WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG

  WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG use the "Archives" link at the top left to get to #1   Coming up on 9 April we will be two months (60 days) in... including the online time for research, parts sourcing, and time "at" the GILLIG, it is a 5-hour-a-day operation, that is 300 man-hours X two people, and during those 60 days we have (so far) spent around $ 800.00 on materials for the conversion... (remember, I said this would be a six-month build). A fairly large amount of time is "lost" during a build process... some of it to planning, drinking beer, layout, parts sourcing/pick up, redoing goof-ups, BS-ing, foul/ugly weather/temperatures, but, 300 hours (even part-time), is still money.    Add in the materials:  One very big time-loss is gaining access... if you have a shop, garage with storage, work area, with heat, electric power, and weather cover you are in an idealistic situation, but, most of us do not have all of these attributes... "I" especially ...

  WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG use the "Archives" link at the top left to get to #1 We may not be even started on installing "anything" on our bus conversion yet, but, already it is time to look ahead at RV park reservations after the 4th of July... so, we built up our promotion portfolio, and emailed it off to our candidate parks and offered to make pre-paid 6 month reservations as a carrot. None of the places we sent off to are "destination" parks, or luxury parks, we emphasized "long term" (rather than a two-three day), and provided the 8 1/2 x 11 full-color glossy photographs (Alice's Restaurant-style), and links to our websites, biographies, references, a "Forward" statement of our intentions, our Driver's license #, insurance policy #, year, make, model, FMC member #, Oregon RV Plate #, and contact info. (text, cell, email, mailing addresses). With a first contact four months in advance, we get to screen out the Poshy Yuppie ...

  WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG use the "Archives" link at the top left to get to #1 I dont have a "drive-over" pit to do a proper bottom-belly look-see of the Gillig low-floor, and it is so low taking the iPhone under is useless, but, here is the rest of my inspection-review, and some second thoughts, from last weekend: The super-wide 8' 6"  exterior width and the entire low floor design bragging points vaporize when you look at " building "... those massive front wheel enclosures eat up very useable and critical floor-storage space (scrambling layout design), and the angular deck-to-sidewall transitions (full length) make for a narrow 7' 2" useable flat floor width and 4" stand-off" problems for wall-hugging stove, reefer, cabinetry, etc; ... in short, you lose 8" to this floor gusset. Furthering the negatives are the yet-to-be-investigated removal of the extendable wheelchair ramp and kneeling attributes (which promises to ...

  WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG use the "Archives" link at the top left to get to #1 I took my own advice and spent a 1/2 day poking around under the bus, envisioning penetrations and routings for water, electric "in", and my grey water out, lying underneath a Gillig low-floor bus for an hour or so, explains a lot... this is a very peculiarly built bus, it is a new "type" of bus, not for us hole saw crazies of the world.   I will add-in some pictures on the Gillig low-floor chassis specifics and obstacles next post, but, it really needs to be seen firsthand, the front suspension-steering subframe assembly (all of it) is as heavy-duty, over-designed, and massive as any vehicle built, and the rear axle-engine-tranny rear subframe was built to the same standards... my old GM H8H Buffalo would have killed for this heavy grade of construction. What connects the front subframe to the rear subframe...(that 30-ish feet of body can, or passenger compartment, fuselage, ...

  WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG use the "Archives" link at the top left to get to #1 Finally got all the debris out of the way (seats, brackets, strange "what izzit" things, it's falling off anyway stuff), and we are down to an empty carcass or cave... this is best figured out by doing a complete cleaning before you start laying in and covering up animal hair, body excrements, dead skin, disease, viruses in hibernation, discarded drugs, fungi, yuck, and other bad mojo stuff hiding in a 20 year old city bus...  the best part of this is the smell removal and a close up visual inspection of everything as you clean/disinfect.                                                                             Broken welds, loose-missing fasteners, rotted seals, rust, unneeded holes, glass and weather s...

WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG use the "Archives" link at the top left to get to #1 Mike Kormos attribution,  1937 HUNT HOUSE CAR-- The Hunt house car from 1937 used a 1937 Ford truck chassis. J. Roy Hunt was able to use aircraft engineering to build the streamlined body you see in the photos. He had a auto-body shop help him with the fabrication. Hunt built almost 50 of them over the next decade, making it one of the rarest production motorhomes in existence and considered by many to be the first with a working shower. It also featured a disappearing toilet that folds into the wall so the shower has additional space dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd When you drive a yellow Camry, suddenly, you "see" every yellow Camry ever built driving around,  EBAY ruined the world, took away all that was unique, showed us just how common "everything" is, no more "one of a kind", unique, or "special" anything. Eventually, we began to realize just...

    WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG use the "Archives" link at the top left to get to #1 The bus building road...  (of bus/coach/boat/RV/tiny house building) ... of the many encountered "Y's in all of this process, the very first Y, of course, was the "idea" vs. "action" Y road choice. Once you chose the latter "Y", be prepared for a rapid-fire succession of other highspeed "Y's" now headed your way, if you are a (been there done that) veteran, and this is your second or third "build", you can skip this blog page, and move on to the next. NOTE:  From here on, I am going to refer to "BUS" as meaning Van, Truck, RV, Tiny Home, Coach, Schoolie, Boat... all-inclusive, a M/V (motor vessel), and a M/C (motor coach) have a "lot" in common. The world thrives on first-timer, "newbie" failures, small businesses, the stock market, turning real estate, racing, new home building, marriage (divorces), a...

  WHAZAMMO & THE GILLIG use the "Archives" link at the top left to get to #1 Here are some photos... before and after the tear-out, haul-away, and a "look" at the results, after a few 4+ hour days of prepping the new GILLIG.  It has been 30 rainy, very cold, lousy weather days of " finding " the GILLIG, " bringing home " the GILLIG, " parking " the GILLIG (on the   28th of February),  and "emptying" the GILLIG.   I will add in some notes about the final examination, evaluation and confirmation of "why" we bought this particular unit (2620) sight-unseen, out of the 20 busses that were up for auction ... Then, discuss the really ugly-and complicated-removal process of all the Transit bus stuff... the kneeling, extendable ramp, pneumatic doors, and other non-Motor Coach stuff.      NEXT UP :   Assessing "What to do next, and Why"...balancing whether to spend money on parts or on a psychiatrist (maybe to a ...