artskoolie

[artskoolie]

A bit of a snag

Hello! If you have been following us for a while, thank you for tuning in again! If you’re just stumbling upon this blog or this post, welcome!

James and I haven’t worked on the bus in about a month because we’ve both been training at a new job and have had other life stuff come up. However, this week, we decided that we were going to get back to it.

We had our lunch, water to last us, and some leftover curry we had made the night before. We got there, opened all the bus windows and doors for ventilation, and started hauling out extension cords and the air compressor. I think now is a good time to mention that my aunt and uncle, who are allowing us to use their property, live in the middle of the plains, and back up to a marsh. Also, on this particular day in late July, it was pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit. So, logically, by the time we got everything out and were setting up in the bus, James and I were sweating bullets.

Now, some biology review. As you may know, the warmer weather causes animals to become hormonal and start doing their mating behaviors. As you may also know, humans put out the same mating pheromones that animals are attracted to, which is largely transmitted through our sweat. So, given that we were next to a marsh, in the middle of a field, the bus started filling with wasps, hornets, and some of the biggest mosquitos we’ve ever seen. We flailed and screamed trying to get away from them as they flitted through the bus. After a few minutes of this frantic, fearful jaunting, I turned to James and said, “I don’t think I can do this.” He replied, “No, fuck this. I can’t deal with biting and stinging insects.” And after we’d hauled everything out, we packed it all back up and went home, feeling pretty defeated.

Thinking about it, those bugs will be there spawning all summer, so it may be that we’ll have to wait until the fall to continue working on the bus. We really hope that wont’ be the case, but we’re prepared if it comes to that.

That’s the only update I have right now. Thanks for following our blog!

[artskoolie]

You may find this riveting ...

The last time I posted, we had begun the process of removing the 600+ rivets from the walls and ceiling of the interior. There were 7 or 8 ceiling panels (I can’t remember how many, which is funny, considering how long we spent staring at that ceiling), which we removed from the back of the bus to the front. We also removed the heads of all the rivets on the walls, but discovered that we have to remove the windows in order to remove the wall panels; we are not willing to remove the windows without a tarp to protect the bus with when we aren’t working on it.

We did a lot of work with both the air hammer and the grinder in removing the rivet heads. The air compressor we had access to was a small, red pancake, so there was a lot of waiting for it to come back up to pressure (80-100 psi) after extended use of the air hammer. We wanted to use the air hammer as much as possible to minimize the use of the grinder, but we found that it took about as long to remove the rivet heads with the air hammer as with the grinder. We ended up compromising and getting a lot more done at once by starting the removal with the air hammer and finishing with the grinder. This expended a lot less effort on both of our parts.

Along the way, we realized that, if there was only one rivet left on a given ceiling panel, the panel could simply be ripped off of the rivet with some effort. This last week, we removed the two next to last panels, and about 95% of the last one at the front of the bus. There were 3 rivets that we were having a hard time getting to behind the tubes and other gear leading to the air compressing device which opens and closes the bus doors, which we decided to rip out. There had been some rivet heads that we had removed in the middle of the ceiling panel, not just along the edges, the spot around which the grinder left a jagged edge exposed. As we were pulling the ceiling panel the rest of the way off, James’s arm caught the jagged edge left by the grinder, leaving a 2 inch skin tear (which bled surprisingly little). After I put everything away, I drove home; all the while, James holding a wet paper towel tightly over the tear. We picked up some super glue and used that to close and protect the wound (this is what they would have done at urgent care anyway), covering it additionally with a bandage. It’s been a few days and it seems to be healing nicely.

As far as the rest of the demolition process is concerned, we have the wall panels and wooden floor to remove; after that, we need to grind out the rust on the interior floor and on the underside (the bus came from New York, after all) and rust-proof with rustoleum. From there, we can actually work on building up the interior and laying out the plumbing and electrical.

There has been a continual theme of ‘this is harder than I thought, but not as hard as I feared’. I have a feeling this will continue to be the case. Every time I get discouraged, I think about how every time we work on this project, more of it gets done; and eventually, there will be a liveable dwelling to show for it.

Thank you for following this project. My hope is that it will help people who are doing something similar to what I am. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or send me a private message.

Have a great day!

