So, it’s been a busy month of tiny steps here on the Housebus project. After making some good progress getting the floor ready for installing a subfloor, I realized that I still had too many windows with untreated leaks. I’d go in to start grinding rust off the floor, and there’d be a new puddle of water right where I was trying to work. So I shifted gears to look at the windows for a bit. After several attempts at different solutions, I’m still not sure that I’m much closer to having them fixed, but we’ll see over the weekend as it’s supposed to rain again soon. I have been able to test the seals by using a spray bottle against the window, but it’s nothing like a good Pacific Northwest Drizzle to really give it a thorough test.

While I’ve been waiting for my latest window seal effort to cure and be fully tested, I decided it was time I finally made some progress pulling unnecessary wires from the bus. There’s all kinds of electrical components running the length of the inside of the bus, from PA speakers, to dome lights, the floor heater, clearance lights on the outside of the bus, sensors and alarms for the emergency door and windows—all stuff I’m pulling out and not likely to reinstall later. It’s one massive circuit of wiring that runs from behind the driver’s seat, all the way around to the back lights, then up again along the other side of the bus to the door. I’ve been nervous about removing any of it only because I understand that if I cut the wrong wire or disconnect the wrong thing, there’s a good chance my bus won’t start anymore, and then I’ll have to figure out which wire I need to reconnect. So far, though, so good. I’ve been able to identify and trace all the wires from front to back, and identify things I don’t need. The biggest risk I think is that I might have disconnected a couple ground wires from the massive daisy-chain of them that runs through all the rear lights and alarms.

I think I’ll be able to finish pulling wires tomorrow. It’s remarkable how much of an improvement it is in there already just with so many wires removed!

Next steps for this week include, like I say, finishing up with the wires, and hopefully sealing up a few more windows. If this first one holds up like I hope it will, I think I’ll be clear to seal up a whole bunch of the rest of the windows on the port side of the bus. Those are the ones with the worst leaks right now. I’m trying to work from the back to the front, taking care of the windows in the areas where I plan to put the floor in next and need a good dry surface—there’s no good can come from installing a new floor right under a leaking window. If I get the back six windows sealed up for good that gives me a decent amount of area to start putting in some subfloor.

I’d also like to make more progress getting the rear-view camera installed – I was waiting for a rubber grommet seal to cover up the hole I’ll need to drill for the power & video wires, but those came in last week, so now I just have to do it. These would be the first new wires I’ll be running the whole length of the bus.

If I think of it, tomorrow I’ll take a picture of all the wires I’ve pulled out, and post it here.

Update: Huge Success!

All of the unnecessary wires are now officially stripped from my bus. The only things still connected at the electrical panel are the tail-lights, the driver fan, and the main door. My housebus now has literally NONE of the comforts of home.

I don’t know how many pounds of wires this is, but it’s a lot. Now I gotta bag it all up and set it aside so it doesn’t get in my way. I’m hoping I can reuse some of this down the road – the clearance lights in particular I know I want to reconnect, and the speakers I’m going to relocate to the cab area. Can I reuse any of this when wiring up circuits on my 12v house system? I hope so dang it. I’d hate to have to buy a bunch of new wire when I’ve got so much of this just literally piled up already.

Oh! And most importantly, the bus started right up with no major issues! As I suspected, I cut off the ground wire daisy-chain and disabled my left tail-lights, but I was able to just chain that into the ground on the right tail-lights and everything works great now!