OK, so where was I?
Damn, buses sure are alot of work. Well, got all the wiring done a month or so back. Wired all the 12 volt, 110 volt, inverter, converter, remote panels, redundant chargers, etc..., all's well with that (hasn't burnt to the ground yet) finished up the kitchen area, destroyed bathroom, destroyed old dash area, tracked down all the mystery wiring, scrapped old fridge, bought new old fridge that works, built new dash and front cabinets, built new kitchen table, and put travel trailer up for sale on craigslist because clearly this project is going to bankrupt us in the end. Sooo... for the details. Well as i'm sure you all know, when you go to do one project on a bus, it often leads to 100 other projects which have to be done inline with the current one. In tracing mystery wires, i found some that went up through the floor into the bedroom walls. They clearly didn't go to anything that was currently in there, so i tore the paneling off the walls to see where they went. turns out this seems to be a conversion, on a conversion, on yet another conversion. Behind the paneling is woodgrain Formica that matches all the other Formica in the bus, and behind that is 1/2 plywood screwed to the steel frame of the bus with machine screws, apparently a professional conversion at one time. It was complete with electrical outlets which had been paneled over. Same thing in the bathroom, as i tore out on layer, i kept finding more. Judging by the materials used, i'd say the bus was converted professionally in the late 70's to early 80's to a high standard, then again at a later time to a not so high standard. I have found very little surface rust in and around the bathroom, and no major rust anywhere. Destruction in the bedroom and bathroom complete, i realized that was a project for another day and moved back to the front half of the bus. As far as the transmission goes, (as we said before, the reverse gear is bad) We contacted some guys from Roadway who specialize in heavy duty transmissions, they agreed to pull it out and try to rebuild it. Even with several people scouring the underside of the bus, and hours of internet searching, we still have no idea what kind of transmission it is. (6 spd manual) and as of this morning, it's still bolted securely in its place. Hopefully it will be out and on a bench sometime in the near future. So back to the front half of the bus.
Here is the main Salon before:
And after:
The dash area (and look of despair)
And the new semi-finished dash:
the old hallway and limited electrical controls:
and the new hallway with full electric controls:
Hear are the two 52 gallon water tanks, plumbed and ready to go in the bay:
So, we're making a little progress, but still a loooong way to go. Hope to have the plumbing and water filtration all done in a week or so.