We rented a house in Pensacola for three weeks, with the plan of “restoring” the bus in that time. That plan could have been considered, as I like to say, “putting lipstick on a pig.” Like those house flipping shows that throw fresh paint on top of everything, add a new lighting fixture, and then try to sell it for double their purchase price. We quickly realized that lipstick wouldn’t be enough for this one. There were just too many leaks, and too much rotten wood underneath. So, we pared back this three week plan to cover just the back half of the bus. Basically, gut the kitchen, the kids’ room, and the closets. Get those up to snuff, and then we could roll on down the road for a while, enjoy ourselves, and make a plan to tackle the front half.
Here’s what happens when it rains. That’s from up top, obviously, and then in this picture you can see a bunch of wide open holes in the back, too. They are everywhere—missing screws and rivets that were just completely ignored.
Out come the windows. Butyl tape, which is a good choice for sealing the windows, but the stuff doesn’t hold up for 56 years on its own.
This closet had a big propane heater on the floor, and a ten gallon hot water heater above it. The bus has four huge heaters in it, taking up ungodly amounts of space. Three of them are getting ripped out. The only one that stays is built into the wall in front of the passenger seat (engine heat driven). We never plan on spending that much time anywhere cold, and when we do, a couple of $30 electric heaters will take care of this small space.
Next up, the kitchen. This window leaked like a sieve, so everything around and underneath it was just mush.
All work on the bus is done in the squatting position. About two weeks in it occurred to me just how useful two sawhorses would have been.
The window is supposed to keep the rain on the outside.
Contemplating why in the heck water in the sink would go into the shower instead of into the gray water tank. This problem is bigger than it looks. The old cast iron pipes are inaccessible above the gray water tank, without dropping the whole giant contraption to the ground, which I’ve got none of the equipment to do. It’s a simple system, with just a shower, and two sinks feeding into a short stretch of pipe, but I just couldn’t figure a way to get at it.
I started with the only easy solution I could think of, Drain-O, even though plumbers would kill me for putting that crap in my drains. That didn’t work, so I tried a snake. That didn’t do any good. So I tried a snake auger. Again, no luck. I needed to navigate two ninety-degree turns to get at the area I suspected was causing the backup. Impossible. I stared at the pipes and could see a bunch of rust chips sitting in the pipe. So, I took the shop-vac, taped a 3/4″ water hose to the end of it, and fed it into the pipe. It sucked up a lot of rust. I poured a cup of hot water into the pipe from up above, and gloriously watched as it poured right out of the open gray water holding tank fitting outside. Problem solved? Maybe. For the time being, anyway.
Plenty to be done on the outside of the bus, too. Bad picture, but if you look close you can see that there are four exhaust hangers in this picture, and all are broken, meaning this huge section of exhaust was just bouncing along on its own weight. When I replaced the hangers I found that underneath just about every one of them was a rust hole. I used the quick fix epoxy bandage wraps to stifle those for now. Sounds much better, and as a friend put it, we will “probably have a lot less carbon monoxide headaches, too.”
Spent a couple of days rebedding windows. We also found a glass place and ordered up new glass. The real trick is finding the correct seals, though.
Didn’t take long for this pile to grow. We found a guy on Craigslist who would come out in his truck, load it up, and take it off to the dump for us. In the end, we’d have him out three times.
Impenetrable deadbolt. This is the problem with getting into a project like this. Each and every step of the way you uncover one thing to discover another three things that need to be done. We were just going to switch out the door knob, but pretty soon I was firming up the door with a bunch of wood and insulation, and cleaning off the old seals. I eventually replaced the lock and knob about a week later.
Winding down at the end of the day. We’d sit out here, crack a beer, pour a couple cups of juice, and contemplate the project staring back at us. Crazy as it sounds, I’m still enjoying this.
20 Comments on “Wanderlodge Work”
Great update! It is so interesting to get a glimpse into an old, unique RV like this. Also very satisfying to see a project like this steadily progress to completion. Plus I’m not the one skinning knuckles and burning my kid’s ears with passionate cursing about the last dumb *!#@$% that stripped every single bolt and glued the rest in place.
