Clear the Decks. Work in Progress!

A couple of hours finishing some commercial "stuff" and that's it for a while . . . now to concentrate on my own stuff for a while!!

The company I bought the rotary burr from were not very happy but agreed to supply me with a new one at no further cost.

When you buy upwards of $1000 a month from them it would be pretty silly to quibble over $40!

Then the sprockets turned up too.


















Other things to do first however.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier but another reason I decided to go the (proper) chain, sprockets and shafts route was I realised I don't need to get too fancy with all the bearing mounts etc.
Originally I traumatised over how I was going to get the bearings in place as commercial bearings are quite large and the standard mounts for them are designed to go into regular convenient machines (which this is definitely not).
It occurred to me that only the drive sprockets need to be steel, and in all probability even they could be made in acetal.
However "made" is the operative word in this case.
Steel - off the shelf tomorrow at $6 each.
Acetal - Design, Order material, Machine for 2 days, so about $50 each.
That's what happens with small batches- too much overhead.
However lots of chains in commercial practice just run over idler pulleys for guidance and I could make these in about 5 mins. like so:

















And for these all I need is a bolt through the middle as the material is very "slippery" and makes a good bearing surface all by itself.
A simple plate can be welded in and a bolt put through it on which to mount the pulley.
Cheap, easy, fast and convenient.

Now I need to get the attachment of the chain to the bed frame modified from the original pulley idea.
The end of the bracket was cut off as it was now not needed.












A bolt was cross drilled, cut off and the end rounded so a standard chain link could be fitted through.




















Then a sleeve was tapped to fit the bolt and welded onto the end of the bracket.
The link can then be fitted to the chain and we are back in business.


















It all looks rather fragile but when I did the calculations it is about 10 times stronger than it needs to be.
For example : this rather small chain has a guaranteed minimum tensile strength of 7.9kN which means you can hang about 800kg from it!!
That's often a problem in engineering where you have to design for removing flex.
Things can be adequately strong in terms of breaking but they will still allow bending.
To get rid of the bending it has to be 10 times stronger - and that's what we are used to seeing - so when it is made strong enough to resist breaking and we don't have to worry about bending it looks too weak.

Unfortunately there are four of everything so tomorrow will be similar to today, but at least it looks like it will all work out OK this time.

I think I've said that before . . .

Just before I embarrassed myself . . .

Back to Bed . . .

Sometimes things which should be just a small part of something else turn out be of major significance all by themselves.

I guess that's where a saying we used to have in the IT industry comes from :
"The first part of the project takes the first 90% of the effort.
The last 10% of the project takes the other 90%!"

This lifting bed idea seemed so simple.
What could be so hard?
Some guide rails, some pulleys, a gearbox, a small motor : should be easy.

Then all the small difficulties add up to NOT EASY!

Eventually you remember the other little saying :
"Sometimes the shortest way there is the longest way round."

So eventually I have decided to do it properly.
With chains and sprockets and shafts etc.
The basic structure is there it just needs a few little modifications.
Famous last words. . .

Chain is not cheap. (Not really expensive either but there is not point throwing money away.)
It is like most things there is an optimal size (for manufacturing) ; smaller OR larger than which it is more expensive to make.
After hunting around I found a supplier who had a quantity of the optimal size chain (normally used for go-kart drives) which had been sitting on the shelf for five years and he would be happy to just recover some money for it.
This mechanism will need quite a bit so the whole roll was purchased.


















Then it was discovered that two pieces of chain would not fit past the rollers in the track.
This was suspected right from the beginning so the track was mounted on an upright through which the return side could be fed. Of course, hoping not to need to do this not all the relevant openings were made from the beginning. This left the choice of cutting out all the tracks, making the changes and putting them back in or trying to do them in place.

"Oh well. Let's try it in place first.
I can always take it out and do it the other way if I have to . . ."

First I needed to remove the front part of the track so I could get at the back and cut an opening between the track and the support for the top sprocket to guide the chain over into the support/return tube.
The only way I could really get at it was a 9" angle grinder.
Not my favourite tool - rough as guts!


















Next a series of holes was drilled along the bottom of the cuts (can't get the grinder in there) and the pieces broken out. Of course this will never be seen as it all gets covered up in the final fit out but I couldn't really leave it like that - could I?

























