Rusty 87 build thread

[Native-SKO]

Looking at that last picture, one would never imagine what a rotten mess it used to be. Great work.

 

[musigenesis]

Looking at that last picture, one would never imagine what a rotten mess it used to be. Great work.

Thanks! Here's a nice before and after:





I really wish I had hung onto that panel/door with the big "87" on it in the back, but it got stolen along with the seats and ceiling panels.

 

[musigenesis]

My fitment on this bulkhead wall was pretty sloppy in places, and I need these shims to bring the paneling flush with the trim. So far, this has been the only use I've had for this 1/8" thick plywood I got on Craigslist.



This is the third type of 5mm underlayment I've used for the paneling so far. This is RevolutionPly poplar underlayment. It appears that they make these giant blocks with multiple thin sheets (probably 1/2 mm) glued and pressed together, and then they take 5mm thick slices of this from the side, giving sheets that have multiple tiny lines across them. It cuts well and there's no veneer face to splinter like one of the other types I was using. And there's no regretting not just staining everything since this stuff would look awful that way. $15 a sheet, eh.





Some gaps in the insulation to be filled with these strips of XPS before the paneling goes up.



This piece needed some shims behind it also.







I finally came to grips with how many screws I was going to need for the paneling. I don't need quite this many but it was cheaper than how many I did need because of the bulk pricing.

 

[musigenesis]

Some heavy-duty gaps between the wall insulation and the ceiling insulation here.





Too much of my life is spent cutting little pieces of foam and sticking them into cracks. I think I know how log cabin dwellers felt.





Some more ceiling insulation so I can run the wall panels flush with it.



Blurry but high-res is not needed to see how badly I screwed this piece up. The funny part is as I was laying out the left corner it was obvious the radius was much too sharp for the edge of the roof, but that didn't clue me in to the mistake I'd made.



This is a little more like it.

 

[joeblack5]

looks great, very nice on the insulation. Must be nice to work inside now, maybe your body heat can heat the place up.


Johan

 

[musigenesis]

looks great, very nice on the insulation. Must be nice to work inside now, maybe your body heat can heat the place up.


Johan

Thanks! Lately it's been getting up to about 80F inside, but that's if I'm parked in the sun and have my 1500W space heater going. I find myself wondering why I'm sweating profusely and I have to remember to go turn the heater off.

 

[musigenesis]

Put in some more oak hardpoints today. This one will hold the wire holding up the left side of my folding desk. Attached to the ribs with Teks screws.





Attention to detail or OCD?



This hardpoint will hold the other wire for my desk and also mount a telescoping monitor arm.



This will support the folding dinette table.



Almost finished the 3/4" layer of insulation. I am looking forward to never seeing or touching XPS foam board ever again.

 

[Native-SKO]

Attention to detail or OCD?

They are not mutually exclusive!


I like your use of hardwood as anchor points. I am anxious to see how well they work out with weight and travel.

 

[musigenesis]

They are not mutually exclusive!


I like your use of hardwood as anchor points. I am anxious to see how well they work out with weight and travel.

I think if I had anything heavy (like the desk) bouncing up and down on them while driving, they wouldn't last very long. Although it would be interesting to see whether the wood screws would pull out of the oak or the Teks screws would pull out of the ribs first. The desk and dinette table will unhook from the ceiling and fold down against the wall whenever I drive anywhere. My starter interlock circuit is still active and I'm going to wire the latches into it so I have to remember not to leave them hanging up when I drive.

 

[kidharris]

These prototype pieces for this angled furring strip ended up with an edge bigger than 3/4", so this little ridge was sticking up about 1/8".

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Some careful nibbling with a flap disc smoothed it off. All the other pieces that I mass-produced were accidentally the right size on this face, so I don't have to do this all down the bus.

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Laid out the stern sheet (?). The left side of this was a 45 degree bevel cut which was pretty tough to manage on my table saw with a piece this long. It was pretty jagged but it smoothed out nicely with my orbital sander.

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At this point I realized I would be facing a monstrously frustrating task of smoothing this off and getting it to fit correctly so I cut it in half.

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This outside corner came out pretty well.

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Other side. Pre-drilling and countersinking all the screw holes is annoying, but it sure makes putting the piece up pretty easy.

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More ceiling insulation.

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Step 1 in my misguided attempt to put the ceiling up with no help. I figured I would just sort of slide the piece over these blocks and then wedge in a 2x4 on the other end.

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Screws are every 6" and these center sheets are 16" on center.

