Rusty 87 build thread

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by peakbus

Wait-you've done all this with a manual screwdriver?? Do you use slotted screws too? That's painful to think about.

On the plus side, I'm looking like Popeye these days - and I've always been attracted to the Olive Oyl type.

[DeMac]

Manual screwdriver?! Are you for real? Maybe you're being punished?
Rusty87, the Sisyphus bus. I suppose on page 199 you'll just have to start all over.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by DeMac

Manual screwdriver?! Are you for real?

I'm getting more and more embarrassed thinking about this, but my thought process was "it's just a few pieces of trim with a couple screws each, I can do this by hand". A thousand screws later ...

Originally Posted by DeMac

Rusty87, the Sisyphus bus.

"Sisybus" would be a fantastic name for a skoolie, almost makes me wish mine didn't already have a name.

[Tejon7]

"Y'all be driv'un that there Sissy Bus?"

"It's a reference to Greek... never mind. Yeah I drive the sissy bus."

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Tejon7

"Y'all be driv'un that there Sissy Bus?"

"It's a reference to Greek... never mind. Yeah I drive the sissy bus."

Ha ha yeah - I keep forgetting the audience.

[Tejon7]

I'm not knocking the name, though. It's a winner for sure, and with all the clever bus puns I'm somewhat surprised nobody's thought of it yet. You'd just have to be prepared to answer a lot of dumb questions

[musigenesis]

Had $14,000 worth of AC and furnace installed at the house today, so I couldn't bring the bus home. Futzed around with prettifying my emergency hatch interior cover which is badly yellowed and has three unnecessary notches cut out of it. Fortunately I have an extra from the hatch I deleted that I was able to experiment on cleaning up and painting.



It looks really, really good, I was pretty surprised. It scrapes off fairly easily with a screwdriver, but I think since it's up on the ceiling it won't be a problem, as long as it doesn't start peeling off by itself.



Set to work putting some Bondo on the hatch cover I'm going to actually use. Using Bondo metal mesh to stiffen it and I did some filing on the edge of the notches to help the Bondo adhere.





I think this is going to work out a lot better than I expected.







I'm also going to set about repairing my broken skyhatch.

[musigenesis]

Ordered myself a rechargeable screwdriver after not being able to find one at Lowe's. I'm willing to bet the biggest problem with these is that the battery doesn't last very long, but fortunately I don't last very long either so it should be OK.

[musigenesis]

More restoration work on my hatch cover. I'm surprised at how well Bondo forms a sharp edge when sanded.





Just needs a little touch-up and I'll be able to paint this.





Decided to tackle repairing my sky hatch since it's too hot to work outside. Pretty easy to drill all the way through, even with a strip of aluminum underneath the plastic here.



This separation of the two sides of the hatch happened when I had the hatch open on a windy day. With the 1/4" Lexan the hatch is much heavier than it was originally, and the cut plastic wasn't able to support the weight when it was it was wedged open against the outer hatch and the wind pressed it down.



These six bolts at least fixed the hatch, but I'm still not sure I'll be able to prop the hatch open in the normal way without the whole thing breaking. I might need some sort of stay chain.



Now I just have to pull these bolts one at a time and reinstall them wet.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

my son swears by the husky brand from home depot even after owning snap on at the dealership he worked at and many a snap on one.
but it is 1/4" drive and requires a socket. and after various mechanical jobs can verify that it is the real deal from husky at home depot.
1000 dollars cheaper than snap on and actually does the job just as well but last longer.
sure i have tiny wrenches and ratchets and it might be a pain to figure out but once you do? a flexible extension will change your world?

[musigenesis]

Finished Bondo-ing the hatch trim notches and painted. This worked out so much better than I expected.

[musigenesis]

Bondo-ed the holes in the hatch that mounted the sensor (since removed).





A few more pieces of ceiling trim.







Reinserted the six new hatch bolts with sealant. My tube of Dynatron-570 was permanently clogged so I had to open it up with a utility knife and apply it with my finger. Good, messy time.





Some 'tron-570 on the inside of the frame. It's the exact same shade of white as the frame so I didn't even have to repaint any of it.





Painted a portion of the hatch cover. This paint also matched the plastic perfectly so I didn't have to paint the whole thing.





Skyhatch reinstalled and lookin' purdy.





Except ... I apparently cracked the cover a little bit screwing it in. Oh well.

[musigenesis]

Finished the ceiling trim.









Just realized today that I miscalculated when my summer vacation ends, and that I have four weeks left instead of three.

[DeMac]

Road Trip!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by DeMac

Road Trip!

I'm actually bummed about that. I was all set to take Rusty to Long Island to do some repair work on my Aunt's house at the end of this month, but my parents decided to go as well and they WILL NOT ride in the bus and they can't drive themselves any more, so Rusty is staying home for this one.

[musigenesis]

[TJones]

The bus is looking good! It must be great to be working on the finishing details.

Ted

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by TJones

The bus is looking good! It must be great to be working on the finishing details.

Ted

It is! Kind of tedious, but also very satisfying.

[musigenesis]

I'm not sure how I messed this all up two (?) years ago, but in places in the back my bottom window framing sticks out about 1/8" beyond the wall paneling, so these little strips are needed to make the trim flush.











I originally mounted my desk hinge on a "temporary" strip of the 3/16" underlayment, expecting to eventually remove the desk and reinstall it after putting up the real trim. Modern me says a big "HELL NO" to that idea, so I'm just going to trim around it. It will look pretty much the same and it will only be visible when the desk is in the folded-down position.





Almost done putting up this trim. Hoping to get started on my floor tomorrow.

[musigenesis]

I've had some bird poop on my hood for a while. Last night's rain washed it off but took some maroon paint with it. Should be an easy patch up, and hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come.



Some last bits of interior trim.







Sanded down some high spots on my plywood floor with a flap disk and orbital sander, and repainted.





Tomorrow I'll put down the underlayment - hopefully. I broke a tooth yesterday eating sesame chicken and I'm getting it looked at tomorrow. I always break teeth eating food that should not by any logic be breaking teeth, like sesame chicken, doner kebab etc. I'm afraid I'm going to break my jaw eating applesauce or something.