1973 Blue Bird

[Rudy]

I woke up this morning and realized that I was still alive. Cool! Now I can continue these postings.

Here is another view of the couch area.

To the right of the clock, on that small shelf, there is a transistor radio that my dad gave me when I was nine years old. It works off a nine volt battery and is AM frequency only. That makes that radio at least 47 years old. Vintage, I would say.

[Rudy]

Here's a view of the passenger side upper cabinets.

[Rudy]

We will move to the driver's side now. I used some of the curtain material to hide the underneath of the driver's seat.

[Rudy]

Let's move on. Here is a photo of the instrument storage closet.

[Rudy]

The bottom of the instrument closet. We are now getting close to the desk area. I will have a lot to tell you when we get closer to that area.

You can see Emma's legs as one of her sleeping places is under the desk area.

Notice the wall extension under the right hand side of the desk. It is three feet wide and the depth of the desk (two feet).

Behind there I store two oil filled electric radiator heaters. I like them. They don't make noise like those old Quartz heaters did.

ALSO, I store the steps platform and the two dog cushions. On the front of this wall, I will install one of the three propane catalytic heaters.



Well, let's talk about them heaters for a bit, shall we?

Propane catalytic heaters are made up of a fibrous pad that is platinum strands. It looks similar to a steel wood pad.

Now, somehow magically, when the platinum fiber strands mix with a fuel source (propane) and oxygen, it produces a "glow heat".

The heaters are 97% fuel efficient and they do not have to be vented. You must, however allow for some oxygen intake from one of your windows.

The reason that they are 97% fuel efficient is because the fuel never combusts. In all combustion systems, whether it be automobiles or heating systems, there will be a carbon monoxide output.

On regular furnace type heating units, 30% of the heat value goes up the chimney (or, vent in the case of motorhomes). Those are the carbon monoxide exhausts from the combustion process.

With propane catalytic heaters, the only exhaust is carbon DIOXIDE, which is what we humans exhale, and water vapor.

Carbon dioxide is a non poisonous gas. When someone tells you to talk to your plants, it is because all plants strive on the breath you exhale while talking to them. The water vapor is also welcomed by the plants.

You may turn on many types of heaters in your abode, and you may notice how long it takes to warm the place up. That time frame is different with each type of heating mechanism.

I had a wood stove in my 64 International. I was living in Connecticut and doing carpentry. When I got home from work on a cold winter's day and the wood stove had died perhaps around noon that day, my bus was almost refridgerator temperature.

So I would load it up and keep my winter clothes on for an hour watching the flame and anticipating when it would be warm enough to play guitar. An hour later, I could remove some of my garb, but it was not for another hour that it would be warm enough to move my fingers on the guitar.

I love wood stoves, but for them to be a primary source of heat, they need a tender.

The great thing about a propane catalytic heater is that it is a radiant heater. It heats the mass of objects as opposed to heating the air. So start it up, sit in front of it, and instantaneously, it is like you are sitting in front of a fireplace. Those heat rays seek you out.

These types of heaters were developed in 1929 by the French. They wanted to develop a heater that they could use while working around airplane engines. It needed to safe as to not ignite the engine fuel.

Being that the catalytic action works at a significantly lower temperature, there is not enough temperature to ignite a combustion.

[Rudy]

Inside the instrument closet. First of all, we did not stain the inside of the closet doors. (lazy?). Here you see a top shelf. It houses my Romanian mandolin in its case. I really think is a Cittern and not a mandolin. Here is a pic.

[Rudy]

Getting back to the instrument closet, I will put these two photos on and explain the workings of the shelves.





After putting the guitar cases in there, I realized there was enough room to get my two accordions in there as well, because the necks of the guitar cases are narrower than the body section.

I needed to make a shelf for the accordions. It had to be removable so as to let the guitar cases out when need be.

Look at the top picture. the accordion shelf sits on wood strips on the sides. The shelf itself is only deep enough for the accordion cases.

On the center strip of the face frame in the back, there is an L bracket in which I drilled a hole big enough to put a 5/16 inch bolt through the shelf into it. This keeps that shelf in place.

When I want to remove the large accordion or any guitars, I pull the bolt out and slide the shelf back and lift the shelf out. The top shelf does not remove. It houses the Cittern, two dog leashes and a dog brush.

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Hey there Rudy

I love the conical of your housebus building mission. Your workmanship is great as well. I may have missed it how long have you been working on the bus?

[Rudy]

Dennis, My friend Shawn and I have been working on this bus for four months now.

Although most of the carpentry work has been finished, there is still the finishing of the electrical, plumbing, tile floor in the kitchen, building the shower, installing a gasoline tank under the bus to feed the Onan generator, putting new front tires on, replacing engine hoses, and more stuff that I may not even be aware of yet.

Thanks for the compliment. Keep on Bussin' Rudy

[Rudy]

Here's another view before we head to the "control desk".

[Rudy]

Here is a photo of the front room looking forward.



Here is one looking rearward. Notice Emma laying in the hallway.

[Rudy]

Here are two shots where we covered the metal area above the windshield and replaced the metal door with one we made of wood. I used the original latches that came from the metal door. We also saved the All American placard and siliconed it to the new wooden door.

[Rudy]

Just one more before we move to the desk. This is my favorite picture of the whole lot.

[Rudy]

Let's walk over to the studio desk. Wow, there's a lot of stuff there. I will tell you about (some) of the things you are looking at.

For instance, those stained glass lampshades and hanging globes were things I made. I managed to hang on to a few of my pieces. I sold, and gave away, many pieces.

Remember how excited I was when I had removed the door to the original upper cabinet area straight ahead of you? The opening accommodated 19 inch wide rack mount audio gear.

There, you see how I lucked out by simply screwing the units to the face frame. Also, remember the access hole I cut inside the back wall to be able to always see and have instant access to wires, and jacks that receive them.

[Rudy]

Let's get a little closer. The 10 year old "ruby" iMac is solely dedicated to running the recording studio gear. The laptop on the left (Windows XP) is my internet computer.

One of the funnest things in there is the device that is screwed underneath the upper cabinet, that has all those little buttons in the front of it.



Many people ask me what that is. My initial response is that it is a Verdi II acoustic room matrix.

Then, I turn on some music through the studio monitors and tell them to listen closely as I press one of the buttons on the "room matrix".

As soon as I press one of the buttons, I smile enthusiastically, and say " did you hear THAT?".

You'd be surprised how many people will say that they did hear a difference in the sound, when all along, all I did was press one of the bass side buttons from an unplayable accordion that I mounted under the cabinet for decoration. HA HA! That is always fun.