Tag Archives: Bus Conversion

The mirrors don’t defog

06/06/2018 Bernie Cross

Some one cut the wire to the mirrors

Like many other wire’s, the mirror de-fog wires had been cut. when someone fitted the spotlight brackets. I only found this out when trying to get the mirror de-fogger to go.

Side mirrors have had the wire’s cut for the de-mister’s on both side’s.

Now I now why the wires were cut, no holes in the spot light bracket

To start with I didn’t think this little job was going to that much of a problem, once again I was wrong. So now that I’ve started this job we may as well fix it for good. The first job is to pull every thing apart so that I can get all the bit’s powder coated.

Drivers side mirror off, now to finish pulling it apart.

Will have to strip it all apart to re wire it.

Mirror out, but this one was glued in & I cracked it getting it out.

The cut wires at one stage went to two lights in the mirrors to heat the glass up to de-fog them. I thought there was going to be a heating element in there, but two 24v light globes would work just as well.

But something just will not come apart. Bugger!!!

I don’t think anything had been touched for years, so bolt and grub screw are seized up. Now I will have to drill every one out, then try some easy out’s.

Drilling the bolt out so I can use a easy out bit.

Well so much for the easy outs, they didn’t work. The next plan is to drill them right out and use some recoils and new bolts. This job just keeps getting bigger.

Every thread must be done as they are all stuffed.

I’ve even had to recoil the bracket point on the coach as they had rusted and they were stuffed to. Well at least when I get to the stage of painting the coach I’ll be able to get them off again.

the coach looks a bit weird with out the mirrors on.

All the part are off to the powder coat shop for a good sand blasting, then a coat of satin black. Also I’ve been of to O’Brians Glass to get new mirrors cut too, so now it’s a waiting game.

House sitting

New House Sit

28/05/2018 Bernie Cross

Laidley Heights house sit

We have a two and a half month house sit in Laidley heights looking after a little fur ball called Timmy, as well as the house. The weather is a bit hotter down the range than up in Toowoomba, but we will be back up there before it get’s hot again.

I had some fun trying to level the coach up this time, had to jack the front drivers side up a lot and still couldn’t get it perfect. So it’s as good as I could get it.

Jacked to the max at the front to get the blocks under to level her up.

The back tag axle wheel off the ground, that’s a first for me.

So now the next stage of the coach can begin, first of will be clearing out the front of the coach through to the bathroom. Which will give me some where to work and make a mess as I finish of the bathroom. After that it will be into ripping up the old floor on the front half of the coach and replacing it.

We didn’t have much room getting in the driveway.

Motorhome fit out

It just will not start.

20/05/2018 Bernie Cross

Starter motor problems

Just one of those days, Charmaine had gone to work and I was packing up the coach to move to a new house sit in Laidley Heights. While going down the road driving, I decided ro stop on the side of the road to check everything was ok inside and out. After checking things I jumped back into the driver’s seat turned the key and nothing happened apart from some clicking. So there I was on the side of the road…. the only good thing was I parked under a nice big tree, so I had some shade.

I gave Charmaine a call and when she had finished work she came back so at least I could jump-start the coach. That didn’t work either and we were going to have to spend some money and get some help. A $110 and a 1hr later help arrived, we hooked up two 12v batteries to make 24v and even that didn’t work until he put power straight to the starter motor bypassing the solenoid the Detroit started like nothing happened.

That was not the only problem

So back on the road again, I had tested the engine brakes on the flat but now it was down the Toowoomba range to give them the real test. Charmaine went on ahead down the range in front of me, as I put it in second gear and switch on the engine breaks and down the hill I went no problem. Finally something worked right, I made it down the range in one pice.

The next thing to go wrong was the inline diesel filter under the bus started to block about 10 klms from a our next house sit, so I had to pull over, stop to clean the inline filter and the main filters too. On the side of the road for the second time in one day with no way to start the coach by myself, so another call to Charmaine to come to the rescue again. This time Charmaine was inside the coach to turn the key while I did the 24v power bypass to the starter motor and back on the road again.

Now to fix the starter motor

It turns out the contacts in the solenoid is stuffed, so another thing to fix. Good thing about big motors there’s lots of room around them to work.

Just have to remove the end plate to the solenoid.

All fixed just forgot to take pic of it apart. oops…

Just the wires to go and it will be as good as new.

I forgot to take photo’s again, I just had to clean up the contacts for the 24v solenoid till I can find some new one. This job was a lot easer than working on a car. Well the starter motor doing it’s thing again and turning over the Detroit 6V92TA, got to love that sound.

Motorhome fit out

Time for new fuses

14/05/2018 Bernie Cross

Replacing the old fuse with new one’s

With all the obsolete wires and fuses the old fuse board is looking a bit crapy. I needed to upgrade to new fuses as well as fix some of the wiring. I had already had the new fuse blocks in storage somewhere under the bus so it was time to dig them out.

Out with the old & in with the new

When I was fixing the engine brakes, I thought it was mechanical to start with, but after some tested it turned out to be electrical. I had to trace the wiring from the back of the bus to the front which took days, as the fuze board was a mess. In the end it ended up being a 24v relay in the spot that needed to be a 12v relay, the only one in a 24v system.

