School Bus Life

Pictures of our Progress

2013-09-15T10:25:00.001-07:00

Update: September 2012

2012-09-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

It has been quite a while since our last post, and lots has been going on around here the past few months.

First off we have moved. When the end of the lease at our apartment was approaching, we decided that it would be more practical to live closer to both the bus and my work.

We found an ad for a 20 foot 1970's trailer, that was conveniently located around the corner from our apartment. We went to check it out and decided that it would be perfect for us.

The previous owner had used it as a toy hauler for his motorcycle. This was appealing to us because the back room was completely emptied out, so we figured with a little work we would be able to put our own mattress in. For those of you who don't know three years ago Alex and I lived in a small trailer for a few months, that family had borrowed and lent to us to use. From that experience we knew that a full size bed was a definite necessity for this to work for us, as we had spent those few months sleeping cramped head to toe.

The owner of the tailer that we have bought was amazing. He gave us a great price and even towed it out to our new home for us. It is now conveniently located at Nana's house where our school bus is.

It took about a week to get the trailer ready to move into. Sherry and I sealed up the back of the trailer which had a ramp the previous owner used to get his motorcycle in and out with. Once that was finished we built a platform in the back room so that the floor would be raised above the wheel wells, that way we could put our mattress in flat. The trailer had the typical dark wood panelling throughout so we decided to paint it all white, to open it up a little. We also got some cheap wood laminate flooring to replace the carpet. Sherry was a huge help with the project.: )

With all the work on the trailer done, we moved in at the end of July. Life in the trailer has been really great! It is a real reminder of the lifestyle we a seeking through our skoolie conversion. We use the washroom in Nana's house and I bring our dishes inside to wash. We do have a tiny "kitchen area" in the trailer where I have an electric single element burner. We also have a little fridge. It is cozy and we love it!

Gambit and Abby our cats have also really taken to the trailer. Abby has started to go on walks with me around the property and is loving the outdoors. Gambit, who is a few years older than Abby has no interest whatsoever in going outside. Though he is happy to sit next to the windows and watch everything going on outside.

Since we have essentially moved next door to the bus it has been a lot easier to get work done around here. As we don't have to schedule ourselves around my work schedule.

Alex cut a huge hole in the back of the bus for our garage door. He has since built and installed the door, and now just has to install the gas shocks that will open it. It will essentially open like the back of an SUV. We were slightly intimidated when we got all the material for the door and realized that it was going to be a lot heavier than we initially realized. But after some thought Alex figured that the gas shocks would be a viable solution.

Alex also installed the stove pipe for our wood stove. When we were ordering all of the parts for the wood stove we were surprised to find that summer block off caps, that are talked about on skoolie.net all the time, do not actually exist. So we ordered some extra pipe and Alex made one himself.

The waste veggie oil system is also coming along. Alex has finished the filtration unit. He has planned out the conversion for the bus, but has not ordered the parts yet.

He has also been working on the exhaust for the generator. Alex is trying to make it as quiet as possible so the exhaust will be going through the roof. He used double wall insulated pellet stove pipe to make a space for the exhaust to run through.

Today we picked up our wood stove. It wont be installed for a while, but it is still really cool to have. : )

Our Little Home

The Garage Door

Here is a view of the stove pipe from the roof

A little blurry but this is the stove pipe from inside the bus

Here is a picture of the waste veggie oil filtration unit.

We actually have started collecting some waste veggie oil, from a local chip truck in St.Catharines.

If you are ever in town we would suggest checking out Sassy's at 530 Eastchester Ave E, St Catharines, ON L2M 7P3. The owner is super nice and the fries are awesome.

Here is a picture of where the generator exhaust goes through the roof.

Mega Update!

2012-06-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a picture heavy post everyone! Here is what we have been up to since our last update : )

(above)This is what the bus currently looks like. As you can see Alex has finished both of the bays. All the riveting on the outer side panels and back are finished (WOOHOO!).

