Juicy Lucy, where all my hopes and dreams lie

[TAOLIK]

Well today begins a new work week, which means pictures from my one day of weekend progress! Painting the bus had a not-so surprising amount of prerequisites I was putting off: namely cleaning entirely, and covering the man holes. I also covered the small bolt/screw/nail holes with some rubber flashing tape. (featured here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o02_s00) the pictures in the end will show these, they just look like electric tape on the floor. I don't know if this is a good plan or not, I just copied the good news bus and was into the idea.

We painted the bus! The insulating beads(or should I say sand) came in time and we mixed them into the primer 1/3 ratio. We went through 3 quarts of primer throughout this process.

We painted the walls as well, Nana in action

my shirt was probably two sizes too small


This was from a few days ago, I pulled the rear walls off (which I was putting off along with a few other things which I forget). I was reading on one of the forums about people not wanting to remove the walls and insulation so I thought I would take a picture of the insulation I pulled out of the rear wall.


Questions/comments:
Below is the manhole, I finally took a clear picture of it. I'm assuming this is my transmission? ( I clearly know little about mechanics). Since it was made accessable, I decided that I will try to make it so it can be accessed for future use.



Here we have another hole, my first question is the cable to the right coming out of the floor which you can barely see - I suspect it has something to do with a lift which may've been in the bus before? I am not sure though


My next question is a close up of the prior shown hole, it has two dc cables in it, what do you think this is for?


Then lastly, what do you think this thing is? it is around maybe the front left corner of the driver seat, I have no idea what it is!


I have changed my priorities, getting the bus running again is the top priority! Rather than insulating the full bus, I intend to insulate/ply the front section so I can get the heaters re-attached and the driver seat re-bolted in. From there I will re-evaluate my priorities, but I'm thinking something along the lines of: dc electrical sorting/cleaning, water/gas/electric layout planning.

That's all for now folks, and thank you for watching over my progress!

[family wagon]

Comments added inline..

Originally Posted by TAOLIK

Questions/comments:
Below is the manhole, I finally took a clear picture of it. I'm assuming this is my transmission? ( I clearly know little about mechanics). Since it was made accessable, I decided that I will try to make it so it can be accessed for future use.
Yes, that's the transmission.

My next question is a close up of the prior shown hole, it has two dc cables in it, what do you think this is for?
Is that the top of the fuel tank we're seeing through the hole? It resembles a tank to me. You can follow the fuel filler neck from the outside to be sure. My first thought on seeing the wires was "fuel level sender."

Then lastly, what do you think this thing is? it is around maybe the front left corner of the driver seat, I have no idea what it is!
Is it a switch? Commercial vehicles sometimes have a left-foot-operated switch for the headlight high beams, though usually it would have a much larger cap on it..

[TAOLIK]

Thank you Wagon! I think you're right about the gas tank. As far as the high beams go, I actually discovered the high beam button (after two years of assuming the bus had none) last year, but this switch/nipple is different from that (from what I can see). Thank you for your confirmations and input, it's much appreciated!

[cowlitzcoach]

The 12-VDC wires coming up through the floor by the lift door are most likely the power supply that went to the lift motor. Lift motors look like starter motors but don't need as much amperage to work properly. Hence the relatively small size of wire. Somewhere up stream from that location there should be a relay that will turn the juice on and off. Most of the time the power supply was controlled either by the key switch or a switch on the control panel or a combination of both. Even though the amperage is not as much as a starter motor, the amperage for a lift motor to operate is way too much amperage to run through the key switch or a switch on the control panel.

You want to keep all of the access ports through the floor accessible. If you ever have to work on the fuel tank sender or the transmission you won't want to have to disassemble parts of your "house" in order to access parts of the "truck".

The item going through the floor by the bottom of the driver's seat does have me puzzled. I can't say that I have ever seen anything like that mounted in that location before. At first glance it would appear to be a temperature sender or a pressure switch. What is it attached to under the floor? If you knew what was below the floor it can give a better idea as to the function of the switch/sender.

