Thylacine

[GreyEagle]

PPL Motorhomes in Houston, Tx ...... pplmotorhomes.com
Camping World ......... campingworld.com
or just about any RV dealer an/or repair place.....

best of luck

[chev49]

ebay has them for about $70 or so for 30 amp and $100 plus for 50 amp

[edfrank]

Schoolies,

I bought a little lamp/fan at Big Lots today $6 that might be useful for in a bunk bed cubby hole.

USB Powered Mini Desk LED Lamp & Fan by ThinkTank Technology



The 12 LED USB Desk Lamp and Fan is a portable and multi-directional light and fan. Powered via USB, it's a great personal lighting and cooling solution for use with your notebook or desktop computer. For convenient use, the lamp and fan both have individual on/off switches and adjustable goose-necks so you can use either or both at just the angle you need. Get better lighting and comfortable cooling while you work at your computer with the 12 LED USB Desk Lamp and Fan.


Two on/off switches - one for the lamp, one for the fan
Twelve Super Bright LED Bulbs
Recessed bulbs are anti-glare
Independent adjustable goose-neck to turn the light or fan to any angle Soft fan blades for safety
Conveniently powered by USB/USB hub

(USB is 5 volts. Pin 1 is 5 V DC, pin 4 is ground.)

The light puts out plenty of light for an enclosed space. Both the fan and the light are attached as separate goosenecks, and turn on and off independently.

.

[bansil]

congrates on picking the "project" up on Thursday.
Before you start buying things make a list.
List what you want to run.
Then list when you want to run them ie:all day,at night or sporadic thru the day.
Then list how much power you need to run them for the given time
This is 12v and 110v items
This will give you an over view of your needs
Post ideas/needs and then we can proceed
Excel spreedsheet will work and so will notebook paper with columns and rows.
Yours eyes may open and say "wow" that's a lot of stuff which=$$
Gotta go dinner is ready
Tally up what you need and we'll go from there

[edfrank]

bansil,

Thanks for the advice. I am big on lists myself. At this point my funds are running low. I have enough to get the bus, do the floor (so I don't need to rip it out again once finished), and add the minimum necessary to get it retitled as an RV. I know what I need to buy to do this to add to the salvaged stuff I had already gathered. I had an unexpected trip via ambulance to the hospital last week that will surely put a hurt on my finances. I expect I will make lots of lists and plans, long before I can afford to implement any of them.

Ed

[edfrank]

Home, I am Home at Last!

I went and picked up the bus in Cleveland yesterday. The trip home was uneventful, just extremely hot. The bus is now parked in my back yard/driveway. I can move it up farther a slight slope in front of the pad to get the car into and out of the garage.







There was no violent fiery explosion of death as soon as I turned the money over to the Rocky River School District (as I half expected.) The bus ran fine. There is a governor on it to keep the speed down I think, in any case I did not fry the engine on the trip home. Parking went well amongst the trees. I accidentally let it roll a few inches and killed one tail light cover, but all is good.



On the drive home, I had all of those mixed feelings of Yes! I finally got one!, and Now what have I gotten myself into? I am not worried about the conversion itself, but about my lack of knowledge about buses in general. I have lots of gauges, likely will get a few more. They have readings, but I am not sure what they are supposed to read.... doubts, worries, but not enough to overwhelm the excitement. I am about to start a new adventure. Life is Good.

Ed

.

[browncrown]

Very nice bus, and it looks like you have a nice shady area to start the conversion. Congratulations!

[bansil]

Looks good...andi have backed into multiple trees(sometimes on purpose) and YOU..only a cracked lens...you did good

[mightybus]

I like old Waynes.The interior roof rocks. Only bus I know where the tin runs lengthwise. Also the roof is semi-squared on the sides and you probably have a 6'6'' ceiling height. That Lifeguard, when you learn Wayne Bus history, is actually a collectors item. Congratulations!

[Tango]

Congrats on an uneventful maiden voyage! A taillight lens ain't nuthin. Let the fun begin. And please do take & post lots of pictures...we just love watching other people work!

[chev49]

i have some extra light housings if ya need one.

[edfrank]

Chev49,

The broken lens looks like it is the same size as the flashing warning lights I need to remove anyway. I will know once I get to working on it tomorrow. Thanks for the offer I will keep it in mind.

