FEB. 13 , 2004
Sorry about the site being down...had a big problem navigation wise . So I had to dump the old site and start building this new one.
I wish I didn't have to deal with this now...it's a pain in the butt.
With a site this big you can't always fix a problem ...you sometimes have to start over from 'square one'.
Which means re-formatting the whole thing and uploading 100's of pictures.
Not a fun thing to do when you're dealing with a Crappy Alaskan Dial-up connection.

I'm feeling pretty awful ...so I'm heading in to doctor today. I called the doctor up yesterday and asked if she'd call in a prescription for some Antibiotics ...but she said no and to come in.
So this is going to cost me a bunch of cash that I don't have.
Uggh.

FEB. 14 , 2004
Really nice weather today ...so I installed our new Stove Vent setup.
Last month I was checking out the stuff an online RV parts place had , and noticed an exterior stove vent that looked good ...so I ordered it.
What sold me on this vent is that the little 'door flap' has catches on it so you can secure it in nasty weather.
here's some pics

I really laid on the caulking around the vent...because this nice weather wont last long.
When we paint the Bus next summer/fall , I'll sand off all the caulking and replace it with a nice thin bead of caulk.

I also installed the Exterior TV Antenna & Satellite Antenna inlets and hooked up the interior feeds to them.
Here's a pic
 
 
 

FEB. 15 , 2004
Got our bed mostly built today.
Here's some pics

The center section of plywood pulls out so I can get to the Water Tanks , Pump & such if I need to.

Tomorrow I'll screw down the plywood sections on the bed...but first I want to make sure all the wiring and such under the bed is secured & protected.
Once the plywood sections of the bed are screwed down ...I'll start building the cabinets that go behind and on both sides of the bed.
Pretty Cool.   

 

FEB. 18 , 2004
Things went from Bad to Worse over the past few days.
Monday morning I figured it was a smart idea to give my water system another 'Check Up' before I started screwing the plywood Bed panels down to the framing.
I'm Glad I did.

I ran the hose out to the bus ...turned on the water ...and walked back to the bus.
Only to find water shooting out of the RV water check-valve.
What a Mess !!!

All I can figure ...is either I whacked it some how without knowing it (when I was building stuff ) or the Extreme ups & downs in temperature we're having affected the plastic.
When I turned on the water ...the whole end of the check-valve blew off.
Here's a pic of the valve I'm talking about

So, I mopped up the water in the Bus...and disconnected the broken valve and ran out and bought some more CPVC water line fittings.
I got home and built a new section of line that led directly to the Accumulator Tank/Pump.
Tested it out and it worked fine with no water leaks.
By the time I got all this done...it was too dark to do any more...so...

Tuesday morning ... I turned on the water in the Bus and checked for leaks.
There were none ...
So , I opened the bypass-valve on the Water heater and filled it up . Started up the Heater , and 30 minutes later there was nice & hot water coming out our lines.
I was very happy and thought everything was Cool.

But I was wrong... I filled our water tanks up to check for any leaking ( there was none) ...then I switched on the water pump and opened up a valve.
Not a drip of water came out.
So I checked the water lines leading to the pump to see if water was coming out of the tanks...and there was water in the lines.
I thought maybe there was a tank venting problem ...that was keeping the water from flowing to the pump. So I disconnected the vent hoses and tried it again .
Nothing .

I couldn't figure it out...all I could think of was maybe there was something wrong with the accumulator tank , so I disconnected it from the pump and hooked the pump back up to the water lines and tried it again.
Not a drip came out.
I could hear the pump running and its a self-priming one ...so I disconnected the pump from the main bus water lines.
Turned it on , expecting to see a gush of water come out on the outflow side.
Nothing ...Nada.

Either I bought a 'Lemon' or the pump froze up ...I don't know.
So I went out to our Local Marine Supply store and bought another 12-volt water pump ...ran home only to find the pumps inflow/outflow fittings were a different size than the ones on the broken pump...by this time it was too late in the day to do anything about it .

