I feel like I'm on one of those reality hot rod shows like Chop, Cut, Rebuild. You know, they've got a car they pulled out of a field and they've got a three week deadline; and they squeak it out at the very last minute. My goal was to get The Bus operational / livable by April 30; not completely, but livable with maybe the exterior left to paint and some minor interior items to finish. We're getting close, but it ain't gonna happen by the end of May, so June 30 is my new reset.  Now that I think about it, I should have made a video.  I could have starred in my own reality show - what else - This Old Bus!

Click picture to enlarge

So, what's been happening? My house batteries arrived via Con-Way Freight.  A very large and polite driver called ahead for delivery instructions.  I asked him what he was driving - a 40' tractor-trailer!  When I told him I had a 700' driveway, there was dead silence on the phone.  I told him just to park on the side of the road and I'd bring Kate Enn (my 1952 Ford 8N tractor with front end loader) down to unload them.  Four 8D AGM (absorbed gel mat) batteries rated at 247 amp, hrs. each. Almost 1000 amp hrs. and 670 pounds! The advantage of these batteries are:

(1) the acid is in gel form, impregnated in a fibrous mat, so it can't spill

(2) they are sealed, forcing the normally formed hydrogen and oxygen to recombine into water, eliminating the need to add water periodically

(3) they can be stored in poorly ventilated areas (more flexibility on locating the batteries) because, the dangerous production of hydrogen and oxygen gas is essentially eliminated. Remember from high school chemistry H+O2+ SPARK=BOOM! The downside is they are twice the cost of your common "wet" lead acid batteries, but in our application almost essential.

After soldering up lugs on six 12” and four 48” cables, a total of 16 lugs, I linked the four batteries in parallel and connected them via a 400 amp fuse to the “magic box” - a Victron MultiPlus energy management center (blue box).  The MiltiPlus is a battery charger and true sine wave inverter all in one. It charges the house batteries in four stages to prolong battery life. It also trickle charges the start batteries. When AC power is needed for the refrigerator, air conditioners, etc., the MultiPlus converts DC to 60 Hz AC to power these units. It also senses the amps coming in from an outside power source, like at a campground hookup, and automatically switches to that power source. If there's power left over, it begins recharging the batteries, or if there is insufficient amperage to run all the AC appliances, it will add AC current via the inverter, in phase, to the incoming power to meet the demand – automatically! I love technology. It also connects to a remote LCD monitor, or my laptop, so that I can monitor the electrical distribution and make modifications, if needed. It is now completely operational and all its circuits are functioning perfectly.

I got all the cabinet bulkheads cut and installed on the passenger side, then ran all the heat ducting from the furnace just in time for warm weather! 

We located the mini-split air conditioners, mounted the interior units and positioned the compressors in a lower bay. We wound up placing them differently than I had planned, but they just took up too much space the way I had originally planned it. This eats up some storage space, but is much better looking and makes the "living room" more spacious.  Barry at Level Park Hardware gave me the name of an HVAC guy.  I gotta give him a call to hook up the lines and pressure / leak test the system. 

I also got the second alternator wired up. 300 amps for charging the house batteries while going down the road and powering the four radiator fans. It took two days to wire it all up. Each has a temperature sensor that switches it on at a preset temp. When all four are running, they'll suck an eight legged fly of a dead goat's eyeball at fifteen feet!  I installed a separate volt meter for the second alternator and a mechanical water temp gauge at the engine to verify accurate temp readings.

Meanwhile Mark has been finishing the ceiling in the front and back of the bus.  I tried to upholster these sections, but the compound curves are too extreme and the Naugahyde wrinkles, so we tore down some of the ceiling upholstery and underlying plywood and replaced it with aluminum sheet (no small task). The entire bedroom ceiling will be painted with a textured, flat grey paint as well as the driver / copilot area  in the front. Teri will come up with some Deco Art to add some flash to our Art Deco themes.  
Speaking of - check out the head.

Also started on counter-top install!