The only thing to reach in there that I could think of was a die grinder with a rotary burr.
This tool is a carbide "round file" which can be driven in a compressed air driven tool like a straight drill. They run at about 10,000rpm and will cut straight through mild steel. They come in all shapes and sizes and can be used for freehand carving in "relatively" soft metal.


















This one did a great job of cleaning up.
Then it was on to the bottom part of the tube where it had to go through a cross brace as well.
A case of drilling a hole through to start and then carving out the rectangular shape.
All of this work had to be done on each of the four corners upside down from underneath.
Like this to start :


















And like this when finished.
(The jagged shapes are just light reflecting off the metal in different ways.)


















Of course all went well until the very last one . . .














I thought these things were solid carbide but it appears that the carbide head is silver soldered to the shaft. Silver solder is good stuff when applied properly giving over 90% of the strength of mild steel. In this case I think it's the "applied properly" bit which was a problem. At around $40 each I think I will be looking for a replacement on Monday morning.
Then its make the sprockets, etc. , etc. etc. . . . . . . .

I think this is the long way round bit (but I wont be happy unless it works reliably and properly).

In the mean time . . . I'm exhausted after all that so it's . . . . back to bed .

What Colour is Red ? ? ?

Spent the last few days doing commercial work to keep the overheads at bay while looking at the various systems that still need "that little bit of work".

I'll mention them again only when I really feel they are finished.

Oh Yes. There was a boating day in there as well :)

Today I went to pick up some of my show specials.

The air conditioner and hot water system.
The new fridge I picked up at the show and brought it back with me.

Of course I had to open the boxes and reassure myself that
everything was exactly as I required.

The air conditioner was beautifully packed and looked the part completely.













The external grille is beautifully louvred
and the rest of the unit is equally well finished.














Can't wait to get that one installed and running.

Next on the list was the HWS.
Now I bought this from a company I really don't like doing business with all that much but they are local and matched the right price so I went ahead.

It came in two boxes.
The first one was the external inlet and flue guard.
Looked fine even if it did have a strange catch to hold it on.
I may have to look and see if it can be modified to be lockable as it only has a twist mechanism at the moment and I wouldn't want someone able to play with it so it flew open on the move.




















The next box had been opened some time before and resealed.
I didn't think anything of it until I got home and opened it.
It was in upside down.























Not a good start I thought but no real problem.

There is a variety of models of this basic unit.
Mine is a combined gas and electric (240 vAC) version.

I think by this time my mindset was wrong.

It's hard to see but there is a "bung" at the top of the photograph
which is the bottom of the unit when installed the right way up
which I assumed was the end of the heating element
or just a plain bung if it is a gas only.
As there were no obvious connections I jumped to the conclusion that it was just a plain bung.

I had a quick look over the unit and the only electrical connections I saw were for the 12vDC ignition system for the gas.
Of course I immediately jumped to the conclusion that I had the wrong model!!
Rang the supplier and said I wanted the correct model.
They were very polite and said they would look into it and ring me back.
Of course I didn't hear anything by the time I had to go out tonight.
Later this evening I was talking (complaining) to the people I was with (who had some experience with these heaters) who suggested that the connections were not obvious and maybe I could have a really good look when I got home.

I did that and it's been bugging me ever since.

Of course it is the correct unit when you take the time to look properly.

Boy when I ring up and apologise tomorrow is my face going to be RED !!

Rampant Inflation . . .

Started well today.
Hot water system was cactus!

Spoke to my neighbour who has contacts with a gas fitter and was able to arrange for a new one to be fitted today.

All I had to do was get an appropriate replacement.
Of course they no longer make the same model as I have.

It was recommended that I try a certain store and mention an appropriate name to get a really good price.
Unfortunately they could only tell me the price as they did not have the appropriate model I needed.
I decided to try a walk in to the next store and see if they had what I wanted.
Sure did. And $200 cheaper as well.
Watch out for those recommendations!

Never mind, that worked out OK.
All I needed was for the gas fitter to do the installing.
Surprise. Surprise. He arrived just as I returned with the unit.
Fitted it in about 1/2 an hour.
A bit rough but nothing I could really complain about.
So:
"How much do I owe you?"
"How about a couple of bottles of Jim Beam?
"What happened to a couple of cases of beer?"

Rampant bloody inflation I say.