So now to fix the board, after finding the new fuze box’s under the coach in the bins and labelling then. It was time to remove all the old fuze holders one at a time, then wiring in the new ones so I didn’t lose track of were the wire’s went.

You can see why I am not cutting all the wires at once and only cutting one at a time, then fitting then to the new fuze box’s. Other wise I wouldn’t know which wire went where.

Top row in place after a lot of soldering.

Even have some spare’s for latter if I need them.

There are still some fuze’s that will be not needed latter on, but for now I still need them. When we fit the sola power system in there will be 10 of these fuze’s that wont be needed, but till then we do.

Motorhome fit out

The door’s broken again

After a quick fix when driving from Alice springs to the QLD coast in 2016, the bottom door bracket has snapped for the second time. The make shift bracket had done a good job as I had to make it out of what I could find in the bus on the side of the road. This bracket gave up the ghost while staying in Toowoomba, So time to make a new one that should last till we fit a new door in the next year or so.

This was the bracket I had made up on the side of the road.

The new one will have to look something like this one, but straight.

New bracket time

So of to the shop to get some plate metal or something the can be modified to do the job. I found a bracket that can be cut to size, so back to the bus to make it up.

This time I’ll also make an extra plate to stop the flexing, as this why the old one broke.

This should work till we replace the door.

Well another job done and so much more to do. The good thing was we are camping and not on the road, so had more time to fix this time. This build is taking longer than we would like, but living in a bus that your turning into a motorhome makes life more interesting at the least.

Motorhome fit out

The trim around the fiberglass panels.

17/04/2018 Bernie Cross

Some finishing off bits on the outside

The fiberglass panels needed to be finish off by putting aluminium around them. So off to the shops again, I think I should have shares in Bunnings. I though this was going to be an easy job of just cutting the aluminium to length and gluing then pop rivet into place.

Prep time

To start with I had to remove the old pop rivets that held the old air-con fiberglass top in place. This was a job in itself as it was glued well in place, then clean out all the dust that had built up over 30 years.

Slow job cutting the old glue to lift the fiberglass out.

I’m glad I started this job early in the fixing as I found another place where water could get in that was hidden. This should be the last of them as there is no more places left to fix.

This back part took one day to free up, not happy.

I even had the reciprocal saw going to cut out the old glue and on this part, but the saw died with only 300mm to go. They knew how to glue things back then, too well. The only good news was there was more room under the coach now the saw was in the bin.

Aluminium flat bar time

Well now it’s out with the measuring tape and start cutting things to length, or just make it up as I go along. I made up a templet so they would all end up in a straight line, well that is the plan.

50 X 3mm aluminium flat going into place.

Working off one ladder is not the best idea, but that is all we have. So now the sequence was marking out the holes for the pop rivets, then pre-drill 3mm holes. I had to hold the aluminium in place with tape, and drill into the coach, then drill them out to 5mm C/S pop rivets to fit. Next was to take the aluminium down, counter sink the holes for the pop rivets, put Sikaflex on the back, to fit it into place. I had to put two pop rivet in at arm’s length, climb the ladder holding the aluminium by the pop rivets. This was difficult! Even allocating the pop rivets into their holes to fit the rest of the pop rivets in place was a feat! I had to buy a pneumatic pop rivet gun which made my life much easier 🙂 happy days.

Parked in a new spot for the other side.

The troopy came in handy with the side awning up to work under for the drilling and cutting the aluminium flat bar.

No leak on this side so shouldn’t be as painful as the other side.

So now it’s time to repeat the same process on the driver’s side, I even have some shade from a tree too this time. Life is great some times.

Motorhome fit out

Time to fix that roof leak

29/12/2017 Bernie Cross

Leaking under the top deck

Thank goodness that I’ve been able to park the coach undercover for this job as there has been raining on and off. The Showgrounds have let us use one of the sheds for three weeks, thank you.

Now the fun begins

After trying to get the decking up and failing to do so, as I’d done a too good of a job gluing it down. Great! I had to come up with another solution.

Going over the top of the deck and sealing it instead, this way I can lay down some tiles to finish it off.

Time to seal it up

For some reason the Sikaflex didn’t stick between the decking boards. So after scraping it all out I troweled in some bitumen putty to take its place. The next step was three coats of bitumen paint to go over the decking boards. After the bitumen paint had dried the next day I got the fire hose out and flooded the area for one hour with no water leaking any more.

Now the tile underlay goes down, after cutting it to size. A box of nails later it’s all in place ready for the wet area under tile waterproofing.

The deck painted with bitumen waterproofing paint.

Next will be cutting the reinforcing bandage with bond-breaker for the edges. This will stop any damage to the waterproofing membrane if there is any movement.

Reinforcing bandage just to make it boom proof.

Now to start wet area tile waterproofing.

The under-tile waterproof membrane just paint on nice and easy thank goodness, so after going over the bandage and nail first. Then it was time for the first coat of three.

