Returning to the forum

[Maynard]

Hey all, Andy here from the older "Sara and Andy's Bus" thread here: http://www.skoolie.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6507

At some point we didn't log in for awhile and our accounts and all the photos from our thread were deleted. We put a lot of work into documenting how we did things and Sara especially tried to take detailed informative photos that others could possibly learn from. It was somewhat heartbreaking to find out all that disappeared and it's taken me about a year since to re-register despite some lurking ;)

This is such a great forum though and I wanted to make sure this bus didn't seem like one of the many poor projects that get abandoned!

I'm now in coastal NC working on the bus.



Current exterior view, sadly some of the paint is chipping off our galvanized steel and needs to be re-done with more gusto.



Current interior, chock full of solar gear as this is what I'm currently working on.



Roofdeck just waiting for those panels any day now.



Inverter, charge controller, and power panel; really hope I know what I'm doing

If anyone wants to see a sampling of the old photos you can see some here: http://pizzaworld.imgur.com

Hope long time members have been well and newcomers to this forum are having fun dreaming up and sweating through working on their conversions!

[EastCoastCB]

Wow, thats a sweet looking bus.

[claydbal]

is that a renogy sticker i see on side of the solar panel?

[lornaschinske]

Maynard, you will want to prime the galvanized metal with a primer made for galvanized metal (usually marketed as aluminum and galvanized metal primer and will say so on the label... not buried in fine print). Nice. And welcome back. Shame about the pics. That's why I keep my pics on photobucket. But that is not completely safe either.

[EastCoastCB]

ospho is good for that.
It etches into the galvanized surface and makes it paintable.
Thats what I've always used on galvie.

[Maynard]

EastCoastCB, Lorna, thanks very much! Yeah the areas where the paint is chipping is the same galvanized, paintable steel that the skin on the sides of the bus as well. I know Sara did a lot of priming but I can't remember with what exactly. I'm hoping that these are a few areas where perhaps the pre-treatment was a little less thorough and that the problem isn't widespread. :gulp:

claybal that's not a Renogy sticker as far as I know. Those are ET panels.

Thanks!!

[EastCoastCB]

If there's rust, then I use my trusty gallon jug of Rustoleum "rusty metal" primer.