Today was also the clearing sale day at my neighbours.
Stuff had to be moved into his yard and set up etc.

Unfortunately 95% of everything had to be moved back again.
Nobody was buying anything.
It was in the form of an auction.
All the prospective buyers came and looked at everything yesterday and there must have been about a hundred of them throughout the day.
Today about 15 people turned up !!!

There were about 500 lots altogether (only about 20 were mine) and the sale started at 10 o'clock.
According to the auctioneer they do about 100 lots per hour (no mucking around here).
By 12 o'clock the auctioneer was walking around saying :
"Anyone going to bid for this lot?"
"No? Next."
"Anyone going to bid for this lot?"
"No? Next."
"Anyone going to bid for this lot?"
"No? Next."
"Anyone going to bid for this lot?"
"No? Next."
.
.
.
All done by 12:15

By the time I moved all the gear back into my place there was only time to race over to the bolt supplier and get some extra bolts I needed to finish off the tow bar and lights.

I only needed a couple but they were 16mm x 1.5 pitch so I had to get them from a specialty supplier.
Got there just in time and raced back to fit them and then realised that in all the confusion today I had forgotten that I needed to do both sides of the truck.

And I still have to disconnect the fax.
People keep using it to order stuff!!
Bloody cheek. . .

Couldn't Resist . . .

As you may or may not observe the title picture
has been updated to the same as this one.


















I decided while waiting for the new pieces for
the accommodation unit
(from now on to be referred to as the "house")
to finish off a few bits on the truck.

You may also have observed the fiasco with the seats from the other day.

While all this building has been going on the truck
has not been in suitable condition to drive on the road
and I have been getting withdrawal symptoms.

So the tow bar needed refitting, the lights needed rearranging etc..

The house unit is about 250mm longer than the original tray to which the lights were attached. As I want to be able to take the house off and still use the truck legally I needed to make some sort of extended bracket separate from the house on which to mount the lights.
Given the amount of vibration that this is likely to experience I decided that good old "angle iron" seemed to be the way to go.
While doing this I was amazed at how badly the original tow bar had been fitted. The vertical components which bolt to the chassis were uneven in height and both extended above the chassis. I had to cut about 30mm off one side and 15mm off the other side. In addition the holes were completely different from one side to the other.
I started from the side shown where I was able to use the top two tow bar bolts to hold the extension bracket (plus an additional small bolt which holds the rear cross member, really just a spacer). When I got to the other side the top two holes were 20mm lower and were only just in the flange material. (Sich suggests that I should weld an additional small extension to the edge of the flange and I will probably do this when it comes off again to get painted.)
An additional smaller angle was then bolted across the end of these extensions to hold the lights.
It was bolted for three reasons; firstly because I may change the design to something a little more elegant if I get carried away some time, secondly I am not sure if this is the final arrangement and thirdly because I think that bolts are less likely to cause problems that welding in this circumstance.
There are still refinements to be addressed like the correct length bolts holding the tail lights. I would have liked to mount the cross angle the other way round, just to be a little neater, but the lights are designed to be bolted from the back.
The trailer air brake connections and the trailer lights connection need mounting properly and the wiring routed and secured correctly.


















But what the hell . . . I just taped it all in place and went for a drive.
That's what it's for after all . . .

No Refunds (Thank Goodness) !!

Maybe I was a bit too optimistic with the seats.
I was sure given the size of the cab - well it's a TRUCK after all - you can just about walk around in the cab - that the seats would fit - NO WORRIES MATE . . .

WRONG !!

It turns out that the transmission hump is very large and the standard seat base very small and car seats have wide bases.

Maybe if I really hacked things around I could get the driver's seat to fit - but then when you sat on it the spring base settled and the seat sides would catch; and the passenger seat area was NO CHANCE because of the third "dicky seat" in the middle squashing things up.

Given what's probably happened by now to the beer used to purchase the seats with I don't even want to think about a refund.

"Sure. Here you go mate. Hhhuuuurrrccckkk!"

Oh Well. Bolt back in the original seats.
Replace the horrible vinyl on the driver's squab and organise some seat covers.
That will have to do at this time.

In the mean while seeing I was doing truck things I am finishing off the torsion mounts with primer and paint and finally bolting them down properly.











Not everything seems to be going smoothly at the moment.