Alex built both the bay doors and installed them. It took a little adjusting to get the laches to work properly, but they are now fully functional. : )

We also have finished skinning the garage. Alex cut the panels to size and we got them all riveted in with some help from Sherry and Bryan.

(above)Here is the garage pre-skinning.

We used three sheets to skin the roof of the garage. Sherry and Bryan came and helped Alex instal the two side panels. These two panels had to be held up since they could only be clamped on two of the four edges.

(above)This picture shows how we installed the middle panel. We clamped steel tubes to the frame of the garage to keep the panel in place while we positioned it. Once it was in position we were able to drill holes and rivet the panel. We also sealed all panels with calking when putting them in place.

(below) Here are a few pictures of the garage post-skinning.

Next, Alex moved on to building an interior door for the garage. We needed this to be an insulated garage door because the garage will not be fully insulated. The only problem we had was that the door had to be a lot shorted than standard. We looked into having a door custom made but it was going to be way to expensive. Instead we bought a normal garage door and Alex cut it down to size.

(below)Here is the result. : )We are pretty happy with our little hobbit door.

Recently Alex built a door for our air conditioner. The door will be bolted in place when the air conditioner is not in use.

We took a trip to the scrap yard a few days ago to find a seat for the bus as well as a few other things. We ended up with the back seat of a dodge caravan. The seat fits two which we wanted so that we would be able to sit together while driving. It is so comfortable! Alex is going to build a base for the seat so it can be installed properly.

(below)Here is what it looks like : )

More updates to come! We hope everyone is enjoying their summer : )

Back to the Bus.

2012-04-10T12:47:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Well, we are finally back to working on the bus. We found ourselves busy with other aspects of our life and the bus took a back burner. Alex has still been working on the riveting but we have not been getting out to the bus as much as we would like. It seems we are back to a point where the bus can take priority in our schedule again and we hope to make progress in the weeks to come.

Here are some photos of the rivets that Alex has been installing. The sides of the bus our now fully riveted. Alex is just replacing a few of the rivets on the back panels that didn't take as well as the others. Once the metal warms up a bit more we will begin welding again.

Overdue Update

2012-02-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

Over the past two weeks we have been slowly getting things done on the bus. We got held up a little bit because we had not ordered enough materials in advance to keep us busy. We found ourselves with little to do as we were waiting for our orders to arrive.

Alex has been working on making the doors for the generator bay and the heater/waste valve bay. We are re-using the hinges from the front door of the bus. We had Tim at the metal supermarket bend some metal pieces so that Alex could use them for the door frames. Bellow are some pictures of Alex's progress on the doors.

Greenhouse Plans

2012-01-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

After talking to our Opa about the plans for our greenhouse off the back of the bus, we thought it would be a good idea to show what are plans are in more detail.

Our inspiration for the shape comes from the large off road trucks where the body goes further than the rear bumper and taillights because it is up higher. The stairs on the picture bellow also give an idea of the type of stairs we will be using in our bus.

http://dhackney.smugmug.com/Travel-Photos-by-Year/2008/2008-07-July/13646811_pwYqB/75/997877949_wuGoJ#!i=997877949&k=wuGoJ

The green in the picture shows the shape the greenhouse will be. You can see that we will have access both through the windows in our bedroom and the door from the garage. Alex lowered the taillights so that they are bellow the rub rail. We know it's not very realistic to compare our school bus clearance or off road capabilities to the Mann 4x4. What we are trying to get across is that we are not making our departure angle any worse.

Video Update: Framing

2012-01-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

As we said in the video we would love to hear any questions you would like us to answer or suggestions for future blog posts/videos. You can leave us a comment here or email us at
angie_baldin@hotmail.com

Anti-Piracy Act Awareness

2012-01-21T11:27:00.000-08:00

As avid users of the internet we fell that we have a responsibility to help raise awareness about the American "anti-piracy" acts that congress is curently trying to pass. The acts in question are PIPA (Protect Internet Piracy Act), ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade agreement) and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act).