To get ready for installing the new pump ...I opened up the water tank's drain and let them drain out as much as possible. But because our Bus is on a pretty drastic slant I had to use of Kitchen Sink hand pump to drain what was left in the tanks.
Took about an Hour to do it ! Squirt, Squirt...Squirt.

Today , I ran around looking for the various fittings/adapters I need to hook-up the pump and got down to re-building the system.
I don't want to run any water through it till the CPVC fittings dry over night.
'Knock on Wood'...hope everything works.

 

FEB. 20 , 2004
It's Funny how one little broken piece of something can set in motion a series of other calamities.

Yesterday when I hooked up the new water pump and gave it a try ... the reducer bushings I had to buy to make the pumps fittings fit our water line ...started leaking Big Time!
I took it apart and put it back together at least 8 times and it still leaked.
Finally I took the bushing and reducer set up outside in the light to look at it ...and noticed a small crack in it.
So, I walked back to the store to pick up a new set .

This morning I put the new set up together and everything worked fine except the new pump leaks when under pressure . It's only a tiny drip ...but those tiny drips add up to gallons of water leaking onto the floor over time.
Unfortunately there's nothing I can do about it...it's not a tightening up a nut sort of thing...it's a defect in the pumps design.
I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this yet ...I'm pretty much completely Broke right now.

Well anyways...here's some pics of the new leaking pump setup.

FEB. 26 , 2004
Had to take a break for awhile to deal with some Doctors and reevaluate my Life from a Medical/health standpoint...but I'm back in the Saddle again.

Over the last few days I've been doing little stuff in the Bus...and put together the LP lines for the Stove & fridge.
Here's a pic
 
 
I went for Copper lines Instead of Steel Pipe because it will make it easier for me to squeeze into the cabinet and fix them if I need to in the future.

FEB. 28 , 2004
I've been trying to figure out how to vent the Danby/Consul fridge outside for some time now . I thought about trying to enclose the rear of the fridge some how and vent it outside the way a typical RV fridge does ...but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work.

The problem here is , at the front (bottom) of the Danby/Consul are the controls and such .
 The 'controls' plate is just a piece of plastic where the Piezo-striker & gas controls knobs stick out through. Behind the controls 'plate' is an open shot back to the Burner assembly. There's a lot of openings/air-holes etc. down there.
I can't figure out any way to really 'seal up' that area from CO gas leakage without messing up the fridges 'workability'.

These Danby/Consul fridge's are Top of the Line models...but when I picked ours up last year , I didn't take into account some of the venting issues/problems.
In a House , they're usually installed in the kitchen...which of course is a separate room where the user can open up a window and vent the CO Gas outside.
( IE. They're meant to be installed in a well-ventilated area ) 

But in a Bus that's well-sealed ...it makes me a little nervous and concerned that I might not be able to seal up the burner assembly area and the bottom of the fridge enough to be reasonably sure we'll be safe.
CO Gas is nothing to fool around with...it will kill you fast. I got to see a couple who died from CO poisoning a few years ago...it was a sad and horrible sight that affected me deeply.

So yesterday...I went deeper in Debt and ordered an  Dometic 7.7 cubic ft RV Fridge that runs off LP Gas & 120 Volt AC to install in 'Latcho Drom'.
I hated to do this , for the obvious reasons...but at least I'll have fewer worries about CO poisoning.

Yesterday , I pulled out our Defective water pump and took it back to the store where I bought it and got a replacement.
Today I installed it ...and it seems to be working OK.
Here's a pic
 

I don't know what I think about these FloJet pumps . They have a very strange system of hooking up the water lines to the pump . 
You hook your lines up to these little barrel-shaped plastic pieces that are barbed on one end and on the other end is a section with an O-Ring .
Then you insert the end with the O-Ring on it into a hole in the side of the pump ...and lock it in place with this little sliding collar.

I think it's a pretty Funky set-up...and when I can , I'll replace it with another ShurFlo pump like the one we started out with.
In our last Bus 'Home' I had a ShurFlo pump and liked it a lot....never leaked a drop.

Tomorrow ... I'll switch the Copper LP Line setup I made the other day over to a steel pipe one.
I think I like the Black Steel Pipe setup better for durability.

