ThePog

I see you turned into Spencer place today, I was making a coffee and heard some bogan shithead RX7 trundling up the road..... then I saw what it was and had a giggle, there is something totally right about that sound coming from this car. Congrats, it looks sweet in the real.

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.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-parts-accessories/toyota/electrics/auction-1195281207.htm http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1192731825

So what would the deal with the ignition be? Apparently the vac stuff is deeply integrated on some versions...

Bit shit cos dark in the shop right now.

It is very tight under the engine cover. The other option is getting a Weber to replace the factory carb..

It does have all sorts of vacuum emissions bollocks on there, some of which is contributing I am sure. So the manifolds are a direct swap etc?

I have a 4wd townace ute with a 1.8 carby 2y engine. The engine is strong but the carb lets it down. We have fucked with it, the garage has fucked with it but it runs like a bag of shit, hard starting and a massive flat spot, plus it uses all the fuel.. A man on TM has a 3y injection setup, plus there are no doubt millions of 3y and 4y engines everywhere. So what i want to know is will that 3y injection setup bolt onto the 2y, or am I better off sourcing a complete injected 4y and taking the punt it will bolt up. Learn me.

PM me the deets, I am sure it can get sorted...

I have space if needed, whereabouts is the beast?

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.

I once put beeswax on a gun blued bike frame, it has lasted surprisingly well. You can thin out the beeswax with white spirit and rub it on, 3-4 coats and it looks like shellac.

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.

I went to Takaka today and happened to call into the Opshop... However I couldn't find the manual The lady said she remembered it and thought someone had bought it a week or so ago. She thinks she remembers who bought it and said she would ask if he came in again, so I left my details just in case. I am disappointed, I was hoping to make a good day for you....

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.

The inaugural and exceptionally bare bones start of our bussing experiences at Rabbit Island today;

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.

That makes sense, the roof height was ridiculous for any normal sized person, even my kids couldn't stand up in it... they do take after me tho.

Yea that would be good ta.

In my bus i will be running a gas hob only. I have made the box for the bottles to what I believe is the correct spec, and the hob has flame out protection etc. What i want to know is can I just run a standard gas reg/gas pipe to the hob? There is no physical issue doing this as it is not a long run between one and the other, so it means no need for gas fitting etc. The regulations I have read state a need for all work to be carried out by a gas fitter and then certified, but there is no actual gas fitting required...? Any of you lot know the rules?

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....

Sorting the really important things

I am sure sidewaysickness knows a few people in takaka, I am sure one could grab the book for you..

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.

Yea pretty stoked considering it hasn't had a cof since 2009!