SelfieFest

Kyle and I were separated by a thousand miles for three weeks.  In a desperate attempt to keep him a little closer, I asked him to send me a selfie every day.  I really should have seen this coming, but he agreed only on the condition that I do the same.

As much as I hate to say it, it did make the whole thing a little easier.  And I think we both got better at taking selfies.

We even managed to figure out selfies with multiple people.

I'm glad I don't have to take any more selfies though.

Paint and Windows

It's been a while since there's been a bus post so here's what we did in June and July.

The seals on the windows were so old and brittle that when we washed the bus, the seals bled all over, leaving black streaks down the freshly cleaned sides.  It was great (not). The seals had to go.

Kyle cut the seals and we pulled out the windows without breaking a single pane.  There was minor rust at the bottoms of the windows, nothing to worry about, until we got to the rear vent wing window.  

 

That entire window was extra rusty, but the vent wing window itself was pretty bad.

With the windows out, Kyle neutralized the rust and prepped the interior for paint.

The really fun thing about buswork is that hours of labored gets condensed into single sentences that don't tell you what it's like to crouch down for half an hour in 100° heat.  So next, we masked off the bus then primed and painted it.  I figured white would be easy to get along with and would keep the interior bright - most of these surfaces won't be visible when we're done anyway.

Then, disaster.  We removed the masking and there was a thin cloud of white all over the top of the bus, especially above the back hatch.

My first instinct was to wash it, but with the windows out we'd need to wait until everything was dry.  24 hours and seven google searches later, it turns out you can take care of it with auto wax pretty easily before it dries.  Since it was dry, wax only worked with an incredible amount of labor.  What worked much better?  Acetone.  It didn't damage the paint underneath either.

Here's a pro tip: if you're going to decide you hate the paint color, do it before you remove the masking.  Otherwise you've got to redo several hours of work.

The good news is that I LOVE the color now.  It is a lighter version of the exterior teal, but still very vibrant.

Kyle installed some interior insulation - $14 for a package of floor foam tiles.  More masking and some spray adhesive and we're in business!  We're both impressed with how well it cuts down on the heat.

Finally, time to reinstall the windows.  Kyle's post about reinstalling the windshield details how we accomplished this project.  The short version of the story is that we soaked some paracord in Simple Green (enough to circle the window once), applied it to the seal of the window, put the window in place, and then Kyle applied pressure from the outside as I pulled out the paracord.

I have no photos of this part because we both had our hands full.  Suffice it to say the windows went in easily, and it was great because I had visions of shattered window in my mind.

Of course, no project is without a hitch.  We deemed the vent wing window a loss, and after exploring several options it was apparent that the cheapest option was to go with a solid window.  Some awesome friends had a spare window for us to use, so after our new solid seal arrived, we attempted installation.  Three times.  It would not fit.  Kyle tried grinding down the window a bit to fit it better, but several attempts later got us nowhere.  The new window was about a 1/4" taller than the original windows, and the tempered glass will not be ground down.

That's where it sits right now.  Missing one window.  Waiting for us to figure out what we're going to do now.

Lime Bars with Toasted Coconut Crust

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