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MCI 102-C3 coach to RV - General/Floorplan

Cutting and grinding along the other side pretty quickly. I'm kind of at the point of needing to run the plasma again. I'll have to make some calls on air tanks tomorrow. Something stainless that will fit on the bus so that I can go ahead and replace the rusted tanks and use those as the replacement tank to run air tools.

Stainless Steel Air Brake Tanks - Fuel Tanks, Oil Pans, Stainless Steel, Heavy Duty | SnoDepot

https://www.lkqheavytruck.com/part-d...NAL&model=7300



Edit: Called on some tanks today. Nothing really matched up, but I punched in the sizes and it looks like I could drill out the M22 port threads for 3/4" NPT. Or - find push-to-connect adapters with M22 threads and take 3/4" hose? I don't remember which tanks in particular that we were discussing, but the primary and secondary tank in question was $450 and $500ish. http://www.snodepotusa.com/shopping/...155126&c=12754
 
Plugging away like the good ol' days before I owned a plasma cutter. I think my wife is grabbing a couple 10-gallon air tanks on her way home in the morning so that I can get something hooked up to run air tools. Figuring out which stainless tanks to get for the bus may take a couple weeks.

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Extension tube and couple more plugs, then Frankenpressor is ready to go. Looks stupid, but did it at one third the cost of a new 30-gallon compressor. 35 gallons, now. Plasma time tomorrow.

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[486] said,

I see a bunch of air hoses, but not a bunch of extension cords
if those are just added tank capacity and not individual compressors you're going to have a lot of waiting in your future
 
[486] said:
I see a bunch of air hoses, but not a bunch of extension cords
if those are just added tank capacity and not individual compressors you're going to have a lot of waiting in your future​
It's fast. The compressor is the one off my 30 gallon that was rusting out. The tanks I have hooked together now are just over 30 gallons. Essentially the same wait time. Aside from one tank valve that won't work, it functions quite well.
 
Plasma: Doing shit your other tools can't.

A few days of great weather coming up. Hoping I can bang out these tube channels and start welding.

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All out of grinder wheel. Suppose I'll make a materials run tomorrow so I can keep at it. A couple more ideas came to mind today.

For the most part, I spent the afternoon cutting more out so that I could channel out the tubing routes and knock down welds. The progress is looking encouraging. The only discovery that made me sigh was the top of the curbside tag axle air bag support. The steel is 3/16". Really heavy pitting, as you can see. Suppose I'll look for a drop of plate to replace that with for the time being. If we get Axletech's, the tag bag supports will be cut out.

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Couple good people we've become friends with in Colorado have been helpful. My wife got to know another staff member within the hospitals here that got my wife a job at a Denver hospital. Her husband parts out 5th wheels. I spotted his business page post that contained an RV oven. I looked it up and it was a 2019 Furrion. Went up and grabbed it today for $180. One more appliance checked off the list.

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CarterKaft said:
Good find, do you have a link to said rv surplus site?​
No website that I'm aware of. Book of Faces page, though.
Life On The Road used campers,parts and repair. Kris at 303 513-9684. He's in Strasburg, Colorado. We talked a bit about business comparisons. Sounded like most offer a 30-day warranty after purchase whilst he offers a 90-day warranty after installation.
 
GLTHFJ60 said,

I've never thought to check for RV salvage yards (never knew it was a thing) but turns out I have a few in my region. Good call man, I'll be checking them out.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
I've never thought to check for RV salvage yards (never knew it was a thing) but turns out I have a few in my region. Good call man, I'll be checking them out.​
There's some really decent stuff out there. Though much like RV stuff in general, some places overprice their parts. The gas ovens are such a simple mechanism and other that the 12-volt lighting, it is entirely mechanical. I haven't been all that impressed with every appliance going digital.
 
Lacking appropriate pictures. All battery track tubes are mostly burned in. Only lacking the replacement steel for the tops of the tag axle air bag brackets - which I'll be picking up tomorrow. With the tubes welded to a crossmember that I had cut through, I was able to cut through the rest of the rusted panel on either side and clean up those crusty welds in preparation for the next structural addition.