I have had a number of discussions with electricians who do caravan and motorhome fitouts and they have convinced me that : "12Vdc with discrete components" is the way to go.

It has nothing to do with the efficiency but much more to do with the economics.

I was intending to try and do it all in 24Vdc. Trucks are 24Vdc and in theory there is an advantage in efficiency as the voltage increases.

However 12V items are more readily available for a lot of items.

I was intending to use an integrated AC switching, inverter/charger etc for power.
Everyone argued that if it failed all the electricity would be out (except of course 240Vac supplied by either shore power or generator).
I'm not sure that that argument holds water (only one part may fail and the rest of the operations still be OK) but what has to be considered is that you may have to remove and or replace the entire item in order to fix it.
By using discrete components you can elect to replace only a smaller portion of the system and even change brands and capacities etc. in an emergency. This is a much more telling argument and seeing I am using an older simpler truck for similar reasons it's hard to argue against it.

All this came about after starting to look for a 24Vdc truck windscreen wiper motor to use as an actuating mechanism with which to raise and lower the bed. You may remember that they started in the hundreds of dollars. After considering 12Vdc of course I could go and get a standard car type motor for about $50! That goes some way as a convincing argument.
















This one was obtained from the same source as the seats (but we haven't figured out a price yet).
Clamped in position with all the reciprocating arrangement removed and a small drum fitted I could use it to test the lifting capability (only one corner at a time, however).
It was obvious that it was straining a bit. This did not auger well for longevity and reliability so I am having to rethink that bit at the moment. It also raised the problem of the amount of cable to be reeled in. The more I lowered the "gear" ratio in order to lower the load on the motor the more cable I needed to use. This resulted in the cable building up on the drum (unevenly without some form of distributing mechanism) and would result in all the corners moving at different speeds. In other commercial systems this is resolved by using chains and sprockets and very high torque (expensive) motors and gearboxes.
I was obviously trying to avoid "expensive" so this is going on the back burner for a while hopefully to solved in the middle of a good sleep with one of those "AAHHAA" dream moments.

A visit to the Caravan and Camping show being held in Perth this weekend has turned out to be quite fruitful.

I have bought a number of items from the "Eastern States" via the internet over the course of this project. I always try to give the local businesses the opportunity to match the prices first but it seems they are "not able" to do this most of the time. I understand this is because many of the ES companies are merely warehouses with lower overheads but I find that most of the time I receive no value from the "shop" style of selling that we have locally. If I could buy locally via the internet/warehouse approach I would cheerfully do that!

The operators of local businesses of course argue that they provide access to service facilities etc. that he warehouse operations don't, but as nearly everything goes back to the manufacturer for service/repair these days I am not sure that makes a good argument. After all where I am intending to travel I probably wont have access to the original seller anyway!

However it seems that the shows bring out the specials so it's worth having a look.
Sure enough it was worth going. In all cases of the things I was looking for I managed to get the ES price without the freight. I guess that saved about $1000 overall.

First off the list was another fridge. I already have a smaller one of these that I intend to use as a freezer. I think that an upright fridge with shelves is of dubious value even on good roads so off road where I'll be I think the chest style fridge is the only way to go. I know it is more economical to run on gas when parked up for a while but all the reading and research I have done suggests that this requires considerable management as you can't/shouldn't run on gas while moving. Also these are about as efficient and reliable as you can get and I have overkill in the generator department anyway.


















Other items purchased include hot water system and air conditioning which will be arriving in the next week or so.

Then it will be full steam ahead again as I now know exactly what I have to put where.

To The Faithful . . .

Sorry no work on the Motorhome this week.

My neighbour is having a clearing sale so I am
taking the opportunity to try and clean out a few things.

I hate dealing in second hand "stuff" -
mine or anybody else's - but it's got to go sometime.

Also I have a few commercial obligations so this week
will be a good opportunity to get rid of them as I am
waiting for Air conditioning and Hot Water systems to
arrive before I finish some framing.

And there is the Caravan and Camping exhibition this weekend.
You never know what you will find . . .

Back soon . . .

What Financial Crisis . . .

I realised we are using the wrong currency.

I had to visit a local car dealer (wholesaler, from whom, I have bought the last four of my cars) and thought I would ask him about finding some second hand seats from a car which I could adapt into my truck just to be a little more comfortable.

