A Day at the Dump: Goodbye, Furniture; Hello, Weight

June 20th, 2009

It’s been a wet week, with particularly heavy rain and strong winds on Monday night. When I went to work on the paint Thursday, I saw that my 30-day tag was missing, having softened in the rain and torn off in the wind.

My wife and I looked all over the area and couldn’t find it, so I arranged to go in late to work Friday so I could go to the courthouse and get a replacement tag so I could go to the dump Saturday and get the bus weighed so I could go to the courthouse next week and title the bus with an accurate weight.

I just happened to have a little extra time Friday morning before the courthouse opened, so I dropped by my brother’s house to give him a heat gun he had asked for that it turns out he had already bought himself. (No problem; I expect I’ll be going through several in the near future.) And it also turns out he found my tag, saved it for me, and forgot to mention it. Thanks, bro! :-)

30-day tag on rear of schoolbus

I reaffixed it this morning, using washers to keep the paper from tearing off again.

Only One Leak???

It’s raining again. (Oh will my heart ever mend.)

Rain leaking into schoolbus driver's window

Found this on the console by the driver’s side window, and no other leaks. Of course, the bus still has enough filth and spills inside it’d be hard to spot more leaks right now; but if this is all there is, it seems pretty manageable.

To the Dump, to the Dump, to the Dump-Dump-Dump

Jonathan and I took the bus to the dump this morning to dispose of the worst couch and chair. I confess that there may have been slightly more celebratory rolling of furniture out of the back of the bus than was strictly necessary in order to get said furniture over to the big green dumpster.

We arrived early when there weren’t many other people at the dump yet — apparently the second load of the day — and the attendant seemed amused and chatted a while about my plans for the bus. Good conversation starter.

With Jonathan in the bus and me on the scale outside the bus, the total weight was 14,700 lbs. Figure 200 lbs each, so 14,300 lbs for the bus itself, including a full tank of gas (400 lbs) and no water (as far as I can tell) in the tanks.

Two different gals at the courthouse were looking up similar VINs for me and coming up with 7,200 lbs. I think they must have been looking at short buses. My family’s 1969 Ford Galaxie weighs 3500 lbs; I can see that a short bus could be two Galaxies and the long bus could be four.

More Cleaning

After returning from the dump, Jonathan and I unmounted and unloaded the cheap stereo speakers that were screwed to cabinets and walls, pulled out and discarded cheap speaker cable, and did general litter patrol. Big yellow bag for trash; small bags for recyclable plastic and metal. We left it ready to sweep and mop.

Forward view of schoolbus interior

Here’s the forward view through the back door, with the floor in its full grotesquerie. The bright windows you can see through are the ones we opened to get a cross-breeze. Most of the dome lights work; those that don’t appear to have bad bulbs rather than bad wiring.

Front half of schoolbus interior

Forward half of the bus. The cabinet on the right needs to go and make way for a passenger chair (with seatbelt); but it’s bolted down and we didn’t have the right tools with us. The sink cabinet on the left needs to be replaced with something a little nicer, but it’ll do for now.

Rearward view of schoolbus interior, back door open

The interior looking rearward from the front, with the back door open.

I haven’t figure out yet whether the cutout in the counter was for a stove or refrigerator. The gas line inside it doesn’t necessarily answer the question — I’m learning that RV refrigerators can run on gas (or 12VDC or 120VAC).

Rear interior of schoolbus, back door closed

The back end with the door closed.

Easy Window Repairs

Schoolbus window frames

While I was fetching a nut driver for the speaker mounts, Jonathan took apart a window frame. He had it back together by the time I returned; but apparently the two screws come out, the adjacent frames lift off, and the windows lift out.

That’s encouraging to think of the ease of replacing the glass in broken windows and the ease of (eventually) replacing the windows with something that seals better and has a double pane for better insulating value.

Expenses

$7 dump fee
$7 total for getting rid of nasty furniture and weighing the bus

Posted in Acquisition, Cleaning, Expense | 7 Comments »

Serious Paint Removal Attempts #2-3

June 20th, 2009

Purple paint stripped from schoolbus with fine wire wheel on angle grinder

Tuesday night: Fine wire wheel on angle grinder. Pretty slow going, and it tended to take the yellow paint almost as easily as the purple. The angle grinder also overheats pretty quickly; I’d need to cycle through maybe four to be able to run continuous duty.

Purple paint stripped from schoolbus with heat gun and putty knife

Thursday night: Heat gun and putty knife. The heat gun softens everything and it’s hard to keep from scraping right down to bare metal, much less to leave the yellow paint.

Removing Van Rust

Rust cleaned off 1985 Chevy van with coarse wire wheel on angle grinder

Friday night: Coarse wire wheel on the angle grinder takes the rust right off my old van! Saturday morning: The rain puts the rust right back on! That’s okay; I can go back (Jack) and do it again, and it’ll take much less effort to get the light surface rust off than the heavy stuff that was there before.

