More painting.

For some reason I imagined painting the duco of the bus being one of the last things we would be doing. Turns out it is happening right now!

This is an extremely big job.

Even though we have been lucky and the bus is rust free (excepting a few patches of surface rust) there is still lots of work to do to prepare and paint it.
There aren't any big 'dings' to patch or pop back into shape and the existing paint is in pretty good condition. Sanding the bus is still a necessity to make the new paint stick properly and that has taken days of work.
The air sanders that we have purchased don't seem to heat up and stress like regular power tools so they have endured longer working times.

We opted for acrylic lacquer paint. The end result will be softer than enamel but it is much easier to lay down and you get a better result. Also, the colours we want are shelf-standard colours at Supercheap Auto which makes it MUCH easier... no mixing anything special.

First we sanded and treated any rust we could see.
Filled small nicks and dings (we have not done this perfectly but it is still looking better than leaving it).
Sanded and tidied up stickers, bubbles and chips in the existing duco and sanded the whole bus with a 200 grit sandpaper to 'rough it up'. Then we used a finer paper to get rid of the deep sand-marks.
We washed the dust off and cleaned any greasy stuff off.
We masked sections and undercoated with about 6 coats of regular grey primer.
Sanded with very fine sandpaper, washed.
Masked and painted about 6 coats of white topcoat.
(We did take off a few bits so we didn't have to mask it all).

Photos of the progress so far:

Roof sanded and ready to spray with undercoat.

All undercoated! 

Roof undercoat from the back.

...And from the top.

 

 

Colour going on.

 

 From the back.

 

 

Just the roof done. The paint colour is 'brilliant white' and it sure is whiter than the original dirty duco!

 



Now to undercoat the sides.

 



 

Here you can see how we took some parts off, sanded off the peeling stickers and masked all the rest.

 

For spray painting lessons we hit YouTube. It is amazing how much you can learn off the internet if you can filter out all of the misguided and crazy stuff!



First bit of spray painting.

Some time ago we bought a Stanley belt driven compressor to help us with our bus conversion. More recently the air driven tools went on sale and we picked up a generic branded, gravity fed spray paint kit, tyre puffer-upper and a sander.

Hubby has been sanding the roof in preparation for the skylight vent, hot water and solar to go on (we got our solar kit- more about that later).

He removed the flashing lights which came on when the door was opened (ex school bus stuff) and filled the holes. He sanded and treated some surface rust and today, tried out some spray painting!

Not sure why we thought the front and centre of the bus was the best place to do our initial test piece... luckily it worked out well.

This is the driver's side.

(That little white streak is the sunlight coming through a nail hole in the carport roof, not a painting flaw)

 

Passenger side.

 

It is going to be ONE BIG JOB to spray the whole bus!

Luckily we can do the roof, sides and back separately.

 

This is just the undercoat. we will paint the whole bus white and maybe add a metallic grey stripe. 

From the top down- Solar, Vent etc

It has been a while since last posting.

I've finally scraped up enough money to buy a thing or two for the bus.

We made a decision to start from the top and go downwards on the bus because that makes a bit of sense as far as internal lining and wiring is concerned. This means we hit an expensive bump. Solar power, solar hot water, sanding and respraying the roof, an awning and roof vent.

The solar hot water.

Doesn't look like much but I picked up this little 30l hot water service on eBay for about $275. It isn't built for buses or caravans (I don't think) so we may need to do something at a later date... we will see how we go. This eBay has more information: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Portable-Solar-Hot-Water-30L-tank-rooftop-caravan-camping-shed-/181270884500?hash=item2a34963094

Next I picked up this roof vent.

It is tinted plastic and I manged to pick it up for around $150. We decided against a 4 seasons hatch because I've never seen one which didn't break after a while and this one was cheaper and looks better (in my opinion).

The vent closed from the top (it still has the protective plastic on it).

 

 

Open. There is no option to 1/2 close it or part close it but as you will see in the next picture, there is a roll out heat/shade screen you could partially pull across if need be, although, it would not be waterproof.

 

At the bottom is the partially pulled across shade screen, at the top is the fly screen. They retract away when not in use.

I got this vent on eBay also. 

 

Solar

 

I have ordered the solar system (although we are yet to have it delivered).

 

We decided to get it from a retail outlet nearby so we had access to advice and a local warranty if we needed it. It is an expensive part of the bus (almost worth as much as the bus itself!) so we want to do it properly.

 

After doing research, I found Australian brand Redarc to be a reputable company which is built for our conditions. I found a local outlet and we have ordered a system.

 

The intention is to be totally self-sufficient (no 240 at all) but we will add a charger and an inlet on the bus later if we find we need it. We will only need not run: 2x 12v water pumps, LED lighting, small 12V TV/DVD, 60l (or a little larger) 12/24/240 fridge (3 way with gas has too much draw on power), and iPhone chargers. We might add one or two other little things but there is an upgrade option for that time.

 

I will not go into the part numbers or mini details of the equipment (each system is different so you probably wouldn't get much from it).

