OOPSI

So yesterday I had time to kill. The bus went into the city for a safety inspection. I went in with open eyes, I knew that it wasn't likely to pass, but I wanted to know what needed to get done and to see if the company I took it to would be interested in doing some of the work. And, I was right the ol' girl didn't pass the inspection and the company was a great place and they are interested in helping getting her up and running. The main reasons for the failure of the inspection, horn, mudflaps, broken windows(already have the glass cut) and the biggie, with no surprise to Randy, too much play in the steering.
Yet I digress, while waiting for 3 hours during the inspection, I got to play with my iphone....a great app called color splash let me play with this image...not bad for a first timer!

Before and After

I know I know, I'm a little ahead of myself. I have bigger fish to fry but I got my hands on a aluminum polishing kit, and I had to try it out. For all my dental friends it looks a whole lot like 3rd year lab polishing gold crowns......just on a larger scale!

Just when I thought I had a good handle on the seals and trim pieces for the windows I realized that there was another foam based component underneath one of the rubber seals!

A nice little before and after shot

And of course a little shameless product placement...my happy juice.

I need your input

OK folks!! I need some help. I am in the process of refurbishing the slide windows on the bus. I have found a place who can cut/get me the glass, and I have tracked down two out of three sources for some of the seals for the windows(thank you airstream trailers!) However, I seem to be running into some challenges with finding the glass seal or glass trim seal or the window gasket. I'm not sure what the official name is but here it is. The glass pane sits in the channel in the seal/gasket which in turn sits in the channel of the window frame.
I foolishly did not measure the size but I will right away and update the blog.
If anyone out there is a closet widow gasket/seal junkie and knows where I might get a lead on something like this I would be most appreciative!!

OK here are the measurements 3/8" wide, fits into 1/4" deep channel in window frame lip sits above frame and the channel within the seal for the glass is 1/4"

OOPSI - Surprise!!

Most of the bus is empty now, all the kitchen,bath,storage, hot water tank,furnace etc. are all gone. But as I said earlier I left the dinette and the bench as a place to sit, a place to put my tools etc etc. Tonight I was putting the front end heater back in when I thought I should look under the seats of the dinette and the bench.
I found a few surprises...

For better......




And for worse.....ewwwww!

I am putting some of her back together for this Friday. I have to take her in for an "OOPSI"....ya you read it right...That would be the Out Of Province Safety Inspection....to quote a good friend, "Really I couldn't make this stuff up"

Waiting to work.

Sorry, no progress has been made on the ol' girl. I have been out of town for the last few days. Singing in Whistler! I have had some great discussions in the meantime with some of the Flxible owners group members about repowering options for the bus!!

1940's design

So what is the vision?
To put it in the easiest way, classic outside modern inside. Not a real earth shattering revelation I know. That basically encompasses almost everyone's wishes when restoring and converting a classic Flxible. Below is a picture from the movie RV. The paint job is a fairly typical paint design from the 40's for flxible buses. The roof "patio" is a cool idea. We are in consultation around our house in regards to colours for the bus.....as well as a name. So far Jeff likes orange&green, Anna is blue(powder blue: don't kid yourself) and Michelle is a firm "not rust". Me?....I'm partial to red and white....I mean we are in Stampeder/Flames country.



As for a name?......Well I was always thinking a rebirth of the Sinclair camper from the 70's
The "SINBIN"
Then put a 1940's era pin up girl image on the back of the bus.......
......Michelle put her 'VETO' on that one



Hmphf! I kinda liked it!

Empty....kind of.

I've lost track or actually what day this was taken on, but I suppose it doesn't really matter. Point is that we are pretty much down to the bare flooring. I have left the dinette and the bench in place for now. Just to have a place to put my tools and the coffee, and...

I then moved to the front. The blower for the front heater was screaming at me when I would start it up, and no air was coming out the front, just up top(defrost)

Further investigation revealed that there are in fact two motors. The top one was working...kind of, but the bottom one is long since seized. So off to try and find a replacement(this should be fun)

Next on the list was windows. Taking them off the bus was surprisingly easy....given that someone else did it previously and then decide to place them back on with hinges....don't ask.

After a full day in the bus things tend to get a little weird.....we all get a little punchy.

Lady in waiting

OK so I'm having some"uploading" issues...maybe it's too little sleep and I'm getting a little punchy. Anyway, this is one of my favorite shots, I call it "Lady in Waiting".
Relax, it's not my bus but rather a rig in rough shape in Nelson BC. For a long time Michelle thought that this was the bus I was buying.....she was a little nervous about the moss.....

Tear down

Might as well dive right in. This is after day 1. We pulled out the overhead cabinets, then took out the fridge,stove freezer and counter. As sad as it was we decided that the green shag carpet had to go too....not sure if green was the original color...didn't want to know.
After putting the kids to bed....and Michelle. I couldn't sleep so I snuck out and tore out the sink and cabinets at about 11pm...I know,I know,......I have issues
Next was the furnace,bathroom,storage closet and the hot water tank!
Finally I was able to pull parts of the floor. The bus was originally manufactured to have a dropped center isle. But whomever did the original reno decided to build the floor up 6" so it was flat....which was fine if you were under 5'10"
Oh... the other beauty of the tear down is a reminder that the original reno was done many moons ago and done in the USA... which means no robertson, very few phillips.....and a whole lot of flatheads....damn that slows things down!

Let the fun begin

So this is what we had to start with. You get a good idea of what was there from the video. Oddly enough the pictures and video make it look allot cleaner than it really is. After consideration I decided I want to start new. So the plan is to gut it down as far as we dare and start a new.
That's all the encouragement Jeffrey needed, we had music, we had a cooler of drinks, we had power tools with little rules.....it's all good.
60 years, a few different owners with different ideas about how things should be done leaves a rats nest of bad wiring. Chris Kruse took on the daunting task of a general re wiring

The tour.

A tour! This will give you a taste of what she looks like inside!