On January 18th several websites including Reddit, Wikipedia, and google blacked out or altered their site in some way in protest of the acts. This widely raised awareness and people around the globe have been joining the protest.

There are countless theories and conspiracies flying around on the internet right now. We encourage everyone to get out there read some articles, read the actual acts themselves and form an opinion. Almost everything is second hand information but the beauty of the internet is the ability to get such varied opinions. The idea of overpowering censorship is a scary thing.

Lessons Learned

2012-01-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I find it really inspirational looking at completed skoolies, other times I am incredibly jealous. It's easy to get so caught up in the idea of the final project that we forget to enjoy the journey that gets us there. With such a big project we have learned that it is important to celebrate the small successes and take things one day at a time. If you don't break down the project into sections the big picture can seem daunting.

We have only put a dent into our project but have still had many successes along the way. When we are feeling like we will never finish it's great to be able to look back on our blog posts and see how far we already have come.

To anyone else looking to start a skoolie or any big project we would give the following advice:

1)Hold onto the dream and start when the time feels right.
It took three years for us to find ourselves in the right circumstances for starting our skoolie. There were many times when we felt like we would never be in a position to start this project. Despite these feelings of doubt we held onto our dream and waited, as patiently as possible. When we finally found ourselves in a position that the project seemed possible we jumped on the opportunity.

In retrospect things would not have gone nearly as well as they have so far if we had not waited to begin. We would most likely have not been in Niagara which means we would not have had the help of our families. The winter weather would have been much more severe which would have hindered our ability to work on the bus. Sometimes you just have to trust that things work out exactly how they are supposed to.

2)Celebrate the small successes.
As mentioned above in a large project it is easy to get bogged down thinking of all the work you still have to do. That is why it is so important to give yourself a pat on the back for the things you have accomplished. Documenting your project is a great way to remind yourself of how far you have come. Pictures are great to have on those days when you are feeling like you will never finish.

3)Give yourself a break!
One of the most important things we have learned through our project is that planned days off are necessary. When there is so much to do it's hard to not feel like you should be working all day every day. This is a really good way to burn yourself out. We found out the hard way that if you don't give yourself a break you may start procrastinating and feeling guilty about it. To combat this we started planning a day when we would both take a break and just do whatever we wanted. This has worked really great for us so far. It gives us something to look forward to and gives us time to refocus so that we can plan out our course of action on the bus.

This is just what we have learned so far working on the bus and I'm sure we will learn lots more along the way.

--> Alex and I hiking on a planned day off : )

Rivets and Framing

2012-01-13T20:41:00.000-08:00

We have been working on riveting the bus and were able to completely finish the bottom half of the back. So far we have put in around 400 rivets. We were able to order a lot more now that we know the size and type we like so it will take a few days before they are in. Until then Alex has started working on framing in the generator box.

It's awesome to see the bus coming together, we are eager to finish the riveting and excited to be framing. We had our first real snowfall today and are happy that we are no longer fully dependent on the tarp. The weather here is supposed to go back up to six degrees next week so we hope the rivets will be in time for us to take advantage of the weather.

-->The rear of the bus with the taillights and rub rails re-instaled

-->The bus is actually starting to look like a vehicle again!

-->Framing the generator box

Video Update

2012-01-09T14:26:00.000-08:00

WOOHOO!

2012-01-09T14:21:00.000-08:00

Over the past little while we have finished sheeting in the sides of the bus. Alex's parents and brother came out and gave us lots of help and support. After a few sheets went up we abandoned trying to heat up the sheets with our forced air heater. We found that it was pointless heating up only a small part of the sheet as we were not able to heat the whole sheet at once. The sheets put up without heating seem to be just as tight as the others so we are happy with our decision. We also developed a great system for getting the sheets in place after some experimenting. We clamped two pieces of steel to our scaffolding so they hung over the side slightly. These were in place so that we could lift the sheet up and place it on the steel so that the sheet could rest against the bus. We used our ratchet straps by securing them to the roof decks so that they hung looped where we could lift the sheet into the straps. We then used the straps to put the bottom of the sheet into the slot and used the ratchets to lift the sheet into the top slot. This worked great and we were able to get all the sheets up quickly and with just two people. Alex even managed to do a few of the sheets on his own!