MAR. 1 , 2004
I've been busy working on little details in the Bus ....today I started to screw down some of the plywood panels on the Bed and had this nagging feeling I was forgetting something important.

Then it hit me ...I forgot to add the water lines that will feed hot & cold water to & from our Solar Batch Water Heater.
So I ran to the hardware store and picked up some CPVC fittings and pipe.
I'll need more stuff tomorrow to finish off the system ... but here's a pic of the exterior Hot & Cold leads that will have pipes hooked up to them leading to the solar heater up on the roof.

Once I get the interior water lines switched over tomorrow...I'll take some pics & explain what I'm going for.

MAR. 2 , 2004
I decided to make the Solar Batch Water Heater a 'stand-alone' water heating system.
It's not going to tie into the RV Water heater at all.
I want to still be able to have Hot Water if the propane water heater breaks and I need to pull it out and wait for a replacement part or such to get delivered...

So I changed over the lines that lead to the Atwood LP Gas water heater today.
Both the hot & cold water lines that lead into the Gas water heater are now a separate system of lines that have easily accessible on/off valves.

Here's a pic
 

I'll be able to turn off the water leading to & from the RV Water heater ...and turn on the water leading from the Solar 'Batch Heater' whenever we want.
Here's a pic of the on/off water valves & lines for the Solar Water Heater

Here's a Pic of the finished exterior Batch Heater Hook-ups. The Cold-water Line on the left has a valve to drain the heater for winter.

Tomorrow I'll test out the water lines for leaks...I want to let the CPVC Lines & fittings dry completely before running water through them.

For the actual Solar 'Batch heater'... I ordered a 18-gallon Aluminum gas tank that measures around 24"x 16"x10".
I'll cut some inflow & outflow holes in the tank...add a pressure relief valve....paint it all flat-black . And then insert the tank into an insulated 'box' that's covered with Solar green house plastic.

Here's a pic of the Tank I'll use.

Solar 'Batch Heaters' are really easy to make and work well for 'Rolling Homes'. They're basically just a water tank that gets heated by Solar Radiation .

I looked into a Convection-loop system for our Bus , but decided against it... because a really efficient Closed-Loop water heating system needs a much larger hot-water storage tank then I'm willing to put in. (35 gallons minimum) Anything smaller is dangerous and could 'blow-up'.

'Batch Water' Heaters are nice because the tank is isolated outside...so if anything nasty happens...it happens away from you.
Batch Heaters aren't as efficient as a closed-looped system is...but they still do a Great job of heating your water. The only 'issue' with a Batch type heater you'll need to watch out for is... if the temps are below freezing for any length of time , the water in the heater will freeze.
But , I'm only planning on using the solar water heater in the summer... I'll just drain the Heater when it starts to get cold and switch over to our Atwood RV Water Heater.    
    
 

MAR. 4 , 2004
I didn't get to work on the Bus yesterday...but a person that saw our Ad in the newspaper came by and bought the Danby/Consul LP Fridge that I decided to replace with a RV one.
I lost around $400.00 on the deal....but all things considered I'm happy.
It's hard anywhere ...to get back every penny you spent on an item. I probably could have held out for more , but it's good to have it out of the Bus to make room for the new fridge.

Yesterday I stopped by a neighbors place to look at the way his fridge was installed in his RV...it's looks pretty easy. I shouldn't run into any problems installing the new RV fridge when it gets here. Which will most likely be toward the end of this month.
Hope so...

Today I did some cleaning up in the Bus ...tools and such were piling up all over the place. Then stood around thinking and writing down some stuff that I need to get done .

MAR. 6 , 2004
Since I had such good luck with my last newspaper ad....yesterday I ran another  with a few things for sale.
For awhile now I've been wanting to replace our Honda 2500 watt generator with one of the quiet Honda EU2000i models.
So , I ran the ad trying to sell our original generator ....and this morning I got a call from a guy who wanted to buy it. So he came over, tried it out and bought it.