Yes some words might have been flying. It’s going to be fun to show the before photos (the 6 photos from the ad) that made us want this bus.
By the time you get done you’ll have a great land yacht for family state side .. Mobile in both places !!! .. great job
That’s the plan — two affordable homes that give us the adventures we are wanting.
one of your best Post ever Pat. I’m enjoying this thoroughly. You have probably already thought of it, but I cannot resist suggesting that a length of poly tubing inserted in that drain pipe (now that the loose rust has been removed) might help you all get down the road a few more months than if you just leave it be at this point. Carry on!
No way to make that second 90 degree turn in there, though, otherwise yes, that would have worked nicely.
After spending last winter doing a total remodel of a 1981 “manufactured home” I can relate! Everything we touched was more involved and complicated that we thought. Living in a tiny area during the work was exhausting but well worth it (and economical) in the long run. We finished our pandemic project in 5 months and we now have a wonderful Florida get away. Good luck, Bums. Can’t wait to see the results!
good on you, Pat – and fam! great looking ride coming up and way to stay in the right attitude zone to enjoy the work. I’ve got our old VW camper fridge out on a bench now to refurb the burner box – only I discovered I have to replace the mouse-eaten insulation around the heat exchanger, which I don’t have immediately available. so today, which looks to be the last day in the 50s for maybe the season, is gonna be a day for a long hike in the woods instead of getting the fridge back in. best of luck to you & keep on enjoying!!
So is the fridge back in now? 🙂
Sounds like it’s a Wonderlodge, as in, I wonder how this stayed together while we drove south? 🙂
Ha ha, that’s the thing about these old beasts, they just keep on rolling.
Every man had to have, “a mountain to climb!” Ha
Go getm tigers!
It looks like this AirBnB was specifically set up for rebuilding your bus on the fly. I think you somewhat regularly take this leap of faith that in three weeks you can put it back together enough to keep going; but your track record is pretty strong.
I’ve always wondered, though, about the tools. In this post we see a nice looking hammer, hole saw, knife, ladder, and a reference to a snake, snake auger, and a shopvac. I’m sure you didn’t fly back from the boat with these. So is Home Depot down the road, and then what do you do with them?
Tools are just a built in cost of doing business. In the end I spent roughly $1,000 on tools for this job. Most of them will stay with us for a while, but things like the ladder we’ll sell on craigslist for 1/2 of what it cost. Surprisingly, these days, most of this stuff is pretty cheap. That’s a nice ladder and it was only $70. I also bought a Ryobi 18v circular saw, jigsaw, and drill for under $400. Then there is the bag of tools all vehicles need to have day to day—wrenches, hammer, crescent, selection of screwdrivers, vicegrip, knife, duct tape, and bailing wire. And yes, the Home Depot was only 1.5 miles away, making this the perfect house for this project.
I look forward to the next silhouette at the top of the blog!
What’s very cool is that you are teaching your kids to problem solve and get to a solution. And to have the construction skills to make it all better. Way to go, bums!
Glad to read you’re enjoying your new project! Wondering what you use for transportation to get to the Home Depot? Or do you walk there? Only because we’ve been living in an RV here in the states for 2 years & find it’s not like in Europe, where we could bike, walk or take public transportation to get around…..here we need another vehicle, or drive the big rig everywhere, not really feasible. Just curious! Hope you get it all together soon for more fun travels!
Yeah, the States is the least pedestrian friendly place on earth, I swear. We rented a car for the month. It’s gone now, so we’re back to just the bus for now. Definitely requires that we do a LOT more planning on moving days.
Hi,
This time I see you have opted for a much warmer place to work. Also having your family able to help without risking frostbite has more of a “Bumfuzzle” feel to it.
I’m happy to see you guys continuing to work, learn and teach, self sufficiency. What an incredible example to your children, and your followers.
Have fun!
Magic
MAGIC! We should have set up a date to see each other. We hope you and your family are healthy and strong. You wouldn’t believe how much bigger the kids are since seeing them in your shed getting the Travco ready for adventure. Stay in touch, and keep warm up there.