[artskoolie]

Visible progress

Hello! I’m glad to finally be able to offer some updates. James is recovered from his surgery, and we’re back in action!

Last week, we FINALLY finished removing all 22 of the seats; plus the two “bumpers” in front of the two front most seats; plus the captain’s chair. Two of the chairs had 7 bolts fixing them to the floor and walls of the bus, while the two seats by the emergency exit were fixed to the floor with 8 bolts each. As I may have mentioned in a previous post, all of the bolts were reinforced by a nut from the underside of the bus. Interestingly, while the bolts on the non-emergency seats were 1/2”, the bolts on the emergency seats were 9/16”. I removed all of the cushions on both the back and seat of each frame, and am in the process of removing all of the seatbelts; which are secured to the seat frames with a similar nut and bolt setup to what I just mentioned, with the addition of a steel washer and much easier to unscrew.

Next, we set to work on the rivets. During this process, we did a lot of research, and found methods including everything from drilling through the pin in the middle of each one, to manually punching out the pins and chiseling off the heads, to grinding them off with an angle grinder. However, after trying each of these methods and finding little return with the amount of effort and time we were expending, we dug a little deeper and found this video from a fellow named Todd, who converts skoolies. In this video, he used an air hammer with a punch tip to VERY QUICKLY punch out all the pins, and then used a chisel tip to VERY QUICKLY knock off each of the heads. In about five minutes, one of the ceiling panels was down. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7NEs9i8Bmoo

After seeing that video, we excitedly ordered a $40 air hammer and $17 set of three tips (two chisels, one offset, and a punch) on the Home Depot website, which we picked up at a store the next day. Using my uncle’s pancake air compressor, we excitedly punched out rivet pins out of the ceiling panels, each of us taking a minute to get the hang of aiming it over our heads. Before an hour and a half had passed, almost all of the ceiling rivets and about half of the rivets on the wall panels had had their pins punched out. It worked like a dream.

However, when we had punched out enough rivet pins that we decided to try out the chisel tips, we were a bit disappointed. It took about as long to air chisel the heads off as it did to grind them.

We shrugged and decided to have one person grind rivet heads and one person air chisel rivet heads. We got close to getting the back most ceiling panel down, and ground or chiseled off almost half of the wall rivets.

In between holding the grinder and air hammer above our heads, we did a lot of work at the front of the bus. We finally freed the railing, which was being held on by a few very stubborn screws. The air chisel came in handy for ripping the glued linoleum flooring off of the plywood underneath, and removed the plywood panel between where the captain’s chair sits and the stairs, revealing a rusty metal subfloor.

We also probed into the stair heater a bit, and discovered that all of the hoses leading to the other heaters emerged from the stair heater. We read on skoolie.net that, in order to remove the midship heaters, you need to clamp and then cap off all of the wires, pipes, and hoses that lead out to them. That is a step for another day.

Thank you for reading this far, if you did. I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about our process. As always, please let me know in the comments or in a private message if you have any questions.

Have a great weekend, y’all!

[artskoolie]

[artskoolie]

A bit of a lull

Hello all. It’s been a while since I’ve given any updates. We’ve had some personal stuff going on that has been keeping us from working on the bus; though, thankfully, most of those issues have more or less come to an end and we will be able to work on the bus soon.

Last time I worked on the bus was a few weeks ago, right when James went out of commission. We decided that we wanted to try grinding off the heads of the bolts holding the rest of the seats to the floor; to grind out the screws holding the flooring down that are too rusty to remove with a screwdriver or drill; and to grind out the rivets fixing the perforated panels to the ceiling. We bought a Milwaukee angle grinder from Home Depot; it seemed the most reasonably priced for the quality.

I went to work on grinding out the rivets, bolts, and screws still holding the superficial parts of the interior together, and I was able to get a start on grinding down a couple of screws, but at one point I went to grind off the head of one of the bolts holding the seats to the floor, and I found that the blade that I’d put on the grinder was rotating freely, independently of the motorized bolt of the machine. When I went to remove the nut holding the stacked components on the bolt of the grinder, I found that it was stuck in place. I found a YouTube video showing how to remove the stuck nut of an angle grinder, but I need the drill to implement this strategy, and I haven’t gotten around to getting the drill from the bus. I will let you know if that method works for me. Here’s the video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2J0Fyu93jlA

Anyway, that’s where we’re at. I’m excited to give more updates on our progress.

