What did you do to your rig today?

[Mrbolly]

Saturday
One of the jobs I have been working on is modernising the dash of the Denning. It is one of those fill-in jobs because I have started from scratch to make what I hope will be a nice curved dash from fibreglass. Those of you with experience in fibreglass will know the story, start by making a pattern in the shape you want, flop a mould off the pattern (cut the pattern up and fill your bin) flop a part out of the mould and then you can begin.
What I started working on today was the fitting of all the electrical stuff, radio/CD stacker, more fibreglassing.
I have drawn up the gauge panel layout and the next job will be to cut the gauge panel and mount the gauges. Then I make the new wiring loom and splice it into the original Denning loom. I plan that the gauge panel can be removeable for ? and be simply un-plugged.
As the main part of the dash will be upholstered, my upholsterer mate dropped in to make sure I was not making things too difficult for him to cover it and get the look I am after.
The gauge and switch panels will be made of aluminium and these will be wood grained before final assembly.
Still lots of work to do, but as I said earlier, this is a fill in job, while fibreglass cures I can work on the internal conversion.

[bagmaker]

When updating my own dash, a knowledgable mate recommended I attach a vehicle to every wire I could find and tow them out by the necks.
I laughed, all knowing.
The wiring in a 30 year old volvo is made for one-size-fits all. There is wiring for lights, toilets, ticket machines, various gearboxes, optional aircon systems, heaters, etc etc etc. And after 30 years a lot of it was trash, cracking insulation, corroded copper, busted in places you couldnt find.
I perservered and its cost me months. I should have taken his advice, there are only half a dozen wires running full length actually needed for a diesel pusher coach, tail lights, stop, start, gauges,etc. Replacing them with new or good wires would have saved a lot of time and blood, I ripped out most of the existing ones anyway, re-routed the ones that worked and had to upgrade a couple of heavy ones for house voltages. Hmmm.
Aside from that, modern dashes are available that are all electric, basically a screen to be programmed with whatever gauges and lights you want.
The end result will always be a compromise but something for you to consider

Just my 2c, best of luck!

[bagmaker]

how it began

wiring OMG.jpg

and how its coming along

wiring improved (1).jpg

well a few more than half a dozen running full length but you get my drift, not as many as a standard loom

[Mrbolly]

When updating my own dash, a knowledgable mate recommended I attach a vehicle to every wire I could find and tow them out by the necks.
I laughed, all knowing.
The wiring in a 30 year old volvo is made for one-size-fits all. There is wiring for lights, toilets, ticket machines, various gearboxes, optional aircon systems, heaters, etc etc etc. And after 30 years a lot of it was trash, cracking insulation, corroded copper, busted in places you couldnt find.
I perservered and its cost me months. I should have taken his advice, there are only half a dozen wires running full length actually needed for a diesel pusher coach, tail lights, stop, start, gauges,etc. Replacing them with new or good wires would have saved a lot of time and blood, I ripped out most of the existing ones anyway, re-routed the ones that worked and had to upgrade a couple of heavy ones for house voltages. Hmmm.
Aside from that, modern dashes are available that are all electric, basically a screen to be programmed with whatever gauges and lights you want.
The end result will always be a compromise but something for you to consider


Yes, you are spot on with that. I have ripped out lots of wires running front to rear and there are more to go yet. Lots of wire for things like toilet etc.
I did think about buying a digital dash but decided to stay with the analogue gauges in the end, my one deference to the digital age being a heads up display which is GPS based and that shoots onto the screen with digital readout.

Just my 2c, best of luck!

[Mrbolly]

how it began
wiring OMG.jpg


and how its coming along
wiring improved (1).jpg

well a few more than half a dozen running full length but you get my drift, not as many as a standard loom

Doesn't that look better!!!

[Mrbolly]

Today was a great day and I achieved plenty. Today I went and took a look at someone else's rig which was cut from the same manufacturers cloth. The great part about such visits and discussions is, you most often come away with ideas and leads on suppliers and materials. Today I managed to prove the theory that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, a couple of great ideas for me to copy and some leads on materials for use in my project.
Thanks Hans & Roz.