You are doing some great work. Doing proper prep work does take a lot of time but is well worth the effort down the road.

[TAOLIK]

Thank you Cowlitzcoach, aside from my father, there is noone else I'd rather have approval from then the skoolie community at this present moment. I'm also glad that it looks like I'm doing things right from how this thread looks.

Yesterday we got another coat of paint down. This time I put in 9 oz of insulating beads instead of 8oz the paint was noticably thicker and harder to apply, noted. Tomorrow night we will put down the last layer of interior paint.

I will definitely make sure all my "truck components" have access, hopefully by the end of this week I will be able to map out a fairly detailed unprofessional rough draft of how the electricity is going to look. I got my magnum mms1012 inverter/charger in the mail a week or so ago, and every day I look at it with the same intimidation and intrigue as an adolescent looking at taboo nudies.

The tension and excitement to push further into this unknown is overwhelming! At the end of the day though, I just hope I can get the bus to start on Thursday.

also I'll try and get more details of the mystery switch in the front. Thank you for taking interest everyone!

[TAOLIK]

Alright folks, it's been a minute but I'm slowly making progress. I was hoping to get your input regarding this mystery unit I mentioned earlier.

I took one for my team and crawled under my bus after work and was pleasantly surprised to see this mystery unit wired fairly simply.

One wire was grounded to the frame, and the other went into my battery box. I have never used this thing and I am still rather oblivious to what this could be.

As always your input and wisdom would be much appreciated. I apologize for the lack of content, I'm hastily posting from my tablet with my fat undextrous thumbs. I'll hopefully put in a good update on friday.

[johnbloem1974]

at first glance,I thought maybe it was an air line for an air-adjusted seat... but since it has wires connected to it, I'm not sure...unless it is a connector for a fancy powered seat? maybe an option that was wired in, yet rarely used in skoolies? Just a thought...

good luck and keep us posted! I'm liking your build - nice progress!

John

[cowlitzcoach]

To what does the cable that goes into the battery box connect?

To me, the top of that looks like some sort of sender. But connected to electrical instead of air, water, or oil lines has me puzzled.

The only purpose I think it could be would be a master batter shut off switch. If the line goes to the negative post on the battery then it most likely is a master shut off. However, I don't know how you would turn the switch. Most of the battery shut off switches I have seen that were mounted on the floor under the driver's seat had a large handle that made it very easy to go from on to off.

If you can turn that little thing that sticks up or if you can push it in and out I think that you will find nothing electrical will work until you push or turn it back to where it is now.

[TAOLIK]

Master battery disconnect sounds spot on to me, im pretty sure it connects to the negative terminal of the battery. Just gave it a Google and I can see some resemblance. Since my bus demands some work before starting I will fiddle with it later probably. Ironically I have a stereo which loves to turn on and off to drain the battery so I gotntwo disconnects for each battery that I still haven't connected. A master disconnect sounds like an awesome thing for me to have in the bus so I'll factor this into my days plan.

Just returned with some bus chairs, time to get down to business. Update coming soon!

[Skoolydoo]

I would vote for battery disconnect switch, I would bet that it had a knob that had gotten lost over time, maybe your bus was a reserve bus and they installed the switch to keep the batteries from draining between use.
My Disclamer: I know nothing, just repeating what I have read.

[TAOLIK]

Alright, my "update" which I've been building up (mostly to myself) for the past 3 days will be delayed another day, in my midnight stupor I forgot to send myself the pictures to upload at work. However since I need to tap into the Skoolie's wealth of information, here I am posting.

Brief abbreviation of the work done.
Last Two weeks: Painting and coolent plumbing (plumbing is an over exaggeration)
Last week: Front 3' Bus "truck" insulation, subflooroing, and rubber flooring.
This next few days: "truck assembly"

Which brings me to my questions.