Right now we are working on putting in all the rivets along the sheets. This should take a few days and then we will be moving on to closing in the front of the bus.

Our friend Tim is going to be helping us out by making some parts we need for the front at his work . We are hoping to get out to visit him at the end of the week or early next week. We are really fortunate that he has access to machines capable of making the parts that we need.

It's great having the sides sheeted in, it feels a lot warmer in the bus now that the wind isn't blowing right through it. It has been unseasonably warm here in Niagara for January. We have had several days where the temperature has reached 8 degrees. The only downside is that it is really muddy around the bus since the ground is not frozen. At the end of the day we would rather be dirty than cold so no complaints from us!

--> This picture shows a sheet being held up by the ratchet straps

-->Thumbs up for secured sheet!

-->One side done!

-->Both sides done!

-->Interior

-->Gorgeous sunset!

December

2011-12-31T18:02:00.000-08:00

We took a little bit of time off from the bus to get ready for the holidays and spend some time with our family and friends. We are now back at it and making good progress.

For the past two weeks we have been collecting everything we need for the installation of the sheet metal. After planning the project for so long it is difficult to make a final decision on the best method and products to use. We really want to do everything the best we can and at times it is difficult to just jump in and hope things go well. We are getting better at this everyday and are happy with the results so far.

We have been working on closing in the back end of the bus. Today we installed the panel that was made for us at the Metal Supermarket. We also finished bending the metal around the rear corners of the bus which is great because we were worried about how well that part would go. Alex's parents and brother came to lend a hand today which made it a lot easier to instal the big panel which has to be simultaneously heated and drilled and then riveted. Next we will be working on installing the side panels. This is another job that will require a lot of hands, luckily we have lots of volunteer workers. : )

Hope everyone has a Happy New Years!
All the best in 2012 : )

-->This picture shows our method for bending the sheet metal around the corners. We secured the metal with rivets on one side and after heating up the metal we pulled the ratchets tighter.

-->We finished pulling the bend tight with c-clamps.

-->We slipped the board out of the way and riveted it in place.

-->Heating and drilling the sheet metal.

-->We will be attaching a small greenhouse to the back of the bus, that is the reason for the large hole.

-->the panels will be tightened up when the rest of the rivets go in.

Working away...

2011-12-17T10:32:00.000-08:00

Since our last blog post there have been some new developments. The sheet metal we put up on the sides of the bus had holes where the lights used to be as we had re-used the metal from the ceiling of the bus. When Alex went to weld these holes he was not able to weld the metal without it warping. Since we were going to have to buy three more sheets to finish the sides we decided to buy all the metal for the sides and re-use the ceiling sheets elsewhere. We now have the new sheets all painted and ready to go up. We also painted the rear metal in the bus to prevent it from rusting.

Alex designed the back panel for the bus that will enclose our bedroom. This piece needed to be bent to shape and was one of the more complicated panels we needed. Tim at the Niagara Metal Supermarket helped us out by using their machines to bend the piece to shape at their shop. The guys at the Metal Supermarket have been really great through our whole project. We would highly recommend their shop to anyone in the Niagara region looking for metal.

Today Alex is getting everything ready to start riveting on the back panel. Once we have the back enclosed we will start working on sheeting in the sides (again). We are confident that take two will be more successful. : )

--> This picture shows where Alex tried to weld the sheet and it warped.