I have been quoted about $600 each for reconditioning and recovering the existing seats which I don't think were ever that flash.

It went like this:

"Where do you reckon would be a good place to pick up a couple of car seats to put in my truck? The wreckers don't seem to have any or want stupid amounts of money."

"What? You mean like the ones in that commodore over there that I am wrecking?"

"Exactly. Do you want to get rid of them?"

"You'll have to take them out yourself."

"No problems. How much do you want?"

"Couple of cartons of beer?"

"Done. I'll be around tomorrow morning to get them out."

And then when I went around this morning one of the mechanics had needed something out of the car and the seats were in the way so he had unbolted them already.
All I had to do was pick them up and put them in my car.

The drivers seat even has electric squab adjustment if I want to be bothered to connect it !!

We should be using BEER for currency!!


















A representative (salesman) called in today from a company which sells all sorts of bits and pieces used in the truck and bus manufacturing business.

Most of it you can get from several companies but one item in particular was VERY INTERESTING!
These guys import fibreglass sheet from Germany in big rolls.
2 mm thick by 2.7 M wide by 70 M long and they are willing to cut off 20 M !!
He had a sample which had been used in a destructive test.

Even so the finish was very impressive and the price seemed "reasonable" at about $40/m2.
The advantage of this material is that there are no joins in roof and walls to leak, it has better thermal properties than metal and doesn't require painting.

Similarly it wont need 10,000 rivets to hold it on.
My friend Sich has clad his bus with aluminium using Sikaflex and it is as strong as . . . whatever!!

The corners are easy with aluminium angles and if I can just figure out how to deal with all the cut edges around doors etc. this will be a very serious contender for the final finish!


















Needing to make a bit of room for some paying work the other day I decided to dismantle the "bull-bar" fittings and take the plastic part to a local plastic welder I have used before to see if it was worth doing any patching.

Sure enough a couple of the bolts were rusted into the fittings in the bar and managed to twist inside the plastic so they could not be undone. Only one thing to do, as the bar was going to be written off unless it could be fixed, so the heads were cut off the bolts to remove all the metal work. This had to come off as there are some modifications needed to fit my truck.

Today I went to see what progress had been made.
This guy gets the job done but is "as rough as guts".
It turns out that any of the plastics with colouring already in them will not adhere to the bar but a neutral white plastic will!!
Nobody seems to know why - something to do with the pigments we all suppose.
Never mind I will probably (now certainly) give it a coat of flat black paint anyway.
Any reflection at night can temporarily ruin your eyesight.
The major crack has been filled:


















And the material round the embedded nuts ground out and re-welded (not quite what I asked for but with this guy there is no point complaining) so now I may have a chance of carefully drilling out the bolts and re-tapping the threads:




































On the front of the bar are two areas which have been ground away. This is caused as it was fitted to a tilt cab truck and the bar must be pivoted out of the way to tilt the cab. When it's not properly bolted up again it can fall down when travelling. Quite spectacular with a metal bar but it only grinds plastic away as in this case.

The plastics man has to order some pieces of the correct material to weld onto here so it can be reshaped - it's only cosmetic really but it will make me feel better.























I went and picked up the shower base from Sich today.
He is not happy with it.
A fracture has occurred in the gel-coat.
You cant really see it until you get up real close but it's a potential weakness and the shower base will end up being the hardest thing to get to once it's all installed so it's better not to take the chance.


















He talked to the suppliers of the fibreglass and it apppears that they recommended the wrong gel-coat material so he has ordered some of the correct type and we will have another go.

Seeing we have to do it again I think I will take the opportunity to do it white.
Means more cleaning etc. to get the "good housekeeping seal of approval" but I am pretty sure it will fit with my overall colour scheme a little better.
His bus will be more dramatic and black will suit him.

In the mean time we can use the black one for setting up so he is giving me a hand with that tomorrow.
It will go in the front corner























As you can see there are no floor or wall supports in position yet as all the material thicknesses need to be worked out and allowed for in construction (if you don't want to waste space) and he has done it before so will speed things up enormously.


















That will let me finish off the final major structural stuff and fitting out can start !!
I just love progress . . .

There Are Rules and Rules . . .

All the sub-floor boards in and sealed. Hooray. Finally able to get the mess off my fingers - have been too scared to touch anything valuable for days.

