The Good Ship Anne Marie

[bansil]

only issue I would have with that would be when I'm cooking and need in the fridge, I would have to move away with a hot pan(so it doesn't burn) now if door opened other way might work

gab a skillet and pretend your cooking...now...oh crap!, you forgot the butter in fridge (or what ever) have better have open fridge "while your cooking" and grab a beer or coke

Does that work with you with a hot pan hovering overhead?

Good progress

[somjuan]

Originally Posted by bansil

only issue I would have with that would be when I'm cooking and need in the fridge, I would have to move away with a hot pan(so it doesn't burn) now if door opened other way might work

gab a skillet and pretend your cooking...now...oh crap!, you forgot the butter in fridge (or what ever) have better have open fridge "while your cooking" and grab a beer or coke

Does that work with you with a hot pan hovering overhead?

Good progress

The door is reversible, but I think the present orientation is best for us. It's more likely for us to need access to the fridge when we're at the stove than at the sink.

I've been pleasantly surprised at how easy both the cooktop and stove are to hook up, though I'm a bit worried about the hot water heater. That is considerably less clear, though I haven't yet looked into it at all. I really wish we could have gone the electric route, but since we're going to be living without hookups, the power draw was just too great.

[somjuan]

Moving forward!

I'm lucky that my partner in this adventure brings certain skills to the table. She's an upholsteress, and it would be absurd not to do what we can in the bus. So far, we have two benches constructed and upholstered. Please hold for a lot of pictures...

This is our little insulated box over the wheel well. We actually used batting on one side, and foam board on this side. In theory, the batting has a higher R-value, but I guess we'll see how it works out. The foam board looks much better, and certainly takes up less space.


Pieces of the bench cut out and placed around the wheel well.


All screwed together, secured to the wall.


Starting the upholstery. This bench is 13 feet long, and has no seams.




As far as upholstery goes, this is really simple stuff. Just like wrapping a big present.


Attached. We'll be filling the space underneath with sliding drawers to store clothes, mainly.


We also upholstered the bed/bench towards the front of the bus. Same process, just about 6 feet shorter.


We're still plugging away. As soon as Lowe's gets some good angle iron in stock I'll be attaching the solar panels to the roof.

[JakeC]

Looking good!!! Looking nice and clean, so far

A tip on angle iron...Find some bed frames. I have a bunch I've been hanging onto. People throw them away (sometimes) and it's free angle iron

[ol trunt]

Th bed frame idea is a good one. They will work just fine and are quite strong as long as they are bolted together--not welded. The steel used in bed frames is crystaline in nature and while being strong, welds tend to break apart with very little stress thereby creating a safety issue.

[JakeC]

Truth!! Good point.

[somewhereinusa]

Looking good, at some point in time, I'm going to need a seamstress, or again teach myself how to do something.

If you have to buy steel, almost anyplace is going to be cheaper than hardware/big box store. Try metal fab shops, welding shops,recyclers.

Dick

[sdwarf36]

Logan steel over in Meriden. And you may luck out if you go into the cut+ drops section. Whatever you find for like $1 a lb. There may be your size angle iron just sitting there waiting for you. I used to go there all the time-but now I can't get there in time after work. A great place i now use is http://www.onlinemetals.com "From 1 ft to a million." The cheap price easily covers the shipping. 2 or 3 days UPS away in Ohio.
And in you need some welding, I'll swap out for some WVO.

EDIT: I just went to their website-guess what? They have a place in Wallingford!

Wallingford
5 Sterling Drive
Wallingford, CT 06492
(800) 704-2157

[nat_ster]

I advise against the use of bed frames. They are a high tensile hardened steel. That's why they crack when welded as Ol Trunt mentioned. If trying to drill through it, you will go through many many drill bits. Even the cobalt dill bits have a hard time, and they cut through stainless steel.

At one time I used to salvage any usable steel I could. By the time I cleaned off the rust, remove unneeded brackets, cut it to size, ect, I was better off buying new. New also makes things turn out much much better.

Nat

[somjuan]

Good advice all around, and thanks sdwarf for the onlinemetals.com link. The couple places I had looked online weren't quite as reasonable. Though it looks like I'm going to still go with the Lowe's angle iron, since it's galvanized [EDIT: zinc plated, not galvanized], and I don't want to have to worry about corrosion.

We've had a bit of a break in the action, since we had to put our dog down a week ago. We're starting to get back to it, and finished laminating our countertop - I didn't take any process pictures, but there is a

fantastic tutorial on youtube

that we leaned heavily on. I'll post finished pictures tomorrow.

I also added a few clearance lights to the side. I don't think they're necessary, it's just personal preference. I swapped out the existing ones for the same LED style I used on the new lights. I'm considering wiring them to my house battery, since I think they look pretty cool and might leave them on at night when I lounge around outside the bus.