I'm welding in several transverse sections of 3x3-.250 steel tube as extra structure and to be the outer tubes for the wheel tub sliders in the rear. Two of those tubes are the full 102" width, set up just like the tubes I ran transversely over the water tank pit. Pretty stoked to set that up, I must say.

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Steady pace tonight. Started plowing through to make way for the 3x3 tubing. Since it's cheaper to buy a full stick of tube than a portion of cuts from the majority of it, I got a 4" leftover section to use for test fits which worked out nicely. Working on this back section of the bus is getting easier as I cut further into the layers of sheet metal.

Once I had a tunnel opened up through the center chase, I was able to slide in one of the 40" sections of tube, align it with a sheetrock T and mark for cuts through the stainless portion of wheel wells where the original marker light resided. I ended up making the hole in the stainless too large. Might slip some stainless plate around the tube to take up the gap or luck onto some stainless tube that slides over the 3x3.

The boys joined me in the bus for a while to bang on stuff and shine lights around. They managed to put up with the noise of the compressor and grinders. It's been a while since anyone did any sort of beating on the bus with me. Going at this solo while being a stay-at-home dad kinda wears a dad down. Sometimes I stand back and look at all the work I'm doing and think I should have built a bus from the ground up instead lol.

All in all, good progress made tonight. I made it all the way to the other side just shy of cutting through the other stainless light hole before deciding to knock off the noise at 2:30 am. No complaints thus far and what neighbors we've met seem to think the project is cool, but ya never know. Another contractor bought up the two lots next to us and broke ground to build houses last week so I'd better get this wee hour grinding done.


Edit: Forgot to mention that I got a 12x12 piece of 3/16" for five and change. Patched the rusted top of the curbside tag axle air bag bracket. When I started on that, my welder was being incredibly erratic. Looked at my settings and the wire speed was maxed out and voltage was much higher than I had been running. Fiddled with it for a while to no avail. Kept getting power faults and ended up with some cold welds. Switched it to the Smart MIG control and it took off like a dream. I was defeated by a computer. The Smart MIG continually adjusts output by selecting your wire and material size while the machine monitors input. I'm blaming the Chinese extension cord for now.

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Continued. Shots of what I mentioned above.


The wife and I did a final look at the CAD floorplan. A few minor adjustments to make when we get to tape off everything on the floor. I'm closing in on the fabrication to be done at the battery bank area and the front over the water tank pit is essentially done with up top. We concluded that I can go ahead with stripping the floor sheets and begin loading them in and welding them down.

I was rambling about setting the floor on some rubber tape instead of welding the sheets to the frame a few weeks ago, but my wife, as she intently listened, said I was overthinking it. Imagine that! I'm welding them.

I swapped some solid rubber wheels onto my welding table last week and managed to tow it around the yard and close to the bus. The delay is that two of the wheels came apart (fully expected this as they're only rated for 175 lbs. each) and I need to shift it about 30 feet so that it is lined up with the frontmost window. Spoke with the ranch maintenance guy today about moving it with the backhoe because it now weighs 2,400 lbs. with all the steel sheets on it. He's tied up for a while but will check it out in a few days. I want it lined up with the window because the table is a 3' rise off the ground and I can attach a few boards between it and the bus window so the sheets can be pulled up the boards right into the bus.

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Had to touch up a spot on the center chase with the grinder. I'll need to trim some more of the stainless to shove the 102" tube all the way through. Almost there. I'm about to browse the internets for some stainless to wrap around the ends of the 102" tube sections. Either 1/4" plate or 3.5x3.5-.250 wall if such a thing exists. Two pieces of angle would do it, too. You can kinda see that I already cut the end holes too large. I'll even it out to 1/4" oversize all the way around.

Started setting up fences to clamp to the battery track tubes so that I can plasma the lengthwise slots. I jacked around with trying to slot the tubes with an end mill on a router table. Couldn't even get it set up steady enough to make an attempt, so plasma it is. When I clamped the tubes to the frame rails for welding, I made sure that the weld seams in the tubes were oriented so that I would be eliminating the seams while making the slots. The 3x3 transverse slider tube will be the back stop for the battery brackets.