A phone call from Sich tells me all went well with the shower base and I should (maybe) have it for Thursday. It will be nice to concentrate a bit in that area for a while.

That end is where all the (non-electrical) services go - gas, hot water, toilet, air conditioning, heating, water pump etc.. so there is a little bit of detail to work out yet.

In addition there is not a lot of hanging space in this camper (not that I think I will need a lot) but there is the opportunity (I think) to create a tall cupboard around here which might come in handy. This is all part of the last framing to be done and then I can start installing all the underfloor items like tanks etc.

Have been also doing a little bit of regular work (repetitive machining) and while (not) concentrating on this I have been considering the generator a little more. As if I haven't spent enough time here already but it will be the key to civilised existence once on the road. I need to make it quiet and convenient enough that I can run it even when it says "NO GENERATORS ALLOWED". To do this it needs to be fitted exactly into a position where I can duct hot air and exhaust out the back of the storage bin through weather protected vents.

The lifting hoist I made earlier works "OK" (with quite a bit of jiggling for exact final positioning) for getting it in and out off the ground (if and when that's necessary) but really the most common operation will just be putting fuel in it. That can't be done in situ. (Well it could be done by lifting up the dinette seat and doing it inside if I was really stupid - but I'm saving that to a last resort. Just Kidding.) And when it is lifted out on the hoist the lifting point is EXACTLY over the centre of the fuel cap. So it has to be put all the way down on the ground and unhooked so it can be filled.

Eventually I couldn't resist any longer and made up some two way slides for holding and moving the generator into exact final position.

Which is tucked right against the back wall like so :


















When required it can be moved slightly forward (about 100 mm) to clear the back edge of the bin . . .


















And then slid out to the side where it can either be conveniently fueled and pushed back in or conveniently lifted off the slides (which are pushed back in out of the way) and lowered to the ground.


















I know it all seems like overkill (and I was accused of just that by someone who saw it today) and I could have just gone out and bought some super-duper triple extension ball bearing slides. But, I have used these in a previous off road camper I built and discovered that because they do move so easily, that in itself, can lead to other problems. In the last camper a complete kitchen was built this way - on road : no problems - off road : slamming backward and forward eventually broke the restraining catches and eventually the door as well. After several alternate attempts to solve the problem with quite complicated devices the most satisfactory solution was just like this - one piece of tube sliding inside another. Enough friction when you don't want it sliding about and slippery enough when you want it to slide .

More Sticky, Gooey Horrible Stuff . . .

A lap of the car park !!!!

Outside and a little bit closer to the gate. Whoo Hoo!!

Decided to make it a full test of some of the bits to date.

Had the generator running and the fridge and a radio hooked up.

Used the power tools off the generator etc..

Couldn't even get it off idle!! Great !!













So then I took it back inside and used the truck air system to lift it all off again with the (little bit of) extra weight on board.

No sweat at all. In fact it seemed a bit smoother with the extra weight.

Then I spent the rest of the day taking out each panel, sealing it all up and around the angles and screwing it down permanently.

Fingers crossed they never need to come out again or I'm screwed!

It's that sealing it all up with the silicon adhesive filler bit that I don't like.

Got 8 of the 12 bottom sheets fixed and the last 4 are simple all along one edge so hopefully done in the morning.

Then I have to find some automotive under body sealer and paint it all with a final coat.

The underneath that is.

Gooey, Messy, Sticky Bloody Stuff !!

Yesterday was a communal effort.

My mate "Sich" needed a few little bits for his bus so he came over and spent about ten minutes on my milling machine, and then we went over to his place and (he) spent about 4 hours doing fibreglass!!

Somehow I think I got the better deal (and dinner as well)!!

You may guess this is not my favourite material, until it has set anyway, and then I love it.

But he has made a mould for a shower base for his own and other buses - very "swish".
A bit of elbow grease with some wax and it looks like this.


















Then there is a release agent painted on to help everything come apart later but it's clear so you can't see any difference.

We are being very "designer chic" so the bases are coloured BLACK!

Very practical too I might add.

So then it's paint on the "gel-coat" which is the smooth stuff with the colour in it. This is quite a thin layer as the strength is provided from the other layers. This is all done inside out ie the bit you see later goes on first with the colour in it and ends up with the same smooth finish as the mould.


















