RE: I'm Sleeping on the Ceiling Tonight
I'm still a little creeped out on finding that snake inside. I find myself turning on the light and checking the floor first before I get up. I didn't find any big holes and the best thing I could see was maybe it got in from under the shower and crawled along the water pipes. I stuffed some places with aluminum foil for a temporary quick fix. I'm going to use some spray foam and some sheet metal in a few places. I am still going to crawl under outside and look some more. A snake is the last thing I would of thought would be inside on the floor next to my bed. I hope that I never see that again. It could of just as easily been a rattle snake and I could of been bit. :E
I'm Sleeping on the Ceiling Tonight
I need some more velcro because I'm sleeping on the ceiling tonight. I just found a 3ft. long bull snake inside my motor home on the floor next to my bed. Talk about having a heart attack. I'm sort of used to seeing snakes outside once in a while but inside next to my bed, that's a different story.
I live in Eastern WA. and we have rattle snakes and bull snakes. Every Summer I find about 5 to 10 rattle snakes and I usually kill them with a hoe or something. The bull snakes I usually just leave them be. They keep the mice population down. The bull snakes are non-venomous and they just scare you to death. They can still bite you if you mess with them.
This one I found was hissing and snapping at me for dear life but I'm sorry, this is MY house not the snake house. Those things are hard to catch and hard to kill.
They look just like a rattle snake but are a little shiny and smoother and have a smaller head and no rattle. The rattle snakes have a bigger head and are a dull color but both snakes sort of have the same markings and look almost the same.
I don't understand how it got in but I guess I have to go through everything now to find that small hole someplace. I'm on a mission now.
I was wondering what that was crawling on me last night.
(no not really).:E
RE: The 1959 Ford Thames campervan restoration begins.
Hey Kev, were all still reading your updates. :C
I was just wondering how the hinges were on your doors. Are they very worn out and loose or are they snug and tight? Don't try to fit the door gaps with loose hinges. With the doors open see if you can wiggle the doors up or down. If the hinges are loose you can take the pins out and maybe drill the holes bigger and make up some larger pins to fit the larger holes. Then you can get some grease in there and make them swing nice and smooth.
I was thinking about this as I was reading because it reminded me of the time I made that mistake. I rebuilt an old 1968 MGB-GT and never fixed the door hinges. After I had the car all painted nice the doors later started to rub on the paint. After I fixed the hinges the door gaps were all different and I sort of had to do my body work over and repaint around the doors. After all that the doors worked good but the paint was sort of messed up and never looked as good as it used to. This all falls into the part about "just fix it right the first time".
I'm just wondering how is the budget holding out for this project? Or are you even keeping track? Have you kept track of how many hours you have worked on it so far? I know it is a lot. Keep it going. If you don't finish it will be all wasted time but I know you will finish. I can tell you will.
Good luck on your wedding, I hope you get to be old, fat, and happy someday. OK 2 out of 3, you can skip the part about getting fat.
:B
RE: Rving in Hawaii?
That's a funny question. I've lived in Hawaii for 35 years. I moved away a few years ago and go back every now and then. I know Oahu like the inside of my motor home. Short answer, on Oahu, no. Gee where do I start? First there are no motor homes hardly and none of them are for rent.
You can drive all the way around the island in a few hours and traffic can be crazy in some places.
There is no place that you are going to be alone at all, no where. Well almost, but you would need to know how to get to these places. You just can't go sleep in some park like it's in Yellowstone or something.
Yes there are places where you can camp over night but you will need a permit.
Some of the parks are full of homeless people or crazy drug addicts. That's the reality of it. But to be fair some beaches and parks are as nice as anywhere you will see and the people can be really nice.
The hard fact of some places is DON'T LEAVE ANYTHING OF VALUE IN YOUR RENTAL CAR, NEVER! This is not 1960 anymore. The punks can break into your car faster than you can open the door with your keys. To some punks, this is their full time job. And your rental car looks like it has a blinking light on it.
OK have I scared everybody away yet? I'm just being honest here.
There are some of the most beautiful beaches and rain forest in the world there. There are sights to see there that are indescribable. The diving and deep sea fishing are top notch sometimes. The culture is very different that anything you have ever seen if you have never been there before.
One more piece of advice...GET THE HECK OUT OF WAIKIKI. The place is a plastic ant hill full of fake tourist traps trying to extract your money from your wallet.
Go to any of the outer islands and it will be like a totally different book. There will be less people, better beaches, less big city attitude.