Ed

[edfrank]

Schoolies,

I have not abandoned my project, it just has been delayed by a couple months by a protracted illness. I have gotten back to work on it and am making some progress, Below are the requisite images of the bus with the seats out:




I will keep working on it and post my progress. At this point want to reiterate advise others have given - buy a heavy duty angle grinder instead of the cheapest ones. I burnt out two 7 and 7.5 amp grinders. I replaced these with a 13 amp Dewalt one. The more powerful 4.5 inch grinder really cut through the bolts quickly and easier in addition to not frying when used. I think it would save cutoff wheels in the long run, and I went through quite a few. All of the seat bolts had to be cut off. The bus is a handicap bus with a lift. The rails for the wheel chairs were held in place by forty more bolts that all had to be cut off. The ones nearest the wall were a real pain, because you could not get a good angle on them for cutting. But they are out and I am on the the next step. There are a zillion screws and rivets to take out and the floors need to be pulled up.

I need to take the wheel chair lift out soon. I had one abortive start at that job when a friend came over to help. After disconnecting the wires I discovered that one bolt could only be unfastened when the the lift was extended. So I reconnected the wires and extended it and took out that one bolt. I need to drill out the bolts holding a connection box underneath before I can get all of the wires free. It should not e a big deal. I videotaped the lift working. I am going to try to find a buyer for it. http://youtu.be/Ay7Lk3BrKzI

So I will keep scrounging and working on the bus one step at a time.

Ed

[bansil]

Good to hear your back it

[edfrank]

Schoolies,

I am slowly making progress on the bus. I managed to get the wheel chair lift disconnected, unbolted, and out of the bus without killing myself or breaking the lift. The lift is heavy, going about 360 pounds.



It is an older model installed in 1989. It is a Braun Lift-A-Way Model# L205U64PB, Series 03 It works fine, I even have youtube video of it wotking: http://youtu.be/Ay7Lk3BrKzI

Ed

[edfrank]

It is October 9, and I have made a little progress on the bus. I have the seats out. I have the floor taken up and the upper wall panels are gone. The fiberglass insulation in the walls are gone. I am down to the metal floor. It is rustier than I had hoped, but it could be worse.



The section immediately in front of the rear wheel wells has been patched. Another section piece was screwed on from the bottom without removing the upper one that was rusted badly.

The walls behind the fiberglass are generally pretty good, but there is some rust in a few places:



The inner surface appears to be galvanized, with the black being rubberized undercoating used to seal around the bolts holding the rub rails on the outside. I am unsure what to do after I wire brush the rust off. Should I paint it with rusty metal primer, galvanized primer, or more and better applied undercoating?

I am going to put foam board in the space. Should it be glued to the wall (with the bolts pressed into it) or left unfastened? If glued what should I use to glue/seal it?

I should be done with wire brushing the floor and walls tomorrow if all goes well, then on tp the painting. then patching the holes in the floor.

After the floor the next step is that I need to figure out how to take the windows out and seal around them to stop their leaking.

Edward Frank

.

[bansil]

Def. Treat the rust first with some kind of converter.
Do not just spray undercoat on top of wire wheeled rust,it will trap in moister and make a small problem....HUGE

[edfrank]

Bansil,

I figured as much but wanted to hear what others said on the subject. Thanks for the quick response.

Ed

[Tango]

Seconds on "rust converters". They really do work well to arrest any further damage. Most are acid based. I've been using one that employs tannic acid on all the rebar in my steel & cement sculpture armatures. Tested it for about 5 years by pouring concentrated salt water, battery acid and all kinds of corrosives onto the treated steel with no oxidation at all. Very impressive. It is called "Restore" by Quest Chemicals. And naturally, I'm using it all over my bus these days. Look for one that is rated as a "final finish" over any that are only rated as "primers". They are much tougher and do not require painting over them to maintain the protection.

[edfrank]

Schoolies,

I continue to make some progress with my bus. I would say slow and steady, but that is not really true. It is more like periods of no activity punctuated by short bursts of working like a crazed man. After cleaning, wire brushing the floor, removing lots of bolts and nails, I painted the floor with Por15:




There was a nasty gap behind both wheel wells. That explains much of the rust in the back portions of the floor.



I have filled both gaps with silicon caulking, and screwed patches inside the wheel wells This was nasty job. There isn't room to get my drill in properly, and the self tapping screws won't drill the hard material anyway. So I had to drill holes from the other side, brace the piece of galvanized metal in place and run the self tapping screws in from behind and on top of the wheel well. Then I liberally sprayed with rubberized undercoating. I broke several bits trying to drill thought the wheel well material and got a nasty hole in my finger when one of them broke.

I also have painted the bus white. I did it yesterday. It is a fair job, but could use some touching up. I wanted to get it done before a winter storm rolled in tonight. It can use some touching up, but that can wait for spring. I left the roof yellow as I plan to use Bus Kote on it next spring.




I have a waste tank coming this week and hope to get both of them hung. Black water on the driver rear area and gray water on the passenger rear area. Then I can go ahead and put the foam and floor in. I wanted to do the holes through the metal floor first, then I can drill through the foam and wood after it is down.

Ed