Wiring in general is a nightmare I'm not prepared to face. This is how it looks right now - keep in mind, I've yet to change anything here (for obvious reasons):


General question: I'm considering removing the heater core next to the driver's seat. The only problem I see is that this is the core that defrosts the driver's side windshield, and driver's side window. I could use a little 12v heater fan for days when that's absolutely necessary. Does anyone have experience or opinions on this?

[ol trunt]

Whoo! I just looked at that array of relays--they look like a chess board and it doesen't look like you are winning! I can see why you aren't anxious to dive into the electron pool. Oh well, just disconect one at a time and see what doesn't work--then you"ll know what to do next.

[nat_ster]

Take a pic of the heater core your referring to. In my bus, the defrost comes from the passenger side.

Nat

[lestock-kay]

Really like what you're doing so far. Ill be keeping an eye on your progress for sure

[somjuan]

Thanks for the kind words.

Nat, this is the heater core next to my driver's seat. A single flexible duct comes up to meet these vents.



My passenger side has its own heater core with vents for the windows there. I don't expect any problems in removing the heater, though I've never used those little 12v defrosters, and I'm not sure if they'll do the trick. I'm not expecting to do much winter driving, but it's not something I want to be without. Safety first and all that.

Here is the countertop:



Neither the sink nor the stove are secured yet, but they fit well and look good. I made a first pass at caulking the seams of the counter today, and I think I'm going to give it another once over to get a more uniform look. It does the trick though, and there aren't any more sharp edges.

Also, my woodstove arrived! Yay!



It's a cool little gasifier woodstove originally developed for a sailboat. I'm pretty excited to see what it can do. It only weighs 50lbs and takes 3" pellet stove pipe, so it shouldn't be much of a bear to install. More info here.

We begin attaching our interior ceiling tomorrow. Stuff is about to get weird.

[nat_ster]

12 volt heaters don't put out enough heat for anything realy. They also burn out alternators.

Why do you want to remove the heater? To large, and just looking the clear up some space? They sell smaller heaters for tractors and off road equipment, but they are pricey.
http://www.princessauto.com/pal/en/Auxi ... /4240007.p

You could also relocate the heater farther back, and still run the heat duct to the defroster. The one you want to remove puts out around 60,000 BTU. The one I posted the link to is only 3,425.

This one could be mounted right under the windshield without the need for ducting. Its only 8 inches high. If you use this one, I would strip all unneeded dash components out of the way to make room. It puts out 24,700 BTU
http://www.princessauto.com/pal/en/Auxi ... /4240028.p

Nat

[Diesel Dan]

I like how you didn't let that wheel well thwart you from putting that cabinet exactly where you wanted it!

[ferroequinologist]

Nice build! I love the deck and that woodstove is super cool!

I removed and got rid of my heater/defroster from next to the driver a long time ago. I did have the same idea about a little 12v heater. It was no where near enough heat! my windows kept fogging up and one snowy day they even iced up! I recommend going with nat_ster's idea of using a small utility heater core. I found one in the pick and pull yard (local auto salvage) for like $15. It was built to go under the back seat in a conversion van. Had 2 speeds and 3 duct placements. Fit right under the switch panel and out of the way. I don't have it installed yet but it has been test fit and hooked to the switch, puts out a lot of air flow so it should work real good.

[somjuan]

@ nat & ferroequinologist: Thanks for the tips - I won't bank on a 12v heater doing the trick. I won't be moving it at all this winter, so I think I'll do a little testing. I'll see if I can run a duct from the passenger side over to the driver's side. When it gets really cold out, I'll run it and see how it does. If that doesn't work, I'll go for a smaller axillary heater and install it in the warm spring weather.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how that stove performs. Passive solar has been awesome in the bus as of late though - I have the bus parked facing West with decent Southern exposure, and we've been regularly getting a 10-20 degree increase in temperature inside. I think once all the leaves are off the trees the sun will start to hit even earlier. If I have a fire running all night and the bus isn't cold, I may not need to keep the fire going on sunny days.

@ Dan: It's funny, we had thought we had everything measured and and figured out, but that came a lot closer than we thought it would. That entire bench will be made up of pull-out drawers, and I think we're just going to put a false drawer over the bottom half where the wheel well is.



I guess I mentioned this already, but now I have a picture. I went around and replaced the clearance lights before we starting putting up the ceiling. I'm using these style clearance lights, which match the original stock lights. In addition to replacing the originals, I've added two ambers on each side. They're not as bright as the picture suggests, but they're bright enough to enjoy.

We're more than halfway done with the ceiling! I'll throw the pictures on here all at once when we're finished.

[Diesel Dan]

Great picture.

[Accordion]

Ditto on the great picture.