And finished the dash! (almost)

999 ITEMS TO GO

Progress continues on the interior. I've got plenty of items on my to-do list to keep me inside until it's comfortable working outside; although, today was pretty nice by noon. So, what's been happening? I got the shower put together. That was a 5x project! We bought a four piece shower kit (base and three walls), plus the door. The three wall pieces had to be cut down to fit the curve of the roof. Had to cut 13” out of the middle of the back panel and Tiger Hair it back together again.  I've decided that hand mixing and application works best. Then cut the side walls to follow the roof curve, except I screwed up on the second panel, and

cut the curve the wrong way. Damn! Had to Tiger Hair the pieces back together and then cut the curve again. On the second try I cut the wrong end! Double Damn!! Tiger Hair again and then a THIRD try. Got it right that time. I could have made one more mistake before being forced to make the correct cut. I have the same issues when cutting compound miter joints. So now I have three cut lines in the white gel coat to deal with (“with which to deal” is the proper grammar, but sounds so snooty). The solution will be to add blue gel coat accent lines along the cut lines. It'll

actually look pretty cool. Then came the shower door... It took me half a day to put the thing together and get it properly mounted. Horrible instructions and illustrations so tiny that I had to buy an electron microscope to make them out. Fortunately, they had one on sale at the Level Park Hardware, just down the road. Speaking of Level Park Hardware, I do a lot of business there since they're only about 8.5 minutes away. I've invited Barry and Marge (the owners) to come out and tour the Bus several times, but they're so busy they've never made it out. So, Teri and I had to pick up some paint, construction adhesive, and saws-all blades and I decided to take the Bus! Pulled right up the the front door an took up every parking space they had. Then, being the considerate soul I am, parked further down the street. Barry and Marge used to be an over-the-road trucking team, so we started with the engine and proceeded from there. Marge is going to teach me how to shift without using the clutch on my four speed non-synchro tranny.

Drove up to Zeeland to buy a washer/dryer combo Teri found on Craigslist. It was used by a little old lady who only washed her Sunday going-to-church clothes in it. At least that's what the seller told me. It is like new (except for the little ding in the lower right) and was half the price of a new one. I built the cabinet for that next to the shower, and Daryl helped me lift it up onto the shelf.  Will fix the ding and paint it silver.

Installed the furnace next to the washer cabinet. 
Wired it and plumbed the propane line. Fired it up and
now that winter's over, it's nice and toasty in there.

We bought a 9 cu. ft. frig from Home Depot. Two young guys (20's) delivered it and when I told them we where we were taking it, they just looked at each other. Once inside, they were totally freaked. “This is like a traveling time machine”. We did a complete tour after we got the frig in (barely) the Bus. Very tight squeeze. Jerome, you reading this? So now that the frig is in place, I can build the rest of the closets and cabinets on the passenger side.

Wired the wiper switch. Now instead of flailing, air driven wipers, I have 2-speeds with two delay settings, auto-park, and new wiper arms with integrated WASHERS (tank, pump, and tubing). Wow!  Talk about the latest technology!  

Started the 110v wiring with the goal of completely finishing that system in a couple of days.  The first day got outlets installed for dishwasher, clothes washer/dryer, frig, passenger side receptacles, and engine block heater.  Left to do are the air conditioners, driver's side outlets, bedroom, and hooking into the Multiplex controller.  I got tired of wiring, so switched to working on the bedroom.  That's the great thing about this build; there is so much to do, that if I get unmotivated with a certain project, I just switch to something else and come back to it later.

click to enlarge

Walled off the back of the bedroom with a sheet of 3/4" Maple veneer plywood for a smooth finish.  Insulated the entire space behind the wall with fiberglass batting, then mounted the plywood on 1" dense foam used for gym floors to isolate it from the bus structure.  Used 3/4" plywood for density to help deaden engine sound.  Then foamed around the edges to sand and fill to the contour off the interior.  Built the frame for the bed.