(my wife was kind enough to send this from my tablet before work today)

Above is what my Driver's side heaters vent (air intake?) looks like. It feels like it's made of non-corrogated cardboard/cardstock paper. Since it's torn a bit and looks filthy I would love to replace it but am unsure of what material to replace it with. Yesterday I took a brief break to "heat test" various materials. I held a lighter underneath some radiant barrier, tin foil, cardboard, the vent shown above, and I timed how long it took for each to light on fire (the tin foil never lit). However I decided I should just ask you guys for your opinion on replacing this before making a wire/tinfoil duct. I work next to a Joanns/new a walmart so I'm also tempted to just get some poster board and make a new one with that.

Second Question: Last night I installed the passenger side Heater (big victory in terms of garage space). I am 80% sure I put the radiator hoses in the right slots, but is there a method to figure out which side of the heater is the Hose inlet and which is the hose outlet? In full honesty I don't even know how to tell which hose is the inlet or outlet. I am a little fearful to turn the bus on without being sure but since my radiator valves are probably closed I feel okay doing so.

Third Question: The picture above looks like it shows my disconnect switch (thank you everyone for your help with that). Do you have any suggestions for finding knobs / making new ones? I'm thinking about maybe just getting a tiny clamp and turning it into a ghetoo switch. I bought a 1/4 inch knob from the hardware store yesterday, but it was too small. I tried drilling the hole bigger/hammering it on. I ended up shattering it

Thanks everyone, I really hope I get my "update" up tomorrow.

[cowlitzcoach]

I think it might be easier to just get a new switch.

They are not very expensive.

Battery-Related Products | Master Disconnect Switches | Cole Hersee - Littelfuse

[cowlitzcoach]

Or perhaps just the knob.

Battery-Related Products | Master Disconnect Switches80101-B | Cole Hersee - Littelfuse

[Skoolydoo]

Disclaimer: I know nothing about nothing
But in this case I too would just get a new switch, seems like the best way out..not positive but I think you can get these at auto parts stores.
Good luck

[TAOLIK]

Happy Sunday all,

So I apologize for the delay but here is my update as of a day or two ago. Progress has been slow, I originally was using paint drying properly as an excuse, now I blame daylight savings time. So here's a rough consolidation of how the past week or two has gone.

I finished painting the interior of the bus more or less, I slacked a bit on the pictures for a few days so here's a picture of the bus after the 2nd or 3rd coat.



Circled in Red (seat racks I think), I neglected to remove these. This procrastination really bit me in the butt later, despite how obvious it was that I should've taken care of this prior to painting I just didn't do it - I'm sure some of you may understand this flaw in human nature. I ended up taking a chunk out of my day off to get these out/cleaned/painted over, but at the end of the day my common sense beat my lazyness and we got err done!

After the paint dried, I carefully measured everything so I could sloppily cut out a practice cutout on this cardboard box.

I learned over the past two weeks, that 1. I am not good at measuring. 2. I am not good at reading my measurement notes. 3. I am just as bad at cutting. You'll notice in these pictures that I keep putting the screwdriver into the driver seat mount holes. Maybe it's a guy thing, maybe it's just me - I got some very nice amusement out of putting my screwdriver shaft into the bus's exposed holes. It also helped me keep everything aligned.

After using so much focus to cut my cardboard cutout, I ended up getting lazy for the insulation and just traced around the cardboard to get the insulation in. "Insulation is easy enough to cut" I tell myself "I'll just cut more if needed. This thought process maintained throughout all the layers.

I didn't take a picture between the prior and this next, but in short I laid down some insulation, put down a radiant barrier that I had express shipped from Amazon(I was drunk on hope when I ordered it, I finally got it down a a week later).



9/16 Ply I think. The upper right side had some wierd stuff going on, it took about as long as the rest of the cutout. You can see some shiny radiant barrier around the edges, also the screwdriver.

I actually did the next step way later, because I had no intention to do it, but I finally overcame my lazyness adn got er done. For my transmission "manhole", I ended up making a seperate hatch cover with 2x1/4 inch wood I had laying around sandwiching the insulation. I used my tried and tested "measure twice, cut thrice method".