Arly’s Advice

I just talked to Arly Funk, a wonderful gentleman who’s run a body shop in Newton all my life and will never retire; and he told me several things I don’t want to hear.

The original primer and paint are better than anything I’m going to be able to put on.

The house paint — even if not so sloppily applied — absolutely has to come off. It won’t adhere well enough for the next layer to last long.

Primer is not weather-resistant and is damaged by moisture. Anywhere I expose the primer, I need to reprime.

Anywhere I expose bare metal, I have about two hours to prime it. Beyond that, invisible oxidation is already forming and will weaken the bond between metal and primer. A light sanding with fine sandpaper is enough to clean this off before priming.

Out of curiosity, he has tested both hardware-store spray paint and roll-on liquid paint in his shop. Neither has good adhesion and longevity. In his experience, only liquid paint applied with a high-volume / low-pressure (HVLP) spray gun works well.

Sigh.

Posted in Paint | No Comments »

Serious Paint Removal Attempt #1: Too Fast!

June 13th, 2009

Stripping paint down to bare metal

I got a 4″ disc wire brush for my angle grinder, thinking it would strip paint a lot faster than the cordless drill. It did — it stripped down to bare metal when I barely touched it to the bus!

I suspect the original primer is a lot better than anything I can buy, and certainly better applied, so I really don’t want to remove it; I want to leave the primer and maybe even yellow paint to cover with my own paint job.

If I did want to strip to bare metal, the brush I was using in the angle grinder would be great. For this job, I’ll see if I can find a finer brush for the grinder.

Also I need to find one with a 5/8″ arbor. Drilling a 1/2″ arbor out to 5/8″ causes separation of the metal plates formerly holding the wire pieces together. Careful application of the angle grinder’s arbor plates gets the wires held pretty securely — and remarkably concentric on the first try — but that’s no way to really do it.

Bus with a few linear feet of purple paint stripped

I switched to the “wire brush on a stick” in my corded drill and got a few linear feet of above-the-rail stripped. Took over an hour and it really wasn’t worth the effort.

Battery Compartment and AC Wiring

Bus battery compartment and AC wiring

I hadn’t leaned down far enough to really look in, so Jonathan was the original discoverer of the AC wiring sticking into the battery compartment. I’m guessing the former owner had an inverter installed in there — which I just read is a bad idea, as the battery acid fumes can eat up the delicate inverter guts. Maybe I’ll put mine in a separate compartment.

But What Will the Neighbors Think?

My neighbors saw the bus this afternoon for the first time. The folks next door think it’s really cool and a great idea. The man of the house from two doors down came over to say that “The Landing Strip” (painted on the front of the bus) is a bar in Aggieville (Manhattan), which gives a clue as to the provenance and likely former owner of the bus.

The best reaction was from the young couple across the street. As they were halfway across, they were already calling out that their curiosity had got the better of them; and they gushed about how cool the bus is and asked all kinds of questions. They let their four young kids explore the inside of the bus, and didn’t mind at all that they were enthralled by the dead baby mice. They’re all very enthusiastic about the project and the prospects and think it’s great!

This was, of course, before I backed into their mailbox, as one of the part-time police officers I don’t know came driving down the street.

Posted in Electrical, Paint | 4 Comments »

Making a Key for the Locking Gas Cap

June 12th, 2009

Locking gas cap with homemade key

The bus has a locking gas cap but didn’t come with the key. Fortunately the cap was unlocked, so I could at least fill gas. Also fortunately, I found in the glovebox the original gas cap. So last night I put the original cap onto the gas tank and brought home the locking cap to make a key.

While taking off the gas cap and fishing out the retaining wire, I noted that this fill spout has nothing for the lock to lock against; so there’s no way I can see for this cap to actually lock. So why did someone replace the original with a locking cap? Because of the retaining chain — the original cap didn’t have one, there’s no good place to set the cap while filling, and the retaining chain is very handy to keep the cap captive.

That left me with a removed locking gas cap and no reason to make a key for it. But I already had the cap loose; so why not go ahead with an evening’s keymaking entertainment.

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Posted in Security | 9 Comments »

Two Songs for the Bus

June 7th, 2009

The Towing Song

Schoolbus bumper damaged by inappropriate towing

This is the way we tow our bus,
tow our bus,
tow our bus.

Schoolbus bumper damaged by inappropriate towing, close-up

This is the way we tow our bus
when we’re selling it in the morning
and we don’t care what happens to it any more

Schoolbus front bumper and frame

and it’s too hard to reach underneath and hook a chain around the frame.

Tra la!

The Paint Stripping Song

Purple house paint stripped from schoolbus

This is the way we strip the house paint,
strip the house paint,
strip the house paint.

