Popular Post ThePog Posted August 21, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 21, 2016 Spent the last few days sorting out grot, Shane found a full bottle of good rust convertor, so I put that to good use once all the ugly was cut out. This looked like a lot of awkward shaped holes to fill in, so fuck it, it can be all one patch... Then there were a few pin holes in a seam down the sides. This had been helpfully filled with bog and painted over, so it could become much worse without anyone knowing. How hard is it to put a bit of steel back in? This bit took 10 minutes max including cleanup... And a few little bits of ugly that I uncovered and rust killed. The bits around the lights will need welding, but that will be it I reckon... I have many hundreds of dollars of paint sitting in the workshop now. I just need to give the roof a wee cleanup before getting into the paint. Here you can just see the aluminium frames that I made for the windows. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted August 28, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 28, 2016 As I did not make it to Hanmer I decided to crank a whole lot of shit on the bus. Firstly I painted all the blue bits after extensive prep work, ie scraping the particularly big lumps off with 180 grit sandpaper then losing all interest. Then I finished it with two coats of highest quality Lumbersider in a shade called 'Elephant'. I would genuinely like too see an elephant this shade of blue, that would be absolutely fucking remarkable. This came up pretty much perfect. Then I painted the roof with black plastidip after a coat of etch primer (seen in the first pic), this looks pretty good too; This will get painted white in the near future. Then I did the very last rust work around the headlamps. They were small patches so i used the time honoured technique of throwing weld at it until it burnt away enough thin metal to start sticking, then worked my way back filling in the hole. In between all of this feverish activity I also painted the upper window frames and placed the glass. The application of sealant was not pretty, but it will be high enough that no one will see it. There is zero doubt that the windows will seal given the amount of poo that got flung around. The glass is 4mm and is tempered etc. It even has the wee stamp on it... Also I added some brackets inside the bus so that the plywood lining has something to attach to in various areas, I forgot to take a photo of these tho. Solid progress. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted September 3, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 3, 2016 I painted the roof with a bit of white, then I put the windows, seats and seatbelts in. This is in preparation for taking the old bitch for a COF check. Now I just need to sort the horn button properly and this can be done. It hasnt had a COF since 2009, so this will be very interesting. Everything seems to work pretty well so if it is anything it will be suspension/steering joints or brake imbalance. Initially I will not actually get a COF as it will fail on the mods I have done for the seating and seatbelts etc, but if they pull me up on the roof mods or the like (which they technically cannot as there is nothing in the regs regarding this, but you never know). This way I can then discuss with the cert man getting anything like this that I might fail on included in the paperwork. We will see. Shit is theoretically watertight now... The lounge; 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted September 9, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 9, 2016 A nervous 40 minute wait today, only to find that it failed the COF........... on broken exhaust clamps. YEAAAHHH MOTHERFUCKER! Ian is looking like the bargain of the century right now. Obviously it got pulled up on the cert issues, including the roof, plus I need it to have a bed etc before I can convert it to a camper registration, so 28 days to rectify this... Totally doable. 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted September 18, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 18, 2016 Been smashing this out over the last couple of weeks, things are going swimmingly. I bought some 100l water tanks and started building the bed etc around them. I also built the second story bed frames. Unbelievably all this shit has used 48m of 25x5 angle. Then I built a bench for the sink, gas burner and fridge, I put my poos wood working skills to good use. It is all pretty minimal at the moment, and will probably stay that way. It will need more bench space, I have a plan for this. The main bed will be two king singles. This is so they can fold away either side with the mattress, so then big things can get put in that space if needed. Also it means that either side can become a sofa as well. Yes I know I am a fucking genius, thank you. