Different Wisdom

[Lostranger]

Seems like I should post an update even though I don't have much to report, and most of what I've done for the bus lately is less than glamorous.

I recently alluded that I was having trouble getting my air compressor to run. This is a Lowe's three-and-a-half horse machine that I bought lightly used four years ago. This was just after we lost our house, and I was planning to paint the old Flx Metro as part of getting it ready for permanent residence. I took the compressor to a friend's shop and wired it up, but I could not get it to run. Soon after that, we decided to get rid of the Flx, and the compressor sat in a back corner of my friend's place until two weeks ago. I moved it to my shop and wired it, but it still wouldn't run. Turned out to have a bad pressure switch:



I almost despaired of finding one locally, but NAPA had one that would work. I nearly choked as I forked over $54, but my paint man was here from two hours away, and we needed air. The new switch is wired with appropriate ring terminals.

The compressor works great, and I LOVE having plenty of air. I had gotten by on the little Makita portable for so long that I had forgotten what abundant air is like:



My friend, Dave, ran a DA for most of the day with little break. He assures me that no one had ever before successfully photographed him working:



We had planned to do another day of paint prep this past week, but much colder weather changed things. I had some fire wood gathered, but I had to get my splitter hooked to the old BCS walking tractor and process sticks that will fit our little stove. I'm also working on insulating all that new skin, but no photos yet.

The main thing I've done this week is something I've been dreading. I dug about forty feet of ditch and ran a sewer line to our parking spot. One of the reasons we park here is the proximity of a septic system. Didn't need the dump line before we had plumbing in the bus, but that has changed. Here are a few shots:









I'm glad the ditch wasn't deep. Mostly.

Finally got to do this:



What a relief. 105 gallons is a lot of — uh — stuff. The tank works great. With a flat bottom and the floor sloping slightly away from the outlet when parkd, it doesn't quite empty, but we have plenty of capacity.

All the other plumbing works great, too. Haven't had time to work on the busted water heater, but we don't strictly need it at home base. Insulation and interior walls are the high priority now. Still lives like a big metal tent, but one with considerable amenity. By spring, we should be able to travel occasionally with accessories like this:



Hope to have some interior shots early in the week. We survived 16 degrees last night, but the little stove needs help from Poly. Polyisocyanurate, to be exact.

Best to all,

Jim

[ol trunt]

Hey Jim. Good update. I know what you mean about Poly! Although it was only just freezing in the camp site the other night it rapidly turned to 40 degrees in my bus when the little cube heater quit in the middle of the night. I hadn't bothered to bleed the propane line to the heater as we were on shore power and smugly using "their" power to keep warm and I wasn't about to deal with the gas heater in the wind and dark at two in the morning so we stayed warm by chattering our teeth

Somewhere in the Nevada desert yesterday I spotted a twin to your bus--right down to the newly blanked out windows and yellow Hertz paint job! How did you manage to be in two places at once? I still maintain that if I could do a real bus it would be one like yours--all those nice square corners and the low profile. Jack

[Lostranger]

Somewhere in the Nevada desert yesterday I spotted a twin to your bus

I KNEW someone else had to see the potential. These low floors are way too capable and livable for them to all end up as rolling strip joints or Latin American transit. Jack, if you ever see it again, I'd love to have contact info.

Jim

[Lostranger]

I'm making progress on the insulation, and I'll soon be ready to panel the walls. Gonna use a good grade of oak faced, 1/4" plywood finished natural. This stuff will secure to horizontal furring strips on 16" centers. The strips are 1-3/4" wide.

I had planned to fasten this plywood with 1" finish nails from my Senco gun AND use extra heavy duty construction adhesive between the panels and the furring, but it occurs to me that the nails might not be necessary. With all the great adhesives available, isn't there something that would hold 1/4" plywood onto vertical walls without nails or screws? Much of this bus was assembled with high bond double side tape. Would carpet tape do what I want? I use that tape for holding jigs and fixtures in several phases of instrument building, and it is phenomenally strong. Several companies sell spray adhesive that is supposed to be strong. I imagine that sikaflex would hold paneling as well as it holds the new skin panels, but I don't want to spend that much money if I can help it.

Have any of you done this? Most of this plywood will be covered by cabinets, counters, bathroom, appliances, closets and so forth, but I still don't want any of it popping loose in the future. I covet the collective genius of this fine group.