DEALING WITH THE HEAT
SHAKEDOWN CRUISE
CRASH TESTING


Installed a multi layered heat shield/access panel over the engine compartment above the exhaust manifold to keep as much heat as possible out of the bedroom. Then installed Dynamat over the engine compartment and air intake at the back of the Bus. Dynamat is a heavy aluminum sheet with a very sticky tar-like backing. It absorbs vibration and is the first step in minimizing engine noise inside. Next will be a layer of fiberglass (heat and sound) and then a 3/4" plywood finish wall. Density is the key to sound control. The plywood will be  installed by gluing it to dense foam strips which will, in turn be glued to the Dynamax, so the finished wall will be structurally isolated from the engine compartment. More pix as this progresses.

As you may have noticed, I've been trying to leave only one space between a period (.) and the next sentence. I belatedly discovered that this is the accepted standard in writing and that two spaces is an antiquated hold-over from the manual typewriter days.

Spent the last week wiring up the on-the-road stuff. Tail lights, brake, turn, headlights, wiper motors, etc. Put on the 1956 Michigan license plate, fired up the ole DD 671 and took her out on the road for the first time since bringing her home 13 months ago. It was a rush! 

Here's a profile pic. As you can see we returned safely from our first shakedown cruise. The interior walls are up, but I haven't installed new windows yet, so you can see the plywood through those that will be tinted dark. 


 
We also did some crash testing to ensure the seats were secure.  Unfortunately, I forgot to fasten the seat belt on the crash dummy, so we got some unexpected results.  Bottom line though - the seats are secure! 

I'd like to thank to my brother Daryl for saving me $400,000 for a REAL test dummy.

 

PROJECTS IN PROGRESS:

In keeping with the “weather rule”, I've been doing mostly shop work, as the outside temps have been in the 20's most days. I also want to get the Bus on the road soon, so I made a trip to Alro Steel in Kalamazoo to buy steel for seat mounts. $425.00 (at about $1.50 a pound) later I was on my way home with eight 20” x 16” x 1/4” plates, two tubes with matching O.D to I.D 5/16 wall thickness, and sixteen 4” dia. plugs to use as giant fender washers for the under-floor side of the seat bolts.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

We bought four new surplus seats in Elkhart last summer. They're second row seats out of a Toyota Sienna. Buckets with integral seat belts and clip in configuration. They recline and have slide out leg rests as well. Very nice. Perfect for a conversion. The extendable leg rests eliminate having to deal with no floor in front of the co-pilot where the entry stair well is.

The design is simple. Telescoping tubes (so seats can be rotated) welded to the 1/4” plates. The top plate clips into the bottom of the seat, the bottom plate bolts to the floor.  I bought three totes (about 300#) of assorted nuts, bolts and washers from local farm store for $20 when they changed suppliers.  I used Grade 8 bolts. I realize that welding them probably annealed them to standard bolt tolerances, but I'm sure the seat clips would fail before the bolts would shear anyway. 

The floor mount for the co-pilot seat was a bit of a challenge. Had to work around the wheel well and still get a solid mount. Since you can see the floor plate up close when you enter the bus, I cut the heads of all the bolts (not a gory as it sounds)and drilled the plate and floor. Inserted the headless bolts, and welded them to the plate from both sides.   Then, ground the welds on the top side and finished the plate with a skim coat of Bondo, Primer and then silver paint. Result is a smooth plate – no visible bolts. I bolted to a beam or bulkhead wherever possible; otherwise I installed 1/4" backing plates or my 4" fender washers. Crash tests begin next week.

The previous owner (referred to as “PO” in the bus nut community) ditched the original taillights, probably because they're hard to find. He cut bigger holes in the engine bay door and installed large ugly plastic lens. I found four original taillights on eBay, so I fabricated buckets to mount the original lens and cover the over-sized holes. Materials; 4” aluminum irrigation pipe, end caps and trim rings were water jet cut. Glued everything together with automotive panel adhesive. Used twist on bulb holders and LED 1157's.

