Out of the bedroom and now into the bathroom. Starting on the vanity and laundry side, it was time to make some more cupboards up. There will be a 900mm three draw as well as a 300mm cupboard and beside that we will be putting in a front load washing machine under the bench top.
More box’s to make upVanity in place just needs something to sit on.Now that will do.Sitting in place.Temp bench top.
Time for the plumber’s hat
Now I can fit the sink to set up for the drain pipe as well we need to put in the hot and cold water pipe’s, as the wall lean in at the top I’ve offset the cupboards off the wall. This will give me some space to run the pip work and drop it through the floor.
Now for the plumbing.Drain hole for the sink and washing machine.40mm drain pipe.Hot and cold water set up for sink.Not much room behind there.Water all plumed up for washing machine.
Most for the plumbing has been done, but now I’ve got to put in the back wall behind the washing machine area before I can run the drain pipe all the way.
Something to hide the pipe work.Drain and tapes finished for the washing machine.
I’ve built a wall so I can finish off the washing machine area and on the other side will be the start of the kitchen, but thats an other day.
Lot’s of beach space for a motorhome.
Well that was fun
The next job will be to fit the draws under the sink, and as you can see the sink will be in the way for some of them. Looks like it will be modification time again.
I must say it does get better on the second one as you know not what to do already. This side will also have the stereo fitted above the wardrobe as well as a speaker, so I’ll have lots of wires to play with here. The switch for the bedroom lights will be on this side that will only be 12v for the LED light strip’s.
Setting up to screws to put the wardrobe in place and the power for the other wardrobe light running under the floor.Screwed and glued into place.
Stereo time
Got to have some tunes in the bedroom, so with a bluetooth stereo we can have sound for our phones or the laptops when watching a movie in bed. So it’s time to put the wardrobe on this side as well as fit the stereo so I can totally finish off the wardrobe.
Cut out for the stereo.Well that fit’s.Now to cut the face board to size, not much room to play with.Test to see if it all fit’s.Screwing it all together.All in place, now I’ve got tunes when working.
Finishing it off now
Now the stereo’s in place Charmaine spotted a space behind the stereo that she said would be good for more storage. Looks like I’ve got to make an other cabinet as well, it will all so give us access to the stereo if we need to….hopefully not though.
Here’s the whole she saw.An other odd shape box I had to make.No more whole and access to the stereo if I need it.Cabinet door fitted, this will be covered the same as the wall later.Still have to finish the walk way and utility door.This side done of now.Utility / Bedroom door in place.Light fitted into the utility cupboard, comes on when you open the door.Bedroom door closed or utility door open depending where you are standing.Job done for now.
Apart from the cabinet, draw fronts and wall cladding the bedroom is finish. We still thinking of ideas for the walls, and will get all the draw / cupboard fronts when the kitchen and bathroom are finish. This way we can get them made up all at once, so that will be in the future some time off, for now.
We bought new wardrobes just to cut them up just because nothing ever fits when your making a motorhome. This will definitely be a custom motorhome with lot’s of storage space, Charmaine’s very happy.
First off we had to make some room to build them as most of the supplies are in the coach as well as being a work place.
There’s a bed behind there some where.
Wardrobe time
Making up more boxes again, screwing and gluing them together after cutting them down to size. We had to cut 35mm off the bottom and around 250mm off the top to make them fit the place as well as some where to put the speakers. The off cuts will be used to make up some more cupboards that will sit on top of the wardrobes, the more storage space the better.
One down one to go.Both made now sitting in place.One more box on top made up of off cut’s.The trim around the wardrobe take’s time.Speaker time.A test fit.
Utility cupboard
Behind the passenger side wardrobe there will be a narrow utility cupboard wide enough to fit the cordless vacuum, the deck ladder for the back hatch roof top deck access and other cleaning things. This one has to be made from scratch as it’s such an odd shape, it will have three to four deep shelves, for laundry washing bottles ect .
More ply to give some more support.The start of the utility cupboard.Power to charge the cordless vacuum in the utility cupboard.
At this stage I’m just making it up as I go along, but I think its enough for what Charmaine needs for the use of this space. Now it’s time to cut the rest of the pieces up that I need so to finish screwing and gluing it all together. The top of the walls actually lean in around 85mm and by not going all the way to the ceiling I don’t have to worry about the curve for now.