I ran on down to our local Honda dealer & picked up our new super quiet Honda EU2000i generator.
Here it is
 

I heard about these generators awhile ago ...they sounded cool and all that...but I didn't think any more about it . 
Then one day a few months ago I was walking up to the hardware store to pick up something for the bus ...and walked past a guy selling live Dungeness crabs out the back of his truck.
I peaked into the tank to look at the crabs and heard this really quiet  motor sound ....so I asked the guy what it was and he showed me his little HondaEU2000i .
I couldn't believe how quiet it was...its amazing.
I'm really happy I replaced the generator...now if we need to run the generator around other folks in a campground , I wont have to worry about pissing off folks with a noisy generator.

I also worked around the Bus a bit , cleaning it up and attaching wires & such with wire hangers under our bed .
Then I finished securing the Hot water heater for traveling .

 

MAR. 8 , 2004

First I want to say Thanks to everyone who sent emails of support & understanding to me about what I wrote about possibly holding off finishing the Bus here in Sitka. I really appreciate all your Ideas & feedback.

A few folks wrote that they thought I might just be a bit depressed by the weather…and summer’s on the way ...so lighten up, things will get better.

This isn’t so much about the nasty weather issues or even my declining health it’s more about money…specifically our lack of it.
For all sorts of reasons, the bus, doctors bills etc…. right now were over $28.000.00 in debt. For Millie & I that’s a fortune to owe.
We’ve gone through our many years together owing nothing so she’s a bit scared and depressed about this.
Plus, we have to come up with $1400.00 pretty soon to pay our taxes …I don’t have a clue how we’ll do that yet.

I’m not really upset about owing so much money…there was NO way for Millie & I to have such a nice bus and to install some of the more expensive bits & pieces without going to debt. 
Neither of us have very high paying jobs (Sitka just doesn’t have very much in the way of jobs in the first place)…and if we had only stayed within our means instead of going into debt. It would have taken us at least 6 years to be able to afford the bus & such…and another 3 years to save up enough to move.
9+ years seemed an unreasonable amount of time to me …so I talked Millie into going into debt.

This is my really big problem right now and it’s why I’m stepping back a bit to try to figure this out.
Given the unbelievably high cost of living here, the intensely crappy weather…and the extreme high cost of plywood, paneling and everything else here in Sitka.
It all makes me wonder if I’m just being stupid to continue to try to do a reasonably good and cost effective job on our bus here in Sitka. I’ve reached a point where I can’t afford to keep buying interior grade wood …only to have it get wet and warp out of shape.
Even though I love Converting Latcho Drom and get pretty excited & happy with every step completed ...I've been really concerned about this for a long time now...it's crazy how much this bus is costing us.
 I want a well-equipped bus ...and don't think I've gone wild buying fancy and unnecessary stuff for it. 
It's all just pretty standard RV stuff that most folks put in their buses. But just everything I've been buying has to be trucked to Seattle , put on a barge and shipped up to me. The Cost of equipping a bus this way is crazy. Lots of the smaller stuff I use gets delivered by FedEx, UPS & the U.S. Mail., which costs an unbelievable amount of cash to get it here also. Even some of the small parts and such I buy here costs us 3-6 times more than you'd pay any where else.
I'm not complaining ...it's just a fact of life when you live on an Island in Alaska to have to pay a lot for everything .
But , I am starting to feel things might be getting a little out of hand for us.

I appreciate some of your sentiments, on how I should just do the best job I can …move & fix it later. Maybe that’s an option for some folks…but I’m not so sure that makes much monetary sense for us.
Millie & I’ve done a bunch of other conversions before…we’ve always tried to build them right from the get go. I’m not saying we did expert conversion jobs on every rig we owned …we just never built any of them with the thought of we just make do until we could get more money …or move to a place with better conditions.

I will keep working on Latcho Drom . ( I couldn't stand not working on it ) But I’m not sure if I’ll try to do any more interior cabinetry until I can figure this out.
This is a big puzzle for me…we owe so much money right now, we really couldn’t realistically move for some time…but at the same time , when we do get to move back to a nicer place …I’d much rather have a completed Bus home to live in …than a un-completed one.

