Travel lock end view

Here's a better look at the large "finger" that rotates out after the slideouts are in to lock them in place and pull them tight to the weatherstripping.

Travel locks for the slideouts

I have been trying to get my hands on a pair of these for about a year now. So when I had the chance to buy a set from a company that supplies them for a motorhome manufacturer I decided to go ahead and get all 4 sets for the slideouts. I have been wanting to get a hold of a pair so I could make my mounting plates to weld into the side of the slideouts. Low and behold these locks are of such high quality that they came with the plates and the wiring harness. Last week was a good one for me. I now have all 4 sets in the basement/parts room. Its starting to look like some kinda warehouse down there. ...lol....

One more angle of the Rust Bullet inside the cap

This was just one coat of Rust Bullet and surprising enough it only took 1/2 a quart to coat it. I just put enough to put some color on it. I did put 2 coats on the areas that will adhere to the frame though as I didnt want to have problems with it releasing from the silkaflex.

Rustbullet on the inside of the front cap

Again, I sprayed the Rust Bullet on the interior of the cap to seal it up and get rid of the UGLY green tint in the cap.

Front cap gelcoating

I had to turn off the lights because of the glare from the shiney wet gelcoat.

Drivers side gelcoat

1st coat of gel coat

All feathered in and ready for some gel

Both windshields have been fit and everything sanded and ready for gel-coat.

New angle view of windshield

I like the new angle of the windshield. Later, in the flat, right above the windshield I am going to fab a stand off Light bar that will follow the curve of the coach and wrap the sides a bit. It will be about 7 inches tall and have the marker lights and the name of the bus cut into it with some back lighting and then I will send it off to have it chrome plated. I think it will make the front of the coach.

3rd test fit of windshield

Got a good fit all around now after moving everything out.

Abracadabra

I like that magic wand....lol... That wasnt to bad really, about 30 min work/play time. Now, do I really want to mould in those air horns????????

One more change on the front cap. arrrrrggggg

Well, originally I was going to cut the new cap off at the bottom to match the height of the 05 but, after carefully measuring I change my mind. Where it is now it comes to the top of the forward drivers side electrical panel opening and I see no reason to cut it off and have to worry about the water finding its way into the panel area again. I had notched the cap at the right side of the door so I would know where to cut it and now I am putting it back on. Just means another day of itching ..... lol .......

Sanding the new side panel

This is the start of the sanding of the new fill-in. The forward part is pretty close and the rear is still lacking. You can see the primer still exsist in the rear of the fill-in because I have not gotten it sanded down to its flat-plain yet. After I am done with the level sanding I will lay on a thin coat of filler (bondo) and sand that completely off to just fill in the pin holes. The pin holes are from small air pockets that cannot be seen with the naked eye to most that open up to the finished layer when you sand them off. Very easy to fill with the Bondo. I have found this to be faster because when you gelcoat over the holes (and gelcoat will fill them) they tend to just creat a small divit through the gelcoat. You see the craziness now???

Before sanding off

Look pretty nasty till its sanded off. I ground through about half way (allmost meeting the taper from the inside) and filled in with multiple layers of resin and cloth.

Prepared for grinding the seam on the outside

I have applied the primer before grinding so not to contaminate the fiberglass with it as it is not compatable. When I sand it, I will sand down to the primer and sand all of it off. It will become covered in resin and will be my sanding guide as I will sand just enough to get the primer off.

Here's a better angle of the moulded in piece

This angle shows better how the laminate formed to the cap better.

Behind the form

This is what you find when you take off the form. Again I saw no need to tint the resin as I am painting the inside of the cap. I will search for a better angle so you can see how the mould formed so well to the cap and saved me a lot of sanding.

Resin and cloth

Just before I put on the form to mould this hole in I ground around the opening and tapered the fiberglass out about 2 inches and spread out the layers so as to not get a large ridge and also to expose each layer of fiberglass so I could get good adhesion of the new resin and cloth I put in.

Makeshift form

I used a piece of standard grade laminate with a gloss finish to form the hole created by moving the window form in the new cap down to the 05 level. The ply is just for the screws to have something to "bite" into.

