Another few months go by without a post, so here's a quick recap. Big things have happened! I'll just post about the bigger stuff and gloss over any of the minor details.
Exterior outlet installed. Nothing too fancy here.
Outdoor shower installed. It doesn't work very well though, I think I need to take it apart and figure out what's up.
Older (incomplete) plumbing picture. Scored the pump for $10 a year or so ago which was nice. There's a bit more bending and 90 degree angles than I would've liked, I probably could've planned this a LOT better. But oh well, it works and doesn't leak, and that's important. I have a catchall filter on it, but I'll have a tree stage filter right before the kitchen sink to filter out the drinking water.
Filled up a box full of spaghetti. These are the wires I had pulled out of the bus from the old speakers, lights, etc. I do a lot of hobby electronics at home, so I'll be recycling the wires for those projects.
Covered the last wheel. This is curved because it'll be the "hallway" between the kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. It's insulated which is nice. Will have to clean it up and make it look pretty, eventually.
Bought a new truck during all this. 2012 F250 Lariat Super Duty with the 8' bed. It's real nice and quite the improvement over my old 1995 F150.
Took out the flashers on the front and back. Illinois law requires those be removed, which I was fine with. Prepping to weld them shut.
Had to cover the openings up at one point because of rain. Forgot to uncover when we started welding and *technically* set the bus on fire. Oops.
Little bit of fun on the last covers.
I didn't really take any photos of the next part, but I grinded down the welds and bondoed over everything to help even it out. I didn't do as good of a job on the front of the bus as I did in the back, because you can see the circles through the paint. I covered the tops of the front and back, as well as the spaces between the windows, with leftover Henry's Tropicool. I think it turned out pretty sharp.
Painting on the tropicool on the spaces between the windows.
Had some unwanted tenants start living in the bus. Had 3-4 wasps, but they got taken care of. Glad none of us got stung.
FINALLY got a ceiling installed It's 1/4" birch plywood. It's not *perfect* by any means, but I think it works well. I'll probably end up painting it to hide imperfections. Still needs trim work, but that'll be down the line.
More ceiling, and mess. Man I really need to clean and organize.
Now we're caught up to this past weekend. Labor Day weekend was anything but relaxing for us, because it was time to paint! I really wanted to keep the black stripes down the side of the bus. Because of this, and everything else needing to be covered, we probably went through at least $100 worth of 3M painter's tape.
Hello primer! This is a Kem Bond alkyd metal primer from Sherwin-Williams. Sprayed it on with a spray gun from Harbor Freight, which worked out a whole hell of a lot better than I would've expected it to. You can also see a bunch of spaghetti wires that I need to go through and see if I can remove them or not.
We prepped, taped, covered, primed, and put one coat of the top coat on all in one night. Started at 5pm, didn't leave until 4am. Didn't mean for that to happen, but I was also trying to race against a storm a few days away. Didn't follow the FULL wait times for recoating, but it turned out okay! Side note, I'm really glad I added those exterior lights on each side of the bus.
And here we go with the color! The paint is an industrial enamel from Sherwin-Williams, with the color called gecko. We absolutely love it, it's amazing. It fits SO WELL. The people at Sherwin-Williams highly recommended against this paint for whatever reason, and that they rather not sell it to non-contractors/professionals, but with the research that I did and the people I talked to, I decided this was the best way for me to go. I also applied a clear coat with pearl mixed in it as well, added protection.
Some beauty shots. We're really happy with how the paint turned out. There are definitely some imperfections if you take too close of a look, and there are areas that need to be touched up because they got covered by tape, but overall I think it looks fantastic.
We're actually getting very close to the first couple trips we'll be taking the bus on. I know I know, I'm still mid-conversion. The first trip we'll just be camping out at my parents place for my sister's wedding, and just need an extra place to sleep that isn't an air mattress. Second trip we'll be traveling down to central Illinois at a campground with a handful of other friends. We're really excited for this, but we've got a handful of things to make sure the bus is up to snuff.
- New tires - A semi mechanic is coming out this weekend to get all new tires on. 11R22.5 x 6, not going to be cheap.
- Mechanical check-up - The mechanic is also going to give the bus a once over and let me know what I need to do. I know I at least need an oil change (with filter), to top off coolant from when I took out the heaters, and a new fuel water separator filter. Probably not a bad idea to get a new fuel filter as well.
- Buy a bed - Probably just going to get a cheapo bed for the first couple trips. The eventual plan is to move our current queen size bed into the bus when we upgrade to a king at home.
- Secure solar panels - The panels are secured for the most part, but not very well. Need to get them secured a little better, especially against vibrations from driving. I've got an idea worked out for that.
- Seat belts - I'm not sure if Illinois law requires passenger seat belts for RVs, but I think they're a great idea regardless. I need to get at least one installed, as well as a driver's seat belt. It actually just arrived today, and I plan on taking care of that this Saturday.
Those are the big ticket items I need to accomplish to make sure it's road worthy in a few months. Also going to get a Good Sam membership just to make sure I'm covered in case of a break down.
Outside of the immediate needs, here are my plans for throughout the fall into winter:
- Put up bathroom walls
- Install toilet - I'll be doing a composing toilet with a kit I got off eBay. I don't want to spend a grand on one of the Nature's Head kits. I'm debating installing another tank under the bus to use exclusively for #1's though.
- Install kitchen cabinets and countertops - I'll be doing all my own cabinets, and probably the same for the countertop. My uncle has a bunch of maple plywood that he's willing to give me for free, so I think I'll take advance of that for some of the cabinets.
- Install kitchen plumbing - I already have damn near everything purchased for this, such as the faucet and sink, just need the area to install it in.
Anyway, there's my quarterly long-winded post. Appreciate you if you made it this far without getting too bored!
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