Millie doesn't want to move until we knock our debt down a lot ...and then since Sitka's an Island , to move away from here , we'll have to either put the Bus on a barge or the Alaska Marine Ferry which will cost around $2000.00 plus well need at least another $2000.00 to be on the safe side. Millie feels we did enough traveling with very little cash when we were younger...but doesn't want to do that anymore . I agree with her completely, were not so young anymore and the worlds different these days when it comes to trying to make a safe and comfortable move with hardly any funds .

Yup …it really is a Rock & a Hard place situation.

Yesterday I got to test out the new water lines I put in a few days ago for the solar water heater and things seem to be working fine.
But before I screw down the plywood bed panels ...I want to run pressurized water through the lines again and get down there and give them a few good jerks and shakes to make make sure everything is really hooked up securely.
Since ,it's all under our bed and will be pretty well covered ...I want to make sure that nothing leaks. I'd hate it to spring a leak down there when we were traveling... it could take us some time to realize something was wrong . Which would mean a god awful mess to clean up.

 

 

MAR. 9 , 2004
Huge Honkin' Wind , Rain & Snow Storm came through yesterday so I didn't bother working much on the Bus ...instead I ran around outside chasing down stuff that blowing away and hoping our power would go out so I could use our new generator.
I can't believe it didn't go out ...it always does in situations like this.
Thwarted by the efficiency of the Sitka Electric Company again , UGGH! O well , there's always tomorrow.

I really like the little generator we picked up. It's light-weight enough to easily carry it around . The one I got rid of was pretty heavy ...not outrageously so, but heavy enough that I wouldn't want to carry it around much .
One really nice thing about these little Honda EU2000i generators is if you need some extra power ...you can hook up 2 together (in parallel )and have 4000 watts of power.

A detail the dealer kept stressing about the EU2000i , is you must make sure you're running very clean gas through it. He said to dedicate a gas can to the generator and always make sure it's clean. I'm not sure why he kept telling me over and over about this...it could be he's just a nice guy who's trying to be helpful ...or it could be these little Hondas are a bit finicky and problematic . I hope that isn't the case...these baby's are not cheap. I paid $1129.00 for ours.
At that price  , you can be sure I'm going to be very careful about keeping my gas clean.

I sat in the Bus today thinking and looking around...trying to figure this all out. Then I crunched some numbers ...and came up with an 'I'm basically screwed ' series of figures . I don't see any way to move ...monetarily speaking , until January of next year .
But things could be worse ...so I'm not bummed out about it.
I'm hoping by then to get a bunch done in the Bus...I should at least get a few days of enough sunny weather this summer to put the wall paper up .
Right now it's not even realistic to try doing that ...the humidity level is way too high ...the wallpaper would just drop off the walls.

MAR. 11 , 2004
Since the weather was kinda nice this morning ...I took the front door off the Bus and started to build the framing for the new door I'm going to install.
Let me tell you that Bus door is HEAVY ! Gawd...it's got to weigh at least 80 lbs..
Man o ' man
Here's a pic

Next I built some of the frame for the new door using 1x2's . Since I'm not lucky enough to have a front bus door that's rectangular in shape....I glued and screwed the 1x2's together in layers .
I'm going to have to cut the door to fit the curve of the door opening.
Here's a pic of the frame

Notice the wet look to the street ?...O yeah it started pouring down rain again...

MAR. 12 , 2004
I'm obviously 'Certifiably' Crazy to start building a new door in this kind of weather...but it's been on my important things to do list for some time now.
To get into the bus everyday, I unlock the back door...boost myself up onto the bed ...crawl forward and then unlock the front door. For a guy who's getting older and doesn't bend as well as he used to...this hasn't been an enjoyable experience.
So the new door is going to be a really nice change. 

I wanted to build a door for our last bus...but never got around to doing it. This is going to be a fun project.  

Removing the original bus door isn't hard . If you're thinking of doing the same...it's pretty self-explanatory.
The door is attached to the bus with a hinge and a bunch of metal screws . I inserted a Philips-head driver bit into my drill ...and took most of them out that way. Some of the screws  were rusted in place...so rather than mess about , I used my grinder to grind off the rusted screw heads.
After that I un-bolted the 'arm' unit that was attached to the buses dash board ( the piece with the handle that opens/closes the door ).
And then took out the four bolts that hold the little 'roller' at the very top of the door.