--> Painting the new sheets

--> Rear metal painted

--> The back panel

Sheeting

2011-12-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

Lately we have been making great progress on the bus, despite several rainy days. Bryan and Nick came and helped Alex prep the rest of the steel for painting. Sherry and Alex then painted the rest of the interior white and it looks great!

Yesterday we began sheeting the bus with the help of Sherry, Bryan and Nick. We used the metal panels that we took down from the interior ceiling of the bus. We just had to cut them done slightly and they fit great. While Alex and I were cutting the sheets to size, Sherry and Nick cut and glued pieces of wood to the posts to make a flat surface for the sheets to be riveted to. Bryan slightly pried open the top lip of the slots the sheets would fit into so they would slide in easily while still fitting tightly.

After all the prep work was done it was time to put the sheets in. Alex and I stood on the scaffolding holding the sheet up and guiding them into place at the top. Bryan and Nick stood bellow holding the sheets from the bottom and hammered them into place once we had them lined up. Sherry stood in the bus making sure everything was lined up properly and square.

Once we had the top of the sheets in place Nick and Bryan bowed the sheet out to fit the bottom into the gap between the rub rail and the skin. From inside the bus Sherry pried the middle of the sheet and they popped into place. We temporarily secured the sheets with a screw at the top of each post and we will be fully securing them with rivets.

We were able to use five of our ceiling panels and now just need to get three more sheets to finish the sides of the bus. We are really happy with the way the sheeting is going so far and are looking forward to getting the rest finished.

Our friend Natalie also came for a tour of the bus, it's always fun showing family and friends around what will be our home : ).

<--Floor and side posts painted

<--Painted foor

<--First sheet up

<--First sheet

<--Gap between the rub rail(black) and the lower skin(green and yellow)

<--Wood spacers

<--Sheeting up

<--2 sheets up on the passenger side

<--3 sheets up on the driver side

Cross Beams

2011-11-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

Alex has finished all the welds on either side of the bus and has added the cross beams that will act as extra support and keep the posts from twisting. Nick has been coming to help with the welding as well as other jobs around the bus. Today both Nick and Bryan came to help clean the metal so we would be able to paint.

This afternoon Alex is working on getting all the exposed metal painted.

-->Front passenger side

-->Front driver side

-->Alex painting

--> First side painted!

Working away...

2011-11-24T11:56:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days we have been making progress with the welding. Alex has finished framing all of the windows with the exception of the back wall. Today he is working on putting diagonal pieces between the beams for extra support.

Once we are completely finished with the framing/welding we will begin skinning the bus. This will entail drilling an unbelievable amount of holes, holding up large pieces of sheet metal and putting the riveter to good use. We will be enlisting the help of family and friends to help with this job : ).

The weather forecast for the next two weeks does not look like it is in our favour. We are supposed to have a lot of rain, but as we are heading into December it can only be excepted. We are going to have to work with whatever we get : ).

After having some feedback on our video and most recent posts, we realized it is difficult to tell from our pictures where the windows actually will be. Alex made the following picture to make it easier to picture:

--> Original

--> Windows framed in green show drivers side and purple show passenger side

To sum up the past few days we have been focusing on finishing the framing and fighting the ongoing battle with the tarp. After a night of rain we were greeted with a soaking wet floor in the bus. The tarp now has several rips from all the high winds we have been having. When we removed the tarp we created a mini lake on the side of the bus! We both cannot wait to have the bus enclosed so we can put the tarp away for good.

--> Sweeping the water out of the bus

--> Alex's awesome welds!

Since the Roof Raise...

2011-11-20T10:35:00.000-08:00

Since the roof raise Alex has been working on framing for the windows. He has the side windows in the bedroom loft framed as well as the bathroom window and the dinette window on the passenger side. There are now only six more windows to frame and then he will be moving on to skinning the bus. Right now the bus is more open than closed, so it will be nice to start putting the walls back up : ).

Today the whole back wall is out, and Alex is working on re-framing it. We had to remove it because in our design there is no door at the back. It also was very rusted at the bottom of the posts and had an angle that did not work in our design.

