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Old 03-11-2016, 10:30 AM   #601
Bus Nut
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Snowflake, Arizona
Posts: 343
Year: 1996
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Chassis: All American Rear Engine
Engine: C-8.3-300 Cummins MD3060
Rated Cap: 40 Prisoners
Yes the boy scout magic water (flammable liquid) seems to grab all boys attention
at some point in their life. Occasionally an article on the garage floor or in a waste
can with a few welding sparks can bring back old memories as well as surprises. It's
just the thought of re-purposing things to use wasted energy and gain economy of purpose. An insulated turbo improves performance and keeps the engine
compartment cooler and bleeding some of that excess heat into a hot box would
cook a lot faster than a solar oven. You could even run some of the heat up thru
the deck to preheat the bed when its horizontal.

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Old 03-11-2016, 04:20 PM   #602
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Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Atlantic Canada
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Year: 1999
Coachwork: Blue Bird
Chassis: International 3800
Engine: DT 466 Diesel
Rated Cap: 72 passenger
This is like powering through several seasons of a great show on Netflix in two days only to find out the final episodes haven't been finished yet. Can't wait to get to see how this ends up. Very impressive so far.
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Old 03-12-2016, 08:16 PM   #603
Bus Nut
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
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Year: 1998
Coachwork: Bluebird
Chassis: TC2000 RE
Engine: 8.3l Cummins
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Hey this is neat

click for door video
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Old 03-12-2016, 09:27 PM   #604
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: North of Seattle, WA
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Year: 1994
Chassis: Blue Bird TC2000
Engine: Cummins 5.9 12V
Rated Cap: ??...It's 28' long
Whoa!! That is just TOO neato. Excellent job on the door. Whoooo Hoooo!
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Old 03-12-2016, 09:28 PM   #605
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Location: So Cal
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Engine: 317 ci/tid / Isuzu
Nice install, where does the air pressure come from? Jack
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Old 03-12-2016, 10:47 PM   #606
Bus Nut
 
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I reused the same actuator ram that opened the inward bifold bus door, so everything was already plumbed.

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Nice install, where does the air pressure come from? Jack
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Old 03-13-2016, 09:35 PM   #607
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We had a windstorm, barely missed the trees, which is good enough for me.

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Old 03-13-2016, 09:56 PM   #608
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Location: North of Seattle, WA
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Engine: Cummins 5.9 12V
Rated Cap: ??...It's 28' long
Holy Crud! I was wondering if you had any damage. Our power has been going on and off most of the afternoon but so far...so good. Hopefully we won't have anything come down.

I tarped Serenity yesterday so I can remove the windows. The tarp (Harbor Freight) seemed to weather things fine. Wonderhubby and I tied/bungeed it down pretty tight though.

Sympathies about your trees. Do you still have power?
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Old 03-13-2016, 10:29 PM   #609
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Join Date: Jul 2014
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Rated Cap: 78
Not our trees, they were nice I guess. More southern exposure now.

We never lost power which would have been icing on the cake today. I was working on the entry door when the trees fell, so it got left open most of the day. The wind blew hard enough to bend the hinges that I haven't added reinforcement gussets to so now I am bending things back into shape.

It's probably a rare day the door is exposed to 50 mph wind from the rear direction.


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Originally Posted by lizzabus View Post
Holy Crud! I was wondering if you had any damage. Our power has been going on and off most of the afternoon but so far...so good. Hopefully we won't have anything come down.

I tarped Serenity yesterday so I can remove the windows. The tarp (Harbor Freight) seemed to weather things fine. Wonderhubby and I tied/bungeed it down pretty tight though.

Sympathies about your trees. Do you still have power?
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Old 03-20-2016, 10:03 PM   #610
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Year: 1998
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Windows

First new window in place. Without trim rings rv window are cheap and impossible to install in a conventional rv. 16 gauge steel makes it "no problem"

The aluminum flange is too thin to effectively countersink panhead screws, so stainless fasteners backed with trim washers on the outside.

