Two Thirds painted…

It’s been more than a week without a post!!!  We have not been idle however…………We have beenwaiting for the paint and preparing Oso for said paint as well as  selling the contents of our house and finding new tenants!  Have started work on the table, pushing the re-upholstering and trying to get around to fixing the motorbike and all with only 2 weeks left!!?  This in mind there is no detailed description of events today just a  bunch of progress photos..

   

   

   

 

Sanding underway..

The decision is made at last – we’ve gone for metallic dark green, the same green as the stripe on the buses.  We  thought we’d make a further reminder of Oso’s time in Veloz Pedrano!! It’s not quite a military green but with a bit of jungle dirt, mud and grime the shine will be hidden! Let the sanding commence!

Herewith a few pictures and Emilia as ever inspecting the progress..

  

The paint colour dilema…

What colour do we paint Oso? Or more specifically what shade of green?  There are 2 considerations here, the first being my original choice of chamo green; Petra’s choice was desert khaki.  However bearing in mind this could make us look like a military truck in the Zeta – recently becoming a beheading zone – and that the Zetas aren’t too army (or anyone for that matter!) friendly perhaps a slightly less military green??  The other and most popular choice in the circumstances is the below super flashy  metallic lime green, with a silver stripe.!!  Decidely un-military and the police are going to love stopping that one.

Of course there won’t be much subtle lurking in ruins and pink sadly is not an option… the debate rages on……….

Paint job and Front seats

Herewith some photos of the recently replaced seats with of course, Emilia endurance testing them as well as ensuring the levers, pedals and steering wheel are all still functioning..

After much deliberation we have decided upon and designed Oso’s new look.  We have  gone for the original simplest of the simple army green, it was only the shade that was in debate and we were headed for the drab, non metallic, military looking style   but then came 2 further factors: 1) the price of metallic is the same as matt so why not get adventurous?; 2) the recent spate of killings in the Peten (27 decapitated bodies) and drug cartels not being too fond of the military!!!  So we’re now on metallic Lime Green with a silver curling flash, it  looks great on paper but as I  don’t have a scanner can’t post a copy, I could however take a photo!!

We are pleased as punch he’s going to look great… if not a bit too Great!!!

                    

the furthest Oso’s been in 8 years….

 As the title suggests this the furthest Oso has been driven in 8 years! To the Santiago border, halfway behind the volcano, just short of the infamous bandito back road, with much gear crunching I discover I’m in the wrong range and still have many things still to learn.

  After another 3 days of waiting, more seals arrived from the city – yes again – this time my helpful mechanics discovered that seals in the “used” replacement brake pump were “used” for a reason and we are  back to square one, just a hundred meters further forward but conveniently in front of Chief mechanic Bartolo’s house.  He can’t forget to fix him there!!  As it happens he’s just entering the house so we climb under and look at the floppy clutch, there are no pools of brake fluid so we squeeze off the dust boot and  here we go.. another set of perished seals.

In the meantime there are more fun and games to be had with the internal electrics.  Having played with the wiring more and with the luxury of a tester, I suspect there are issues unsurprisingly, with the 8 year old batteries.  As previously mentioned 2 out of 3 of the solar panels are working although somewhat mysteriously, they are fluctuating between 8 and 15 volts… it’s all still a little more intelligible than gibberish.  The control box issue seems to be resolved and the  next trick is to connect the alternator to the magic control box.  We have to ascertain it has this capability, then the battery bank can be charged without solar.  However, until I have learned more about that progress may be impede!  Do any of my followers out there in the ether have any ideas?

Adding to my challenges the 2 built in voltmeters have gone on the blink.  Electric issues aside we move onto this morning’s events.  The rebuild kit for the clutch has arrived, by 9am we have it rebuilt and replaced and I haul the battery in from the other truck (I still only have one 12volt battery in Oso, he needs 2 for his 24 volt system!!), fire him up and we’re off!

I give the controls to mechanic no 2, Clemento, a bull of a man, looking concerned at the top of a hill he decides against driving any further; not very confidance inspiring!!! He then tries to get out of the rolling-down-hill truck, grinning and shaking his head whilst repeating “no puedo” with me  telling him to keep his foot on the foot brakeas  the handbrake isn’t quite tight enough!!  I scramble around to the other side, Oso slipping backwards, squash my foot on the brake pedal as Clemento moves aside and  crunching Oso into 1st we slowly ease up the hill. Fortunatley uphill going forwards the brakes work but weren’t working backwards, down hill!!

