All posts by Bernie Cross

Motorhome fit out

Prep work for the new fridge.

23/06/2018 Bernie Cross

Just need some vents

To date we have used our fridge on 240v & 12v, as it was not vented it also keep the bus warm.

But now it’s time to make up the waterproof ducting for the vents for it’s final resting place.

Sheet metal Time

After marking out for the vents, I’ll make a cardboard template to see if I’ve got my measurements right. Well the cardboard one worked perfectly so time to mark it out on some sheetmetal and cut it out.

Where is a folder when you need one

It would be nice to have a folder, but there is no room on the bus for one of those. Lucky I’m only using 0.6mm alum sheet, so I can bend it by hand over some timber.

Just have to bend the flange on one end now.

Time to cut more holes in the bus

Well I’ve made the ducting, now it’s time to fit them. Out with the grinder again, let’s hope I’ve marked it out right.

Just making sure that the outside hole will be in the right place before I go crazy with the grinder on the outside of the bus.

Drilled and countersunk ready to screw into the timber around vent ducted.

Timber support so I can screw from the outside panel and seal with some sikaflex.

Well it won’t leak now, just a bit messy.

Looking from inside with vent cover + fly screen on.

So that was the hard one, the top one will be a lot easier as I only have to cut through the fiberglass panel.

As I’ve only one set of hands I screwed the top vent into place, otherwise there was no way I could have done this vent by myself. Both top and bottom ducting are screwed from the outside of the bus.

Braced in place so I can screw it in place from outside.

Top ducted screwed and glued into place, not so messy this time.

Both these vents can be unscrewed so I can clean the fly screen and also have access to the back of the fridge when I need to fix things. So next part of the project will be the kitchen walls, as well as some sparky stuff.

Motorhome fit out

They look like new mirrors

12/06/2018 Bernie Cross

There back from the powder coater’s

Garden City Powder-coating in Toowoomba did a great job with the mirrors, now I’ve just got to put then back together.

I don’t need to put the spotlight bracket back on as someone has stolen them, so will have to buy some more later on. I had left them under the front of the coach, as they needed to be sprayed as they are a little rusty.

Now can I put them back together

With two box’s full of parts and two washers to make to fit between the main mounting bracket and the mirror arm. Then I will have to fit the lights inside the mirror housings and run the power cable for the 24v.

Making new parts for the mirror support.

Wiring in the lights to heat the mirrors to de-fog them.

Now to finish putting them together and feed the wire through as I go.

I’ll be wrapping the mirrors in cling-wrap, then run a bead of silicon around the housing. This is so I can remove the mirror if the globes ever blow.

So all I’ve got to do is put the mirrors back in and run a bead of silicon around before putting the face plate on.

Don’t know who drilled the holes for the brackets but one mirror I can only get three bolt in, that’s after drilling out the hole bigger. This will have to do for now as later on I’ll have to pull the mirrors off again to paint the front of the coach some day.

Motorhome fit out

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

Let’s put some tiles down.

10/03/2018 Bernie Cross 2 Comments

Some tiles for the deck

After the waterproofing membrane had dried, it was time to set out for the tiles. It looks like I’ll need about 7m of tiles. Lucky they had some grey ones at the tiles shop. When Charmaine got home she liked them, so I did OK.

Now to workout where the tiles are going to go. So after laying a row down the middle I could start marking out for the full tile to be glued in first.

Setting out for the tiles before I start gluing then down.

After marking out the area for the full tiles and mixing up some glue< it’s time to through some tiles down on the main floor.

It’s been a long time, but I think I still know how to tile, just. So all I have to do now is all the cut’s after marking each tile.

The side tiles will be all different as the deck slops down to the back so the water doesn’t pool up and then we would have a fish pond.

Edge tile trim cut to shape, now to cut them with only two tiles left.

Well I need to make a tile fit this space, one on earth side. The problem is I’ve only two tiles left so let’s hope I don’t stuff up. Also I’ll have to fill around the top of the tiles were the old air-con cover’s use to go.

Filling up the grove around the top of the tiles.

After cutting the 50X50mm angle to length and fitting in place with Sikaflex. The next job was to paint the fiberglass canopy with a heat reflecting poly paint that also is a waterproofing.

The only bad thing about finishing this job is now we will have to move out of the shed. A big thanks to the Toowoomba Showgrounds for letting us use the shed to fix the leak.

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.