this, STAINLESS STEEL STRAPS!! DO NOT USE Steel/zinc coated straps!!

I added a step for our bathroom divider


I've done some more visually satisfying work, but didn't really stop to take a picture..A few days ago a buddy/co worker who's leaving town soon came over for a little photoshoot, I haven't gotten the pix yet, but I'll throw his pictures up here sometime before the bus is done. Tomorrow I'm taking much of my framework to get powder coated professionally, then I'll put up my wall panels and put in a good chunk of our flooring. Next week I will pressure test the propane system, sand, stain and finish some of our wood paneling, and uhhh, I'll get back to you guys in the future about what I ended up doing. If I find myself with an idle week before the metal comes back from the shop, I'll try to take her to a mechanic for a deep tune up. But life has been pretty wild to say the least.

Until next time!

[johnbloem1974]

Looking nice! Making some sweet progress!

John

[TAOLIK]

Okie Dokey, Let's dump an update. To the outside perspective, I'm not sure if much visual progress has been made. However, for myself I have reached a critical checkpoint; most of my metal framework has been powder coated, and it looks beautiful!

With an empty bus, I went ahead and put up the rest of the FRP panels



Then I put in the flooring, here's a progress pix.


Sanded, stained, finished a handful of wood paneling

I have sanded down most of these after 5 coats of finish and 4 days dry time, but not all.

I added a gas preesure gauge to my gas lines.

I checked it at 25 psi and no noticeable pressure leak at 1 hour. I did lose about 3 psi after 12 hours. I checked all my connections with soap water and found no bubbles. Then I got mirrors, magnifying glass and a premixed mixture and still no bubbles. Then I but a propane detector wand and a pressurised my system under propane, checked all the connections and inbetween, no detection. Since the household gas inspection test is to hold 15psi for 15 minutes my system technically passes I believe. I decided I'm going to set up a propane detector, be cautious and aware and trust it will do it's job..

I added some foam insulation to the gas lines and mounted them against my wall


Here's one of my two truckloads of metal yesterday after I picked it up from the powder coat shop. Cost about $330 to have it all sandblasted and powder coated at Northwest Powder Solutions located in Kent, WA. I plan to use them for again, highly reccommend them.

Shower Curtain rod is in


Here's my water system access//lower bed dresser, I really liked this color scheme, it's a shame I didn't use it for everything else...


Here it is in it's natural habitat

Hinges are cool


Front to back view with bathroom divider in

Mounted a good chunk of my grey water piping yesterday with foam insulation and plastic brackets

Mounted my water lines + water heater copper line


Second half of lower dresser added in


Bed Cabinet framing/Upper dresser

With wood piece in

Got this in super snug, maybe too snug. Took me about 30 minutes of vigor with a rubber mallet



Kitchen Counter down but not screwed in yet


Kitchen cabinet Framing loosely in.


The wood paneling in the kitchen cabinet still needs to be sanded, but its convenient storage


To be continued, thanks for checking in!

[Ninjakitty]

Looking great! Nice work. Love too see builds like this. Keeps me working on mine.

[ben2go]

Nice work. How will the weight of the metal framing compare to 2x3 wood framing? I think it could be less because less steel is need for the structure to be strong.