Progress to Now

[Mrbolly]

Progress in the coach has been a little slower than I would wish for, lot’s of work done and lots of things have gone inside and will not come out again. The bedroom at the back has been fitted with the queen sized bed, complete with Linear Actuators to tilt the matteres base to give access to under the bed for storage purposes, the installation of the bedroom air conditioner which is a Denso underbench UB1 is complete And the A/c is now commissioned and working. The bedroom overhead and bedside cupboards are now under construction. I have installed and then removed again the ceiling fan and wired that in. The rest of the bedroom wiring has now all been terminated and I still have 11 spare wires running from the front through the ceiling to the electrical cupboard in the bedroom. I have also made and test installed the pop-up television box at the end of the bed, and of course removed that again to give us additional working space for the time being. Construction of the wall between the bedroom and the bathroom is next, this will allow me to place and lock in the bathroom layout to minimise that room size while still accommodating the shower cubicle, throne and the vanity which will be sized using the time honoured cardboard method preferred here.
I have also lifted the new Samsung inverter fridge/freezer inside, it is there for the duration now, all things being equal?
I have also terminated all the control wires that run from the driver’s control area along what used to be the aisle and into the engine bay to control things like the generator and the diesel heater as well as the starter battery combine relay in case we have a whoopsie and a flat starter battery.
I am really pleased with the new fibreglass curved dash panel I made. My upholsterer has done his magic work and I have now added the newly woodgrained dash and switch panel. Installing that, and the new steering column and then sorting out the wiring challenge around all of that will no doubt do my head in but, done it must be!!
Still lots to do, but it is nice when you can say to yourself, “that is another job done & it fits!”

[Mrbolly]

Not a lot to add to my previous post but I thought those with Dennings or Austral buses may be interested in the replacement dash I have built, it is amazing how a bit of upholstery finishes thing off. There is another wood grained trim yet to be installed on the lower flange which goes from one side to the other to tie in with the dash and switch panels.

0481AEC9-0F7F-4C88-8DBB-DDFB350509D2.jpeg

Of course, as you will see it is just sitting there and has yet to have all the gauges and switches installed r the wiring sorted. Any volunteers for that?

Now I have the dash in place, I can install the new steering column to finish the driver’s area off and install the seat.

[Dot]

looking good, want to do a dash for me ??

[Mrbolly]

Thanks Dot,
Like almost anything we do with these things, they far more time consuming in the doing than they were in the thinking!

[Dot]

Ain't that the truth?

[Busman]

Our experience is you will need some shading on that big screen and the side windows.
A minimum on the front screen would be pull down shades (scissor type) but I will bet my left whatsit that at some stage you will be sticking some sunvisor stuff on the top half of the screen
We split the screens on VP so we could get 2 replacements out of a sheet of glass, the top section is always blocked off with silver bubble wrap insulation with the scissor shades below and it is still too bright on occasion.
Same as the big side windows. We fitted 1/2 sliders and they are great for breeze when travelling, but we have had to add pull down shades on the side, travelling down somewhere like he Newell for hours on end with the sun on one side cooks you through the big windows.

[Mrbolly]

Yes you are certainly right about that thanks On the front I have installed an electrically operated visor which also doubles as the privacy screen when you are camping. It is one of those that allows you to be partially open so you can see out while from the outside it looks closed. I have not turned my thinking to the side windows yet other than my upholsterer mate has bound up some of the aircell insulation for both the side windows and the corner lights to privde privacy and to reflect heat when we are in camp. So I still need some sort of pull down visor for those two side windows.

[Dot]

On our bus screen there are regulations on the amount of the screen that you are allowed to cover up/over it is something like the top 10% of the windscreen or the top of the sweep of the wiper blades which ever is the lesser. We put a domestic sun block out screen on the front which is anchored at the sides by guide wires, when needed I let it down to suit the sun position. If I spy a fuzzy car etc I may sometimes put it up a bit.

[Mrbolly]

Any chance you have a photo of that Dot, sounds like something that might work for the side windows?
Cheers, Alan

[Busman]

Got our side shades from fry's Spares in Brissie, american made, might be worth a look. I was surprised how much heat and glare, have done the Newell many times in car, that is annoying enough hanging a T shirt on the drivers window in the afternoon, but way worse in VP.