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePog Posted September 21, 2016 Author Share Posted September 21, 2016 Sorting the really important things 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePog Posted September 25, 2016 Author Share Posted September 25, 2016 Some time consuming stuff happened, mostly creating the gas bottle box. I thought about buying one but it would have meant quite a lot more surgery to fit and they were bloody expensive. This is tidier anyway A hole; A cagey bit of stuff tailored to the exact size that was available underneath, but somehow also perfectly sized for 2x 4kg gas bottles - I hope - although i did go to Mitre 10 and measure the bottles there. There are locating rings and tie hooks as well; Slammed into place; Not the tidiest work I have ever done, and the door sits out a wee bit too much. But I can fix this and the thing is solid as. It is all removable anyway if it needs some mods. I also placed some ply in the main bed frames and put a layer of PU floor tiles in there to maximise the comfort. Not really, this was actually because I had 12mm ply sitting in a 25mm angle frame, this meant about 10mm of the frame was sitting above the ply. The foam fills in this gap nicely. I also fixed the water tanks in place and made a mount for the water pump that Shane supplied out of his bus stuff. I am going to try to get the water system hooked up before the COF check.... 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted September 30, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 30, 2016 I discovered something awesome today, that you can buy friction welded fittings for polyprop tanks. I needed to add a bigger drain to the waste tank and discovered this at my watery shop. I made a tool to drive it in using my excellent die grinder; Then I made another one with significantly less unbalanced rotating mass, that one ^ went hilariously badly when I spun it up. Then I welded that bitch in and checked the water tightness... Then I realised I had put it in a stupid place that had chassis stuff in the way. I went and bought another fitting and welded it in in a much better position. I then dicked around with various minor things for a while.... Then I decided to take the old fruit for a wee drive; Legal as anything, including the registration change to a motorhome...this calls for a celebratory Mussel Inn Manuka Ale. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted October 1, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 1, 2016 The inaugural and exceptionally bare bones start of our bussing experiences at Rabbit Island today; 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePog Posted October 2, 2016 Author Share Posted October 2, 2016 It got left out in the rain last night for a watertightness sit rep - and it leaks through the new windows and the boot. I will sort this pronto. I took everything out of the bus today bar the seats, this is so I can paint internally. This hurt my back so I stopped at lunchtime then had a nana nap. Then I made this bit of kit out of a mostly matching pair of sturdy scissor jacks I picked up from the wreckers during the week; This will be incorporated into a new rear bumper and prevent unsightly rocking from ..... from stuff that causes rocking in buses. I will find something to latch them up in place, probably a trailer type hitch thingy. Another thing has been added to the list of things to do after our adventure yesterday, it appears that there is only about 50mm of travel in the rear axle before the tyres hit the bodywork. This was apparent when taking corners at anything like speed, there would be a horrendous scraping noise and the smell of burnt rubber. So I will need to lift the tyre wells a little bit and maybe find some new shocks for it. It is generally pretty wallowy, not like a racing GTR bus at all. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted October 15, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 15, 2016 Shit I m spending some hours on this. Finished the stabiliser thingy, all except for the swing away bike rack bit that will come later; I will use a block of wood so they don't need to go so low, but as it is it does the job. I had to mod the exhaust tip so it didn't get in the way of the movement. Made some new wheel arches so there is 150mm worth of wheel travel before the wheel hits instead of 50mm; Fixed a bit of rust where the floor joined the wheel well at the front; Then I painted the inside, first etch primer, then some super special stuff that has hollow glass beads in it. According to the data sheets and the internets, a 2mm layer of this shit is equivalent to roof batts..... It was a right bastard to get on, it clagged up the brush almost instantly, and took ages anyway. I had to find a short flat brush at the shop so it wasn't so painful. The finish is weird, a bit like sandpaper, but not unappealing. It will be very interesting to see if it has the effect I desire, ie, very little internal condensation. Time will tell no doubt. You can also see my sneaky extra ribs I chucked in there. This was because the first trip to the COF shop was absolutely deafening, at 100kmh all of those roof panels were banging and crashing like cymbals. I did this and chucked some seam sealer at it as well, the second trip was infinitely more chill. Today I did the last of the painting then cracked into the floor. I really wanted some mac or Rimu T&G, but everything was expensive. The slightly cheaper mac stuff I wanted to get was difficult as the man who does it would not return my calls or emails. Fucker. Then I called in to Hubbers Flooring on the off chance there might be some cheap leftovers, and lo! they had some laminate flooring, enough to do it all for the bargain price of $50. Fuck it I thought, that will do nicely. So today I cleaned up the lumps off the floor and smashed it; Looks good IRL, there was fuck all left over though. There are a couple of spots where the alignment was not super great and I couldn't get it to sit right, but overall it is sweet. Wiring next, then lining out, then reassembly, then many many more things. As you were. 