ThePog

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.

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;

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.

Yea, I got it all sorted late morning yesterday. I still could have gone but was not feeling the love for the driving/fun in Hanmer ratio. I did end up getting a shitload done on the bus tho, plus helped the neighbour by pressing the bushes out of the A arms of his Singer Vogue. So not all bad...

Got halfway up Spooners on the way to Hanmer and the lower exhaust joint blew out. I turned around and went straight back to the workshop to fix it, decided to do a socket joint to get more poo area. I got most of it done but then many many things work related stopped me from finishing. I also tweaked the bit of pipe so the routing was a bit straighter. It is all in place but still needs a weld around the pipe cos I cut it off to make the joint better, but now it looks like I have to take one of our cats to the vet cos it has muntered its paw trying to get into the washing machine... The Prime Cause of the universe clearly thinks I should not be in Hanmer

The old bitch failed the warrant on rust in the sill, not too much work to sort it tho; Warrant man should be happy, I got a blob of weld in my ear, this made me unhappy.

It kindof looks like I am running out of time to get the bus ready for Hanmer, so I thought I had better get the backup plan well and truly sorted. I have not really been driving the Humber as the exhaust manifold poo didnt work out too well, probably cos I ran the car before it cured properly. I knew I had fucked up somewhere cos the exhaust was leaking worse than it had before. I was also a wee bit marginal on the Mighty Car Mods style surface cleanup that I had done on the manifolds, so decided to man up and get it right. I pulled a spare manifold out of the pile, this had an unusual bit of tin wrapped around it which turned out to be covering a pretty substantial crack - so that one got binned. Fortunately I have a rather large pile of spares and simply dragged out another one. This one I managed to attach to my little mill drill and proceeded to machine all the mating faces; Saturday morning I spent installing this along with copious amounts more poo. I then left it overnight to cure. I have been driving it around today and it feels well and truly sorted. It will need a warrant this week, so I will try and get it in tomorrow just so I have a wee bit of time to sort out any fuckery that might arise...

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.

I did a bit of stuff inside tonight, added a few ribs and such; Then I decided to tackle the grot in the rear quarters and boot, so started cutting it all out. Then I struck gold in the form of a set of pliers used to pack out the hole. I then accidentally lost a key that had fallen out to the shop vac, so I decided to go the full forensic for the sake of science. This is the final haul; - Some sandpaper - A crunchie wrapper - A pen lid - A set of pliers - A lollipop stick - A bottle lid - A 1 yen coin - A NZ 5c coin - A button - A piece of wood - A piece of filing cabinet - A bolt - The lost key Naturally there was heaps of paper and shitloads of bog as well, but this must be some form of record. It is for me at least...

Gave it a serious clean out today and tidied a few things; Made a functional horn button. This will need more loving as you need to remove a spade terminal to remove the wheel, but it works at least. The quick release turned out a bit shit, it is cheaply made and so the wheel wriggled when locked. I fixed this by sticking M5 grub screws into the alternate wheel mounting holes and jacking them out until the fuckers got nice and firm. Made a latch for the door so it actually close and locks... Made a battery cover and a mount for the isolator that I had installed when it was not charging properly; Then I sat and contemplated the goodness for a while, then went home.

Ha, I was thinking about you today trying to remember if it was designline you used to work at. I was thinking that this shit was harder than it looked!

Probly time to stop eh

Pretty sure she still has her teeth sorry. You will enjoy climbing in where I came out of I am sure..

I am sure she could do with some young dick.

I do have a timeline I am working to, I will need to back off if I do not make it to hanmer as family life will really start suffering... Plus you are a useless cunt.

The last stretch of roofage today, I had managed a wee bit over the week; So I used a sheet of steel to make the template directly, unfortunately I bolloxed this up and had to use my last sheet to re do it. Just as well I had a spare.. Then I slammed on the triangular bits and made sure they covered all the holes I had cut to get rid of the rust; Knackered now, that was a difficult bit to sort and it took 8 hours solid. In other news I have invested in a spray gun, some fuck off etch primer and some plasticoat for the roof. I also have a new BT stereo coming. I have a cunning plan for the interior insulation and painting, more of this at a later date. I have the horn to sort out and some rust to remove, then some windows to make and install, then I will take it for a COF and see what ugliness ensues.

The data sheet for the resene one says brush for small areas only, I have some solid meterage to cover. I might need to man up and spray it, I do have a big old compressor in the workshop. I am just a retard with painting...