Screwing the utility cupboard together.Time for some shelves.Screwed into place.Oh no not another angle!!Packing on the side.Lot’s of fiddly bit’s.Toilet wall in place.
Now for the other side wardrobes
I had already built it so, it’s just a matter of starting on the trim to go down the side between the wall the support under the wardrobe. Then build a small cupboard to go on top and somewhere for the other speaker with the stereo. The passenger’s side has all the wires, 12v lighting as well as the speakers on that side.
With the bathroom floor in place and water proofed it’s now time to start on the walls. But first we have to work out were the toilet window will go and lets hope it’s in the right place.
Passenger side marking out for toilet window.Let’s hope it’s in the right place.We have a hole in the side of the motorhome.One toilet window in place.Window from the inside.
Now to start on the wall’s
First off is to cut the insulation followed by gluing it in place, a job I love to hate. Second stage is to cut the first sheet of ply to size and making sure the window is cut out in the place. Now it’s time to start fitting it to the side of the coach.
Gluing the insulation in place.That will do for now.1st wall sheet up with window cut out.
There will be one more sheet put up on this side for the moment which will finish off the bathroom wall and part of the kitchen.
The shower and toilet side is done.
The vanity and laundry side
This side will be straight forward as there is no window to go on this wall at all. So it’s just gluing the insulation in place then cutting the ply to size. Screw some packing in place so I can glue and screw the ply to the wall.
Vanity and laundry side, with packing screwed into place.More insulation in the wall cavity.Insulation all in.One more sheet to go.Drivers side done in the bathroom.Looking from the front of the coach at the bathroom.Some more sparky stuff.Top of the toilet and shower wall finished.240v for a power point in the vacuum cupboard and 12v for a toilet light.Start of the wall between the bathroom and kitchen.Bathroom / laundry side.Just needs painting now.
After running some more power cables around the top of the walls and finishing off the transition from the walls to the ceiling. Just some more painting for Charmaine to do to finish off the bathroom walls for now. Look’s like the next project will be to build some wardrobes to close off the bedroom from the bathroom.
As nothing is square in the bus, there is always going to be gaps somewhere and they can be put to good use. It’s more ass than class but to my surprise things are fitting into place, if only….. just. On either side of the top cabinets we are putting in some speakers for the surround sound.
This is the odd shapes you have to work with.Looks like a good place to fit some speakers, don’t you think?Now for the other sideBit by bit it’s going together.Fiddly bitsNow we have somewhere for the back speakers.Sound for the bedroomThat is the top half done.
Now for the bottom half
This is a bit more tricky as there is not much room to work with and the shape has to be exact. I will be trying to put a USB charger, AUX and a USB to the stereo on either side of the bed next to the middle cabinets and the wall.
Not much timber to work with here.Where does the time go ???It looks a mess from the back.Lets hope we soldered the wires in the right place.Phone charging points that can be switched off, AUX and USB back to the sound system.Job finished.
There was no room to spare at all, but that was a painful job and one that I’m glad is now over. I sometimes have some great ideas that I end up wishing I hadn’t had, but the job is done now.
Starting from the back of the coach to the front is the only way to go. Under the bed area is where the motor is, so the floor has a raised part, this is a great place to put in bedroom cupboards. With nothing being square or plum apart from the floor I was making it up as I went along. It’s nothing like building a house!
The back bedroom wall before we startedLots of flat pack cupboard boxes to make up from Bunnings.Plains? Who needs plains….First one done and lots more to go.The bed should fit between the two bedside draws.One bit at a time, this cover goes on so more draws can go on top.These two tall ones will have shelves.Back to Bunnings for more stuff.Time to put some support in place and insulation before I go too far.One more box and this level will be done.The fun of making boxes up.With the black timber in place it only just fitted after shaving the back edges off the side boxes.One more level after this one.They only just made it in after Shaving off some timber.No turning back now time to screw it in place.A very tight fit.More boxes to make up for the top levelAlmost there.We are getting closer.
Time for some sparky stuff
At this stage it was time to run some 12 volt cables for the LED lights as well as some USB chargers on either side of the bed. We need some speaker cables put in as well for the stereo that was going to go in later on. We are not running 240 volt in the bedroom as there is nothing we can think of that we need it for down this section of the bus so 240 volt is it .