This material stays "wet" until you add a catalyst agent which starts the chemical action causing it to go hard so it's best to make it in small amounts as needed.


















It's very sensitive to the temperature while you are doing it and it generates quite a lot of it's own heat as well. It's been known to melt the odd plastic container if too much catalyst is added.

We had one small hiccup with not realising just how hot the day was and one batch went off a bit quicker than expected causing a few lumps and bumps but they wont be seen in the finished product so no harm done.


















There is a small step in the mould shape (which can just be seen in the first photo of the gel-coat going on) which allows the wall sheeting to fit nicely and create a waterproof seal. The glass reinforcing material however is quite stiff and doesn't like going around sharp bends so some filler material is mixed and the step filled up level with the main surface so that the glass fibre will lay relatively flat.





































Then - a layer of very fine "tissue" like matting is layed on and the resin is brushed on and worked into the tissue until all air bubbles have been removed and the material is thoroughly soaked through with resin.


















Then a heavier layer is placed over it and the whole process is repeated and then again and again !!



















All the while getting about equal amounts of the very sticky gooey stuff on the mould and yourself !!

However I have seen the result from previous efforts and it's worth it.

Can't wait 'til Monday to see the finished result and then I can finish off the framing in that area which will be made to fit.

Feels like progress!!

Stairway to Heaven . . .

Only had the morning to do stuff today as I promised a friend I'd help him do something this afternoon. I thought it was about time to check everything fitted back on the truck, before I started fixing floor boards etc. in place, in case I needed to alter anything.

I'll bet this never happens again but I lifted it all up on the air springs, lined the truck up and backed it under, lowered it onto the chassis and screwed the bolts in place.

If it ever happens that easy again I reckon you'll need to wear a raincoat and a hat to keep all the pig droppings off you that are falling out of the sky.

I am not complaining mind you.



































So now all I need are a set of steps with a handrail for when you get giddy up that high!

Normally I hate Silicon Sealers . . .

What do I mean normally ??

I hate the stuff period !!

It has always seemed to me to be the stuff you use to make a bodgie repair when you didn't design it right in the first place.

And it's the stickiest substance known to man with no known solvent!
And it teleports all over the place when you are not looking - onto your best tools - down the front of your shirt (on the inside no less) - etc..

Needless to say I normally avoid it like the plague.

Nevertheless the underside plates have been welded on and a paintable silicon filler/adhesive has been squirted into all crevices to prevent the ingress of damp/dust etc..

Mind you there was nearly a disaster before all that was finished.

Ages ago I explained how and why the airbag suspension bit was going to work under the truck.

This required a reinforcing bit to be fitted into the camper chassis to transfer the load to the main beams, like so:


















Well as you can see I fitted one on one side but left the other out for the time being until I got the tanks for under the floor. I had specified where I wanted the holes in the tanks but had been warned that they may not be "exactly" in that spot. So I figured to wait until the tanks arrived just to be sure as it was going to be close, Like this:


















Then I realised that I had specified four holes in each tank but only needed three (inlet, outlet, breather) as the sensor was now mounted on the top. I could therefor block off the fourth hole and put the support piece exactly where I wanted it.

Of course by now I had welded on the bottom plate hadn't I ??
And the support piece couldn't be "wiggled" in a fit !!
One of which I was now of course having.
So - out with the cutting wheel, grind out a section of the plate, fit the support in, weld on the bottom plate again, fill in the gaps with the damn silicon, again !!
Mind you it all fitted nicely when finished (and if I hadn't told anyone it would never have been noticed - would it ?)















In order to fit the tank it was necessary to fit the underfloor piece for it to sit on while everything was checked.

So I figured it was about time to start that process.
Each piece was previously cut to overall size but there are a few brackets etc. in various places which need trimming around.














Similarly there are a few welds in the supports which I would rather not grind off. It's easy to lose 80% of the weld strength with a bit of injudicious grinding.
Again they are a reasonably tight fit into their openings so the fillet curve on the inside of the angle iron means they don't sit down properly unless the edges of all the boards are rounded off.

A quick whip around all the edges with a router and concave cutter fixes that and a slot cutter takes care of the recesses for the brackets.
























And there we have it.
















All the underfloor boards resting in place.

Next they need all the cut edges sealed and then the boards "glueing" into place.

At least it feels like progress!!