SkZuk said:
He was $55 in sand to blast that tank but the results look pretty sweet. I think the guys who do that water sand blasting use an additive in the water to prevent flash rusting.
eh, you can treat against it by hosing the stuff down with phosphoric acid before it dries, but really why bother, it's leagues cleaner than before
Snow day. Woke up to 3" of it. Had plans to do some bus parts shopping in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The route we take through northern New Mexico can get heaps of snow, so we opted to push the trip to tomorrow. Not a bust of a day, though.
Stopped in to Car Quest with my power steering hose quote and had those made up. Dudes were super cool. I overheard a customer and employee talking about s-cams. Then I saw the customer unrolling some black line at the back of the store. I asked the guy that was making my lines if the guy in back was working on air brakes. He told me that he was and that they have all kinds of nylon line from 1/4" to 3/4". Told him we just ordered a case of DOT air line and needed fittings. Sure enough, they have every size we need.
The 100' of 3/4" DOT line came in, along with the two-gang weatherproof junction boxes that I'll be using for the 120 volt AC stuff. We're hoping to get all the conduit and fittings we need. Picking up an 80 cubic foot bottle of 75/25 at Matheson as well so that I can start playing with ESAB welder.
[486] said:
save some bucks if your only doing steel and get a 10lb co2
C25 is probably my best bet for this. Got a mix of steel to steel, steel to stainless, and a touch of stainless to stainless to do. No structural stainless. I've laid some pretty decent beads on the above with your typical Co2/Argon mix and I'm working out keeping things small and practical on the bus. I'll be packing my welder and tools along. Eventually a plasma, too.
JNHEscher said:
C25 is probably my best bet for this. Got a mix of steel to steel, steel to stainless, and a touch of stainless to stainless to do. No structural stainless. I've laid some pretty decent beads on the above with your typical Co2/Argon mix and I'm working out keeping things small and practical on the bus. I'll be packing my welder and tools along. Eventually a plasma, too.
I do a lot of 409 stainless exhaust stuff with CO2 and er70 wire, it seems to do okay. It'll look gray and is probably wrong but it doesn't seem to crack or rust any faster for it.
Main point to the co2 is that there's still 87ish CF in that little tiny 10lb bottle that costs $5 to have filled
With all colors of air line being the same price per foot through Hose and Fittings, I thought it'd be great to be able to tell which line is which. Currently, it's a maze of copper that is difficult to track to the untrained.
Picked up a stack of conduit and pipe yesterday. Lots of planning to do over the next week at the bus.
Removed the wall panels and seat rails today. Foam board insulation in the walls that will be removed and replaced with spray-in foam. The exterior panel rust isn't too bad. It's mainly under the window frames and at the bottoms of the walls that needs attention.
Having a beast of a time trying to get the wall panels out. Looking through your pictures it looks like you were able to remove yours without taking out the windows? Did you just just the weld spots and they come out?
jaronhumiston said:
Having a beast of a time trying to get the wall panels out. Looking through your pictures it looks like you were able to remove yours without taking out the windows? Did you just just the weld spots and they come out?
I started off by cutting through the stitch welds around their perimeter with a grinder and cutoff wheel and trying to pry the panels out. Ended up having to cut through both sides of each panel along the c-channel that they're welded to. They came right out after that.
jaronhumiston said:
Having a beast of a time trying to get the wall panels out. Looking through your pictures it looks like you were able to remove yours without taking out the windows? Did you just just the weld spots and they come out?
Needed to take more pictures but I've had my hands full. Here's where I cut through the panels on either side. I still need to clean up the wall framing. Looking to lay the floor down first so we have something to stand on.
Our left steer tire has had a leak for a while. I've added air on occasion, but we will be replacing the steer tires before we get on the road, so I let the tire go flat. Noticed yesterday morning that it was off the bead. No sweat, but I looked up close and found that the entire inside of the wheel is rusted. Might snag one of the new sets of Alcoas that's been listed.
Got busy cutting out the power steering hard line. When I got to the end at the filter, I found that the filter housing was really loose. All the fittings in it are loose. Somebody over torqued the feed side. Had replacing this in mind anyway since my trust in work by others has nearly diminished over the years and I want this rig in as close to tip top shape as I can get it before we're racking up the miles along side other traffic.
All in all, I got some stuff done. Laid in the pipes and conduits for mock-up and almost everything is already at the perfect length. Need to gather up a few more fittings and clasps so I can get conduits mounted.
Finally got around to cutting off all the crusty floor framework over top of the engine bay. Made a nice mound of grinder dust getting the cuts cleaned up. Some of the framing is stainless, but the carbon steel was shot. Cornflakes.
bigun said:
Did you have any idea this was going to be so much work when you bought it?
Somewhat. I already most of this planned out in my head with the expectation of tearing into it this far. The finer details were unkown until I had the opportunity to open it up all the way since I hadn't worked on a bus before. It doesn't quite feel like it's a tremendous amount of work in a vehicle so spacious. Wrenching on something tight like an Impreza, though, brings out the frustration and curse words.
Elwenil said:
All I know is this thread has taught me that I never want to own an old bus, lol. I am enjoying the teardown and plans though, so good luck with it!
