Team effort

Well it is Friday, which means it's bus day and often that means that Randy makes an effort to come out to lend a hand. Today had another helper on hand-Ron! No, no he didn't drive all the way from Manitoba just to lay hands on bus....as a religious experience as that is...no Ron and Verna came to town for a family funeral. A sad reason but when life gives you lemons, damn the lemonade-lets make margaritas!
As I mentioned last time, bump rails were on the agenda, Ron started by prepping the last bit of body panels that needed some POR-15 under the bump rail.

While Ron was working the front Randy worked the back, drilling...again...that man is going to hate to see the site of an electric drill I tell you! Most of the panels had been replaced, which meant that some of the rivets that held the panels had to be removed to allow the installation of the rails, then re-riveted!

While Randy was working away on blasting through rivets(and drill bits), Ron moved on to installing the silicon heater core hose.

Although it is almost a full  time job keeping enough work and tools available for two efficient and productive workers. I too was busy on the electrical. We managed to mount the fuse box, and run cabling from the battery to the cut off switch to the starter. somehow when I lay it out in type like that it really doesn't seem like it's all that significant....

Ron and I did a little reconstructive body work as well. On the floor panels of the drivers area, there are removable panels. One of them had holes in it for the old clutch pedal and another hole that had been drilled....for what we are not sure, but Ron ground the holes to a uniform shape, cut some sheet metal to fit in the new holes, and then I welded them into place! Worked great really!

Nothing better, nothing worse

There are some things in life you never tire of. The sound of a distant lawnmower and the smell of fresh cut grass, my wife's hamburger soup and fresh made biscuits, and the uplifting brightness of the rising sun. I tell ya, Saturday morning(after I waited for the frost to ease) I walked into the bus shelter with a cup of dark hot joe, and was greeted with the morning sun.... now there is something that puts a smile on my face.

I had a bazillion things on my to do list today. Some of them I managed a picture, others I thought of the picture. The two biggest things I wanted to accomplish is prepping the bumper rails, and moving the electrical. The bumper rails, I had thought, were all ready to go....but I was mistaken. Apparently I had previously prepped all but one and a half of them. One rail needed to be painted inside and out, the other just the outside. ....good, done like dinner, but no picture....sorry.
The second project was the re-routing of the electrical. I could bore you to death with the reasons why but sufficed to say I decided to move them....so off I went.

At one point I had to laugh, I was looked around for a tool but I'll be damned if I could find them. Tin snips! I can see them as plain as day in the photo, but for the life of me I couldn't see them. The reason I laughed is I knew I had just used them. I don't mean I remember when I used them last....I mean I used them, put them down and immediately lost them. At work I have two extremely organized and sharp co workers who keep me running fast and efficient. I think that is my problem, sometimes I put stuff down and subconsciously think that when I need it it will magically appear. The problem is my magicians help me chair side at the office, they haven't ventured to helping me bus side.

So, I take a minute every now and then to clean and organize. It's surprising when I put away the things that I am done with, how spacious the work area becomes!

This morning brought a little surprise....a little to low of a drop of the mercury. Now we have some white stuff. It was inevitable, it is the end of October!

Exhausting work

Come on I had to when else could I throw a double entendre as perfect as that out there?
Friday is usually my day off for bus, but Friday looks pretty busy with meetings with financial advisers, lunch with my sweetheart, pick up the kids, Anna to Volleyball tourney....the list goes on.
So knowing that I would get little to no bus on Friday, I elected to do a little thursday late night pipe fitting!

The dry fit of the muffler looked promising, although the mounting cradle doesn't hang it on an angle like this, but it gives me an idea of where things need to be.

Not to rush things but the weather outside is frightful, with rain not snow, and you know how much I want to avoid welding in the rain, so I had to make it quick.

I am pretty happy with the final product, but I couldn't separate the first 90 deg elbow from the second length of pipe. As such the pipe rides too low for my liking. But it will do until I get things mobile, then I can take it to an exhaust shop and have a new one bent.

No Job to big, no job too small

 There is no I in team....unless it's an apple product then it would be iTeam....yet I digress. What I am trying to say is that Sunday Randy came over and we had another fabulous day in the beautiful fall weather. Just brisk enough to not overheat but warm enough that my fingers didn't freeze to the metal bus parts like a tongue to a school railing.
 I had a couple of jobs on the agenda today. First and foremost was to mount the perforated panels outside of the radiator.