Today's work time was narrowed by the weather. Strong wind brought sideways rain that was starting to freeze. Ended up boarding the floor back up. I'm not about to let snow fuck up my tools again.

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Bitter cold with a heavy dusting of snow. Think the wife and I are going to try swapping the other wheels back onto my welding table tomorrow and give it a tow while the snow is around to make the ground a bit slick. I'm so ready to start hoisting floor sheets into the bus. I have all eight wheels off and virtually everything removed from underneath that would inhibit my reach to weld the sheets down from the underside.

I'm going to grab a fifth 20-ton jack so that I can adjust the screws on the jacks currently under the bus. It's not sitting level at the moment and I want to be sure that all body twist is out before I tack any sheet in place. The bay door lock cylinders need to come off as well so that they can be opened once the floor starts going down.

Even though we're leaving for Oklahoma on Monday, I went ahead and ordered a 12x12 of 1/4" 304 stainless to cut pieces from that will wrap around the ends of the 3x3 tubes. The stainless structures that the tubing passes through have two or three layers and are hollow. I want the mild steel wrapped up in stainless because I can't guarantee that water won't get in and rust the steel inside the hollow areas. I'll be able to swing by the P.O. for the stainless plate as soon as we get back and get busy on it.


-- Fail. Two tires blew apart and the table dug in so much that the 4Runner wouldn't drag it. Table is stuck at the other end of the yard. Grabbing another jack and another set of stronger tires tomorrow to go at it again. 50 degrees tomorrow versus the high of 20 today. One way or another.
 
JNHEscher

Premium Member


Joined Apr 17, 2007
1,674 Posts Discussion Starter • #1,270 • 10 mo ago (Edited)Long story short, I'm cutting the feet off my table since they're what keeps digging into the ground and anchoring so well that the 4Runner just calmly sways side to side. Performing the cuts with battery power, so, ya know, waiting mostly on recharges.

While I wait on batteries, I started removing storage bay door lock cylinders. I guess bus models starting somewhere around 1990 had less accessibility to the lock pin from the outside. Perhaps a security upgrade. My next quickest route was to remove all top screws from the inner hinge panel, pull the panel back and reach in to unfasten the cylinders. Got four out of six doors done.

Two batteries should be ready to go so I'll head back out to whittle away at my table's appendages. The 4Runner has a built-in inverter which I think is rated at 1,400 watts. That'll run a grinder as long as the initial current spike doesn't trip it. If I don't get the feet cut off tonight, I'll take some AC power to it tomorrow, inverter or 200' extension. No rush because the 4Runner is what I need to drag the table back to the bus and the wife is it work with it.

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DE Jeeper said,

Weld some temperary skis to the bottom of the table since u r only pulling it around the field and not "rolling" it around an unpaved site.
 
DE Jeeper said:
Weld some temperary skis to the bottom of the table since u r only pulling it around the field and not "rolling" it around an unpaved site.​
If I were smart, I would have found some cheap skids of sorts for this while the table was close to the bus the other day. All went to hell as soon as I got the table about 200 feet from the bus at the other end of leach field. Had to drag this around the leach field because it wasn't back filled very well and I didn't want to lose my table in it.

So I lied lol. The 4Runner inverter is only 400 watts. Tough unit, I guess. It ran the grinder enough to cut the last two and a half feet off without tripping. Slow going because the power was so low, but it did it. Good to know.

And a couple shots of our native landscape. Three acres full. Watch where you sit.

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Good start to our first day back. Tried a lazy effort by pulling the table with my hand winch hooked to the bottle jack under the bus. Pulled the bus a little instead. Browsed my steel stash and decided the three sections of transmission shifter tubing would be plenty strong to use a rollers under the table. It worked. Took enough resistance off the table weight to inch the table about 20 feet. Wife and I got it pulled up far enough and squared up the table with the window.