The old headlight buckets were rusted beyond salvage so I got new plastic Mini Cooper headlight buckets and a 7” Halogen conversion headlight kit with diamond cut reflectors.  I could have gotten more stock looking lens, but couldn't resist the look of the cut reflectors and smooth lens.  The Cooper buckets came with new trim rings to replace the old dented ones. 

I also got a pair of 5”x7” fog lamps which I plan to mount just behind the bumper cutouts.  This will give it a better look and make the lamps more effective.  I'll sheet over the old fog lamp buckets holes. 

Directional signals will remain amber sealed beam. The castings that hold the directional signal lamps also serve as the mounts for the windshield wiper motors. The originals were air driven. When you turned them on, the wiper arms didn't as much wipe as flail. Here are the new two-speed electric with auto park motors mounted to the back of the casting. 

Oh!  I almost forgot.  Our youngest son, Paco, gave me this cool cap for my birthday.  A genuine 1953 Greyhound cap owned by Orlyn H. Grinney from Fargo, North Dakota.  He was awarded a safe driving certificate in 1953 for Region 4.  Pictured here is the Supreme Commander and Grand Mystic Potentate of This Old Bus.

WEATHER BASED WORK SCHEDULE

Winter in Michigan has gotten really weird. We never get deep snow like in the old days. Two weeks ago highs were in the teens, then up into the fifties, then down to six below, then up to sixty two. This week it's ranged from 55 to10 – crazy! So – the conversion process has become closely linked to the weather. On warm days I tackle “outside” projects. On really cold days I retreat to my heated shop and work there. Heating The Bus is a third option but not very efficient yet, so it's limited to the 30 to 40 degree days. I'm close to installing the propane furnace for The Bus which will improve that situation. But, for now, I work where the weather dictates. The last 65 degree day I installed all the outside marker lights and new engine sending units. I'm just finishing up linking all the marker wires. There are 16 marker lights in all. I don't have the original triple lights on the roof restored yet, so for now I'm using 2” round plug-ins. I can use the same plugs for the bulbs in the original triple housings, but they won't go back on The Bus until after it's painted.

Here's the new driver's panel in the process of rewire. The main ON/OFF switch on the dash controls a relay that powers a fuse block to all circuits that need to be on when The Bus is underway (fuel valve, high idle, starter solenoid, reverse solenoid, cooling fans, etc.). A second fuse block has constant power for circuits like marker lights, flashers, headlights, propane furnace, etc. The original GM wiring also had a “fail-safe” circuit that monitored oil pressure, water temperature, and some other stuff I can't remember. It would would shut the engine down automatically if parameters were out of bounds (apparently they thought the driver was too stupid to count on watching his gauges). The problem with this is that if any component (sensor, sending unit, relay, fuse, connector, ground, etc.) in the circuit fails and shuts the engine down, tracing the failure could take forever. I'm opting for watching the gauges on my own and not replacing this circuit. The really crazy thing about the original circuit is that it had and OVERRIDE switch! So if there was no oil pressure the driver (AKA idiot) could hold the override down, restart the engine and drive it 'til it seized up. Great idea!

I've started on the cabinets on the driver's side (head, kitchen and lounge). Just to be safe, I trial fit the driver's seat, futon and end tables to make sure there was room for the kitchen cabinets. Here you can see the head (way in the back), then tall pantry, then dishwasher, then sink (sink's not there – you'll have to imagine it there), then cook-top (cook-top's not there – you'll have to imagine it there), then more counter. I'm buying pre-built drawers with sliders at barkerdoor.com. Almost any size you could want, dovetailed corners, quality sliders and you just screw them down and add a drawer face. I switched tactics on making rounded corners. I'm borrowing a friend's wood lathe for a year (long story), so I turned a 4x4 down to a 3.5” diameter dowel, then rip sawed it into quarters and then screwed and glued to the end panel. Much less work than the original stove pipe idea that I used on the corner of the head.