Alrighty you useful bitches. I need to paint the roof of my bus once it is all welded up. I am going to roller it, mostly cos it is a big area and I hate spraying shit. What do you reckon to use for the first coat onto the steel and then the topcoat? I was kind of thinking red oxide then house paint, but that is just because I am a dickhead about paint. Enlightened my ignorance please..

So I have been doing a couple of hours every day after work, this makes for a long day but still better than sitting in front of a computer.. Started laying on the roof, the rear corner wrapping went better than expected; Wrapping the tops over was tiresome, I tried sitting on it and stropping it down but could not get a tight enough radius over the frame. Eventually I resorted to making a tool that I welded to the sheet and levered/pulled it tight enough to tack it. Added the back chunk after making a cardboard template, this was trivial in comparison; Then I had to fill in the compound radius at the top corner. I had some 100 x 1.6mm tube sitting in the steel rack so I trimmed up a bit of this as a start; Then I split it at 200mm separation so I could get the curve happening; Full welded then cleaned up..... Then I chucked in the fill panel between the two after adding some extra ribs to hold it them in place. I fully welded all that, so those panels pulled like a motherfucker. This means I may need to make some little bracy things so the panels pop out rather than in. Shouldn't leak tho The welding where I set the sheets down in the gutter was sketchy as fuck, there was so much spitting and popping that I ended up just tacking that every 100mm or so and will seam seal it. Might get a bit more done tomorrow..... Also I have bought a gas hob and a 24 - 12v dc convertor for various activities.

Today I cut yet more of the roof off, it is nearly all gone now Then I added some window frame top and bottoms. Then I spent 4 hours welding it all together. then cleaning it all up ready for sheetmetal. I stupidly left all the insulation from the cut off roof inside it, I set it on fire a number of times, this was lol. This shot was before the welding but it looks the same same as after the welding, you can see my extra windowy bits.

Onto it

We make fancy gates and railings, these are decorative things for the tops of pillars etc. You can get them up to 180mm diameter I think. Solid ones too if you want to make a cannon. Although the thinking about it you could pack a hollow one with gunpowder...!

Did a bit over the week; Cut out some grot Had a genius idea for the roof corners a wee while ago, so I implemented this. I did this cos it is really hard to get flat steel to become spherical... The radius I used for my little brackets to roll the sheetmetal around is 40mm, one of my suppliers has hollow spheres, one of which is 80mm diameter, so I cut one up and used it thus; This worked out really well (for now at least, we will see what fuckery happens when it comes to laying down the sheetmetal) Finished laying out the roof frame tonight, It just needs a couple of hours tomorrow to get it all fully welded, then some between the sheet action will ensue.

No update from last weekend as I was having a holiday in ChCh/Tekapo, I tried to convince my wife to leave me at home to crank through a bit more bus, but no There was almost no progress this weekend either as I had to install Windows 10 on my work laptop, holy fucking shit that is a day of my life I will never get back. Then to top it off I decided to do a bit of bus on that Sat afternoon and hilariously got some steel in my eye (I was wearing all the right kit, just bad luck I guess). I ended up at the emergency room around 6pm and the doctor took a look and said she couldn't see anything. On the way home the anesthetic wore off and it started to get worse. My eyelid was all puffed up as well by then. At midnight we loaded up the brats and drove back to the emergency room where another doctor actually found the steel embedded inside my upper eyelid. Unfortunately he poked a hole in my inner eyelid with the needle as well, so when I woke up this morning my entire eye socket was encrusted with gunk and blood - nice. I cannot recommend spending 7 hours with something sharp scraping your cornea, 0/10 would not trade again. It is coming right though and was good enough to get some shit done today. Anyway, I made an executive decision to make the roof lift a bit longer, this is so a shower or something could be installed in place of a second row seat in the future if our kids ever leave home or we sell it. This is a bit shit cos it will make the front rack a harder/pointless, plus I don't think it will look quite as shmick, however practicality will always win the day in PogLand. I have also mostly sorted the steering wheel boss, I naturally got some shit laser cut for this :tongue: First I cut and turned down the steering boss; Then some 8mm plate gets bolted to that. There are 3x M6 screws with about 30mm of thread engagement, should be enough; Then the quick release boss gets mounted along with another 8mm adaptor plate; Then the dirty ol trumpet wheel gets bolted on; Boom! As a bonus the height is now perfect for the seat, I will be able to change gears with ease.... The seat will have heaps more room too, nothing but win right there. I need to sort the horn but oi have a plan for this.