The trim washer spreads the load, and on final install holds a little slug of sealant to make the fastener hole water tight. Just run a bead of sealant or butyl around under the window frame to the exterior to bond the two together and make it weather resistant.

On the inside, foam insulation, with whatever you want for a trim ring since it doesn't need to be structural. Since the vehicle wall is 3"+ thick, there aren't any trim rings anyway.

Anyway I am happy with the way it is secured and the installation process is straightforward.


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Old 03-21-2016, 07:48 AM   #611
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Nice work!
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Old 03-21-2016, 01:28 PM   #612
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Chassis: Freight-shaker (Freightliner)
Engine: Cat 3126b 250 HP
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I hate how long it takes you to get new pics posted, I love how you take your time and engineer them correctly and give us all some help on your way through with this!!

-Doc
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Old 03-21-2016, 08:41 PM   #613
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Carving windows

Some photos of cutting window holes. You can see the three inches of foam make for a daunting trim ring. As far as I can find, rv trim rings this deep don't exist.

Some thoughts on things:

The notch to access the fasteners for the window, just enough to get your finger in there to hold the nut. When its "done", as in I don't want to take the window out and its sealed, I'll stick a couple strips of foam in that crevice, or maybe some expanding foam.

The interior metal facing the foam panels is bone dry. This reaffirms my thoughts that bonding the foam to the steel is unnecessary, and in some cases bonding might trap moisture.

There is enough elasticity in the foam panels to move the cutter head of the sheet metal air nibbler.

Cutting the foam out was actually harder and more time consuming than cutting the metal out.







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Old 03-21-2016, 08:43 PM   #614
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Join Date: Jul 2014
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Year: 1998
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Chassis: TC2000 RE
Engine: 8.3l Cummins
Rated Cap: 78
Thanks, I try to go as fast as I can but there are always a lot of things that compete for my time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Docsgsxr View Post
I hate how long it takes you to get new pics posted, I love how you take your time and engineer them correctly and give us all some help on your way through with this!!

-Doc
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Old 03-21-2016, 09:43 PM   #615
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Is that a "Nibbler"?
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Old 03-21-2016, 10:10 PM   #616
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Yes, it works great.

It will let you cut the wrong line in a hurry, so better be sure you know your cut line. What's nice is it doesn't really grab the material, you have to push it into the metal.

It also makes thousands of tiny crescent shaped caltrops that fly everywhere. Wear a safety shield and clothes that shed metallic sharp chip.

Other than that, it would take just a minute or two to cut a hole nearly any shape in the bus sheet metal.
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Is that a "Nibbler"?
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Old 03-21-2016, 10:25 PM   #617
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They are very good tools, you can get them at harbor fright for under 30.00 and if you catch them on sale for about 10.00 be warned they do use the air, so not the best tool for a pancake compressor. You can make about any design you want, they do has there limit on metal size.
I might also add they are small and very light weight. In my use of them I had a harder time with the air hose
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Old 03-22-2016, 12:48 PM   #618
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Location: Galion, OH
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I used a harbor freight air nibbler for some of my windows... the punch kept breaking off though. I went through 3 of them I think. The package said up to 16 gauge steel, and I was cutting 18 gauge. For what it's worth, it worked well while it worked.
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Old 03-23-2016, 03:26 PM   #619
Bus Nut
 
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I picked up a hot knife from harbor freight, I should have done that when I started working with the foam. Cutting does make a lot of toxic gas so I do it on the outside.

Cutting the metal, then the foam is a pretty simple operation. Making the trim ring insert will take the most effort now.

Attached a comparison of cuts from hot knife vs serrated saw.



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Old 03-23-2016, 06:42 PM   #620
Bus Nut
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Chassis: Freight-shaker (Freightliner)
Engine: Cat 3126b 250 HP
Rated Cap: Only 1 seat
Cool idea, think if you were careful enough one could cut lines in the roof insulation so to mold the corners instead of using a circular saw at half the depth of the foam?
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