My dad and I had made our list the night before of things that had to be done before the drive down to Berkeley.
-Fix the turn signals. Only the back work right now.
-Add a hasp to the wheelchair door so it can lock from the inside.
-Rotate the steering wheel so it is straight.
-Remove extra stuff inside such as the furry walls and the rest of the rubber floor.
I also forgot to add in my last post that we needed to screw down plywood covers for the holes in the roof.
We started off our list by doing some errands for tools and supplies. We picked up a partial sheet of 1/2 plywood for the holes from habitat for humanity, a steering wheel puller from the auto part's store, a giant crowbar from a garage sale and then a new impact driver/screw gun set, tek screws, weather stripping and a hasp from home depot. The impact driver and screw gun weren't really necessary but it made the work go that much faster and they will be useful this summer when we head out to the Oregon Country Fair.
After all this my dad and I split up to tackle our list. He started on the roof by cleaning up the areas around the holes and cutting plywood patches to go over them. He used the weatherstripping to make a waterproof seal around the edges and the tek screws to screw it into the roof of the bus. After attaching the plywood he added a layer of spray paint for a little more water proofing.
Down on the inside of the bus I was continuing to tear out the floor and the fuzzy walls. With the fuzzy walls I was quite glad to have that new impact driver, took the 3" screws right out of the 2x4. I also pulled off a few of the metal bits on the inside. There were two long pieces of angle iron running on the wall between the floor and windows where the seats would attach as well as a piece hanging off of the top of the windows. Some of the metal and 2x4 pieces I will keep to try to re use, others went to the trash/recycle.
Also on our list, my dad pulled off the steering wheel and cleaned the contacts for the turn signals. Usually it would be a copper plate where the wires touch but it was so dirty it looked like just a copper scratch where it was trying to make contact. After cleaning them the turn signals still have their quirks (one side you have to pull back to center when you're finished and the other side you've got to hold up because it wants to go back to center too soon) but they light up now! He was also able to put the steering wheel back on a little more straight. Before it was on at a 90 degree angle of what it should be. Now its like 5-10 degrees off center. Still a little confusing while driving but you can see the dashboard now. Speaking of dashboards he also replaced some of the dash lights that were burnt out. We discovered more about that that I will talk about in the next post though.
After all this we gave it a good sweep and vacuum. Dare I say it but it is looking like a pretty neat space.
ta,
Mer.
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