Converting The ChuckMobile!

[chiggins]

I've tried putting the seatbelt in the correct orientation, and it still will not budge. The seat belt is currently bolted back into place where it should be, right orientation, and it still will not move. I'm at a loss. I'm about to resort to dropping ~$300 to order a new one and say to hell with it.

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by chiggins

I've tried putting the seatbelt in the correct orientation, and it still will not budge. The seat belt is currently bolted back into place where it should be, right orientation, and it still will not move. I'm at a loss. I'm about to resort to dropping ~$300 to order a new one and say to hell with it.

would it be practical to get one from an auto wrecker?

[chiggins]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

would it be practical to get one from an auto wrecker?

Probably, I'd just have to search for one I guess!

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

would it be practical to get one from an auto wrecker?

Or pay $300, ya I'd say the parts yard is practical.

[chiggins]

Long time no update! That seems to be a common theme among these parts.


I'm a consultant so I travel a lot for work, and having loads of summer plans really puts a damper on having time to work on the bus! Hopefully I'll be able to find more time to get out there and do what I need to do.

Since the last update, the progress made has been prepping the floor and adding in some underbody storage.

Here we have the floor after a bunch of corroseal has gone down.



The aftermath of letting the corroseal do its job.



A nice and painted floor.



Now I know I did a bit of stuff here out of order. I didn't patch any holes from the rust or the seat bolts. Weather in Chicago can be tricky and I didn't want to leave exposed metal out for the elements to get to it. This past weekend I went 50/50 on a MIG welder from Harbor Freight with a buddy of mine, and we started cutting out the bigger rust holes and patching them up. I'll also be putting down plexiglass over the smaller holes. I'll sand down where the plexiglass and patches need to attach, and repaint over as necessary.



We also started getting alumnium storage boxes attached to the underside of the bus. Originally I thought that I'd have to get a frame welded together, slide the boxes into the frame, and attach that to the bus. A buddy came up with the brilliant idea of bolting the box in place by attaching the face of the box to the steel siding, and also bolting through the floor. I'm not going to be putting a LOT of weight in them like batteries and water, just general purpose storage.





The door still needs to be reattached to the box, but it was starting to get dark and wet, so we decided to save that for another time.

Next up is to finish attaching the boxes and patching the floor. Also attaching some framing on the underside of the bus to hold my gray water tanks as well as a propane tank. Also, I'm finalizing plans for a solar panel rack, which is pretty exciting!

How do things look so far? Any questions or feedback?

[Sleddgracer]

there is a huge difference between fiberglass and plexiglass - plexiglass becomes brittle with age and is not structurally very strong - it shatters if you try to cut it with shears - fiberglass is used to build bus bodies, boats and car bodies, among many other things - it has it's place - l think plexiglass would be a poor choice for that job, and patching with fiberglass, while it would do a good job, would be a lot of hassle when you could use pennies and glue then down, or plastic plugs of suitable sizes that are cheap and easy to use

[HazMatt]

Sweet ride!
How'd you get the wall cladding out(post #4)? Back out the screws & let it drop?
Wish mine were so easy, as I don't want them entirely gone, just temporary removal.

[HazMatt]

Pennies? What a brilliant idea!!!

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

there is a huge difference between fiberglass and plexiglass - plexiglass becomes brittle with age and is not structurally very strong - it shatters if you try to cut it with shears - fiberglass is used to build bus bodies, boats and car bodies, among many other things - it has it's place - l think plexiglass would be a poor choice for that job, and patching with fiberglass, while it would do a good job, would be a lot of hassle when you could use pennies and glue then down, or plastic plugs of suitable sizes that are cheap and easy to use

Wonder where you came up with that fix... [emoji848]
[emoji38]

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by haz.matt.1960

Pennies? What a brilliant idea!!!Wonder where you came up with that fix... [emoji848]
[emoji38]

it's not my original idea, nor is it patented as I've seen it posted here on the forum many times

[HazMatt]

Penny for your thoughts..?

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

it's not my original idea, nor is it patented as I've seen it posted here on the forum many times

I may not have been the first to originate that hack, but it was an original solution I came up with, all on my only.
Thought it funny, coming on the heels of that other recent thread dealing with the selfsame solution.

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by haz.matt.1960

Penny for your thoughts..?I may not have been the first to originate that hack, but it was an original solution I came up with, all on my only.
Thought it funny, coming on the heels of that other recent thread dealing with the selfsame solution.

l posted it to help prevent a newbie from making an error, or doing a bunch of uneeded work - the knowledge had been shared before and l was sharing again

[HazMatt]

10-4
+ #>/=10

[Mtrdrms]

Looking good. I have a lot of seat belts out of my coach and if you want one you can have it. They're lap belts but work fine.