On our buses door , at the very bottom (outside) is a little steel arm that's there to keep the door 'tracking' right and to keep it from being pushed outward.
I peeked underneath to see if it was attached in any way...it wasn't. So I didn't mess around with un-bolting it from the door.
I just pulled the door out.

Be prepared , ...that door is very heavy. I was really surprised when I took it off . Watch you're backs ...I'm not kidding.

I really wanted to work more on the new door today ...but it's raining much to hard to even try. I want this door perfect...no crappy workmanship or warping. So I'm waiting for better weather to work on it.
 

MAR. 16 , 2004
I'm still waiting for a big last gasp of winter storm to end so I can get out there and work on the Bus.
Storms like this are a bit perverse ....The sun comes out , so I run out there grab my tools and start cutting , 5 minute later it starts pouring down rain . 
So I put the tools ways and head back into our apartment thinking that's it for the day .
1/2 hour later the Suns out again ...so out with the tools again ...and yup you guessed it , more torrential downpours.

I started feeling like I was living in a 3-stooges episode...so to protect what little sanity I still have , I think it might be best to wait this one out.

MAR. 18 , 2004
Yesterday , I ran around town looking into the logistical stuff that we'll need to figure out for moving off this God Forsaken Island.
It turns out I'll save around $800.00 if I put our Bus on a Barge and ship in down to Seattle...versus using The Alaska Marine Highway Ferry System.
So...that was good news.

Then I went to the local Travel Agency ...to ask if I had enough 'Air Miles' saved up to fly us down there...turns out I have plenty.
'Air Miles ' are a cool thing.
It's only going to cost us around $50.00 for both of us to fly to Seattle...which is not bad at all.

After that I went to a couple of Insurance folks here to look into getting some form of simple truck insurance that would hold us over until I completed the Conversion.
This part is not going to easy.
One place I went to...said 'No way' .
The next place tried to say 'No way'...but I wooed her with my considerable charm...so she's in our corner now and is going to see if she can help.

I don't know if we'll be able to find affordable Insurance here...if we don't I'll just get a trip permit. A trip-permit should work for us ...but I'd rather not go that route unless we have no other option.
The State of Washington has never been very friendly when it comes to Alternative Vehicles like 'Schoolies'.
I'm not looking forward to being pulled over every 5 minutes and having to explain over and over again why there's no license plates on the bus and why I'm using a trip permit.
Knock on wood ! Hope I get insurance .

Today our new RV refrigerator got delivered...so I'm taking a bunch of measurements & figuring out how best to fit in. 
 

MAR. 19 ,2004
The weather was half-way decent so I worked a bit on our new front door. I had saved a few of the buses window's that I pulled out just in case I wanted to build something like this. 

Here's a pic with the door propped up & the window in it.

The weather looks like it's going to turn nasty again ...so I brought the door inside to keep it dry.

MAR. 23 , 2004
Here's a few pics of the new Dometic Fridge.
If you get one of these for your Rig , Be really careful moving it around . All the important bits in the rear of the fridge are exposed ....and wouldn't take much of a whack to break something.

The weather was pretty decent today so I worked some on the front door.
Here's a pic of it with it's first coat of paint/stain.
 

Tomorrow , if the weather's still good ...I'll give it a couple of more coats of paint then attach the rear paneling section.

Mar. 28 , 2004
Weathers been mostly horrendous for days now...snow , pouring down Rain , very high winds ...the usual Sitka getting ready for spring stuff.

Here's a T-shirt I have that gives a reasonably correct view on the weather conditions here.

So, I've been staying inside.

Plus I've been pretty sick ...so I couldn't have done much on the bus anyway.
Yesterday, I thought I was on my way to the big Bus Converters Home in the Sky...I felt so awful. 
Still feeling pretty Yucky this morning.

Once things clear up I want to cut the holes out for the Fridges vents and get the new fridge installed.

 

MAR. 30 , 2004
It stopped pouring down rain last night ...and decided to do this instead.