Have a nice day!

[artskoolie]

[artskoolie]

Skoolie conversion, days 1-3 https://www.instagram.com/p/BwDRLqJjbqV/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=jzha9ufeup03

[artskoolie]

Off Like A Herd Of Cats

I am ecstatic to announce that we finally moved our bus up to my relatives’ property and have begun the conversion process! The weather had been warm and dry for a few days, so we moved the bus on Friday. The way James’s work schedule shook out, he got this last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off; so, of course, we wanted to use this opportunity to get as much done as possible while we could work on it together.

We were able to remove fourteen out of the twenty-two seats, plus the two padded panels in front of the two front seats. As I may have mentioned in a previous post, the four 1/2 inch bolts fixing each seat to the floor were reinforced by nuts underneath the cab space. In order to remove these bolts, we had to first remove the nuts, which required one person to be on the floor in the cab (possibly contorted into a painful criss-cross-applesauce position) and the other person to be under the bus; either with one person holding the bolt in place while the other ratcheted the nut loose, or vice versa. There were also three 1/2 inch bolts and nuts each fixing most of the seats to a shallow metal lip on the walls, which had to be simultaneously ratcheted loose from one another; some of which were hidden between a very stiff seat cushion and the wall. Since our bus has an emergency door on the side, the two seats sitting in front of it have eight 9/16 inch bolts each, all fixing the seats to the floor, with no wall lip bolts. (We have yet to remove these seats) Over the three days, we made four trips to Home Depot and spent around $500 on tools.

On the first day, it took us a while to hit a rhythm with removing the bolts efficiently. There was a lot of frustration and swearing throughout the process; though we did our best to joke about it instead of getting upset (mostly successfully). We were so filthy that we each spent probably an hour trying to get all the black grease off our skin at the end of the day, which prompted us to pop into our local army surplus store and get a couple of pairs of coveralls (which I highly reccommend you do).

The second and third days were a bit easier, since we had a better idea of what we needed to do. It helped a lot that seats were actually coming out of the floor and showing us visible progress. Until the third day, we did not have more than one 1/2 inch wrench and one 1/2 inch ratchet, James did a lot of solo work on the wall lip bolts while I unscrewed the panels that transitioned between the wall and the ceiling; as well as the screws fixing a metal border to the floor. I encountered enough stripped screws that I was not able to remove four of the transitionary panels, nor any of the metal border, but I was able to get the vast majority of them out.

From this process, as complete novices to any type of construction or auto work, we learned the following:

1.) A t-shirt and shorts will not be adequate if you plan to do any work under the bus. Make sure you’re wearing clothing that you can afford to get dirty and which will protect your skin from annoying and carcinogenic auto junk.

2.) It’s going to be harder than you thought it was going to be. Don’t let that discourage you.

3.) Removing a single bolt can make you feel like you’re on top of the world.

Keep the following in mind when you are preparing to start your skoolie conversion:

1.) Take breaks when you get tired, even if you think you should be doing more. Wearing yourself out doesn’t help anyone, and will actually make you need more recovery time.

2.) Make an effort to feel good about every little thing you are able to do. Every screw you remove is another step towards making the life you want for yourself. This is especially important when you feel frustrated and like you’re stuck.

3.) Bring foods with you that will both nourish you and make you happy. Construction takes a lot of energy and requires a lot of focus, so it’s really important not to skimp on the quality of the food you bring. It’s important not to bring all empty calories, but it’s also important to give yourself a little treat to look forward to, if you’re at all like me and need to motivate yourself with little rewards. This can mean bringing some protein, some rice, and a vegetable, plus a candy bar, but really the possibilities are endless. You don’t have to get the fanciest ingredients; just foods which will energize you.

4.) Don’t be too hard on yourself if things don’t go the way you were originally planning. If you’re like us, you’re learning this as you go. Mistakes are inevitable, but that’s how we learn and find out what actually works for us.

5.) For the love of kittens, WEAR EYE PROTECTION!

Thank you for reading! I will be posting photos of what our conversion has looked like so far. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment or shoot me a message.

