Lana and I have not posted in a week or so (I think) but we have made some progress on the bus none-the-less. I’m still installing wiring and fuse systems for our solar power plant; obviously this needs to be done before the walls are closed up so – slow going getting to the pretty stuff up but we have lots coming in that area soon. We work with 2-part epoxies and mica and our interior will be adorned with it accordingly.

Lana has been working on making our solar powered, back-lit, stand off “Camp Jessop” letters that go in place of “School Bus” sparkle. Very deep clear coats with lots of multi-color glitter makes them pop against the silver body.

Flooring has also started as well. After a decade of custom interiors – I do floors near last. So much rough work happens during the real building that I can’t stand to lose a nice looking floor to accidents and our floor is nothing short of custom as well so – I don’t want to have to fix a bunch of dings and can’t stand grinding crap in under cardboard.

We’re using basic pine boards but are using a couple different techniques to make ordinary wood – pop! We’re using a torch & brush method with colored stain, mainly blue/tan/gray and the more dangerous method of burning with a Lichtenberg “machine” and filling the “lightening bolts” with mica enriched 2-part epoxy for the cabinet facings & doors/drawer fronts.

Below are some photos of the boards we are making for the main run of the hallway between the dining room and kitchen at the front of the bus. We are setting them in a herringbone pattern and each board is burnt and scraped and stained to be individual all on it’s own.

To get more consistency in my 20″ boards I took the lumber down to the big saw to cut stacks all at once – plus, it saves a LOT of running around cutting individual boards.

We started experiments with the colored stain in the closet/chest storage area under the bed, in front of the solar science station and water holding section.

Below are the first boards of the torching and color stained main flooring we are installing in the main living area of the bus. Yes, it will take a fair amount of work to make all the boards individually but we are sure it will be well worth the work in the end.

That’s most of what has been happening on Leauxie – Camp Jessop’s Mobile Starlight Lab. We are hoping for a short test run weekend in a few weeks so… lots to be done before then!

Happy trails!

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