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Old 04-06-2004, 09:43 PM   #41
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the brand i have is campbell housfield. It was the cheapest one on the shelf, doesn't even come with a built in guage. IT DOES NOT SHUT ITSELF OFF. LIke the unit's you refer too, it runs contuously. I went to home depot and purchased a pressure switch for a well pump. It was about 20 bucks. I then cut the power cord for the air compressor, and connected it to the pressure switch.

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Old 04-06-2004, 09:51 PM   #42
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Gotcha! I'm going to go buy the switch, a compressor, an air tank this weekend. I think it will work good as a small 12V air compressor.
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Old 04-06-2004, 09:55 PM   #43
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what are you using the air compressor for?
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Old 05-04-2004, 04:52 PM   #44
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I spent a fair ammount of money on maintance today.
Purchased 6 gallons of mobil delvac oil. spent over $100 just on filters: 2 oil filters, 1 fuel filter/water separator, 1 very unusual engine coolant filter/conditioner. Greased all the zirk fittings i could find under the bus, and added one gallon of engine coolant. Inspected my belts and hoses, and drained my air tanks.
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Old 05-04-2004, 08:02 PM   #45
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lapeer20m
1 very unusual engine coolant filter/conditioner.
I'd be interested in something like that!
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Old 05-14-2004, 07:56 AM   #46
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Today i wash and prep. Tomorrow i paint.

I originally painted the black on the bus on new years day in michigan with a high temp of 37 degrees with freezing drizzle falling from the sky. Not good painting conditions.

The new paint job will be much like the old one. Since the custom flames are created by hand, no two sets can be exactly the same.

I'll take photo's and post them soon
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Old 05-14-2004, 07:11 PM   #47
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the weather held off for longer than anticipated today. I washed and prepped the bus, then re-painted the entire bus exterior (except the roof.)

Now comes the fun part of painting the flames. First i apply 1/4" fine line tape in the outline of the flames. Then i trace the perimeter with 1/2" fine line tape. Then i begin to fill in all the spaces that don't get painted. To fill the smaller spaces, i use EZ realese masking tape.
The bigger spaces are filled with sheets of paper and hooked down with the same tape.

I didn't get any flames painted today, but i got most of one side taped off and ready to go.

I took a bunch of photo's...i'll try to post them soon.
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Old 05-15-2004, 09:22 AM   #48
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Lapeer…I really have appreciated the honest run down of how you went about converting the engine to run on veggie oil and how it works for you.

Thanks ,
Michael & Millie
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Old 05-25-2004, 08:17 PM   #49
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here are some step by step photo's of the flame painting process......







you can visit my photo album for full size photo's of the flame painting process
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Old 05-25-2004, 08:19 PM   #50
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The finished product:


[/img]
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Old 05-31-2004, 12:03 PM   #51
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This past weekend was excellent !!! I took the bus to the electronic music festival in Detroit Mi. Day number one we mostly drove around and gave rides to people. The bus showed up late, so there wasn't any good parking. It was a lot of fun. We met a lot of cool people, and made some great connections including some wonderful people from Chicago.

Day number two we got there early and found a place to park the bus right next to the entrance to the event. This might be the most fun we've had with the bus so far. My buddy brought his guitar. Soon another guy (from wisconsin) with a guitar showed up. They played for tipps most of the day on the sidewalk just outside the bus. It was kind of crazy. Hundreds of people took a tour of the bus, some took a tour of the hot tub...others stayed in the hot tub for quite a while.

Not one single police officer stopped by to tour the bus, or even hassle us. That was suprising. One of the only problems i had was one very rude guy with a video camera. He came in the bus and was filming the people in the bus. After several requests for him to leave, I was ready to drown his camera in some nice clorinated water. In the end he left and nobody got hurt, so i suppose all's well that ends well.

I love summer
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Old 06-22-2004, 12:38 PM   #52
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Since the veggie conversion, my bus has become my daily driver. I almost never drive my car anymore.

I got out of work at 6 am this morning, turned the key............nothing happened. The low air alarm wwas buzzing, all my lights worked, but the starter wouldn't do anything. With the low air alarm going off, it was impossible to hear if the starter solenoid was working or not. UGGGGGG!
While holding the key in the start position, i wiggled the gear selector hoping perhaps the nuetral safety switch just needed some giggling. No luck.

Most Ford pick-ups have the solenoid separate from the starter, but not this bus. The two are connected, and they are in the worse possible location. Tucked up way under the fender behind the fuel filter.

I was unable to get a screwdriver to short out the two screws on the solenoid in order the test the starter, I did the next best thing. I got a piece of wire connected to 12 v + and touched it to the correct pole on the solenoid. First I made certian the park brake was on and the bus was in nuetral! The bus turned over real s l o w. Not to worry, i have a generator and a 100amp battery starter/charger.