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted October 30, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 30, 2016 By a happy coincidence I has a stack of 25mm polystyrene sheet and the roof frame was 25mm box section, so the interior fitout has proceeded thus; This is more for sound deadening than anything as the special poo seems to do the trick, an hour in direct sunlight and the inside metal is blood warm, not egg frying hot. This all took a lot of time, each sheet needed at least 5 mount/dismounts before the fit was ok. The sheets then got a coat of polyurethane before final fitment. The lower sides have polystyrene behind them as well. And plumbing, and wiring. There are now some functional lights; Then I did a whole lot of tweaking to the stuff I had made for the inside to tidy it up/make it fit better, then I fitted it. Beds in place; The front mezzanine bed folds away so there is way more floorspace. I also made it removable so it can be a shelf if one of the brats decides tenting is a better option, here is hoping; Then the main bed stowed, this give a shitload of extra space. All the folding beds have space so the mattress can stay there. I will need to set up restraint straps when the mattresses arrive.; I also modded the rear hatch today so it closes tighter/does not leak. I also resealed the upper windows with thicker foam tape, silicone and some drain holes so water can get out if it does make it in. We took it to Rabbit Island again for the day, the best thing was lack of tyre rub going around corners, it is truly a GTR racing bus now. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted November 8, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 8, 2016 I have thrown a few more hours at the old fruit since the last update. Finished the interior insulation/lining/wiring, the lining was very time consuming... My eldest daughter is on a massive sewing malarky at the moment making pillows and such, so once the mattresses arrived I trimmed them down to suit the space and together we re-sewed the covers. She did a bloody good job too. The main bed width is 40mm shy of super king size, it is a lush and spacious area, I am looking forward to the first kip I have on this. We took it to the speedway on the weekend and lounged about while everyone else sat in their cars waiting to get out, it was mint. You can also see the start of the control panel for all the stuff that will be connected to the solar power. You can also just see those two black dots above the main bed - those are usb ports for night time phone charging etc. Must remember to install the bilge blower eh. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePog Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 I have been chipping away at multiple things since the last update, a Fiamma roof vent is one of them; I finished up the stereo installation as well. I needed to mount a switch to manually switch it on and off so there could be sounds when parked up, plus for some reason that is not entirely clear to me I thought i had better make it so I can turn off the Aux/memory feed as well, After taking out the old stereo I realised I had two perfectly positioned switch holes for these functions, this saved me the minor hassle of making up a plate; Stuffed under that dash is a 24v - 12v convertor so the thing actually runs. Might try to find a sub for it one day. I bought a brand new 24v compressor fridge and installed this, then I made some shelves which will need something on the fronts to stop shit falling off; Then I laminated another layer of ply onto my bench top cos it looked a bit flimsy. Then I made a shelf that fits the other side of the gas hob that folds up and acts as a spatter shield when it it not an extra bit of bench. Then I refitted the glove box. Then I bought some curtain rail extrusion and fitted that all around. Then I installed an extrusion on the side of the bus to fit an awning at some point. I have also ordered the solar system, this includes an bi-directional VSR which means the alternator can charge the solar batteries when the bus is running and the solar can charge the bus batteries when the bus is not running. This will be very exciting. I think that control panel will morph into some other format when the solar stuff arrives. In other news I investigated the source of a suspicious dried out coolant looking patch on the ground, and it looks very much like the radiator is totally fucked and weeping/leaking from multiple points. Fixing this will be interesting as I imagine that brand new OEM radiators for 1980 Nissan Civilians are a bit thin on the ground. I am sure something can be hacked into there if needed. This fix will need to happen fairly soon I imagine, so I will take it to the radiator place and get an opinion. As you were. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted November 24, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 24, 2016 I pulled that radiator out, it was pretty rotten. It is currently getting a recore at Richmond Radiators for an eye bleeding amount of money. I tried to find a replacement but there are very few of this model bus lying around. While I was there I pulled the thermostat lid off to see what things looked like and found not one but two thermostats! both were 88 degrees and fucked. Naturally the many places I rang to find correct replacements for it could tell me literally nothing. Thus I fully owned the internet and discovered that the space they each fit into is exactly the same sizes as a Nissan TD42. Hence from the links and info in a thread I found, I could make a call on what to stick in there, which is an 82 deg that will open first during normal running, then a 90 degree which will open when things get hot going over the Takaka hill. There will be a 5mm gap to the bypass poppet on both. Tell me if that sounds wrong, but holy shit i am now the worlds foremost authority on specifying thermostats on early ED33 motors, so basically you can fuck off. Actually no, please give many opinions. Here we have a radiator sized hole; After all that some exciting things arrived and i got to installing, firstly the 130Ah 12v AGM Batteries that actually fitted in the hole i made for them; The battery meter and chunkier switch for the fridge with a separate feed, as it is the biggest consumer of Ah's; The charge controller; A super tight, pro wiring job using many types of stuff; A fucking enormous 310W solar panel; Also a gas man came and sorted the hob, I can now die of CO poisoning in supreme comfort. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted November 27, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 27, 2016 This arrived and got smashed back into the hole; While all the seats were out I smashed a bit of black zinc in the cockpit to get it looking less patchy, then reassembled it all, forgot to take a pic tho. Then on to the solar panel, first bit was to cut and drill some mount angles to fit along the sides; Then i needed to mount the angles by drilling through the roof and I didn't want the holes to leak. Plus I also wanted the angle to sit off the roof a bit so that no water sat between the angle and the roof and corroded things, so I made these out of bits of tube I found and leftover rubber water pipe from a couple of replacements I did while the rad was getting fitted. The rubber is 5mm longer than the tubes so it compresses to the point it comes up hard against the steel pipe. Which appears to work, sweet; Then today I made this to seal the cable entry, my TIG skills are a bit rusty, but plenty good enough for the task at hand; Then I cut a hole and put some split plack pipe around the edge so the cable does not fret; Then I dragged the wires through and glued it on; Then I hooked up a bit more wiring, checked some things then flicked the switches; And it all just worked.... yay for me! I need to calibrate the battery monitor, and install the house/start battery charge thing, but basically that is it. The only things left are the curtains/insect nets and some shelving and storage. And a bike rack. And blank off a couple of windows. And no doubt some more shit I have not remembered. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted December 31, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 31, 2016 We have done a fair few day trips, and one overnighter at Kaiteri, which was pretty good.. The bus was used as an extra bedroom for various family members over xmas, my mother seemed particularly stoked with it and grumbled when she got kicked out after 3 days. The fridge has been particularly useful as a cold beverage store over the hols, and has proven the suitability of the solar power setup - even on an overcast day it is still producing more power than the fridge needs and gets back to 100% charge after an hour or two in the morning, minty mint. I have been chipping away at the long list of things needed to complete the beast, but as of now it is reasonably functional. I hope so at least as we have a 3 day stay in Takaka in a weeks time.. Made some flyscreens for the rear windows, but due to the angles at the back I had to hack things about a bit; I filled in a window either side with 3mm ally sheet. I painted them white at first but it was pretty obvious they needed to be blue, so i broke out the elephant again; Then I created much storage and a splashback for the bench; We have many rooted steel rulers lying about in the workshop, so I utilised a couple for spring latches; Then a vent for the hob out of a Jaycar 24v fan and a bit of stainless for the outside shroud; There have been a shitload of other small things that take time but I cant really remember It has been running really well too, blows no smoke and starts instantly. Fuck I am stoked with it. 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted January 27, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 27, 2017 The old fruit has had a fair bit of use now, we have had multiple trips over the break, and these are continuing every other weekend or so. Overall things have been super sweet, with the only real issue one of storage. This means i am in the process of moving the second bunk bed to the front of the bus and converting the bed into a storage shelf. Other improvements include replacing the diaphragm pump with a rotary one so the sound of it does not echo around the campsite at inappropriate hours. I have also added a water filter as the tank taste has not washed out yet. I also created a side drawer to hold the camp brazier/wood/tools/spare fluids/etc. This probably needs a bit more loving as the weight of all this makes it sag a little bit. While I do this I will change the closure method from wing nuts to trailer hitches. I cut a hole; We have a wee finger bender