We perform a quick lap of the town and return to the bus depot; a spot more adjusting of the brakes and we’re off again, my newly placed cushion for a seat sliding as I stamp  on the clutch.  Oh, I forgot to mention, much to Petra’s disdain, I removed the 2 air-ride Recaro front seats in favour of 3 seat bases from an old bus.  I can now take 2 passengers, reasonably comfortably, (See post ‘why 2 passengers??’) and the amount of space in the cab seems to have doubled and clambering into the back is now a bit more of a respectable crawl.

 Back at chicken bus HQ Petra has  picked Emilia up from school and they are both eagerly waiting for me.  I suggest  a drive to the frontera- the border of san pedro and santiago, 2 neighbouring municipalities.

“Are you sure?” Petra enquires shooting a nervous glance at the departing Clemento.  With a backwards wave he assures us  ‘everything good’ and we set off on our maiden voyage.Up through town, past the entrance to the volcano, further up the mirador (lookout-overlook), at least it’s all uphill!! I can’t for the life of me change from 1st to second and I  had it so good down on the flat!  Nothing to do but sit back, relax and let the old beast growl loudly up the hill.

Several  extremely steep hills later and still in first gear, we approach the valley on the saddle behind the volcano, time to double clutch into second, maybe 3rd…. I even manage 4th but he doesn’t have much power. Turning around to head back down I have a flash of insight, maybe street gear is too high!! I change Oso into low…much better!  Gear-changing now possible,we barrel down the hill in4th. It’s time to test the breaks as I f we’re going too fast to change down.  There’s an initial response but with all my weight on the brake pedal we still appear to be barreling albeit with some slow easing to a halt.  I’m glad I didn’t try that on a busy road! The brakes smell terrible, smoke is  billowing out of the hubs and we’re crawling down in 1st gear and hauling on the handbrake! However whenthe brakes cool and the air pressure climbs up we have brakes again and a nervous Petra ensures I don’t dare change up gear and go too fast. Emilia is asleep and oblivious to it all!

It’s all a learning curve – 50 year old vehicles don’t perform like their grand chidren!  After a slow, uneventful coast down we briefly take the finca road, another photo opportunity taken and back at the depot I discover I reversed into a pole, smashing the right indicator!  The curve sometimes becomes a spike  and we now have a disturbing sound coming from the front driver’s side?? I get Clemento on the sidestep, see if he can identify the source but it’ll have to wait till manyana..

What a fantastic day, the voyage will truly begin!  Clambering out of oso I feel like I’ve been behind the wheel all day.  My clutch thigh is going to be monstrous!!

Power…

An early morning news bulletin and overview of the past few days…..  

We have brakes, all pesky rubber seals replaced, system clean, ready to screech to a halt at the first given opportunity!! Well that’s the theory!! As yet I haven’t had a chance to investigate said theory as Oso has been blocked in by buses all weekend!  In the meantime  myself and my good friend John went on a 2 day mission to enable the solar, charge the battery bank and therefore achieve electricity. 

It’s   not as simple a system as one might like, especially when someone else has done the system to suit their own personal logic. There are brown and blue cables tied off everywhere; a mysterious control box; a circuit breaker panel that any first class Guatemala penthouse would be jealous of; all of fine German quality and none of which have any instruction manuals! Help? Oh and best not to forget that for that extra challenge some other cunning fellow has been playing with the wiring!

Needless to say on day one of our mission, Saturday, we didn’t acheive much save to  ascertain that one solar panel out of the 3 is corrupt, the other 2 are kicking out 9 volts and did not manage to get power past the breakers? It’s  internet research time but even this proved unfruitful as I was unable to locate info on the 8 year old system. We eventually got the basic idea from following other solar/ independant power wiring diagrams.

On Sunday after breakfast in Oso with our first guests, we re-wired strange control box, checked batteries, breaker panel, shook our collective heads a lot and tried to stay focused on issues on the charge side of the breaker circuit….At last we attained electrical power!  What a pleasure to finally have the lights, fans and  water pumps functioning however we are not necessarily getting charge from the solar panels, further research required to which we say” poco a poco” (slowly slowly..)

      

The Beast moves….