I let that do it's magic for a few minutes and tried again....still the engine turned over at the same miserable pace. Then the starter wouldn't stop spinning. It disengaged from the flywheel but kept spinning, even with the key off.......So i hurridly rummaged through the toolbox for the correct wrench to disconnect the battery terminals.

Things aren't going so good this morning !

Eventually i removed the dog house which enabled me a little better access to the starter. After a couple more hours i finally removed the starter. That was a project! Who would have 'thunk' that removing a starter would be so difficult ! Everything else on the bus is out in the open, not that silly starter! it's hiding in a little cubby hole.

The starter should be getting rebuilt as we speak.........to be continued....
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Old 06-22-2004, 01:12 PM   #53
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Hope that fixes it and it isn't just another black spot on another persons veggie story. (Although the all the "bad press" people talk about might be rumors as they usually don't have first hand experience with veggie power)
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Old 06-22-2004, 08:25 PM   #54
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I have realized that this could be the beginning of the end

For now i try to think happy thoughts.

I'm reasonably certian that it is a starter problem.....Time will tell.

Did i mention that i'm not a diesel mechanic ?
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Old 06-23-2004, 05:13 PM   #55
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I have been a bit dissapointed. Since i've owned her, the bus has traveled over 13,000 miles and this is the first time i had to leave her somewhere because i couldn't get her started. I've had other issues where i had to wrench on the bus for a while, but she always returned home under her own power.

Today i picked up the rebuilt starter @ 3:00pm, drove a half hour to the parking lot where the bus was parked and began the installation. This is a very manyly starter....I estimate it to be about 70 pounds. Trying to wrestle it into place, and get the bolts started all by myself was not exacly my idea of fun. After a great deal of time, and even more frustration, she was bolted in place. Now it's time to connect the wires.....

The starter guy didn't give me any nuts to hold the wires onto the studs........uggggggggg. I put everything in place, then used a bunji cord to hold some tention on the wires so they would make good contact. It took a bit of fiddling with wires to get everythig just right, but she finally fired.

Listening to that engine purr sure was a glorious sound !

I would have to admit that having a manual transmission would have made life a lot better for me in this instance. I would have pulled the bus and engaged the clutch to make the engine start and driven her home yesterday.

All's well that ends well.

I'd much rather be broke down 10 miles from my house than in the middle of the mojave desert !

The bus did return home today under her own power, it cost me about $200 for the rebuilt starter. The only other engine part i've had to replace so far is the water pump. I can't really complain. The bus only cost me $775 direct from the bus garage.
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Old 06-24-2004, 08:02 AM   #56
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Until yesterday, i never realized how close the engine was to the driver. Here is a photo of the inside of the bus with the doghouse removed.
[/img]
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Old 06-24-2004, 08:13 AM   #57
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Silly? yes!



I think i'm going to make a set of spinners for the 22.5 inch bus rims. I'm far to cheap to spend $1,000 bucks for the real thing. My plan is to cut the five spokes out of either stainless or polished alluminum. Then i plan to weld the spokes to a center hub. The hub will be attached to the center of the bus rims with a bearing from a set of rollerblade wheels.


The entire bus project is silly, i think the spinners will be a fun addition.
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Old 07-06-2004, 09:53 AM   #58
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in the next two weeks i plan to put a "new" floor in the bus. I met a gentlemen who does flooring for a living and graciously offered to donate the material and possibly even the time to install some cool new flooring material.

the material is mostly made of rubber....feels like chopped up pencil erasers. The rubber is mixed with a special glue then applied with a trowell. It comes in several different colors. When it dries, it formes a waterproof rubber floor. The new floor should have excellent sound, vibration, and insulation properties. It sounds like the perfect floor for the jacuzzi bus.

I think i should add some drains to the floor to let the water escape.

I'll take lots of photos during the project.
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Old 07-09-2004, 01:31 PM   #59
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i'm leaving today for a trip to northern michigan. I plan to put between 4 and 5 hundred miles on the bus this weekend alone.

I love driving around for nearly free!

It's been just over 2,500 miles since the veggie conversion, and i just purchased a new spin-on fuel filter/water separator today. The old one was getting rather plugged up, i was having a hard time getting cold (approx 65 degrees F) veggie oil to flow throug the filter for the past couple weeks. She's been just fine once the oil heated up however.

I start the bus on cold veggie oil, then I usually let her sit at high idle for about 10 minutes before I drive. The engine isn't real happy with me if I start her up on cold veggie and take off as soon as the air system is up to pressure. About the only time i use more than a gallon of diesel at one time is when i run out of veggie oil and it's not convienent to stop and refuel. I do try to run at least 10 miles or so per week on diesel with the thought of cleaning out veggie by-products from the fuel system and the cylinder walls.
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Old 07-09-2004, 01:39 PM   #60
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Are you riding up there on spinners or have you left that project to rot...
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