Try the local foods. Try and eat at almost any plate lunch wagon or drive in. It will be much cheaper and taste a lot better than eating at McD's. You can eat a burger when you get home. They have "real" Chinese food, excellent sushi, And you just can't go wrong with most plate lunches. A plate lunch is 2 scoops of rice, a scoop of mac salad, and some meat or fish of your choice usually teriyaki beef or maybe roast pork or BBQ chicken or fried mahi mahi fish or 20 other different plates. If you aren't sure get the mini plate. A little smaller but the full size plates are a better deal... I'm getting hungry. I want some oyster sauce chicken with cake noodles.
If you are daring you can try the Hawaiian food or Filipino food. The place is a melting pot of different cultures and foods. And that is an understatement.
Honolulu is a big city and usually not how it looks in that travel brochure. I have been to dozens of beautiful places that tourist never get to see. I wish I could show them to you.
And one more piece of advice for tourist. Be careful of the waves, they can kill you if you do not know what you are doing. Be safe and have fun.
...Any questions? :C If you pay my way I can be your personal guide.:B
RE: Gray water odor
If your tanks smell, check to see if the vents are plugged. Get up on the roof and take off the cap. Check to see that there is not a huge bee nest inside the vent pipe. And wear long sleeves and long pants and shoes when you check. Early morning when it it still cool out is the best time to check because the bee's will still be cold and not flying around you looking for someone to sting. If there is a nest spray with wasp or hornet spray then wait and get a hook and scoop it out after they are dead.
I just did this yesterday. It happens every year where I am parked.
Sorry Mr Bee but this is my house not yours. And check the covers on the A/C's also while you are up there. There is always a nest in those also.
RE: Chevy P37 Brake Lines
In most larger cities there should be a place that makes hydraulic lines and hoses for industrial and farm equipment. Look in the phone book. Bring in your old lines and they will be able to make any hose you need while you wait. Most hoses only cost from $20 to $40 each "sometimes". I have done this at work dozens of times. If you can find a place that does this type of work near you it should be no problem getting exactly what you need even if it's a custom application.
RE: The 1959 Ford Thames campervan restoration begins.
Hey Kev, It's good to see that you are still going full speed ahead. Looking at all your photos makes me feel like I am back at work almost. I know how it is when you work on some small piece of metal and sometimes you need to bang it with the hammer and cut it and bang it again and the cut it again and again. I know how it can take you a few hours to make just that little part and then after you weld it in and clean it up, it looks like you didn't do anything.
From what I've seen so far I think it will turn out great. I know it has been a lot of work and you still have a lot of work still to do. But I think this is all the hard part. Some of the rest will get finished quick. I bet sometimes you wonder to yourself if it will ever get finished. I have to ask...Did you realize it would be this rusted and this much work when you pulled the van out from the field?
When I first read the start of you project, I thought you were nuts to take on this restoration. I had an idea of how bad it would be rusted. I've done almost the same thing on a few different cars and trucks. Then I saw the photos and seen your abilities and I knew you could do it. Hey, it's only metal, right? Just bang it, pound it, slam it, bend it, heat it, punch it, drill it, work it, and then put a bandage on your cut finger sometimes.
Speaking of banging and pounding. Where is your shop that you are using? I hope that you are not making the neighbors mad with your noise. I know that grinder can be very loud and that banging and pounding can get very old after a few months. How long have you been working on this now? I would have to go back and look.
And I'm going to remind you again. WEAR YOUR EAR PLUGS...ALWAYS. Trust me, I'm 56 and have been doing the same kind of work as you for many years. If you want to hear your grand kids laugh, WEAR YOUR EAR PLUGS...and your glasses and face shield. I've had grinding specks in my eyes over a dozen times. And I once even had a wire from the wire wheel stuck in my eye. And that was while I was wearing glasses. It still happens.
How are you going to get the van to the auto show? Are you going to drag it onto a trailer? It's going to collect a large crowd with lots of questions. And I even have a question. How rare are these vans where you live? Could you even find another one for spare parts? I've never seen one here where I live in America. If I have seen one I've never noticed it.
I've seen a lot of restorations. Some good, some bad, some the owner never even got his hands dirty except when the pen leaked while he was writing the check to pay for it. I always give more credit to the guy who does his own work and does not have an endless supply of money.
Another thing I was thinking about... Have you ever thought about writing a book about this build? Or maybe even an E-book or a DVD? You could provide a little more detail and more photos. maybe tell some of the lessons that you have learned the hard way. I'm sure that when you get it finished you "might" have some extra time to get the book started. But you might have to write it while you are camping someplace in your van. It just might get you some extra cash to pay for the build. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in the book. Just look at how many hits you have on this thread. Too bad you didn't have something ready for the auto show. It could be just a cheap booklet with photos just like this thread. You could sell them cheap sort of like asking for donations for the project. You can have them made up at the printer/copy stores.....I don't know, just something to think about. :C