[artskoolie]

Normally, I would say this is a work in progress. But I think it’s done. #abstractart #watercolor #watercolorpainting #inkdrawing https://www.instagram.com/p/BvrhuNBD4Lp/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1j2e54v2ol43m

[artskoolie]

Mostly concrete bullet points for the build

Hello everyone. We are really excited to finally have a place where we will be able to start construction on our skoolie. We are not currently able to move it to the spot because we’ve had a wet couple of weeks here in Colorado, and the path leading up to the spot is not the most solid when the soil is saturated with water. After a few dry days, though, we can park the bus at the new spot.

For the last several weeks, I’ve been trying to make a general list of the different construction projects that will ultimately amount to our finished build, and thinking as realistically as possible about how much time it will actually take. I’ve seen people take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years to finish their tiny houses, vans, or skoolies. Since I am not currently employed, I will be working on the bus almost every day, or as often as my relatives who own the property are willing to have me up there, so I’m hoping to be finished in two to three months.

Here are the main bullet points of what we think our build would look like. This list is not at all comprehensive, but it is supposed to serve as more of a general guideline. This does not account for days off, delays, or any other unforeseen stuff.

Tear out the insides – 3-4 days

Framing – 3-4 days

Plumbing – 2-3 days

Electrical – 3-4 days

Flooring/ceiling (will be covered in the same material) – 3-4 days

Install and paint walls – 2-3 days

Install furniture (incl. cabinets, bed frame, couch) – 1-2 weeks

Install appliances and fixtures – 1 week

I am curious to see if anyone who is in progress or have completed their skoolie build has time frames similar to this, or if they took a much longer or a much shorter time.

We are not doing a roof raise, and we will insulate the existing bus windows in order to keep changes to the overall structure to a minimum.

We will have a solar system with twelve 100-watt panels and six deep cycle batteries.

We will have a 100 gallon water tank housed underneath the bed, and accessed via a port on the side of the bus.

I keep seeing people with cats have a space in the bottom of one of their cabinets designated as their cat box area, which seems to be accessible from the outside for cleaning more often than not. We have a little cat named Grace, and I am not a fan of the idea of keeping her litter box in the shower, so I think we will use this idea.

We will have a latticed gate that accordions open separating the cock pit and stairs from the rest of the bus in order to have sort of an airlock setup to keep our cat from escaping.

I would love to hear what any of you are doing with your conversions, or any cool ideas you have seen. Please leave a comment and let me know what’s out there!

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to posting more updates.

[artskoolie]

#watercolor #inkdrawing https://www.instagram.com/p/BvPxqg6griY/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1tp3fljs3th7r

[artskoolie]

Good news!

Happy Pi Day, everyone!

I am so happy I finally have an update to share. After some B.S.ing around on my part, I finally got up the courage to ask my relatives – the only people I know personally who have a large property – about possibly using their land to build our bus, for some bartered labor. Indescribably lucky for us, they need some younger folks around to help maintain their property. Even luckier for us, they have been excited about skoolies since they were young people (though they never got around to doing it themselves – no judgment). Also lucky for us, they are seriously some of the coolest people I know, and are lots of fun to hang out with.

Now that we know that we will be getting a start on our build, all of the excitement we were trying to suppress is now bubbling to the surface. I have thought so long about how, for all of the success stories, there must be dozens of failed builds, and how circumstances might keep us from moving forward with our project. Right now, James and I are both beyond elated and grateful to have a chance to make this a reality.

Attached are the updated plans. They aren’t that much different, except for the cat stuff and possibly a few other odds and ends.

I will have more updates soon. Probably sometime between now and Tau Day.

[artskoolie]

I live for those eyes. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu0PUdVDt3M/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=10u3m41eg8mdb

[artskoolie]

[artskoolie]

[artskoolie]

New from my Etsy store. #artisttradingcards #MustBeSilly #watercolorandink #abstractart https://www.instagram.com/p/BuUNjCagA43/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=9ppiwl1r7h0

[artskoolie]

New from my Etsy store. #artisttradingcards #watercolorandink #abstractcolors #tinyhouse https://www.etsy.com/shop/MustBeSilly?ref=l2-shop-info-avatar https://www.instagram.com/p/BuUNNelAK4Y/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=h3cnk0ygs7om