Purple house paint stripped from schoolbus, closeup

This is the way we strip the house paint,
with a wire brush on a cordless drill

Purple house paint stripped from schoolbus fender

for a few minutes until the battery runs down
and the horrendous purple paint goes right away

Purple house paint stripped from schoolbus fender, closeup

and we are very happy.

Tra la!

Posted in Paint | 4 Comments »

Retrieval Attempt #2: Success!

June 7th, 2009

Purple schoolbus, front left profile

It’s home!

“Neighbor Dan” and I left at 5:30 this morning to go up to Manhattan, rig the split shifter, and bring home the bus. Dan pulled the split shifter off the differential, decided the shifter motor was just old or gummed up, and got the shifter engaged into high with some electricity and some thumping. The drive back was pretty uneventful — in particular, the shifter did not drop back out of gear.

Dan thinks the split shifter motor may just need lubrication or new brushes. He described how easy it is to remove from the differential; so I’ll start by taking it off, drilling out the three motor-mount screws off of which I broke the heads, and seeing what I can do with the motor. I don’t want to do a short-term fix like lubricating it with a lightweight oil that will just burn off, so I don’t know yet whether this will be a rebuild or a replace.

Turn Signals and Schoolbus Flashers

Schoolbus signal lights

While Dan was working under the bus, I was looking for a bulb I could use to replace the burned-out rear right-turn signal light. Thought I might be able to pull one from the schoolbus flashers (which I don’t need), but it turns out they’re sealed-beam units.

Ended up borrowing one from the back-up lights, since I wasn’t planning to do a lot of backing on the highway.

Fuel Economy

The fuel gauge started on empty and I put in a little over 40 gallons in Manhattan, so I know the tank is at least a 41-gallon.

I refilled in Newton, adding about 22.7 gallons after about 108 miles, so I got about 4.75 mpg, a little less than I was hoping for. Dan thinks a tune-up may get me a little more.

Parked By the Shed

Purple schoolbus by shed with grain truck

My brother is indulging me and letting me park the bus behind his shed by his stick-hauling grain truck, for now, anyway. He’s already warned me not to get too comfortable with that — but I’m sure once he sees how charming the bus is, his heart will warm to the idea of keeping it nearby.

Today’s Expenses

For five and a half hours of his time, plus 220 miles in his pickup, Dan only asked for $125. I gave him $149 — everything I had on me at the time. A bargain.

$149 Dan’s travel and repair fee
$102 40.332 gallons gas at start of trip
$56.75 22.708 gallons gas at end of trip
$307.75 total for second (and final!) retrieval attempt

Posted in Acquisition, Expense, Mechanical | 2 Comments »

Retrieval Attempt #1: Split-Shifter

June 2nd, 2009

When I won the schoolbus auction Thursday, I was in Kansas City at a conference. Because the auction house is open Saturday mornings, I was able to divert through Manhattan on my way home, pay for the bus, and pick up the title and key.

Monday Retrieval Plans

I scheduled Monday off work and found that Lawrence’s daughter Mary could drive me to Manhattan to pick up the bus. Monday morning I went to my insurance company and got a liability policy. The $125 annual premium seemed low, but they explained they don’t expect the bus/RV to be driven every day so they have limited exposure.

Next I went to the courthouse to register the bus. I had already confirmed that I could register it as an RV, but there’s a matter of getting the correct weight on the title. The previous owner had registered it as a 3500-lb vehicle, and that’s obviously absurdly low. The vehicle department clerk (Ron Tozier’s wife Sandy) looked up other vehicles with similar VINs and found people registering them in the 7200 – 9000-lb range. (I love the helpful attitude in a small town.) She said she’d be happy to average them and call that the weight.

I wasn’t quite comfortable making up a weight like that, though; and I know I’ll be making a trip over the truck scale at the dump when I dispose of the ratty bus furniture anyway. So I got a 30-day tag and I’ll go back after I know the actual weight.

It Doesn’t Drive

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Posted in Acquisition, Expense, Mechanical | 8 Comments »

I Bought a Bus

June 2nd, 2009

For years, I’ve been enthralled with the idea of buying an old schoolbus, ripping out the seats, and converting it approximately into an RV — a self-contained living space that I can drive down the road. While in college, I thought it should have a B/W darkroom and I should cross the country taking and printing photos; but today film is out of fashion and I’d rather it have an electronics laboratory (that’s “la-BOHR-a-tree”).

Of course, in order to persuade friends to take weekend trips with me, it should also have good audio and enough room to plug in a few guitars and a keyboard to sit around and jam.

Barring prohibitive circumstances to be described later, my dream appears to be taking shape in reality. Last week I won an auction for a half-converted former schoolbus previously owned by a university athletics fan and used as a tailgate bus. It already has the seats removed, potable and waste water tanks plumbed, and many other interesting “features.”

For starters, here are the pics from the auction listing. They’re not all interesting, but I’ll just be thorough.

First, a walk around the front of the bus:

Converted schoolbus, left front

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Posted in Acquisition, Expense | 1 Comment »

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