Alex also has a good start on the frame for the bed. You can see in the pictures that the bedroom loft will be fairly small. We decided that having the bedroom at ground level would be too much wasted space. By lifting the bed up we are able to utilize all the space bellow as the garage. The garage will be used for most of our storage for the first while in the bus. It will probably end up that we don't build the rest of the storage bays until after a season of working out west.

It's awesome to see the design starting to come together. Now that we are able to sit on the beams that will be the bedroom loft and look down at what will be our living space, we are able to get more of a feel for what it will be like to live in the bus.

We also had some good news from a friend of our family about some flooring. Rich works with someone who has salvaged some gym floors from a school and is looking to find a good home for the wood. It is 3/4inch maple flooring and all of the staples have been removed. It's always great feeling to find deals like this,thanks Rich!

We have still been very lucky with the weather so far, the only difficulty we have had is keeping the tarp tied down with the winds. We both can't wait for the bus to be enclosed again so we can stop using the tarp! Even with the nice weather we are mindful of the fact that winter is on it's way and are working hard to get the bus skinned and ready for snow.

-->Nice Weld!

-->Bedroom windows framed

-->Reframing the back wall

-->Three windows framed on the passenger side

-->The bed platform

-->Lying on the bed platform looking out the window

-->Angie's biggest pet snail, Gandalf

Walkthrough Video

2011-11-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

S-U-C-C-E-S-S!

2011-11-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

Today was by far the most amazing day of working on the bus so far. Sherry, Bryan and Nick came to help us with the roof raise. We really were lucky to have them there, I don't think it would have gone nearly as smoothly without their help. Thanks Guys!!

We started the day with Alex, Bryan and Nick cutting the posts to get the roof free. While doing this the roof was flexing a bit when it was cut. We got a little nervous but at that point we had to just go for it. Before the last few cuts Alex got all the jacks in place and it was all hands on deck. We each took a jack and the roof started to go up 1 inch at a time. It went really well with only a few problems that were easily fixed. We had to make some slight adjustments at the end to make sure the roof was level, and Alex was able to weld it in place.

We are both excited to get back to the bus tomorrow so Alex can continue welding it up. : )

-->First Cut

--> Measuring

--> A few extra welds for good measure

--> Sherry and Nick removing stickers

--> Up she goes!

--> Just a little nervous

--> First weld

--> Final adjustments before welding

--> Don't look into the light

-->Success!

Is It Really November?

2011-11-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days we have been lucky enough to have the nicest weather you could possibly ask for in November. Alex has both of the roof decks up, but they are only tac welded right now. He decided to wait to do the final welds until after we have raised the roof. This way if they are not perfectly square (causing the roof to get stuck on the way up) he will be able to cut the welds and fix the problem more easily.

With the decks the bus now measures 12 1/2 feet. We have had a few days to get used to seeing the bus at this height, but it is still a shock when we get there in the morning and see how huge it really is!

Alex's Mom, Dad and Brother are coming to help us tomorrow with the roof. We hope to get all the posts cut and the roof up. Fingers crossed : ).

-->Test fitting

-->deck is 1"x2" tubing, posts are 1"x1.5"

-->Both Up!

-->Angie Scraping stickers

Roof Deck Posts

2011-11-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

Alex has been fixing the rust spots on the floor over the past few days. He is pretty much finished welding, now it just needs another coat of paint. The bolt and screw holes were fairly time consuming.

We now have all the steel for the roof deck and were both excited and scared to see how high the roof will actually be. You would be surprised what a big difference 2 1/2 feet makes! The legal hight limit is 13 1/2 feet. The deck on our bus will be at just over 12 feet, putting us under the legal limit but still pretty stinking tall! We figured with the amount of work it takes to cut the roof off, why only go 12 inches? Go big or go home : ).