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This was I think my fourth attempt. The first two times the sheet fell on me and the third time I actually got it in place with the 2x4 wedged under it, but then when I tried to tap-move it into the correct position the 2x4 came loose and fell on me and then the sheet fell on me. This time I added another 2x4 before shifting the sheet.

I think I'm going to get my brother to help me with the other two of these full center sheets.

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One paralyzed right hand later.

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The join is not as nice as I'd hoped for. My wall bows in slightly here where it meets the factory edge of the ceiling sheet. Oh well, it was perfect in my head at least. I'll think about ways to make this look better in the front.

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I'm going to be painting all of this, but this might have looked kind of nice with some stain and polyurethane. I love the look of wood, but strangely I find being in an all-wood room to be kind of oppressive. I need my environment to be mostly white and bright, especially in winter.

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There are a number of tricks/tips that I used to use for hanging sheet rock overhead by myself (using scrap to make holders attached to the ceiling joists/ribs) that might help you. I don't have the time now to detail them but if you search Youtube you could probably find some.

 

[Native-SKO]

My starter interlock circuit is still active and I'm going to wire the latches into it so I have to remember not to leave them hanging up when I drive.

Could you wire in a latch to your power cord that would lock out starting when it is attached? That would solve the "driving off without disconnecting shore power' problem. Just a thought.

 

[Rwnielsen]

Could you wire in a latch to your power cord that would lock out starting when it is attached? That would solve the "driving off without disconnecting shore power' problem. Just a thought.

I'm thinking a small, panel mount, 120v light in the dash. Just wired to shore power

 

[musigenesis]

Could you wire in a latch to your power cord that would lock out starting when it is attached? That would solve the "driving off without disconnecting shore power' problem. Just a thought.

I dunno, maybe I could rig something up with the plastic cover that goes over the inlet, so the circuit is only closed when that cover is in place.

 

[musigenesis]

I'm thinking a small, panel mount, 120v light in the dash. Just wired to shore power

This is a good idea.

 

[musigenesis]

The wires to my Maxxair fan are slooooowly migrating their way down.





Ceiling insulation all done.





More hardpoints for the sharp part of the corner. I have to check and make sure the holes for these don't hit rivet holes already in the hat channel.







Last chance for hardpoints. These two will support a chinup bar. I also want to have something to hang a small rope ladder or something like that up to the roof from, but I don't have any good ideas.



My plan has been to build some sort of big removable insulated covers for the two exit doors, but I've also wanted to attach insulation permanently to the inside of the doors, the same as how I have it on the bulkhead door. The problem is that the latches stick out more than 2" so I can't insulate over them without some weird bulge.

I could delete the factory latches entirely and just have draw latches at the top and bottom, but I like having parts of the original bus around. I'm thinking I could permanently insulate the bottom halves of the doors, just below the latch handles, and then have much smaller removable covers for the tops.

 

[musigenesis]

Filled in all the insulation gaps as well as the last bits around the hatch.







Little slice of paneling above the door.

 

[Phatman]

Hot Damn Musigenesis, I think you’re gettin’ there !!!

 

[musigenesis]

My wall was bulging out above the side door, so I had to go at it with a flap disk and shave it down some.



You can still see a bit of the bowing but it's a lot better than it would have been. This will all be under a cabinet anyway.







Tomorrow is the first day this winter where I feel it's too cold to drive my bus home to work on it.

 

[musigenesis]

Hot Damn Musigenesis, I think you’re gettin’ there !!!

Thanks, it's real close. I'm starting to feel like this skoolie stuff can be actual fun.

 

[musigenesis]

Happy Fail Day

This piece over the windows was the only thing that worked today.



Some attempts at the heavy curved section. The screws I was running into the oak blocks kept pulling through this underlayment material. The curvature is just too much for this stuff.



Screwing up a piece is one thing, but banging up a piece you already put up trying to get the failed piece out is another.



This was I think my third attempt at this piece, and the 2x4 I was using to wedge it up pushed through it.



Cut off a short section and at least got it in place successfully, although it's warping in between the oak hardpoints. This Revolutionply underlayment is excellent for the flat parts but it's just too stiff to handle this sharp curvature. The one piece I managed to get up a couple of days ago is a different brand and floppier - I really hope I can find more of that particular stuff.



Made one failed attempt at the middle section and managed to bung up the edge of another piece already in place. This will be mostly covered with a piece of trim and it will be easy to fill in what's still showing, but depressing to see nevertheless.