 

2x 150w panels (with upgrade option for two more),

Regulator,

Remote monitor (to check all the goodies to ensure they are working),

2x 120AH  12V batteries,

Relay, 

Smart Start 40A,

A bunch of connectors and wires and some mounts.

 

We still need to get internal wiring and ports, isolation switch panel and fuses.

 

Later, we may choose to upgrade by adding a pure sine wave inverter (just in case we need a drop of 240), a 240 charger (just in case the panels and bus can't keep up) and another 2 panels (this would be the maximum for the relays and regulator etc.

 

PHEW!

 

Next we need to get the awning (to attach before lining the roof as it will be much easier) and a sander/spray kit for respraying the roof.

 



YAY! Finally got some more carpet. That's the front DONE.

FINALLY Bunnings got in some more carpet and we finished off the front hatch.

As it is directly above the engine, lots of HEAT and NOISE comes up from there, even though it is insualted beneath. We decided to step p the noise and heat protection. First went fibreglass insulation wool (this also has a sound proof rating), then a welding blanket (fibreglass blend) and then the carpet.

Since the bus isn't registered, we haven't taken it for a drive to test out how well it insulates but it sure looks the part!

We have been playing with a couple of sections of interior lining but nothing to write about just yet.

Lots of little jobs

Our finances say 'no' to doing anything expensive to the bus, like adding solar, water or awnings (all of the things we'd like to be doing but can't afford!)

Until we save up a bit, we've been doing lots of little jobs.

Here's the progress.

Passenger seat frame getting ready for welding by one engineer to make another engineer happy!

Just like brand new!

 

Driver's seat frame luckily needed no adjustment.

 

Ta daaa! Front is all done (except for that bloody engine hatch cover. Bunnings haven't ordered the new carpet yet).

 

 

Spray painted the plastic moulded bits which go on the roof/wall. Cupboards will be built over them but they needed a freshen up. We will line the roof with new stuff but it would have been difficult to line the curvy bits, so we kept these.

 

Before: Rusty old wheel hubs.

Shiny new paint job! Charcoal hammer coat (we didn't paint they tyre, that's just rusty dust from the steel brush we cleaned the rims up with).

 

I didn't get a before shot of the bull bar but it was all yucky too. Now it looks just like a new one too.

 

Insulation has started to go in. We can't do too much because we have to do electrics and plumbing. Luckily this section is free of that.

 

We've also painted the sun visors, side mirrors, lined the cabin roof, and today started lining the walls which don't have any wires/pipes to go in them (I'll add photos of that another time).





First engineer visit.

Today we took the drive to visit our engineer.

I got my permit to drive an unregistered vehicle last week because of all of the public holidays over easter.

It was a long and noisy trip today because the bus has been stripped to bare shell and the engine noise really echoes around in there! Thankfully it will be a little muffled when all the stuff is installed.

The bus did the trip easily and the GPS worked a treat, putting us right on the engineer's doorstep. He bounced into the bus, made himself comfy on a carpet covered wheel arch and got to talking.

He seemed happy with the size and condition of the bus and took millions of pictures. We need to get under and fill all of the holes in the floor from the seats (they need to be filled because of potential exhaust problems). I'll take photos of the process and send them to him.

He helped us out with what we needed to do to install the seats and he thought we had done an okay job of covering the dash and he gave us many tips and hints on what we can and can not do for the rest of the build. We got some printed out checklists to ensure we don't forget anything along the way.

A couple of hours later and a couple of $$$ we were on our way home again.

So, all in all a rather easy and painless first visit. Let's hope the rest of the build is so easy and carefree.

A bit more of the same before the first engineer's visit.

Just a quick post to show you some developments since the last post (not many).

We finished off the carpet and hubby bought some more to do the top of the engine box but we decided to carpet the space under the bed instead. First we had to rip up all of the vinyl and then I got in there and scrubbed and scrubbed. I have the majority of the dirt out and the lack of skin on my knuckles to prove it! I've wiped down the inside of the panels and done the windows. We shouldn't get much more dust fluffing up when we drive to the engineer tomorrow. We will do the top of the engine box when we get more carpet (perhaps tomorrow on the way?)

Looks like there isn't a lot of flooring needed for the other parts and all going well tomorrow, we might just buy some and get into it... depending on how the visit to the engineer goes. As you can probably tell, I'm a little nervous that he will want to change all of my plans!  We have the permit for driving an unregistered vehicle and the 2 1/2 hour trip should take my mind off it. We are also taking the new seats to see what we need to do to install them.

Today we hooked up the reversing camera (for a test) and tried a DVD in the multimedia thingy. We also punched in the engineer's address to see if the GPS works... it looks good! Hubby temporarily hooked up one of the new speakers so we can listen to music on the way and we can even plug my iPhone in if the radio goes into a 'grey area' (we are very rural).

Anyway, I'll do another update soon. I have a list of questions for our engineer and we will have to wait and see what he says next!

Here are a couple of pictures of the small amount of progress.

The carpeted section under the bed. I guess it's a boot.

 

I'm pretty proud of the dash. Can't wait until those horrible, ruined, beige seats are gone. When we took the driver's seat out, it was actually installed with one side higher than the other. I can not believe they allowed that to happen. Oh well, not for long.