(I actually added some radiant barrier here too after I took this picture).


Here's the switch I ended up securing, I later read your guys recommendations to get a new switch, I honestly don't know if I have it in me to put in a new switch, it's something to meditate on maybe. I could do it smoothly before putting in the drivers side heater, I just don't really feel like it I guess. Is this switch something I can expect to break on me? I guess I don't even know if it works yet.



Here's me preparing the rubber flooring cut, with my treasured cardboard box: this was one of the few times I remembered to put everything up side down for the cut. I gave way too much slack because, that's what I do. I added 2 inches on the front and that left for some really satisfying results (to my standard)


pre-hole cut

The above picture may give you an idea of how I found the seat mounting holes. This had an 83% success (I missed the left side seatbelt hole).

Here's one of my favorite moments.


Got this shiny vent thing to replace the old passenger side fresh air intake vent.


Since then I got the passenger side heater in, I still have slight anxiety that I have the hose hooked up backwards (inlets and outlets), but I'm going to roll with it for now.

I still haven't gotten the driver side heater in, I was going to do it last night but I decided that I should scrub off some rust and repaint it first. I also made a new fresh air vent with posterboard, afterwards I decided I should remake this with metal, I don't have pictures at the moment. That just about sums it up.

Oh not a huge deal, but I've been curious, do you know what these valves on the right are for?
I am pretty sure this isn't the gas tank. It is about the middle of the bus on the driver's side.

Hope someone enjoys this progress.

[Tango]

LOVE the Pirelli style flooring. I plan on using the same thing. Awesome stuff. Saw some in the Paris Metro that had been there for nearly 50 years and it still looked great! I'm just going with red.

[TAOLIK]

Tango,

It's funny you say that, I'm pretty sure you're the reason I got that. One of the threads I was lurking through had you say something along the lines of

Originally Posted by Tango

I have to agree on the laminates --- I have yet to find any that would, as Nat noted, even stand up to a fingernail test, let alone several years of feet grinding sand and such into it. That's what attracted me to the Pirelli. I have used it and seen what it looks like after years of abuse and it still looked terrific. And personally, I like the idea that they are tiles. That way, even if you do manage to somehow destroy an area, you can get by with only replacing what is damaged instead of ripping out the whole floor.

That said...making a host of choices based on our individual wants, needs and/or expectations is what building our own rigs is about.

Onward!

from (http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f27/flooring-9016-2.html)

However for the "house" section of my bus I will be using vinyl hardwood imitation flooring. I have a little extra pirelli flooring so I may be using that for the steps later. Anyway, I'm glad you approve.

[Scooternj]

Originally Posted by TAOLIK

Oh not a huge deal, but I've been curious, do you know what these valves on the right are for?
I am pretty sure this isn't the gas tank. It is about the middle of the bus on the driver's side.

Air tank and drain valves to release the air and moisture in the tank. When I was in the Guard, we used to open them up to drain the air and accumulated moisture on our M35s/93x/108x series 2.5 and five ton trucks

[cowlitzcoach]

The three valves are drain valves.

One is for the wet tank. This should be opened at the end of every day and allowed to drip all night long.

One is for the front tank (the tank that is plumbed to the front brakes). It should be opened at least every time the bus is serviced. It should not have any moisture in it.

And one is for the rear tank (the tank that is plumbed to the rear brakes). It too should be opened at least every time the bus is serviced. It should not have any moisture in it.

If the front and rear tanks do have moisture in them then you need to open them on a regular basis until they don't have moisture coming out of them.

You do NOT want moisture getting into the brake cans. Not only will the moisture mess them up, if you should get into some freezing weather you run the real risk of your brakes freezing up on you. Either not allowing the spring brake to release or not allowing one or more of your brake cans to operate properly.

[TAOLIK]

Wow, I haven't opened those up once since I got the bus. I'm very glad you let me know, I will open these much more often now.