All the power cables for the lights, USB charges and the stereo speakers are in. Lets hope that is all of it.
Time to fit in the down light before I go to far.Holes are in place.LED Lights are in place.12v cables are in place as well as the insulation.You can turn the LED lights any colour you like.Now the led light strip in place and all powered up.
I have some fiddle bits of trim around the cupboards, which will be done later on when we get some other work out of the way first. All we have to do now is fit the draw runners on before putting the draws.
We have not decided what we actually want the walls to look like, there has been some ideas floating around but nothing that really makes us confident to want to finish them now. So I will be tidying up the bedroom walls with more ply where all the power cables run and then painting them till we find what kind for finish we are looking for.
We had already done the first part of the work on the bedroom ceiling, but to finish that job. We had to rip the rest of the old air-con off the roof. I started with getting the sola panels off first, then remove the cover plates.
Now time to remove the solar panels again.This will be the last time the roof looks like a coach roof
This will be the last time it will look like this.
The finished look of this project we will have a roof top deck up here, but not now that is a job for an other day. Now it’s time to remove the evaporator, heat exchange radiators and blowers. Stripping out the copper pipe, heat exchange radiator pipes as well all the electrical pits.
Stripping all the sparky stuff and back grill to accessing the pipe work.Old air condition control unit in the ceiling.One side of the evaporator, heat radiators and blowers to be removed.Heater units and evaporator removed.
More Stuff For The Scrap Yard
I did a trip to the scrap metal yard with all the copper, brass, evaporator and the heat exchange radiators. It’s always good to get some money back, that lot gave me $145 to put back into the project. Next will be cutting out all the aluminium that we don’t need off the roof air-condition area. I all ready have some that we have removed so that we will have an other trip to the scrap yard soon.
All the fans are out now,Time to start cutting out all panels.Almost there.Let’s hope it doesn’t start raining.
Did I see rain?
Well it did start raining on and off for a week, lucky we could put the covers over the holes and with some buckets inside it didn’t get too wet inside. This means I went back inside to do some more work on the bedroom/bathroom ceiling, while it rained but thats an other blog.
Leaving Leigh Creek S.A on the start of our new life, We had to be in Yulara to start work in five days. With a smile on our faces the next stop was port Augusta for the night, then head north on the Stuart Hwy. The coach was packed full with only room down the front for our bed and some were to cook on the road.
On the road camping in the coach all packed up.
Too Good To Be True
All was going fine, then I started to lose a little bit of power we were only 150 klms down the road and almost to Hawker. Just an other 140 ks to Port Augusta I thought, then the gauges on the dash started flutter around. Thats when the coach started to drop the RPM of every 30 klms…. I was losing around 100-150 RPM, it looked like some electrical gremlin had raised it’s ugly head. We made it into Port Augusta but just at a max speed of 60k/h, fill it up at the first servo we came to. After a 750 Lt hole in my pocket an 1000 Lt tank sounds great till you have to fill it up.
Let’s Sleep On It
After a good nights sleep it was off to the truck work shop across the road. They just so happen to have someone free to start working on it there and then… How good was that? So off we to the shops to stock up on things you can’t get in the middle of nowhere. ( Yulara NT).
Back at the workshop they had found after 3 hrs it was not an electrical problem at all but a fuel supply problem…..in particular the in tank filter. Bugger I’d just filled the bloody thing up and now It has to drain the hole lot, so 5 x 205 Lt drums later it was 5pm on a Friday night and the filter was out.
Who puts a filter inside a 1000Lt tank?Diesel Tank out put
Back On the Road
So by Monday afternoon, the filter was clean, pumping the diesel back into the tank, we’re back on the road.
Curtain Springs to Alice
But about 9 months later driving into Alice Springs….. Oh bugger it’s happening again! With only 450 Lt in the tank and some drums from a caravan park, we drained the tank again. This time it was modification time because that filter was not going back in again. Some more shopping in Alice and a movie it was back to fix the filter system for good.
New fuel filter train.New diesel filter on the outside with ballcock valves so I can have it cleaned in 20min.
We are still getting sludge out of the tank I’ve cleaned it out about 5 times now, but the tank is slowly cleaning it’s self out. I just have to remember to turn the valves back on after I clean the filter, yes I did forget the first time and had to bleed the diesel pump to get it going again. You only ever do it once..
