Last week, we got a good start building our solar rack by designing and building the prototype for the lower layer of solar panels (4 of our 8 Sunpower E20 435W panels). This week, we are moving on up to the upper layer of panels (the other 4 panels). Initially,
Solar Rack: Part 2 - Building the Lower Layer
It’s finally time to tackle building a rack to hold our solar panels. The goal is to get all eight of our Sunpower E20 435W panels on our roof, giving us nearly 3500W of solar. We realize that using panels of this size (81.5”x41.5”) is quite
Planning a Solar Rack - Part 1: Building a Model & Our Plans
The bus finally made it into Mexico to the paint shop! Some of you may be wondering why we aren’t waiting until the end of our renovation to have the bus painted. The main reason is that we want the roof repainted before we install our solar panels. And
¡Hola, México! ¡Adiós, pintura fea!
After our first experience attempting to cross the bus into Mexico to get to our painter was a bust, we were a little gun-shy to try again. But, what was the worst that could happen? We would have to turn around and come home again...for the second time? We
Toyota Sienna Seats in an RV - Part 1: The Passenger Seat
When we first bought the bus, we knew right away we needed to do something about the driver’s and passenger’s chairs. First off, cosmetically they were in really bad shape. We looked into recovering them, but the more we sat in them, the more we realized it wasn’
Building Walls {for Mexico}
After being denied border crossing into Mexico when they said the empty bus (though it is registered, titled, insured as an RV) was too much bus and not enough RV to enter, we knew we needed to throw together a temporary interior. We had a couch that we could put
Mini-Split A/C Update #1: 8 months post-install
RV rooftop air conditioners are generally loud, inefficient, and take up a lot of rooftop square footage that we want to use for solar panels. For those reasons, we decided to install a mini-split a/c about eight months ago. Immediately after install, we were thrilled with both its efficiency
Polishing the Aluminum Bumper
We have shared with you before how we have polished aluminum: first when we removed layers of paint and polished our aluminum dash during our dash rehab, and just recently when we deep cleaned (but not truly “polished”) the anodized aluminum bay doors. This time, we took on the front
Deep Cleaning the Anodized Aluminum
The exterior of our 1964 bus has seen better days. I wish we could have seen it in its working years. It was probably beautiful with some red and blue stripes (we can tell what colors it has been as we have seen the layers of paint chip and peel
The Epic Tale of the Bus Door
One of the first things we noticed when touring and buying our bus was the front door that didn’t close quite right. We could see that it was “a bit” bent and didn’t align with the frame of the bus correctly. We didn’t think too much of
Plumbing the Sink Drains
Last week, we showed you how we plumbed the vent pipe with a T near the bottom for draining the kitchen sink and washing machine.
When we planned the layout of our bus, we decided to keep all of the fixtures that need plumbing as compact as possible on one
Plumbing the Vent Pipe
After plumbing the toilet drain and waste tank sewer drain, the next step in plumbing was to plumb the vent pipe. The drains for the kitchen sink and washing machine will also drain through the vent pipe, so installing the vent pipe was an important step to finish up before
Pocket Door Hardware on a Curved Ceiling
Last month, we shared with you how we had to backtrack in order to figure out where to drill the hole for the toilet plumbing. The placement of the toilet was dependent on the wall. The placement of the wall was dependent on how we mounted the pocket door hardware.