Gelcoat on the mullion

This is after a light coat of gelcoat over the repairs/changes. I will sand this with the whole cap and then give everything a couple of layers of the gelcoating.

Inside of the mullion change

Here's a shot of the inside of the mullion. What looks to be holes are not really holes anymore. They are where I had the temporary line ups on the outside to hold the pieces in place as I layed up the inside. After they came off I glassed them in with cloth and resin. Since I am going to spray the inside of this cap with Rust Bullet I saw no need to pigment tint the resin before using it. That, plus the fact that I dont want to see this ugly shade of green inside the bus for the next year or so before I cover it up that is.

Prepping the mullion for gelcoat

After all the fiberglass was in and leveled up, I needed to fill in the small pin holes to keep from having to put on to much gelcoat. I put on a light layer of body filler (Bondo) and sanded most all of it back off. I only left the bondo in the pin holes as filler.

Sanding the mullion

This is right after I sanded just down to the primer. I was carefull to make sure I sanded all the primer off to make sure it did not interfear with the gelcoat adhesion.

Mullion split and filled in

Here's the split and fill using the same methods I described. I put the primer on the new fill in between the lip formers to use as a sanding guide.

Outside view of mullion

This is after the height has been cut down. Now I will split it down the middle and spread it 3 inches for the glass to fit.

windshield center in fiberglass repaired

This is the center mullion between the two windshields after the cut and repair. Now I will split it up the middle and spred it out 3 inches to close up each glass hole 1 and 1/2 inches to fit the glass in.

Before and after (drivers corner change)

Drivers side cap assembly

Its coming back together now.

Cloth and resin added

Here's what it looks like with 3 layers of fiberglass cloth and resin on it. After this sets up (about 2 hours in the winter time) I will sand it flush using 120 grit sand paper. The gel coat layer surounding the repair will be my guide lines. Meaning I will sand it down flat just till I reach the layer of gel coat. I will then end up with the surface back to where it used to be.

Grinding through the gel coat

After I grind a v in the back and put on about 3 layers of cloth and resin I pull the line up plates off of the outside and grind through the gel coat and then layer up the outside of the cap. I can then go back to the inside and grind deeper and grind in behind the pop rivet holes and relay everything for strength.

Fiberglass repair

I thought I would show you the way I am doing this so others may not be so intimidated by cutting into fiberglass and adding or moving something around. I dont think theres anything difficult about it. But, it is very time consuming, itchy, and dusty.

Passenger side cap with a large hole in it.

Anybody got a magic wand I could borrow....lol....

Front cap remodel

I have started to put the cap back together. It sure is nice to be in the shop and out of the cold for now. This is a good view of the passenger side start of the changes. I did not want the tall glass in the front or sides so all had to come down.

Front door to cap fit

Notice the fit at the upper front corner of the door. In the back of my mind when I was laying out the door and welding it up I thought that this wasnt going to work out. So I stopped there and I am glad I did as I need to change the radious of that corner a bit to fit. I will massage the top of the door when the cap is mounted permanently to the bus.

Center of cap at the dash fitting

I had to also cut a big chunk of the frame out where it had rusted at the bottom of the rubbers.

Window sill fiberglass

I didnt like the way the cap fit the window sill. So while I was at it, Cutting up the cap that is, I just made a couple of relief cuts in it and will glass them in with the changes. It wasnt much of a change as it took no material out other than the width of the blade. That let the back side in 1/4 of an inch though.

Cap fitting

Cap

It took me a week of cutting and fitting all the pieces around the side window, breast plate, and door jamb. Now the fun part is going to be getting it off of the bus in one piece.

Moved the bottom of the windshield out

Cap details

I had to split the area where the windshield meets the toll booth window. First I had to cut the whole cap height down for the shorter glass and then I had to size the area to fit 1 and 1/2 steel instead of the 2 for the newer busses. It just meant the whole cap ended up in litteraly 21 pieces. Now the fun comes, making it all one again.

Started assembling the front cap for resizing

I got the cap all cut up and re-sized. I am now ready to remove it and take it to the shop to glass in all the changes. It sure will be nice to work in out of the cold for awhile. Where's spring at!!! Somebody should have shot that ground hog last year....lol....