Normally in my life weather doesn't bother me that much ...but I'm really starting to feel stressed out about this.
Toward the middle of April I'll have to go back to my job at the tourist shop...which means working sometimes 6 days a week , 10 hours a day.
That's not so bad ...what's horrible is having to work on the very few sunny days we get here, and looking out the shop window realizing I lost a great opportunity to get something done on the Bus.

Right now I'm at the point in our conversion where I cant do much more until I put up the vinyl wallpaper.
I'm building our Bus , just like an RV is built. Basically everything thing is done in a step by step way ...and you cant jump ahead to something else until you finished the last step.

When a RV manufacturer builds a trailer or RV ...they put up the main walls wallpaper first before adding in any cabinets.
Some of the reasoning behind this is cost-effectiveness in mass production ...but it also does some other pretty good things.
You've got good looking and easily cleanable interiors in your cabinets ...and the majority of the upper seam portion of the wallpaper is protected and secured by the cabinet.
This really helps keep the wall paper from coming undone after a year or so of use in a rig that gets condensation buildup .
And you do get condensation in any Bus or RV ..no matter how many vents or windows you leave open.

I thought about , just doing all the walls in paneling for now ...and wall paper over them later when we get down to Oregon. But I don't think I will.
Because , it just wouldn't be as secure as it should be if I papered over the paneling later...plus I think it's goofy to spend a bunch of extra money now only to redo it later. 

I hate the average RV, that's why we always go back to a build it our self sort of rig ...but some of the techniques they use to build them come from some very sensible understandings of what sort of conditions a rig will be exposed to in it's use.

So...I'd better wait till I get the weather conditions here to make hanging the wall paper feasible.

 And thanks to everyone who has been sending emails of encouragement. I appreciate it a lot.  
I will get Latcho Drom finished and she'll be gorgeous. I haven't lost my get up & go or anything ...I just have to be very careful here . I'm not as young or healthy as I used to be ...I really don't think I have another Bus in my future . So , I want this one to be as perfect as I can get . 

HELP !
If anyones got some spare time on their hands ...I could use your help in locating a particular body part I'll need to make the exterior of our Bus look nice.
Here's a pic of what I'm looking for...

I'm not sure what they're called ...maybe 'Endcaps' .
I tried Ward Buses website quite a few times and the site keeps hanging up on me . I'm not sure if it's a connection issue on my end ...or their website.
So Folks ...if anyone can get into their site could you email me their Phone number .
Or even better... if you know a source where I could buy around 26 of these items I'd really appreciate you letting me know .
Thanks !

UPDATE

Thanks …

Aubrey, Essau , Randall, Sammy, George, Ron, Ken, David, Scott, Russell and the rest of you good folks for sending me Wards contact info.

I called them up and found out they had all the end caps I needed …only problem was they wanted $52.50 for each one.
Which is too expensive for my limited funds …so I’ll search around a bit and try to figure out a more cost effective way of handling this.

Thanks again for your help

APRIL 9 , 2004
Not much to report other than , it's been raining here pretty much every single freaking day for over a week ...KECHRIST !!!!
I HATE this Place!

I did get to send for those End Caps . Some nice guy sent me an email with some info where I could buy them. So I contacted...

They had the end caps for $9.69 each ..which is a lot better than Wards price. They have a good inventory of parts for just about all the major School Bus types ...check them out if you need anything for your bus.


 

APRIL , 12 , 2004
Well ...I got back in the saddle again today and put up some FRP Sheeting in the kitchen.
 It's really expensive here at almost $45.00 a sheet ...but I think it will work out great in the kitchen areas . It's really easy to keep clean.
Here's a couple of pics

APRIL 16, 2004
Finally got my first real 'Boo-Boo' working on our bus yesterday.
I want to start the Holding Tanks installation , but I had to cut the outlet holes through the buses floor first .
So I used a Hole-Saw attachment on my big DeWalt drill...and made it through the wood flooring and most of the way through the steel under-flooring ...and then , BAMMM !
The Hole-saw jammed up ...and in a very painful instant  , the drill spun around at high-speed and pinned my hand up against the wall.
Whack !!!
For some reason , the drill didn't turn off like it should when I took my finger off the trigger...so it kept my hand pinned. I had to pull the plug out to turn it off.
I wound up with a big-assed bruise and my hand blew up like a balloon ...hurt like Hell .