Calibrated my new, high-accuracy digital level and started leveling the transverse tilt on the front and rear of the bus. Got the front done just as the storm front with 70mph wind and rain hit us. We'll do to rear once that passes. The tilt was only off by 0.45*, but that was about an inch difference in height between each side. Wanted to take any noticeable twist out the floor frame before I go welding any sheet metal in. I'd hate to see a buckle develop after welding and setting the bus back in the wheels.

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That trench between the battery track tubes and chassis tubes was driving me nuts. As wasteful as it is, I still felt like filling them in and grinding them flat. Figured that if I decided to fill them in after and made the slots with the plasma, I would end up melting the edge of the 1.5" x tubing where the slot it.

I should probably be filling these in with stick instead of mig.

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Cleaned up the front of the bus so that I could lift a plywood sheet and start determining what was left to do before I could haul in a steel sheet. With the steel panel behind driver's floor being so rusted out, I said to hell with it and started cutting it out. Worked out easier than I anticipated and I didn't damage anything unnecessarily. I'm still pondering the panels next to the stairwell.

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Trench fill and grind is done. Set up to make the first plasma cut for track notches tomorrow when the air isn't frozen.

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Pic from the beginning of the day. Got all the plasma cuts done and some of the slot edges cleaned up. All my grinder wheels are at EOL.

I'm gearing up to set up the ramp between the table and the window and to start stripping the mill scale off the floor sheets. Abrasive sanding is getting the thumbs down. I think I'll be grabbing some angle iron tomorrow to tack around the perimeter of my table and caulk so that it creates a shallow pool that I can submerge all the sheets in vinegar with. Muriatic acid is an absolute hell no because of the crazy gusts of wind. I'll think I'm going to get my dad out here to give me a hand on laying this floor in.

My hesitation on the vinegar bath is the need to keeping it from freezing and having to rinse it off prior to pulling each sheet into the bus. The idea to pull a sheet onto the ramp, rinse it with water, then quickly spray it with WD-40 came to mind. I sprayed a puddle of WD-40 onto some steel plate so that I could see if I could weld on it. With a little adjustment of the wire speed, it came out really well. No ill effect to the weld arc. Did some googling on the effect and I see that WD-40 has been used as an anti-spatter and generally does not bother mig welds on steel. Agree? I've never bothered to use any kind of anti-spatter. Just wanted to try this out because I don't want the sheets flash rusting after they get rinsed off and I wanted to be sure that the WD-40 wouldn't trash my welds if a film of it happened to remain on the sheets as they get installed.

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Some liquor and a layer of Carhart gets me busy in the cold air. All slots are shaved and beveled. I built the ramps between the welding table and window sill today along with tacking on three of the four lengths of angle iron onto the perimeter of the table.

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Been lazy with updates. Mind has been elsewhere with stuff.

Holes from marker light pocket to marker light pocket have been enlarged to get the 3x3 tube fitted. The welding table tray is finished up and ready to be filled with vinegar to strip the rust and mill scale off the all sixteen sheets of floor steel. The 3x3 tube is stripped and I might get a stainless cuff welding on one end tonight as long I'm not too sore to do so.

Talked to my dad today about joining to get the floor down starting on the 28th. Five sheets can go down before I have to have the 3x3 tube welding completed. I have a few more parts to cut out and some prepping to do prior to any sheets going down, but I'll try to get all of it done before any floor steel gets brought into the bus. Going to strip, hammer down high spots, and WD-40 oil the floor frame. Going to be quite a task. Hoping we can get the first complete layer of floor sheets down and many of the washers tacked in place.

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Chopped up some 1/4" stainless for the 3x3 tube ends. Looked a bit like a scene from a horror movie.

Man, I love stainless tig. I'd really like to get a better tig torch, though. This Tweco torch has made my propensity to dip my tungsten much worse. I have a #7 pyrex lens on it from Edge Welding that was supposed to fit. Turned out that the torch silicone just let the ceramic cups plug on instead of thread on, so my pyrex lens wiggles a lot. Makes walking the cup difficult.

One tube end is fully welded. Just have to run the grinder over the outside corners to square them off. Probably closing up shop until we get back from Missouri. Headed out Friday morning and hosting an HOA pre-meeting as soon as we get back.

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