*Two Birds* - 1992 Bluebird TC2000 - Updated 10/20/14

[PDBreske]

Good job on the sponsorship!

[White99z]

Originally Posted by PDBreske

Good job on the sponsorship!

Thanks! We are excited about it. It will really help us with our build

[White99z]

I am headed out again for a weekend of gigs in Kentucky, but when I get back next week, we will begin prepping the bus to skin over the windows. We decided to skin over the back 7 windows on each side, and eventually cut in Emergency Exit RV windows into the bedroom.

At the same time we begin to rivet in the metal skins, I will re-rivet the chair rail rivets that I busted out. I'm still upset about that one Live and learn!

Speaking of learning, installing the window skins will be the first time I have ever done anything of that type. I am sure I will have lots of questions when the time comes!

[White99z]

Our veggie conversion parts arrived today!

[Tango]

Kewl! --- I had no idea all you needed were a coupl'a cardboard boxes and some hose or I would'a looked into it sooner.

[White99z]

Originally Posted by Tango

Kewl! --- I had no idea all you needed were a coupl'a cardboard boxes and some hose or I would'a looked into it sooner.

I ordered manual valves separately. I still have to pick up fuel line, coolant hose, and fittings locally. Other than that, I think I am all set. Those boxes contain a centrifuge for filtering the oil and a transfer pump to get it from the bin to the bus. That hose is a PVC suction hose to transfer it from the bin to the bus. It also contains some parts for the veggie setup such as a heated fuel filter assembly, flat plate heat exchanger, and a coolant-heated tank heater/fuel sucker. I'll do a whole post on the setup once it's all said and done!

[eyedeal.ink]

We're definitely interested in your veggie conversion, please post lots of pics. Jealous on the spray foam thing, that's what I wanted in the first place but we decided not to remove the ceiling panels and just insulate under our roof rack, spray foam is probably the best you can do, especially if you add the thermal break to your ribs before reattaching your ceiling metal (if that was your plan). Lookin good.

[White99z]

Originally Posted by eyedeal.ink

We're definitely interested in your veggie conversion, please post lots of pics. Jealous on the spray foam thing, that's what I wanted in the first place but we decided not to remove the ceiling panels and just insulate under our roof rack, spray foam is probably the best you can do, especially if you add the thermal break to your ribs before reattaching your ceiling metal (if that was your plan). Lookin good.

We won't be reattaching the ceiling metal... it's already at the scrap yard! We will either be doing wood paneling or some "Duraplate", which is what Wabash puts on the side of their semi-trailers.

I'll take lots of conversion pics too!

[kenny76]

I worked at Great Dane for several years building trailers. My job was to rivit up the first and last rows of rivits where the radius meets the body and the area where the body meets the rear frame. In my time there I also worked on their refer line. The trailers are insulated with a two part expanding foam made by BASF. I hope to get my hands on a porta pak that we used to touch up the foam when the interior fiberglass liner had to be removed. This would work great for insulating my bus. As for your duraplate idea, if I am not mistaken duraplate is a 1/2 or 3/4 inch thick aluminum sheeting. I dont think that would work well.

[White99z]

Originally Posted by kenny76

I worked at Great Dane for several years building trailers. My job was to rivit up the first and last rows of rivits where the radius meets the body and the area where the body meets the rear frame. In my time there I also worked on their refer line. The trailers are insulated with a two part expanding foam made by BASF. I hope to get my hands on a porta pak that we used to touch up the foam when the interior fiberglass liner had to be removed. This would work great for insulating my bus. As for your duraplate idea, if I am not mistaken duraplate is a 1/2 or 3/4 inch thick aluminum sheeting. I dont think that would work well.

I have a friend that works there. He tells me it is two layers of sheet-metal sandwiched around a plastic core. There are a lot of different sizes and it goes down to a pretty thin size that is very flexible. He is sending me samples in the mail to be sure. He says there is a thin enough application that it could curve around the ceiling. Time will tell!

[White99z]

Galvanized...

http://www.wabashcomposites.com/composi ... sup-panels

[kenny76]

Thats the stuff we worked with at Great Dane on a few trailers. It is so rigid that it allows the construction of trailer sidewalls without the use of supporting ribs allowing internal space to be maximized.

[White99z]

I was away in Kentucky for gigs on the weekend, so I didn't get a chance to work on the bus. When I got home, my brakes went from squealing to grinding on my truck . A caliper got stuck and wore the front driver's side pad right down to the metal this weekend. I was planning on changing them tomorrow and the weekend trip just pushed them overboard. Changed the front and rear brakes on my truck today, then went to family's house for Mother's Day. But... tonight I did get to put together the WVO Centrifuge! It's from here:

http://www.wvodesigns.com/shop/centrifuges.html/

[White99z]

Here's a fun demolition video from last week, removing ceiling panels. 40 minutes condensed into 40 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIq96-f ... e=youtu.be

[White99z]

We made a video over the weekend with a local filmmaker to share our project. Check it out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfGSik_bDKc

[White99z]

Last week, we finished designing the veggie oil setup and ordered all hoses, fittings, etc.

While we are waiting, we are doing our floors. Today, I sprayed Corroseal on the floors, finished some much needed cleanup work, and went hunting for veggie oil. We went later in the evening and a lot of restaurants were closing down, but we peeked in bins to see who has oil worth asking for and who doesn't. We compiled a list and I will be going to a few restaurants tomorrow.

We also bought paint for the floors. Tomorrow, I will be painting the floors with black Ace Rust Stop, weather permitting. We would like to get the subfloors I. By this weekend as we are moving and will use the bus as our moving truck.

Then, it's off to a fellow Skoolie members house on Memorial Day to install the veggie setup. Lapeer20m has converted a couple buses and we will be tackling "Two Birds" together.

Oh yeah... Almost forgot. I re-riveted one side's chair rails today and will do the other when I am at the bus again. Found cheap 1/4 inch steel rivets at the local Fastenal.

[White99z]

I also picked up a 50 gallon tankcraft aluminum semi truck tank for $75 over the weekend. Brand new! The plan right now is to mount this on a rack horizontally over the other. This will be the dirty tank and will gravity feed into the centrifuge and then to the clean tank... A 116 gallon tank posted earlier.

[White99z]

Scored 80 gallons of WVO today! Woohoo!!!

[White99z]

Just a quick shot of the floors. Put a second and final coat of paint on them today. Spent the rest of the day getting the rest of the supplies needed to gravity feed the oil through the centrifuge. Tomorrow, I will filter a barrel of oil with the centrifuge while, hopefully, laying down a subfloor!

[sickrunvanyardsale]

The WVO designs centrifuges are good to go. I've got a lot of use out of the raw power centrifuge for last three years. We spin grease for our excursion that has a biofuel technologies conversion. WVO designs makes a good product.