at work, I put this to use making bent things; The finished product, totally sweet until it get loaded with 100kg of stuff. On the way to Cable Bay; The campground.....it was surprising cold that night even after a jaunt up the hill to the lookout, so we convinced the camp owners that it was ok to crank up the brazier. We only stayed one night, but i am glad as a storm came through the next day, it was chaos for the tenters and caravanners who stayed. The bus didnt leak at all that night and it was blowing and raining like a bastard, so I was stoked with that. What did leak is the heater, and it turned out the core was rooted. I went the the truck wreckers and found something that fitted pretty much perfectly except for the outlet position, but 5 mins with a holesaw and cutting blade sorted that issue. I am in the process of getting all that together along with a tap in the cabin to shut the heater off for the summer, pics to come.... 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted March 29, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 29, 2017 Heater works sweet now. We have been using this relentlessly for weekends and day trips, fuck it is sweet. It is warm, comfortable and spacious for the four of us. I did build a new dismantlable bed at the front, the fold down side one was a pain, and now we use that area for clothes/thermette storage. This works a lot better on all counts. I added some LED lighting strip. This is under the gutter and is completely invisible until you turn it on, then it is like the sun has come up, that is if the sun was a spectral type O and a long thin shape. I got a flat, so I decided to smash some matty B on there while the wheels were off, looks sweet I reckon. COF due this week, hopefully nothing major has gone wrong. The dude at the testing station said he was looking forward to seeing the finished build, so hopefully he is the one who checks it as we already have a special relationship. I got this off a dude for a ridiculously small amount of money, it is an Eberspacher D1LC diesel heater. The current version of these sells for around 2k as a kit, and I am way too tight to spend that sort of money, trust me it was cheap. It has no glow plug so that is coming from the UK, when i am satisfied it will run I will install the beast. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted July 1, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 1, 2017 I thought I had better show some pics of the heater install, altho first off I fitted these up today, Powerdown 3 way adjustable shocks. They bolted in no problems altho getting the old ones out was difficult. Shout out to @Slacker_Sam. for the hook up. This has smoothed out the handling a bit, but i need to take it for a decent drive to see if it has helped the slightly sketchy understeery handling.. When I installed the heater I decided to make a separate fuel tank as the main one is not super big; I used the lid off an old jerry can, and also made a sweet breather that I have no pics of for some reason. This fits up underneath in front of the main tank, I think it is around 10L, heaps to run the heater for a few days at least. A hole got cut and I made a pretty shitty lockable fuel flap; The actual heater ended up inside the cabin in this weird storage space behind the passenger seat. It actually fitted perfectly; I made a ducted outlet so it blows it down the middle of the bus. When the cover is on you do not see any of my alphabetti spagetti wiring. The bitch sounded like a gas turbine from the outside when it was cranking so I muffled it with a pit bike muffler - this is now mostly socially acceptable. This is where the inlet and exhaust are; in the front wheel arch. The heater itself was a bit of a mission to get running right, it had no glow plug when I bought it so I ordered one from the UK. Once fitted it would start, but made hard work of it, but would start and run fine on pure kerosene. On diesel it would take a couple of glow cycles to start and only sometimes catch, then piss out huge clouds of unburnt diesel which was not super. If you blocked the inlet or exhaust for a second it would quite often catch instantly. I then ordered a gasket kit from the UK and stripped it down and replaced everything, the gaskets were all mostly fucked, but most interesting of all there was a second big resistor in the glow loom underneath the plastic housing. I did some calcs of the current and voltage and decided that the glow was just not getting hot enough due to the second resistor. The UK Eberspacher boys knew nothing about this extra resistor so I had to solve it myself. It appeared as though the resistor was there so a 12v glow could be used in the 24v heater, but of course I had ordered a 24v glow plug. The current draw and resistance I was measuring was not tying in to any of the specs to get the power output specified. So in the end I calculated the ohms that the resistor needed to be to get the power output to the glow that was specified in the manual, cut a little bit more than half of the nichrome wire off and TIGed it back together. I had a couple of goes at this to make sure I had the right figure... Anyway that actually worked and now it starts pretty much straight away, with only a wee puff of smoke. It cranks out the heat as well.. Fuck you are all going to be cold sorry bitches in Hanmer, I however will be roasty toasty 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.