-->Patch panel behind wheel well

-->Posts going in

-->The deck at 12'

Progress

2011-11-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Since the last update a few things have been accomplished. Alex finished grinding and priming the floor a few days ago and his mom came by to help put a top coat of rust paint on it. He also finished cutting of the seat rails along each side. That is the last of the teardown on the interior.

--> all painted, seat rail still on the left side

Alex also started building the roof deck by cutting holes in the roof so that the posts can slip down into them. The posts will slide all the way down inside the pillars, and will support the deck at the top. He plans to weld the deck before he does the roof raise, this will means that when he cuts the roof free it will slide up the pillars and wont be able to move out of line. If he raises the corners of the roof the same amount it should be perfectly square. We ordered the steel for the posts today and will be picking it up and installing them tomorrow.

--> cutting the holes

--> test fitting

--> looking down the hole

--> 5 posts for the rear deck

Damn you Sicard RV!!

2011-10-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

After making an appointment to have the generator fixed at Sicard RV (a week in advance) Alex and I were looking forward to starting the roof raise. We dropped the generator off on Thursday afternoon so it would be ready for our appointment on Friday October 14th at 8:00am. We called everyday for the next week with constant reassurance that it would be looked at soon. On Thursday we were told that it was being worked on, on Friday we were told that it was in pieces in the mechanics bay. I asked how long they had been working on it and how long they were expecting it to take as they charge $110/hour. They didn't seem able to give a straight answer and we were suspicious that they had pulled the generator apart before telling us what was wrong. We decided to take a drive down to see what the deal was.

When we went into the store we were told by an employee that Rob (the associate we had been dealing with on the phone all week) had seen us arrive and had gone back in the shop to check on the progress. We told the employee that we were not happy that we had made an appointment and it had taken so long to get worked on and that we just wanted to take it home with us. He went to talk to Rob and came back to tell us that it would take half an hour to put the unit back together. We asked how much work had been done on it and if we would be charged for them taking it apart and putting it back together. Again we were not given a straight answer, so we told him we wanted to go into the shop and take a look.

Walking into the garage we passed Rob who informed us that the mechanic had just started it up after putting it back together. We were quickly left alone with the mechanic who was in the process of taking off the air cleaner. It was clear to us that the unit had not been touched all week and they had rushed to make it look like they were doing something upon our arrival since they had told us just an hour before that it was in pieces. We are certain that if we had not asked to see the unit they would have waited the half hour and tried to charge us for at least an hours worth of work. Scumbags.

On the bright side we bought a nearly complete air compressor that is now fully completed. We purchased it from a gentleman who's father-in-law was a boiler maker and had started to build the air compressor using a cut boiler tank. Sadly he passed away before he could complete it and his son-in-law was selling it for the estate. Alex had to finish the plumbing and build the belt guard. We looked at Home Depot for the metal to build the guard and were put off by how expensive it was. Instead Alex used the metal from an old ironing board that Nana was getting rid of. The finished product is functional and looks great : ).

Since the generator has not been fixed we decided to buy a belt driven generator head that can be run off any engine. We found one that is approximately the same price as the labour and parts to fix our generator. The other benefit is that we can run it on any engine 11hp or greater. For the time being we will use our generator to run it, in the future we hope to find a small diesel engine so we can hook it to our main fuel tank. The generator head should be getting here on friday. We will be installing the posts for the roof raise this week and look forward to FINALLY having a functional generator again.

-->Air Compressor as we got it.

Has it really been 3 weeks since Day 8?!?!

2011-10-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days Alex has been working on taking down sheet metal. Cam came to lend a much appreciated hand again on Thursday. After trying a few more times to diagnose the generator problem Alex and I decided to call in professional help. We will be dropping the generator off on Friday to get fixed so we will be doing everything that does not involve welding until then.

-->Rear corner sheetmetal off

-->Window ledge coming out

-->Seat rail coming out

-->Seat rail out on passenger side

-->Window post caps off

-->One of the spiders inhabiting our bus