Rusty 87 build thread

[DeMac]

Use a wet hose.

whatchu call me?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by DeMac

Use a wet hose.

whatchu call me?

Ha!

For whatever reason, I've found that hose tests don't always seem to expose leaks that prolonged rain does. My front-most passenger window stays bone-dry with a hose taped to the window and pointing at the corner, but after rainfall I always find the towels I have inside under that corner soaked. I think it has to do with the angle of the bus (which is flat at my house but nose-down and leaning to the left at my lot) but that might also affect whether or not the hatch leaks.

[TJones]

Your skylight looks great! It will be nice to have the additional light.

Ted

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Ha!

For whatever reason, I've found that hose tests don't always seem to expose leaks that prolonged rain does. My front-most passenger window stays bone-dry with a hose taped to the window and pointing at the corner, but after rainfall I always find the towels I have inside under that corner soaked. I think it has to do with the angle of the bus (which is flat at my house but nose-down and leaning to the left at my lot) but that might also affect whether or not the hatch leaks.

That often means that the leak is higher up the hill or that it is running laterally from the leak source to the nearest place that it can drip out. If it only leaks after long extended rains it could also mean that it is a condensate leak or it ts a small leak that only shows up after the insulation soaks up all it can handle. If the bus was driven then it could be a wind driven leak.

Condensation "leaks" are fairly common with metal structures and/or when the a/c is running, especially when it is raining - super high humidity. Metal roofs without insulation or missing insulation are the worst (humid inside and cold outside causes the water to condense inside especially on metal roofs. Condensation leaks often require more thought.

I did a lot of leak testing in, my 30 years of mostly commercial roofing. Start low and work your way up the hill and go slow to give it time to drain before moving further up the hill. It helps to have 2 people, 1 inside spotting and 1 outside with the hose

[cadillackid]

how the heck does even the east coast get summer and we get about 2 days and then back to rain and 70s for highs.. I really HATE this summers weather.. all it does is rain and be cool.. everyone but us seems to have summer.. it has taken me all summer since may to paint a bus because of the rain every couple days..

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

how the heck does even the east coast get summer and we get about 2 days and then back to rain and 70s for highs.. I really HATE this summers weather.. all it does is rain and be cool.. everyone but us seems to have summer.. it has taken me all summer since may to paint a bus because of the rain every couple days..

Columbus is looking nice for the next two weeks. I thought you guys were going to be under that heat dome but it looks like not.

I grew up in NE Ohio in the '70s and I miss those summers when mid-80s was a heat wave. I don't miss those winters, though, where the grass got covered by snow in October and you didn't see it again until May.

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

how the heck does even the east coast get summer and we get about 2 days and then back to rain and 70s for highs.. I really HATE this summers weather.. all it does is rain and be cool.. everyone but us seems to have summer.. it has taken me all summer since may to paint a bus because of the rain every couple days..

quit trying to paint and the summer will come back.

[musigenesis]

Old rivet hole from me tearing loose a support inside last year.



I don't know why I even bothered putting in a rivet, but there it is.



Sanded off the surface rust that had appeared in a few spots on the backside.



Installed the original trim piece for the forward hatch, using the original holes and four new ones in the corners, and some round head brass screws I originally bought for the toilet hinges.



The plastic is pretty badly yellowed. I have the trim piece from the deleted rear hatch and I'm going to do some experiments on getting it white again; if that doesn't work I'll just paint it. Otherwise, I like it a lot.



MG vs. the microwave, round 2.





This bit will keep the front from rising up, but the back is still free to rise and it can tip forward.



This bit on top will prevent that.





For most of these decking screws on the trim pieces, I'm going to fill them in with wood putty and paint over them, but I can't with this piece if I ever want to remove the microwave, so this little bit of trim will cover the screw holes. I'll probably end up doing something different to make this top part look a little better.



Some similar stuff attached to the underside of my butcher block countertop to keep the freezer inside the cabinet from rising up and getting loose.







Leaving masking tape on your bus after painting (or whatever I was doing with this tape - can't remember any more) is a bad idea, but if you're going to do it, leave it on for a couple years because it dries out and cracks and gets sort of easy to scrape off.

[peakbus]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

The plastic is pretty badly yellowed. I have the trim piece from the deleted rear hatch and I'm going to do some experiments on getting it white again; if that doesn't work I'll just paint it. Otherwise, I like it a lot.

I used Rustoleum plastic spray paint on my old, yellowed A/C unit and it made it look new. I was surprised how well it turned out.

[musigenesis]

Just interviewed with my local school system's transportation department - looks like I'm going to become a substitute school bus driver.

[musigenesis]

The advantages of having a bus that is 10'2" high and a car self-wash that has 10'4" clearance. The guy who runs the place stormed into the bay and angrily insisted that I open the back door and show him the inside of the bus. I couldn't figure out why someone would be a) eager to see a skoolie and b) pissed off about it, but it turns out he just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be hosing out the inside of some filthy manure-hauler or something like that. I eventually got him to understand that I was only there to clean the outside.



As I mentioned in another thread, I think I'm going to mount my electrical stuff in the cab, outside of my living space, either here on the bulkhead wall under the window:



Or here against the outside wall. Probably the bulkhead wall would be cooler in summer and I could mount a vent fan in the outer wall.

