ezrablu - 1991 Bluebird of Happiness

[ezrablu]

Same area right next to drivers seat after table/vent thing removed...but the floor where the hoses were cut out has been replaced. I laid a 2x2 along the floor where the hoses used to lay under the floor, filled in the empty areas with pink board insulation then screwed pieced of OSB over it to match up with the rest of the floor. Not pretty, but it came out ok and will be covered with wood flooring and a couch


Here's a closer view of my patchwork...my 35 + years of sewing came in handy here with this patch work

[ezrablu]

Now for some walls, windows and the ceiling!

I used 2x2's to frame around the windows and walls. I used the same 1 and 1/2 inch pink rigid board insulation (pink panther stuff).

[ezrablu]

Ya...I have a lot of stuff to work around in the bus. If I had the other bus moved to my land I would have put all the into it and made life a lot easier. It's VERY time consuming having to keep moving everything out of the way

This next photo is one of the back windows. They are both done the same...I won't explain why it's framed this way but I'm sure it's easy to figure it out. Now, please forget you even saw it

[ezrablu]

Here you can see the framing with the plastic barrier on the wall before the insulation. With a pile of my lumber on the left and on the right are the furring strips I used on the ceiling. There are cuts that go about half way through the board and a couple of inches apart from each other. They are only cut down one side of each board so it can bend just enough to fit the curve on the ceiling.

[ezrablu]

Here's a little closer view of the ceiling furring strips. They were then screwed to the ceiling with self tapping screws, right into the steel bars that hold the metal ceiling panels to the roof.

[ezrablu]

I hope I'm showing enough detail...there were just too many photos and not enough time for me to sor them out very well.

In this photo you can see the insulation...it has foil on one side, which was placed toward the ceiling. First though, the whole ceiling was lined with heavy plastic, then the firring...hey, I spelled it right that time strips were screwed to the ceiling, then the insualtion was put up. The tape is just painters tape just because it was handy....it's actually covering the firring strips so pretend you can see them

Oh, and the original lights and speakers have been removed and are hanging from the ceiling from the wiring. I'm going to put them right back into the new ceiling right where they are.

[ezrablu]

Front looking back....the floor, walls and ceiling are all lined with plastic vapor barrier, all framed out and insulated now!



Tomorrow I'll begin to put on this pine siding I bought last summer for the walls and ceiling....



I'll take photos of that as I do it, too, and post them maybe next week.

Then when that's done, I'll build the walls for the bathroom and the shower room. I'll be building in a sawdust toilet and I'll post more on the bathroom/shower project when I get to it. Once the walls and bathroom are in then I'll stain all the wood on the walls and ceiling...

After that, I'll do the flooring. I originally purchased new carpet...12 feet x 32 feet for the floor because it was a good deal...


but have since decided I want a wood floor so I have the carpet listed on Craigslist. Once the walls and ceiling are finished then I'll buy the wood for the floor.

That's it for now!

[Rudy]

Very nice. That's a lot of work you put in. It seems that it will be well insulated.

It will be fun to frame the bathroom. Are you going to make a bedroom wall?

[ezrablu]

Thanks, Rudy...I can't take all the credit because my son gave me a hand on this stuff thank goodness because sure I wasn't strong enough to remove the steel running along the wall for the rear heater and blower...plus a lot more got done than if it were just me We've been working on two projects at the same time....the metal pole building and my bus. I could start a different thread on the pole shed project if anyone is interested in seeing it.

No, I'm not going to put up a wall for the bedroom. Although, I could change my mind about that later after I live in it. I really want to keep the whole bus "open" feeling. And to give each area some room division, I'll use things like curtains, and doors kind of like beaded door ways except made from hemp using fancy stitches and knots instead of beads. That way I can separate the rooms when I want but have the option of opening it up. Except the very back of the bus where a wall will be on each side...one for the compost toilet and the other side for the shower and sink. That will provide a private space for anyone should they need it. The back door will still be visible from the front of the bus....it's basically like moving the back of the bus forward a little.

[Mark R. Obtinario]

The unit under the "table" to the left of the driver included a heater core and blowers from which hot air would be sent to the driver's side for defrost and to the floor from the driver towards the back of the bus. The blower unit at the end of the duct work pulled hot air from the front of the bus to the middle of the bus.

The other unit you pulled out was a self contained under seat heater unit which included a heater core and blower fans.