[chiggins]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

there is a huge difference between fiberglass and plexiglass - plexiglass becomes brittle with age and is not structurally very strong - it shatters if you try to cut it with shears - fiberglass is used to build bus bodies, boats and car bodies, among many other things - it has it's place - l think plexiglass would be a poor choice for that job, and patching with fiberglass, while it would do a good job, would be a lot of hassle when you could use pennies and glue then down, or plastic plugs of suitable sizes that are cheap and easy to use

That's what I meant, fiberglass. It was a little late when I wrote up my post.

Originally Posted by haz.matt.1960

Sweet ride!
How'd you get the wall cladding out(post #4)? Back out the screws & let it drop?
Wish mine were so easy, as I don't want them entirely gone, just temporary removal.

Mine were put in there with rivets. I didn't care about the sheet metal, so I just wacked at the rivets from the back with a mallet and chisel. It was enough to snap the heads out, but you do a good job at wrecking the sheet metal.

Originally Posted by Mtrdrms

Looking good. I have a lot of seat belts out of my coach and if you want one you can have it. They're lap belts but work fine.

Thanks for the offer! I ended up finding one on ebay, from China, for like $30. Figured that'd be a suitable replacement.

[Sleddgracer]

Thanks for the offer! I ended up finding one on ebay, from China, for like $30. Figured that'd be a suitable replacement.[/QUOTE]

do you have a link to the seat offer?

[chiggins]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

Thanks for the offer! I ended up finding one on ebay, from China, for like $30. Figured that'd be a suitable replacement.

do you have a link to the seat offer?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Nylon...c9e5%7Ciid%3A1

[HazMatt]

*snaps fingers*
Dang!

[chiggins]

It's been a dang long time since I've made an update, summer has been busy! I'll post some photos and go over everything at a pretty high level.

Fiberglass covering up the bolt holes. Missed a few that I'll have to finish up, but damn near all of them are taken care of.



The bus is constantly filled with stuff, wish I had an area to store everything while not in use.



Always remember: measure once, cut twice. This will be fine, I just need to cut out a patch to size and reattach. No big deal.



Having these four storage boxes attached will be great to more storage options. Will probably keep things like extra camping equipment, firewood, whatever random stuff in them.



About to paint the roof! Beforehand I had power washed and sanded with 120 grit to roughen it up.



Painting aftermath. Went with three coats of Tropicool, and I still have plenty left over.



Had a busy day this past weekend. Here we've got a buddy looking at how we're going to disconnect the heaters, and another buddy getting the holder for the propane tanks mounted.



Also another buddy welding down some patches over areas we cut out some big rust spots.



Custom fabricated propane tank holder (mostly) mounted. I've got a piano hinge arriving at some point this evening that I'll reattach the cut out part of the skirt, to act as a door of sorts.



I also ended up making some hatches to replace the bus hatches. I still need to finish water proofing them and get them mounted, but I think that they'll be pretty OK.



My buddy that fabricated the propane tank holder also fabricated some mounts for my two gray water tanks. I somehow actually don't have photos of those, but they're mounted under the bus on the door side.

Next up on my list is to add in furring strips, get the hatches mounted, install the roof rails for the solar panels, finish patching the floor, and to get insulated! The weather in Chicago is starting to cool down, so I'm on a bit of a time crunch to get the insulation done. I'm undecided if I want to do the spray foam myself, or hire someone to do it for me. Really depends on how much the cost difference would be. Anyone have any suggestions on that front?


Another question I have: conduit. I've seen it done where conduit is ran prior to putting in the spray foam, but it ends up being a bit of a mess and doesn't work out well (like Juicifer's Gilligan Phantom). Does anyone have any solid videos or resources about running conduit after spray foam, but before putting up walls? That'd be a great help for me.



Well there we are, hopefully it's not another few months before my next update.

[musigenesis]

Can you post some pics of your patches post-welding? I've been doing the same thing to large holes in my floor, and I'm curious as to how these should look as done by a real welder (which is what your buddy looks like, thanks to the lack of skin protection). My main difficulty has been getting the melt puddle to include the floor and not just the patch; the underside of the bus igniting from time to time is a close secondary.

On the plus side, I worked out the technique for filling my bolt holes and screw holes just with the welder. That's going to save me a ton of time since it takes just a few seconds to fill one this way.

[ted@campbycanoe.com]

Hey, Musigenisis...what's your bolt hole welding technique? Just picked up a stick welder...maybe I'll give it a shot!