Well, it’s probably been way too long since I’ve posted anything here, so here goes the next chapter for the bus :). To be honest, though, you haven’t missed much in the way of the bus. After our trip to Boston we did take a weekend camping trip to Algonquin park to celebrate the graduation of a bunch of our friends and the arrival of summer vacation. That was a good weekend: ...
This post is a little overdue but better late than never right!? So the first ever major bus trip is now over, and I must say it was awesome. I’ll try my best to remember everything as I write this but I’m sure I will miss something. We set off from Ottawa in the morning, and made it to the Thousand Islands Parkway near the bridge to the U.S. It was just Zara and I at this point. We stopped at a pullout along the highway and waited for the rest of the travelers. A while later the rest of Zara’s family pulled up and we loaded in about a million bags and dance stuff. We were now 6 in the bus: Me, Zara, her three sisters (Emma, Aidan, Justine) and her mom, Khor. Unfortunately, her dad couldn’t join us across the border so he got the job of driving them out from Toronto and picking them up again on the way home. ...
Well well, look at this. The bus is back on the road with it’s own plates and insurance :) But let’s go back a couple of weeks… This post is going to be rather text-heavy but the story needs to be told. Skip down to the bottom if you just want to see the videos I posted. To register a vehicle in Ontario you need insurance, a Safety Standards Certificate, and an e-test, but it’s hard to get tests done when you can’t move the vehicle. Thankfully, the MTO will give you a temporary sticker which gives you some time to have the tests done, however, you still need insurance. My original plan was to get the insurance, get the temporary plate, have the tests done, and then go back for the full registration. It’s complicated but I was up for the challenge. ...
I have to say, this week has been very tough. I have been battling my way through the insurance war field that is Ontario. I’m not going to go into all of the reasons that I hate how we do things in this province but know that I’m mad about it. However, on a happy note, I did find someone to insure my bus :) I haven’t finalized it yet but I should be able to hit the road next weekend *fingers crossed*… but enough about the future, let’s look at whats been going on at the bus: ...
Okay!! I apologize for the long silence, but that’s how you know things have been busy in(and out) of the bus. I’ve got a ton of stuff to go through, most of which have good images but some might not. I’m planning to do a walk through video once it’s done so hopefully that will capture anything I forgot to photograph. With that out of the way let’s tear into it :) The first thing that happened after my last post is that we found some fresh and grey water tanks at good old TSC in Arnprior. We measured these out and decided they would fit perfectly into one of the luggage bays under the bus… and they did :) ...
I’ve got a lot to talk about in this post, but also a lot of good pictures to go with it :) I thought I’d just start with this picture that I forgot to put in the last post of me putting together the kitchen counter… The next thing that we did after the counter was the toilet and fridge. We realized that the washroom wasn’t quite as far forward as we’d hoped and therefore not directly over the last luggage bay. It was decided that the best and probably only course of action was to raise the toilet off of the ground 6 inches and run the pipes forward before going down through the floor. This works out quite nicely as we needed to raise the fridge up anyway and keep the return vent open. Here’s a picture of the pipe coming out of the front of the bathroom, and then one of the toilet in place: ...
Just a quick update this week. The plan was to do the front benches next but I’ve realized that I need to put in seat belts first. The belts are in the mail and I am waiting to get a piece of steel made to secure them. In the meantime, we built most of the counter for the kitchen out of some nice knotty pine boards. Eventually we will stain and/or seal the wood but for now we’ve just got it all built in. We decided to build around the window mechanisms so that the original emergency exit handles can go back in. The small area along the back should serve nicely as a duct for the heating and AC. ...
So here we go! Now that the floor is all done, things are starting to get built on the inside. This weekend we finished the back bed area, bunks, and washroom. We framed the bunks with 2x4s and the washroom with 2x3s. Then we used 11mm plywood to panel the ends of the bunks and walls of the bathroom. We figured that if we built the bunk and bathroom walls well, then we could just throw a 2x4 across and lay down the plywood for the back bed. ...
Well, some exciting things have been happening on the bus since my last post. I’ll try to keep this one a little more brief than the last but no guarantees… First off, the Drivers area. I was planning to take out the old plywood here and put fresh stuff in but I realized that one large sheet stretches across the whole front area and has more or less every major and minor wire passing through it along with the heating fluid, steering column, and pedals. Needless to say I decided not to dig that deep and simply went with pulling up the old floor. I bought a large entryway mat to retrofit in as a carpet. I thought this was great because it’s moderately comfortable for the diver and won’t allow water or dirt through it into the wood below (it was also rather cheap). ...
So I’ve been back in Ottawa just over two weeks now. I do miss Vancouver but I’ve been able to get a lot done on the bus :) First thing I did was see if she’d start up again. It ran so well on our journey home I was curious to how it held up to the cold. You can see the video here : http://youtu.be/ifp1PGDIlDg After that it was back to the deconstruction. With all the seats removed the next step was to take down the luggage racks. These guys were massive. Two 10 foot pieces of 100% aluminium on each side. With two people it was still a challenge to get them down without hurting the bus or ourselves. We also had to cut them in half to get them outside but it was a fairly quick process. ...