The Hurry Hot unit by the service door has another heater core built into it. It provides hot air to be directed towards the service door and the service door side of the windshield. Some units like that had additional blowers and ducts to direct warm air back into the passenger compartment.

By removing all of the heater core and related equipment to the left of the driver you have effectively rendered inoperable the driver's side windshield defroster, driver's heat, and front passenger compartment heat. You have also removed one of the worst parts of driving a Type 'C' bus in the summer time. Regardless of how many valves you shut off there would always be some heat going to the heater core.

When the temp outside is above 80* the last thing you want is to be sitting next to something that is designed to be pumping out heat.

Your way of framing things in and insulating not only looks well done but it also appears to be well thought out.

When you put your lights back in make sure you provide for a ground strap for each of your lights. Without a way for the light to go to ground your lights won't work.

[ezrablu]

Mark, THANK YOU for all of this information, advice and opinion I highly respect your input and I'm grateful you let me know your thoughts.

Well, I guess since that half of the heating unit is already removed and with your info about it producing heat in the summer even with the valves shut off, I'm not going to bother putting any of it back in. I'll be doing 99% of my driving it in the summer or warmer climates anyway so I'll look into a portable defroster instead that I can plug into a cigrette lighter or inverter. I'll have to see what's available. As far as heat for the drivers area...I know there are several different ways to provide heat when I'm driving. All in all, I'm glad it's all removed and I'd rather try to figure out how to defrost half the windshield and heat the drivers area than deal with turning on/off valves, possible leaks, etc. plus there is so much extra space with all of that stuff out now.

Is it possible or legal to drive down the road with the wood stove burning? Is that a silly question?

Thank you for your compliments...yes, there is more thinking than actual work

[dburt]

Blu- start a thread on your pole building too! It is always good to see how someone else tackles such a project, it will give the rest of us ideas!

[rlaggren]

> frame around back door...

That's so you can put li'l window boxes of flowers under the rear windows inside, right? <g>

> defrost drivers side...

One or two 12 volt fans on adjustable brackets somewhere above the door-side heater unit might do the job; don't block you sight lines too much. I think you'd likely want the defroster in summer as well as winter..

> wood stove while driving...

Think very high winds blowing back down your chimney.

> paneling...

Don't recall your tools or plan. If you're fastening to wood, might be worth procuring (one way or another) a compressor (can be small), hose and either a finish stapler or an 18ga finish nailer. Makes things go way faster than either screws or hand nailing. S/B used stuff around if you can't find any to borrow.

> pics... organizing...

If you haven't already, you can set you camera date (or reset it). Then all your pics carry the right date and you sort them by date. As a first cut that can help. There's a neat little utility that helps you rename many files at once; I find that can help when dealing with lots of pics. If you think that would help and don't find it, I can try to dig it out of my sisters machine. If you're interested in a pic organizer I also set her up with one called Faststone. Shareware - it looked the best of 4 or 5 I reviewed couple years ago, but haven't looked since.

Good work there. Looking forward to the next exciting chapter.

Rufus

[Sharkey]

> wood stove while driving...

Think very high winds blowing back down your chimney

I can tell you for a fact that in my Housetruck or Woodley's step van, the opposite is true. There is a low-pressure gradient along the roof that causes the stove flue to draw like crazy, the stove starts roaring and very effectively roasts any wood in it's interior. An airtight stove might be able to be throttled down with the damper, but my old leaky hand made stove just wanted more wood as fast as you could shovel it in.

Having a fire going while on the road probably isn't going to endear you to other motorists or the local law enforcement, not exactly stealth operation there....

[ezrablu]

Makes sense, Sharkey...and now that you said it, I do think I recall reading somewhere that it would cause a powerful draw and burn the fire very fast and very hot. Ok, so no mobile fires Cuz I certainly don't want to draw the "heat" from my heat

Rufus...lol...ya, flower box, that's the ticket I do own a nice size compressor and air tools so I'm good to go with the finish nailer. I bought the nails for it last week. I had planned on starting it today but other things got in the way today. Hopefully tomorrow And the reason my photos were not organized was because of my pc crash. I couldn't find time to reload everything back on to it from my back up, but I had to empty my camera so I started all new folders again...then a couple days ago I went ahead and reloaded my backup stuff but didn't have time to merge it all together. Thanks for the name of that program though..I'm still gonna check it out.