 So after a little discussion and mapping of what we wanted and where, Randy got to work doing what I was too nervous to do myself(chicken). He cut the SS fluted siding! Oh god I can see the Flxible  community die hards squirming in their seats as we speak. Yes you heard me right we cut the panel!

 And a fine job at that really!

 All the while my little tiny seemingly insignificant job today was to finish the tranny linkage.Yup a little piece that sits hidden under the floor...that no one will see....Not so whiz -bang flashy as SS perforated panels, but there is no I in team. I won't even bother to tell you how I spent and hour or so making one of these only to realize I would have been better off to cut the threads off a 3/8" bolt and drill&tap the head, no that would expose the fact that sometimes I fail to look at the world in widescreen format.

 Speaking of flashy panels, in case you are wondering 16G SS panels are very hard, have a few extra drill bits on hand

 After 4-5 bits, a whole bunch of elbow grease and countless songs being hummed in hushed tones, the panels are put into place. I am happy to say that I did finish my little project, and by the way it's not the size of your project it's how well you finish...your project. OK that just got awkward...

But I did feel compelled to move onto something a little bigger, dirtier....manly. Yes boys and girls I'll say it loud and proud...I'm talkin' exhaust, I'm a rusty dirty muffler man

 Nice Panels Randy.

At long last.

 I bet you thought I forgot about Fillmore? No, no, life just gets busy sometimes. My obsessive personality needs to be forced to take a break. If left to my own devices and there were no negative repercussions, I would likely find myself out in the bus each and every day for as long as I could manage. But alas, the need to put food on the table, wine in my glass, and shoes on my wife's feet (why they have to be patent leather from Arnold Churgin I'll never know) these meek and mild reasons keep me on the path of harmony and balance.(now would be the appropriate time to sit in the lotus position and humm..."Ohmmmmmmmmmm")

 So, where were we?

 Ahh yes, the unbalanced lever arm. Well after many pieces of paper and blowing the dust off my rudimentary geometry skills. I finally came up with a design for my transmission linkage cable unbalanced lever arm to equalize the travel difference between the linkage cable and the drivers shifter. At the time of my last post....as I was typing up the blog and looking at the pictures explaining the challenge to Michelle. Somewhere in the conversation I said "I just have to make the forward lever." Implicating that there was already another lever, which of course there is, the actual transmission shifter lever.
 Sometimes in a married couple there is communication on different levels. I'm not talking about verbal communication where my wife says one thing to me but means something entirely different and I should know what she means.....that kind of communication I am hopeless at. I think most men are, or at least that is the defense I have when I totally blow our cover as to why we couldn't make the neighbors dinner invite.
No I am talking about the eyeball to eyeball communication. You know when you go on and on to your wife about how you have to create a very elaborate uneven lever arm for the transmission linkage cable as to equalize the amount of travel between the two moving parts....
 And then she gives me the look. You know the one I'm talking about, the one that says "You sir have had waaaay to much coffee and now you are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Why not change the other lever arm, and call it a day?"
Ehhhh crap, I hate it when she does that.

 Yes despite my fancy pants designs, it's once again time to employ the KISS rule. All I have to do is reposition the cable on the shifter arm closer to the pivot and boom we're done. The biggest challenge was drilling this sucker. I have no idea what this is made from, same stuff the make samurai swords out of I think, but I couldn't drill it on my drill press. So I removed it, had my local machine shop drill me a very expensive 5/16" hole, and then put it back on and torqued 'er down. Done! Easy peasy!

 

 Now on to the front, I have to make a support for the bar that comes from the shifter and attaches to the cable. I quietly kindnapped a cutting board from the kitchen to create a durable non stick surface for the shaft to rest and slide on.

 Create a bracket for the shifter shaft.

 A little test fit, looks good! But I'm not happy with the support piece, it needs to be bigger. I used
1 1/2" square tube lined with cutting board, but I need something larger

 So I simply moved to 2" square and 'tweeked' the design.

Here we are! I had to pant it green. Why? Aside from this was the only other choice from that pink/purple primer color I needed it to pop! Although you'll never see it, it is going to be under the floor.