I drew up the ceiling console grill on a CAD program and took it down to my water jet cutter guy. Greg Ahrens (http://www.mfg.com/Manufacturers/National-Waterjet-1205690_en.html).  We cut three pieces out of 3/16^th aluminum 84” x 16”. My plan was to back-light the grill with mini fluorescents, but I wanted to keep the ceiling as high as possible, so I decided on LED rope which is only 5/8^th inch diameter. The other option was LED adhesive strips, but they cost about $150 for 16 feet. I needed 150 feet! That's almost $1500! I bought a single 150' rope for $150. 

I taped them up on the ceiling in six rows to see if it would provide sufficient light. It works great! It lights up The Bus like Times Square on New Years Eve or the Superbowl at the start of the second half!

20th POST OF THIS OLD BUS

The ceiling is up. I went up to L.L. Johnson Lumber Co. in Charlotte to buy 1/4” luan plywood that has all the plys running in the same direction. You can get a sheet with all the grain running lengthways (they call it “column ply”, or all the grain running widthways (“barrel ply”). The English language is just weird. Lengthways is a real word, but widthways is not. That's just not right. What's so special about length that allows ways to be tacked on and not width? I don't get it. Anyway, I bought 8 “column” sheets so I could easily bend the plywood to fit the curve of the roof. The plywood is covered with light gray (don't get me started on how you spell grey) Naugahyde with 1/4” foam backing. I got help from Mark Walling. This is definitely a two man job. The first panel, we covered the panel and foam side of the Naugahyde with contact glue, bent the panel and held it with wire and applied the Naugahyde. We then took the sheet with the bend held by the wire and screwed it to the ceiling. It worked OK, but we found that it was easier to just screw the plywood up, and then glue the Naugahyde to it. We had some bubbles develop, but they were gone in a couple of hours, after the volatiles had gassed out through the Naugahyde. A lighting console will go down the center of the ceiling where the foil is. I'll add aluminum strips along the seams to cover them and add a touch of Deco.

The power management system was delivered a couple days ago. It's a Victron Multiplus. This is the latest in power management and was developed for the power yachting market. It's a 3000 watt true sine wave inverter and a four stage programmable battery charger. The AC power from a campground hookup is fed into Multiplus; from there the unit determines if AC current is needed and distributes it. If there is power left over, it sends DC current to the battery bank to charge the “house batteries” and, on a separate circuit, the starter batteries . If there is not enough amps coming in from the hookup, the Multiplus will add in phase AC amps from the house batteries via the inverter to meet the sensed demand. It can be programmed for wet cell lead acid, gel, or lithium battery charging.  There are many more features, including an LCD monitor/control panel. The Multiplus eliminates manual monitoring and complicated switching. 

I started putting up some walls. This is the head. The door will be the same width as the hallway, so you can open that door and close the bedroom door and have a complete bathroom closed off from the rest of the Bus with the hallway adding temporary floor space to the bathroom. The walls are 3/4” maple plywood – no stud framing to maximize usable space. To anchor the 3/4” plywood, I used aluminum channel made to trim plywood edges.  I screwed the channel to the floor and to the ceiling. I then filled the channels with glue and dropped the plywood wall into the channels. Since a major component of Streamline Moderne Art Deco is rounded corners, I had to figure out a way to have sturdy, smooth, round corners. After trying mockups of PVC, 4” ducting, and heavy cardboard tubing that I cut into quarters, I settled on steel chimney pipe.  I routered  the edges and fastened the curved steel with body panel adhesive and screws. Once the adhesive had cured, I removed the screws and filled with Tiger Hair fiberglass to prevent stress cracks.  Tiger Hair fiberglass is like - well - like snot with cat hair mixed in.  AND, applying it is like - well - like trying to get a raw egg to stick to a Teflon covered wall.  I'm thinking of making a "How not to" You Tube video.  Once the Tiger Hair had hardened, I cover that with regular Bondo filler to smooth out the surface.

My goal is to have the Bus on the road in a month. Not completed, but wired and legal to drive. With this mild weather, I want to get some road testing done. My buddy Mike – the electronics whiz (wired a submarine with his own two hands back in '68) is helping me with this. I stripped the entire wiring system out and we're starting from scratch.  So far we've rewired the relays for ON/OFF, Start, High Idle and Reverse into the new dash.  Then we fired up the Detroit.  Purred like a 2180# kitten.  Everything works as planned so far!