Still made our own set of mistakes that took for ever to rectify, finding a constant level plane to start all measurements from was the hardest lesson, first finding it and then rebuilding everything I'd got wrong. Our choice to use the existing wall and floor as the part of the cupboards made re-doing stuff very difficult as the Sikaflex 11FC is not easy to remove once it has set. The discovery that it is heat sensitive would have been a great thing to learn earlier on in the project, a hot air gun is much easier on already shaped parts than the hammer and chisel. The discovery of the now common place "Multi tool" would have made the whole job a heap easier. The time I and frustration I would have saved myself would have probably meant I'd have it finished now rather than half completed.

T1 Terry

Fortunately I have the floor very level in both directions as I have fitted a levelling system and can start all of the other work from that base. I assume your reference to the multitoll is the heat gun? mine gets lots of use in fibreglass pattern making etc. but good to know you can use it with Sikaflex too. What are you using for wall covering?
I started measuring up all the gaps that need filling with the polystyrene today, I hope to get them all pre-cut to fit.

[BruceS]

Be warned about using polystyrene!
Nothing worse than a mouse chewing a tunnel through it in the middle of the night & if it is even slightly loose & moves, it squeaks something terrible!!
Worse than chalk on a teacher's blackboard!!
It also eats away at electrical cable they inform me?

[T1 Terry]

Be warned about using polystyrene!
Nothing worse than a mouse chewing a tunnel through it in the middle of the night & if it is even slightly loose & moves, it squeaks something terrible!!
Worse than chalk on a teacher's blackboard!!
It also eats away at electrical cable they inform me?

Avoid using polystyrene, the best insulation by far is the bubble wrap material with a layer of foil attached to each side, retro-shield I think it's called.
We made up a sandwich of 2 layers with a sheet of bubble wrap in the middle and sealed the edges with foil tape. There are a few photos http://s419.photobucket.com/user/Terry- ... t=6&page=1 of the battens we made and them installed in the roof cavity of big bus. The bathroom and bedroom were done with polystyrene, the kitchen forward done with the retro-shield and the temp difference is quite noticeable both summer and winter. If it were possible I'd remove the polystyrene from the rear section and replace it with the retro-shield, but that would involve destroying the bathroom walls and that is not happening.

The multi-tool is one of those vibrating blade things that has interchangeable blades and a sanding pad, no idea how I got by without it. I bought a https://www.justtools.com.au/brands/fein-multimaster/ from Sydney tools for around the $250 mark and I thought that was expensive back then, can't believe the prices they are fetching now, but if you can track down a good secondhand unit at a reasonable price they are brilliant. There area a heap of copy machines about now so that might even be a better choice but I'd swear by this Fein brand unit, just brilliant.

T1 Terry

[native pepper]

Just spent the last couple of weeks pulling my fuel system apart and replacing everything, trying to sort out a fuel starvation problem on the bus. Its idles and revs beautifully on dino, BD and veggie, but under laid slows to a crawl and hunts along. All this between rain which we have had for the last week and today, very heavy rain non stop all night and today. luckily cut enough wood to last so am warm and cosy inside.

Those I asked for help, kept telling me it was because I run my bus in veggie oil and it always stuffs up engines. Problem is been using veggie oil for fuel since 1970's and never had this sort of problem and the bus has been on veggie for at least 7 years without a problem.

Was at the point of removing the iP as that seems to be the only thing left, until decided to change the main fuel filter, which was actually new and only been on for a few days and as i had bought 2 boxes of filters an already used half, didn't consider it. As soon as I fired it up, it seems to be better, so decide to gamble and take it out on the road. Off she went and was back to her normal self purring along nicely smelling like a fish and chip shop, so it was the filter, must have been a bad one and wasn't allowing fuel to pass through to the iP when under load.

Very happy this morning as we have bookings this coming weekend so would have had to tow the band trailer behind the sahara and get some accommodation organised. Now we can cruise to the gigs, leave the fire going and come back to a warm cozy bus after playing.

Lesson learnt, don't dismiss anything until you've checked everything first and not assume that as something is new, it is not faulty.

[T1 Terry]

Yes, a lesson learnt early by those in the trade, always test the pressure and flow rate at the same time to determine if/where the supply problem is located. Been caught with air filters too, look like new, sun shines through no problem, but very little air flow. One was a car and many yrs later a bus. Both were a result of the vehicle left idling in a paint shop where they had been spraying clear coat, sealed the element beautifully so no dirt collected in it