Jim

[ol trunt]

Hey Jim, I used Silkaflex 220+ (windshield urethane) to glue my counter top to the steel frame. The bodies of these beasts flex an amazing amount as they go down the road so it is important to put them together in such a way as to allow some movement of parts without having things shear loose. Before I settled on Silkaflex I made up a couple of metal and wood test panels just to be sure the mastic would stick to the plywood. After a couple of months cure time I subjected the panels to destructive testing. When I pried the wood up from the metal the Silka stayed stuck both to the metal and the plywood with the plywood finally separating between its plies. I was able to twist the bond almost 90 degrees before the sheer limit of the mastic was reached. As you already know, both the plywood and its mating surface must be free of oil or wax or silicone etc. to insure a proper bond. I used 1/8" spacers here and there between the steel frame and the plywood just to be sure there would be enough mastic to allow for movement within the mastic itself. With a couple of thousand miles on the bus now, the counter seems to be OK--we'll see how that goes after 20,000 miles or so . Just my two cents worth. Jack

[Lostranger]

Found this on the web tonight. Any thoughts or experience?

http://www.titebond.com/product-print.a ... c754291c0e

[somewhereinusa]

That looks promising I can think of a number of places where it would have been
better than what I have been doing. I've been pretty much been using construction adhesive and staples or screws.
Perhaps someone could do a test of what happens in the hot sun of say wood to metal. It's going to be a looooooong time before I see
any of that
Have you found a supplier at a reasonable price. A quick search came up with something north of $25 a roll.

[Lostranger]

I'm knee deep in the insulation process, but I've gotten some done, and it's making a difference.

I began by putting an inch and a half of rigid foam between the frame members that hold the new skin. The wide uprights are original bus frame, and the narrow ones are 1-1/2" square tubing I installed. Since I had some 1-1/2" styrofoam from the roof, I used that as far as it went. All the interior walls get another inch of polyiso, so this is not critical:









The only Gillig construction detail I've so far found fault with is their roof insulation. All the superstucture framing is bolted together with corner gussets that have a 4-1/2" radius. Rather than cut their styrofoam panels to fit that radius, that lopped off corners and left large gaps. In most cases, the insulation they installed is not even long or wide enough for the opening. Looked like this:





I cut my polyiso panels to fit and then marked the corners with a nine inch circle:





I won't have excess heat migration through the roof. Gillig could have easily done better, but I suppose they figured it didn't much matter since that enormous HVAC system would be working all the time the bus was in revenue service. Besides, nobody from Hertz was ever gonna see the roof insulation.... I hope they do better now. They could have those panels stamped to fit. The cavity dimensions are consistent with only three different lengths.

I have to do some instrument building today, but I'm hoping to also get more furring installed. Once that is done and the continuous insulation is on the walls, we'll see a big difference.

Best to all,

Jim

P.S. If you don't believe that it's been cold here, check out these icicles on my chimney cap. That was in spite of having a fire all night.



P.P.S. And here's our new grandson born yesterday. His name is Jett:

[Lostranger]

A quick search came up with something north of $25 a roll.

Ouch! I'll look into it, Dick. I'll also experiment with it before proceeding.

[Lostranger]

Now that I know about it, I'll probably use tape of some sort to install our hardwood flooring. I was never happy with the idea of trying to screw through the tongues in such tight quarters.

[Lostranger]

I'm gonna experiment with this stuff first. It's dramatically cheaper than Titebond, and I can get it locally:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_256882-14510-28 ... facetInfo=

Any carpet tape I've used is phenomenally strong, and this may be the ticket. Stay tuned.

Jim

[ol trunt]

Hey Jim, I'd love to see that tape work for you but I'd want to know way more about it than is stated on the label. It would not be good to find that the tape lets go after a while or that it isn't flexible enough to withstand the movement of the bus--but then I know you'll test it before you use it. Jack

[Lostranger]

Hey Jim, I'd love to see that tape work for you but I'd want to know way more about it than is stated on the label. It would not be good to find that the tape lets go after a while or that it isn't flexible enough to withstand the movement of the bus--but then I know you'll test it before you use it. Jack

Bought a roll today, but I've not yet devised a good test. I may stick one or two sheets in place and just see how it does for a while. Once the insulation is in place, I'm in no particular hurry on the paneling.

Jim

[stuartcnz]

for gluing on the walls, I would look into a contact glue, if you are wanting to avoid using nails & screws. Given that nails and screws are generally only there to hold things in place, while the glue sets up.

[Lostranger]

Thanks for everyone's input. Tomorrow I'm beginning the test phase. I'm gonna glue furring strips to scraps of plywood and then see what it takes to rip them apart. The adhesives in the initial test will be:

Surebond Fiberglass Tape
Liquid Nails Extreme Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive
GE 100% Clear Silicone Caulk
3M High Strength 90 Spray Adhesive
WeldWood Contact Cement

The Liquid Nails product will require clamping. I do not plan to clamp any of the others. I would prefer not to have to clamp plywood sheets to the walls, but it can be done if necessary. I've used Weldwood contact cement many times, and it might be a good candidate here, especially since it never fully hardens. One fellow on BCM says I'm going to love GE silicone. We'll see.

Should have the furring and wall insulation complete over the next two days. At that point I can hang plywood anytime. Getting the plywood up seems like a watershed event for the interior. After that, permanent cabinets, counters, walls, etc. are all possible. And needed. Still planning to build cases and walls of 3/4" oak cabinet grade plywood, natural finish. All cabinet doors and trim will be hard maple in a gloss natural finish. Looking forward to making all those raised panel doors. Been a long time since I've done a large cabinet project, but it's something I do enjoy.

If anyone has thoughts on the testing process or other promising adhesives, I'd love to know.

Jim