No doubt. I've seen lots of folks talk about how great of shape theirs is in, but I don't see them dig into theirs like this. Our is better than some and worse than others. This one spent most of its life in northern Texas where they get plenty of snow. I suspect there's road salt there.
you can do aluminum through the normal liner, they also make plastic liners
just gotta use thick enough wire that it doesn't birdsnest, keep the lead laid out straightish crank the heat to max and the wire speed to max and then preheat until it runs right
oh and use straight argon
[486] said:
you can do aluminum through the normal liner, they also make plastic liners
just gotta use thick enough wire that it doesn't birdsnest, keep the lead laid out straightish crank the heat to max and the wire speed to max and then preheat until it runs right
oh and use straight argon
Giving that a go if I get another argon bottle. Sold mine a few months ago and just picked up a 75/25 the other day. Should've gotten argon because I need to Tig the knuckles of my son's buggy before I lose the opportunity.
search craigslist for helium tanks
easy way to get into a HP cylinder for cheap, and if it comes full you can use that too. Can also do DC tig on aluminum with He and get a lot more penetration than your amperage would give on AC
if no luck there just wait until next time you trade it in
[486] said:
search craigslist for helium tanks
easy way to get into a HP cylinder for cheap, and if it comes full you can use that too. Can also do DC tig on aluminum with He and get a lot more penetration than your amperage would give on AC
if no luck there just wait until next time you trade it in
Anything useful on CL near us means a three-hour drive to Colorado Springs. It'll be on a trade-in. Won't take me long to drain the bottle I have. Still have my Miller 200 to Tig alu with. May just snag the smallest argon I can get and bring the door home to weld up alongside the knuckles.
Cleaning up the stainless perimeter for floor installation time. Kerosene and a wire brush to scrub this tar tape crap off before I can run the grinder with a wire wheel through to take the hardened putty off. Cleaning up very nicely.
My dad is on his way out here from Missouri with a trailer load of the denim insulation we ordered into Menard's a few weeks ago. We're going to have to make a trip to Springs or Albuquerque in the next couple days to get more conduit supplies because not a single retailer within two hours of us carries any or will sell to the general public.
I have never heard of a retailer who won't sell just because you aren't in the business. I know most counter guys don't care to wait on you because for the most part you have no idea what you are wanting.
bigun said:
I have never heard of a retailer who won't sell just because you aren't in the business. I know most counter guys don't care to wait on you because for the most part you have no idea what you are wanting.
I stated that incorrectly. We have wholesale contractors here that won't sell anything to you because it'll spoil their "trade secrets". Big R and Ace have some stuff, but nothing we need. One electrical supply shop in the next town over doesn't have what we need either. Lowe's in Pueblo has everything we need, so a trip to there is in order. We're definitely not in an ideal location for any extensive build.
Wittling these floor frame corners out. DeWalt cutoff wheels and flap discs aren't cutting it. Pun intended. Ordered a ten pack of Walter flap discs and it's looking like they got lost in transit.
Rebuilding. Getting inconsistent power from the generator and I can only lay down so many dimes before the breaker on the generator trips. Regardless, I'm starting complete the floor frame. Still have some to cut out so that I can replace it with plate to clear the batteries. I may hook up the Tig torch to see if the generator can handle it.
The Walter flap discs finally showed up. Used them yesterday and today. Man, do they eat. Wiped stainless mig welds right off. One fault, like any other flap disc, is they are rendered nearly useless when you accidentally run it over some gummy stuff and clog it. These buggers can be worn down the the nub, though.
Picked up a BBQ tank the other day so that I could test out the Eccotemp heater on the thermostat. Up and running. On its lowest gas flow, it puts out lots of heat. I'm going to open up the gas flow/flame height valve to see what I need to do to dim it down more if need be. I was really hoping to have the heated floor in and operating over the winter. Testing it against sub-zero temps would've been the best.
Tearing down this refrigerator was part of today's tasks. I picked it up for free a while back so that I could get it and use the plumbing and electrical to build one for the bus. A 24-volt Danfoss compressor is a couple Benjamin's. A 24-volt RV fridge runs a few grand. Yet another project, but one I want to take on to fit our build and save us a load of money we could use for the rest of the build.
Despite being ASE certified on automotive air conditioning systems at one time, ac systems have never been of much interest to me and therefore not included in my years of work. I've fixed a number of refrigeration units, but only because I recognized what it needed. This project is something I'll need assistance with.
As it stands, this fridge is 13+ cubic feet and 120-volt AC. It worked great. The doors were bent, which was the reason it was free. We want a full-size unit, so I'm basing the build off of this one. I need to figure out how to determine what compressor displacement, freon volume and type, oil volume and type, and what fittings to add on for charging. I haven't turned up much on the internet and haven't gotten any help from any friends in refrigeration so far.
dataplate will give you refrigerant type and volume
compressor will be rated in amperage and refrigerant type (oil type) Likely either R134a (ester (POE) or PAG oils, with ester being more common in small appliances) or R12 with mineral oil. Might be R22 with mineral oil, but pretty darn unlikely.
You can use propane pretty much indescriminately, or r134 from a can tap if you've got the oil for it.
charging fittings are standard 1/4" SAE flare with a schraeder valve in them, no refrigerator comes with service ports you need to add them.