Woooooooooooo Hoooooooooo!!!!!!!!  We have a stiff but functional clutch. Ossito’s wheels are in motion less than 2 kms up the Finca road, got to iron out this gear changing! Back at the bus depot it’s  brake revisal time . Surrounded by 5 curious mechanics, rear wheels in the air, with much pounding and prying, the brake drum squeaks off.  The shoes are good, time for rubber seal department…Ahhh, horrible horrible!!  Not what you want to see!

There is clay/mud like, rusty, brown slimy brake fluid oozing out of the seals.  The result of 7 years without motion??  Shaking their heads the mechanics remove the parts, Bartolo calls Xela with the seal sizes and they actually have them or so they say.  Having been through this before I won’t hold my breath until tomorrow! The mechanics are about to call it a day – “no parts till the bus gets back manyana” is their dismissive response to which I plaintively reply -“dont yopu think we had better check the front?  The seals may be a different size!!!??”

Reluctantly,  Oso’s front end is levered up, the rear now resting precariously on a tree stump.  It’s a bit more work to get these drums off and again good shoes but no surprises in the seal department.  These are  only slightly larger with the same brake fluid – sludgy, brown and ganky. Sooo, we have 8 replacement seals headed our way tomorrow, brake lines to clean (I’m going to blow them out with air), piston housing  to polish with 600 grit sandpaper and we’re another step closer to Peten.

Meanwhile the list of things to be done before departure is ever increasing…For a start the wipers and electric the nightmare being that the only person who knows his way around them is the fellow who installed them and he’s thousands of miles away in Oz!!  They are a mix of 12 volt solar and 24 volt!! Top of the list of purchases then is an electric meter!!! There are also at least 3 electric water pumps and an odd looking cut off switch –  I shall go into these another time.  For now the quest for mobility continues.            

we have clutch!!

  Today’s news – cue fanfare………..we have a clutch!  Tomorrow we’ll test it, the truck is understandably really tough to push, if we can’t adjust  it or  it doesn’t ease up Petra will never drive the old boy!  I’m also not so sure my friendly bus depot owner went to the city, he called me late this afternoon stating “truck is ready”!! I don’t like it when things are not done in my presence,  I have lived in Central America too long to not be a tad suspicious.

The original clutch pump has been replaced with an Isuzu one. I wonder where he got it from, how well it’s going to work, how new it really is and how long it will last!?  To be fair to him we do now have  a clutch, more than I managed to achieve in a week, and a promise to revise the brakes tomorrow, if  Boss man Bartolo is there!! Until 8.00 tomorrow morning when  once more we’ll have a “mobile home” and hopefuly be that much closer to destination Peten.…..

Patience patience

As the heading suggests a tad more patience is required.  At 4 this afternoon on the last returning bus unfortunate news was brought to us – Xela the second largest city here,  does not have the seals either!!! Bartolo the owner of the bus company (and the Beetle) is off to the big city “Gautemala” tomorrow, he’s on a mission to locate them himself.  I wish him good luck!!   If this fails it will have to be second-hand rebuilt hydraulic pumps from bus spare dealers, modified of course.

On the upside Bartolo gave me the choice of  2 bus shells.  Having thoroughly investigated them, we chose “Lupita” for the size and sideways sliding action of her windows as you can see, Emilia approves too!  Also  the bus-yard is ready to start work as soon as we return from the Peten.  However on the downside he casually informed me it would take a month to complete!!

“A month?” I cry aghast “We don’t have that amount of time.”  This has forced me to reconsider our plans and I must confes it does look like a spot more work than I had at first thought. Time to adopt a new line of thinking.  We shall……  Fix the clutch, revise brakes, fill up with diesel and head for Peten  ASAP. Once there whe shall investigate new 4×4 adventure routes, remove campershell and have the coachwork done in Peten.  Sadly this means probably not the old familiar schoolbus we had in mind as there are’nt so many in the northern regions but a bus shell anyway we shall have either way!  Perhaps a smaller one and we could still dress it up to look like a schooli?  Only time will tell..more tomorrow, hopefully from a mobile Oso….

                                                                 

Saturday…….

Sadly today we are no further forward.  The parts are coming by chicken bus from the city and are not in until this afternoon which being Saturday is a half day.  “not till Monday” Bartolo smiles.  “No no!” is my paniced reply, “What time does the bus get in?”  I have resigned to  do it myself in the morning so there won’t be anything in the news department today. Instead I shall tinker with the blog, see if I can work out how to attach a photo gallery to a post…more pictures and history on Oso…All things of great import in building up Oso’s notoriety and sense of self-worth.

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