Popular Post ThePog Posted February 7, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 7, 2018 Fuck I thought i had better give an update on this as it has been a while. I have tidied up a few things but basically we have been smashing the fuck out of this nearly every weekend over the summer, even if it is just off to Rabbit Island for the day. Overnighters we generally keep it to 3 nights, the waste tank gets full about then and we run out of fresh water. It is also used when the brats have sleepovers or if we have visitors staying... The only issue worthy of note is that a bearing in the gearbox shat itself the week before we were due to go over to Ligar bay over xmas. There was a really ugly noise under load that clearly was not going to fix itself, so on the Tuesday I dropped the box out and started stripping it. Dropping it was piss easy, there is heaps of room under there. The spigot bearing was worn to nothing and I thought that might be it, but when I took the front plate off and most of the secondary shaft front bearing fell out. I realised i didn't have enough kit to do it properly, so the next day I dropped it at the local garage. He said that he would see what he could do but don't hold my breath. Then he rang me at 10am the next day saying it was all good to go - fucking sweet! I slapped it in on the Thursday and Friday we took off over the Takaka hill. All went well and it is now much quieter to drive which is a bonus. The only hiccup was when we stopped in Takaka - I went to start it again and there was a verry loud fizzing sound and it went dead. I found that I probably had not tightened the earth strap to the starter, tightened it up and was good to go 5 mins later. No pics at all sorry as I was fully on a fucking mission. However I have done some extra stuff; I added a bike rack, this works perfectly, the arms or the whole thing is removable. You can also see my bonus LED tailights - fitted cos the old trailer lamps kept shitting themselves regularly. We also changed the sleeping arrangements a bit as we needed to separate the kids bit more. What was the second bunk is now box storage, then I made a removable bunk at the front, this works well. This ally bits at the sides are removable. The mattress fits on there perfectly. Unfortunately our kids are now both a bit too tall to fit, so we bought a tent for them. The bunks are pretty much emergency sleeping now. I will probably do another rearrangement to make it more viable for both of them to sleep in there. I also made this mint wee table that is articulated. This is perfect for playing cards on when the seats are swung around. We seem to do a lot of card playing, either Presidents and Arseholes or Euchre... I have done a bit of other shit, but nothing really worth noting. It is just about the perfect object actually, not to big that a day trip is a hassle, cosy but not crowded. The bed is really comfy too, I sleep better in this than I do at home... 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted August 19, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 19, 2022 Dredge time. The bus got a COF just before lockdown but had a couple of advisories on the rear shocks and brake flexis. So after lockdown ended I sorted all that, but then it kind of sat idle as the lockdowns came and went. I also thought I had better do a wee bit of rust work before the next COF, but there were many many other things requiring my attention. Nek minit it's been a couple of years and the rust has progressed. I realize now that painting it with house paint didn't really help that situation, so I decided to man up and sort it out all proper like. ie remove the shitty paint and get something proper on there. So this has been me the last couple of weeks; So yea going hard. I have a pot of proper primer from a real paint shop, i have test painted the boot so see if there are any nasty reactions with house paint remnants, but it all seems good so far. TBH i will probably be selling this soon, we will see how much use it gets this summer.... 14 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted August 27, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 27, 2022 My sister is down visiting at the moment, although she had to drive her bus over the lewis pass to get here from Picton, ha. I have done many things to her shitty rust pile of a bus over the years to keep it mostly intact and functional, and in fact found myself making a bracket and mounting an inverter for her this morning. @HumberSShas also just had the pleasure of fixing some more of the relentless rust recently. So i strong armed her into a payback mission on my bus this afternoon. I had already sanded and primed the nose and half of one side over the week, but we smashed out the rest of it today. Fuck it took time. And that is with the most cursory of sanding... IRL it is fucking rough, i just dont care enough to smooth everything out real nice, plus we did it with paint brushes hehe. @HumberSS just suggested doing the rest of it in bed liner, one of the best ideas ever. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted September 11, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 11, 2022 So i have painted some of the bus in bedliner. This has not gone as well as it could as i am clearly the wrong person for the job. Firstly it became apparent almost immediately that i did not have enough bed liner, in fact i will need 1.5x more at least to finish it. Then the colour choice is questionable, this is because I colour matched it from memory. So it is not the same blue for some reason, but it doesnt matter as I decided to paint all of the body of the bus. Hence for reasons that will become apparent the bus is now called Smurf. Then there is my spray gun skill and how this is affected by stress, and i can tell you that stress negatively affects my skill. And i have almost no skill to start with so this isnt an ideal situation. And I was stressed. So anyway, I painted the bus. The good news is the the ugly is covered up nicely (except for that dent that i didnt bother fixing lols). The bad news is that the variation in texture is amazing. So much so that i think i might do a final coat with a roller to even it out, although the nose is kindof convincing probably cos i had decent light. Stupid fucking paint bollocks. I should have known not to get involved in that shit. 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted November 13, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 13, 2022 The patchyness and colour variation was bothering me, so I decided to sort it out. It looks way better now. In addition I have been picking away at little jobs, ie painting the grille surrounds and mirrors, replacing a fucked interior light, removing an ant infestation, giving it an oil and filter change, adjusting the cardan shaft handbrake so it has a chance of passing a COF, giving the rear bumper and stabilisers a bit of a birthday, etc etc I might flush the cooling system and add another interior light, then we are good to go. Took it for a quick drive to see if all was good and it still goes amazingly well, keen to give it a hoon. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ThePog Posted January 5, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 5, 2023 Failed the COF on the handbrake - obviously, so I fixed it all up proper by taking the drum off and burning the crap off the drum with my gas plant and scuffing up the shoes, and even tested it on a 1:5 gradient. Then I realised I couldnt fill out the form they gave me as this had to be done by an approved service agent. Of which there is only one in Nelson. Fuckety fuck. So today I took it to Nelson Truck Repairs and Spares who took the drum off and burnt the crap off the drum with their gas plant and scuffed up the shoes, which really needed doing. I took it straight to the testing station and shes all legal beagle again, yay! They are going hard on cardan shaft handbrakes, its so dumb as a perfectly functioning cardan shaft handbrake will still roll over the dumb fuck who jacked a single wheel up on a slope.... And I have to get it serviced by the same boys every two years now. So fucking stupid. Anyway, we will go on a trip or two then it might be time to sell it... 13 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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