Today...I finished up the 'Hole' for the toilets outlet and cut 2 more holes for the tub and the kitchen sink .
Here's a pic of the hole for the Toilet with the 'Closet Flange' set in it .
 

My hands still hurting so I decided that's enough for today.

APRIL 22, 2004
I've been working on the Holding tank stuff for a couple of days now...I was going to hang the Black Water tank today but it's raining pretty hard . So , I'll wait till it stops to hang the tanks.

This is a hard time of year for me with my Lung problems . I've got a nasty chest thing going on ...so I want to be careful not to get wet if I can.

Here's a couple of pics of the various bits & pieces I'm using for the tank installation

APRIL, 28 , 2004
Thanks for the emails asking me if I'm still alive...
The weathers been pretty awful for days & days now ...so I haven't done any work on our bus.
It's pointless and pretty stupid to work on her under these conditions. So I'm going to wait for some better weather. (Yeah ,Right)
  
I'm not sure what we want to do here. Millie & I've been discussing if it makes any sense to try to do a good job on a bus conversion in a place where it rains or is equally miserable for 300+ days a year .
So were thinking of just doing some exterior bits & pieces on the bus and slap a coat of paint on her...so I can get registered and insured as a partial conversion and move down to Oregon (when we can afford to) to finish her up.

The weather's mostly overcast today ...so I installed all the end caps I ordered . It really made a nice difference to the look of the Rub rails....Sweet !

APRIL , 30 ,2004
Didn't rain today (supposed to tomorrow )...so I hung the new door on the bus.
Here's a pic

I still need to add the wooden flashing/molding around the window and install the doors handle/lock.
I tried to attach the door to the bus with 1/4 inch metal screws ...but that didn't work out so well. The screws pulled out from the doors weight...so I headed out to True Value and got 1/4 inch bolt sets , and secured the door nice & tight.
Tomorrow , if its not pouring down rain ...I'll try to finish up the door.

MAY 5 , 2005
Weather was halfway decent so I got the window flashing/molding installed ...and put in a hasp & lock setup.
Here's a pic
 

I gave the molding a couple of coats of polyurethane ...and later today I give it another coat.
I still want to install a regular door handle & lock setup...but for now I'm happy just being able to lock the bus up again.
We live in a pretty much crime free neighborhood , but still it's not cool to tempt folks.

Well...it was bound to happen.
I start back at 'Work' tomorrow at the Tourist shop I worked at last year. 
But ,I'm pretty happy to get back to work again...I'm mostly Broke and can use the cash.

This Summer I'm going to focus on the exterior of the Bus (painting & such) ...and not do much interior work.
I've pretty much decided to finish her up in Oregon. I'm not very happy with some of the cabinetry , so I want to redo it. Plus , I'm thinking of replacing the propane line system with something I'll feel better about.

MAY 14, 2004
Been really busy at work ...10-1/2 hour workdays and such.
It's good to make some money...but it's been a bit hard on me with my lung problems.
I'm pretty well pooped-out by the time I get home , so I haven't gotten anything done on the Bus.
Once things settle down a bit I want to organize some stuff in the bus and start to get the painting supplies together.

See ya...off to work.

NOTICE
Our Website will be Down for a few Days as I switch over to a new Web Server
We'll Be back up soon with a New look and some new stuff
Thanks
Michael & Millie

JULY 4, 2004
Sorry that it took me so long to get this section of our Site back up again.
I made a stupid mistake in switching over to another Web Host to save a few bucks.
It was nothing but trouble...so I switched back to our original Web Host. 
Because, I'm working so much at the tourist shop...it's going to take some time to get the whole site back up and working correctly...
But, I'm working on it.
Well...I'm off to work again . Wonder how many tourists are going to ask me where to go to see the penguins, like they did the other day...

Have a great 4th of July Folks.

UPDATE....

I changed My mind on finishing up Latcho Drom as a full sized Bus conversion and decided to redo her as a trailer hauler ...Click-Here to see that Process