Brakes...

Craig fighting with the master cylinder. He was ultimately triumphant.

BB’s brakes did not work when we bought her and, having never worked on brakes before, I was terrified that this would permanently debilitate this bus. Our friend Alex came over on Saturday morning to help us install our new master cylinder and bleed the brake lines. He also turned out to be a great photographer.

The end result was that as of 11AM Saturday, our brake pedal will only compress to—oh, I’d say about 5 inches off of the floor. It is SO EXCITING.

As it turns out, bleeding brakes is really fun. Not roller-coaster fun, but definitely more fun than going to a movie—even a movie with popcorn. The operation was pretty seamless and hopefully (knock on wood) the brakes are now functional. We haven’t tried them yet, but one of these days we’ll get up the gumption to push the bus out of the garage and see what happens.

Sweet action shot, eh? See the lovely stream of brake fluid?

Oh yeah, and even though I'm in the driver's seat for both pictures posted here, I'd like to point out that I WAS under the car for the first two wheels--evidenced by the brake fluid stain on my sweatshirt.

Thanks again Alex, you rock!

Alex's super hot bug.

Feels like road tripping.

I needed Craig’s tough man muscles to help me finish the driver’s seat, so once he got home from Vegas, we knocked that project out. The seats are now installed and the bus feels so much more complete now.

 

Also, Craig installed the front emblem yesterday (so pretty) and removed the blue sparkly gear shifter and replaced it with a more tasteful wood one.

Lastly, he finished adding new floor panels beneath the passenger and driver’s feet so at lunch today we sat in the bus and went on a fake road trip (one where we sit in the garage).

Craig re-installing the garage door opener.

Our friend Alex is coming over on Saturday to help with the brakes (thank you!!)

The tranny is still a mystery and we’re hoping for the best.

We’re still working on getting a new fan shroud and have decided to go back to a generator rather than an alternator. If you have any really compelling arguments for sticking with the alternator, please share.

The sun has been shining lately which makes me feel like road tripping. Hopefully that time of the year isn’t too far off!

I'd like to boast of progress...but I can't.

We got the second spacer that we needed for the carb from WW and yesterday got a chance to try AGAIN to install it.


This garage session ended with Craig making violent motions toward the engine with a screwdriver, and a call to our mechanic to beg for help.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING was lining up quite right which was frustrating to say the least.

BB-sporting her new "Big Blue is a friend of mine" sticker.

We tried to get our chi back by changing Jasmine’s oil. Does anyone have any advice on reducing condensation in your oil in the winter?

Finally, our mechanic called back and the conversation went something like this:

Craig: I’m going to throw this engine in the river—nothing is lining up properly.

Mechanic: Is there anything chrome on it?

Craig: Yeah—the fan shroud.

Mechanic: (Here’s where I have to edit so that nice people will keep reading this blog.) You really need a stock fan shroud.

Craig laughs

Craig: Is that what the problem is?

Mechanic: (editing again.) I hate aftermarket stuff.

We were both incredibly relieved and far less interested in giving the project up all together by the time their conversation ended. Good times.

One down, three to go

I just finished upholstering the front passenger seat back.   Seriously guys, I don't exaggerate. My entire body is shaking from the strain of pulling the bottom of the cover up over the frame. I'm bleeding in two places. My pants are ripped.

The good news is that I was successful. I was planning to finish both seats up today but first, I rather pathetically need a rest. Second, I thought that 8ft of wire would be enough to run through the hems of all four seat covers. (I guarantee you that my husband is laughing at me right now as I'm notoriously bad at estimating distances) 8ft was plenty for one seat cover; not two and definitely not four. Third, I've got to start cooking wontons for the Bus Pilots board meeting tonight. Yum.

TA DA!!

Top End Building

We’ve been going to town on the top end of the engine (mostly Craig with minimal assistance from me).

We’re a little stuck right now as the alternator is in the way of the carburetor sitting properly in place. The engine in our splitty has about a two inch spacer between the manifold and the carb, but we can’t seem to find another one of those. Any ideas, suggestions, thoughts?

Cool old Boxes

When we bought Doris (the bus with no rear axle from which we stripped the interior), she came with a whole box of bearings, etc. most of which were rusty and therefore trash, but also most of which were really old and therefore cool. Check ‘em out.

This one is my favorite...

...and here's the one where Otto tried to help...

which ended like this (that's the camera strap he's got):

No snow. Just cold.

This is a picture of me. Apparently I get crazy eyes when it is negative three degrees outside and I am driving a bus. I was proud of Jasmine yesterday though--she started right up in the morning and only died twice.

We did a lot of trying to accomplish things on the bus last weekend without actually doing much accomplishing of anything. We put forth a serious effort on installation of our final missing window…but didn’t manage to get it in. In better window news, however, Craig installed the front windows—yea!! We had previously had several battles with the window regulators and I was dreading the thought of another fight but Craig worked his magic and they’re in! Apparently Craig is much more efficient when I’m not around…

We also worked on the new seat covers. Somehow I didn’t manage to get an “after” picture. We got the new covers on but haven’t yet fastened them properly as we seem to be missing some integral pieces—ergo the trying without accomplishing much status of the weekend.

We also got a new carburetor and distributor. Craig mocked me in this photo. He said it was obvious I was being a smart ass. I can't blame him for thinking that because I usually am. Truth is that I’m sincerely excited in the photo—it just turns out that my face is not well versed in a variety of facial expressions and my fake excited face is exactly the same as my real excited face. Seriously though, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen a carb this pretty.