Next blog will be about the tile set out and the gluing of them in place, with all the other fiddle bits to finish it off.

Motorhome fit out

It looks like coloured spaghetti

19/12/2017 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

Too many wires !!!

The engine’s brakes had not been working properly since I bought the bus and I didn’t have to use them anyway as it was so flat in South Australia and the Northern Territory. This is going to be a job the will take some time as I will have to trace the wiring loom from one end of the coach to the other. The main problem is info, I’ve have most of the manuals that I need to be able to fix most things but finding out the colour codes for the wires is not so easy as nothing matches what is on the drawings that I have. I have searched the internet for more wiring diagram but to no avail and I can’t seem to find anything that looks even remotely the same.

So with a multimeter in hand, I thought the best place was to start with power to the switch, then start tracing the wires from there. Well the good thing is I’ve got 24v at the switch, the bad news is now people have been here before me modifying the wiring loom.

The main board outside, below the driver’s seat.

Looks nice and tidy in here, but somewhere in there may be the problem of the J brakes.

Mmmmm some one has been here before me, lot’s of cut wires.

Doesn’t look so nice now as there are lots of wires that have been cut or have never been used. The fuse holders that have been burnt out (3 of them) after being moved, as well as modifications over the years to fix or been up graded.

This job just got bigger

So now its time to trace all the wires not being used and tagging both ends of them, this will help find where they go. After making a 9v system to clip onto the wires its just a matter of finding the other ends of the loom.

Now the fun begins, just have to find out where they are going.

Sub board down the back of the coach in the battery bay.

Somewhere in here is the wires for the J breaks that are not working.

Look more wires behind the dash. Ahhhhhh!

Some switches work and some will not be needed any more.

The J breaks will have to wait

I’ve just been told that I can move into the equestrian shed so the wiring will have to wait for now, as the main problem is the roof leak under the top decking. This started after we move up to Toowoomba, it may be a small pop rivet as it’s not a big leak more like some capillary action going on.

Just a small shed 🙂 Makes the couch look small.

Motorhome fit out

Some new running lights for the old coach

10/12/2017 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

Upgrading time for the running lights

It was one of the jobs that was started down at Leigh Creek, but I ran out of time before heading up north to Yulara. The old running lights did make it to QLD with a quick fix up here and there. We are waiting to move under cover in to the big equestrian indoor arena at the Toowoomba Showgrounds to start fixing the roof leak found on a good down pour while up here.

We have been in the Toowoomba area now for four weeks and I must say it’s quite a nice place. Apart from having to move out of the Showgrounds for one week as the place was booked out. We decided to stayed on a farm for that week at a farmstay called The Chookhouse. It was great, the owners were very nice, it was the first time for them having a 12m motorhome parked there.

LED light time

The old running light had seen better days and as the front of the coach had already been fix in S.A , we now thought it was a good time to finish them.

The former owner had already fitted new LED indicators/reflectors which made the old running lights at the side of the bus look even older.

Just a little bit stuffed, how where they even working?

I’ll have to patch up the holes later before the paint job.

More soldered and insulation under the coach.

That will do for now

Until the inside is finished, the outside will have to stay looking like someone does not love it. I’m really looking forward to the outside being all painted, it’s going to make such a big difference, that will have to wait for another day.

Motorhome fit out

Time to clean up from Chuwar

05/11/2017 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

Our first house sitting 6 month stay

With the bedroom done to a point that we are happy with it’s time to clean up. The house sit has been great! We looked after two dogs, Lexy and Kingston. The cat, Charlie who had a swagger about him strutting around like he owned the place. Walking the dogs every day kept them happy and me a bit fitter.

A bit of a mess

The rubbish bin’s were full for about 2-3 weeks as we cleaned up and set up the trailer for a tip run to get rid for more stuff …..that we really don’t need.

We need to sort out if we store it or get rid of it ?

Setting up for a kitchen

For the time being (as we will be living onboard again), we need a make shift kitchen again. This time it’s going to be a bit bigger then last time with more storage and bench space.

This will do for the time being, on this side.

Still have a lot more to set up, but for now this is stage of the cleaning up, a lot more will be done later. I have to cleaning out the bins under the coach so we can start packing the tools from the shed away.

Where is the drivers seat?

Think the driver’s seat is here some where ?

Sometimes I think we are mad fitting out a motorhome on the road while at the different times living in it. It has had it’s moments, but life is good and we are having fun most of the time. But now it’s time to head off up the range to Toowoomba. Charmaine will be much happy with no more having to sleep in the troopy for a week at a time.

Kingston

Lexy

Charlie

An interesting next 12 months

The next 6-12 months are going to be more interesting as we will be living and working on the coach at the same time, not sure how that’s going to work out at this stage, but we are thinking of how we are going to manage it.

Toowoomba Time

Living back in the coach for now, it’s nice to be back on the road. I am thinking about looking for some part time work while still working on the coach. I’ve fortunately found a small water leak on the roof with all that ran we got the last few weeks, so will be fixing that first. I have some sparky stuff in and around the coach that’s needs a good redoing and rewiring, then onto the water tanks with some plumbing work.