… AND NOW THE REST OF THE STORY

Remember the door? Well, I thought I'd have it wrapped up in another day after my last post. WRONG!! That thing went from a 2X to a 5X project. I know it's just a door – an inanimate object, but the thing has really pissed me off. I got it hung, installed the four seals around the casing, and it wouldn't shut all the way. Stuck out almost a quarter of an inch at the top and more than an inch at the bottom. I removed the seals (about 30 screws) and reassessed the situation. First problem – the bottom of the door didn't follow the curve of the bottom contour of the bus. To fix this I had to remove the inside panel (another 40 screws), make two cuts on each door edge (that hurt me more than it did the door) and bend the door to fit the contour of the bus (self taught bus chiropractor). Closed the door – fit perfect! Re-drilled, re-countersunk and re-screwed the inner panel back on to the door. Putting the screws back in the same holes would push the door back into the previous alignment. Reinstalled the door seals. Door would still not shut all the way. I tell myself “perseverance is the key to success” and proceed to remove the 30 door seal screws AGAIN! I removed the 1/8 inch thick steel door jam liner (not its real name, I'm sure) that I thought was part of the original structure. SCREWED THE THIRTY SCREWS TO REINSTALL THE SEALS FOR THE THIRD TIME. And closed the door. It still sticks out a quarter inch at the bottom, but I can't face it anymore right now. I'll tweak it later. I did add a handmade aluminum striker plate for the dead bolt.

With the nightmare temporarily behind me, I move on to rebuilding the dash. I had cut out the original aluminum dash board because it was bent, dented, and had about five coats of paint on it. To build a replacement, I cut a paper template of the dash, transferred it to half inch plywood, and cut out the new plywood dash. I then ripped a 1½” PVC pipe in half and then in half again. I now had a quarter round that I glued to the front edge of the plywood. Next – cut out the holes for the defrost nozzles. The four windshield defrost nozzles are made of cast aluminum and, of course, had several coats of paint. I stripped the paint and Scotch brushed them to a satin finish. Blind nuts were inserted into the plywood to bolt the dash down. Then the plywood was covered it with foam backed Naugahyde. I reinstalled the nozzles, bolted the dash in place and ran ducting from the under-dash heater to each of the nozzles. The finishing touch - gauge cluster and pedestal mounted onto the dash board, and hook up the door opener crank. Dash and gauge cluster installed and ready to begin wiring!

It's getting cold and I've put off laying the linoleum flooring in order to pour concrete in my new shop. This weekend is supposed to stay above freezing, so it's now or never. We got the flooring in Elkhart for $200. Its 7'x45'. It will cover the floor with a one foot wide void that will be hidden by the closets and cabinets along the driver's side. Two patches will be needed to extend the flooring to the left wall. One for the potty room, and another in the front living room and driver's area.

Needed supplies – utility knife blades - bought a container of 100 at Level Park Hardware (AKA Barry's Paint and Hardware) along with three propane refills and some more JB Weld (never be without this!).  Went to Becke's Equipment Rental for a one  hundred pound roller, then, I stopped in at Battle Creek Tile and Mosaic to make sure I got the best adhesive. After explaining what I was doing and talking about the bus and blog, Mr. Zanetti gave me four gallons of adhesive and loaned me the trowel. These are great folks! Started at 10:00. Finished at 5:00. Three heaters will keep her warm for three days to allow proper curing of the adhesive.

 

So I finished putting in a few small patches to finish up the linoleum - like to the left here.  Then, to get an idea of how things are going to fit (and get a feel for what it's gonna be like someday), I put the driver's seat up on a pallet and just sat behind the wheel.  It felt great.

Thanks to Battle Creek Tile and Mosaic. Check out their website  (Or their Facebook page)  And to Barry's Paint and Hardware