[Tejon7]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Just interviewed with my local school system's transportation department - looks like I'm going to become a substitute school bus driver.

Whoa, MG is going pro! Woot woot!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Tejon7

Whoa, MG is going pro! Woot woot!

It's pretty cool, I'll get a CDL out of the deal at least. There's like a three- to four-month wait to take the test at PennDOT right now, but this school system has their own inspector in-house so it should be lickety-split.

[Oscar1]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Just interviewed with my local school system's transportation department - looks like I'm going to become a substitute school bus driver.

Not sure it's supposed to be congrats or condolences on this one
Damn ankle biters.
Let's go with congrats.

[cadillackid]

Couldn’t pay me enough to drive today’s nasty brats around for school. And unlike when I went to school the bus driver has no authority to do anything ..

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

Couldn’t pay me enough to drive today’s nasty brats around for school. And unlike when I went to school the bus driver has no authority to do anything ..

Hopefully, at least self-defense is still a legal option.

[Mountain Gnome]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

I'm going to mount a fire extinguisher in this little corner nook, so I placed a piece of 3/4" plywood on the end for attaching the straps or whatever. I want to have one fire extinguisher on either end of the kitchen so I don't ever find myself staring at my one fire extinguisher through a wall of flames.

My thinking also. If only I could figure out where to mount the "kitchen" one. I want it over the stove as far as storage placement goes, but if the stove is on fire..... Now it sits on the shelf below waiting for a real home.

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Mamma-jamma deadbolt to keep the cart in place. Hopefully this will be sufficient.
Attachment 59572

I put one of those on my wheelchair door as a lock to prevent the latch from moving (so it locks and no one can open it from the outside), but it (the lock) vibrated open when driving. I would worry yours might vibrate and bounce up just enough at the right moment to let the drawer slide open. Home Depot sells one that is spring-loaded, and won't vibrate open (I switched mine to the spring one). The spring wants to open it, yes, but in the closed position, it holds the latch in place. Come to think of it, that might also make it easier for you to use this in the first place, as the latch will want to stay out of the way when you are rolling the cart/drawer around.

Originally Posted by musigenesis

I knew aluminum rivets were going to fail but I had to try anyway.

Decided to use 3/4" #12 SS machine screws to attach to the plastic of the hatch. They grip pretty well and a lot easier than riveting anyway.

Marked out the screw holes (every 2").

My big concern will be what happens to it after it sits in direct sunlight all day for a long time.

I would wonder if machine screws would hold in the plastic lid. (I would have used sheet metal screws with "wider" threads) But you have a lot of them, and with the Dynatron, I bet it works OK. Except I wonder about the sunlight. I used plexiglass once on a camper top, and screwed it to the wooden frame with fender washers, but in the sun it expanded and cracked around the screw holes. But plexiglass is not Lexan. I can't notice any expansion or flex in my Lexan roof hatch even in desert afternnon sunlight in July. But I designed it that way.

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Ha!

For whatever reason, I've found that hose tests don't always seem to expose leaks that prolonged rain does. My front-most passenger window stays bone-dry with a hose taped to the window and pointing at the corner, but after rainfall I always find the towels I have inside under that corner soaked. I think it has to do with the angle of the bus (which is flat at my house but nose-down and leaning to the left at my lot) but that might also affect whether or not the hatch leaks.

Don't tell me about it! I already know! I hosed and hosed and hosed again at every angle. No leaks. Installed the interior wooden walls, moved the bus a few inches (so it angled different), and my walls were soaked and molded. And the cheap-ass "oak hardwood plywood" from Lowes was really pulpwood single-ply paneling with a paper-thin oak veneer that peeled away.
I'm enjoying the desert now-a-days, after 5 years of rain.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still lookin' AWESOME bro!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Mountain Gnome

I put one of those on my wheelchair door as a lock to prevent the latch from moving (so it locks and no one can open it from the outside), but it (the lock) vibrated open when driving. I would worry yours might vibrate and bounce up just enough at the right moment to let the drawer slide open.

The lock is really wedged in there - the hole in the plywood underneath the metal piece is barely big enough for the lock to fit and I almost have to hammer it in to get it closed. It also has holes at the top for a big padlock (since it's meant to be used outside) so I'll probably just keep a carabiner in there most of the time while driving and then it won't be able to vibrate open.

Originally Posted by Mountain Gnome

Still lookin' AWESOME bro!

Thanks, man!

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Hopefully, at least self-defense is still a legal option.

I remember our driver as a teen.. she was awesome. big butch girl you didnt mess with.. when we were acting up she pull the bus right over, with the brakes on kind of spry.. about 3 MPH she popped the air Knob.. threw off her seatbelt.. if her driver window was open she slammed it closed.. if it was closed she slammed it open.. then she stood up and the whole bus got as silent as a bus full of 60 kids could be.. i mean I dont think anyone was Breathing.!.


then she'd sit down and we would go about our way in such a way you could hear the Allison 545...

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

then she'd sit down and we would go about our way in such a way you could hear the Allison 545...

Ha ha, I'll bet you knew what type of transmission it was even then!