Big White Bus – OKIEROVER.COM

April 7, 2025April 7, 2025

Too Cold to Paint, Planning What’s Next on my Range Rover Classic Overland Rig (Post #698) 4/7/2025

Third Winter hit this weekend.

It was too cold to paint. Temps in the forties in my shop. I didn’t feel like getting bundled up to lay on my back getting paint all over me.

Call me lazy, that’s fine, but not super fun for me. So I’m going to tackle the sealing of the seams with paint, seam sealer, and truck bed liner next weekend. I’ll get it as “protected” as I can.

In this video I also talk about what is coming next. Call it a little planning. I have a lot of wiring to run. Lights for the interior and exterior and wiring for a battery management system. I need to plan for a DC to DC converter and all the magic electronics that make everything work well together.

I also allude to some fun history in the story of Tuck’s Ferry across the Red River (RedRiverHistorian.com).

I also mention some of my current storage solution in the U.S. G.I. Aluminum Medical Transport Chests. If you’ve followed for any time, you’ve seen me talk about the.

This is going to be a lot of coin to drop. So getting the wires run will require some planning. I’m certain I’ll screw this up and have to re-run some of this. But that’s part of the fun, right?

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

March 31, 2025March 31, 2025

Prepping the Floor Bed for Final Paint on my Range Rover Classic Overland Rig (Post #697) 3/31/2025

In this post I started the prep for painting the floor bed. The goal here might be a surprise to you, but I need to get some paint on the unpainted parts. Why? Because RUST!

I’ve got some ideas about how I can get paint between the metal panels we just completed all the welds on. Why didn’t we use zinc weld through primer? Damn good question. Because I tried it with the welding on the front half of the Range Rover. I don’t know that it worked all that well. I should experiment with it in the future.

I got all the welds ground down. Not to flush, but not sticking up either. They were pretty porous so grinding them flat would not be great. Or at least, I don’t think it would have been great.

I had camera issues so most of that didn’t tape. I got the vacuum out and cleaned up all the debris from so many grinding sessions. So much dust in there.

I now need to get paint between those pieces of steel. I’ve got some ideas and bought new tips for my cans of paint. Hopefully I can spray the paint into the split between the two panels. Then seal it up with bedliner. I’ll then fill everything remaining with seam sealer.

That’s going to be a crappy day on my back under the Big White Bus, but I only have to do it one more time. I’ve got a bunch of seam sealer to buy still. I also am out of primer so that will be sourced too.

That’s all for this week. After this is complete, I start planning the electrics in the back of the overland rig. Also, I’ve noticed the poly bushes as failing in CHUNKS now. I’ll have to fix those pretty soon. The shocks are also toast and will need to be replaced. Adding two more projects to the still growing list of tasks.

Both Mrs. Okierover and I had another bout of Covid. Her’s was likely a sinus infection too. She is also recovering from a much needed foot surgery. Hopefully I can get back in the groove and hit repairs hard in the next few weeks.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

March 23, 2025March 30, 2025

Welding Completed on the Floor Panel on my Range Rover Classic Overland Rig (Post #696) 3/23/2025

In this episode, I manage to get some good welds. Together with some bolts, I think the floor bed is installed!!!!!

Now I need to clean up the welds and cover the steel in some primer and paint. You know, to prevent rust, wink, wink.

I know this will rust again, I’m just hoping by the time it does, I’m on to another vehicle.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/uMbmCFAEUi8

March 16, 2025March 30, 2025

Hotter Welds for the Floor Panel on my Range Rover Classic Overland Rig (Post #695) 3/16/2025

Yeah, these welds go to SEVEN. As Nigel Tufnel of the legendary band, Spinal Tap, says, “…but these go to eleven.” I turned up the voltage on my welder to get better welds.

I started with setting 4 wire speed and C voltage on my Lincoln Pro Mig 180 welder. Those welds did not hold. Drilling them out ate two drill bits and caused me to sharpen one of them twice during this ordeal.

So I turned it up to 7 D. Why the wire speed needed to be so much faster at this level of voltage is till a mystery to me, but hey, whatever works.

Hopefully these work. I am going to reinforce the welding with some bolts just to make sure any “flexing” of the body doesn’t sound like I just cracked the Big White Bus in half, when those weld break free. It will give me some piece of mind too that the floor bed will not go anywhere with all my gear strapped to it.

I also sorted out that I had my braces on wrong. This was why the bed was bulging in the middle. I don’t know how many times I went through how those needed to be installed and I still got them wrong. They are on correctly now and the bed panel fits SO much better.

That’s about all. I really appreciate two of my viewers who pointed out that the welds were not penetrating.

Wallace, who just recently acquired a Range Rover Classic and will be starting on his restoration at some point in 2025. And…

Trevor from Tumbleweed Garage [YouTube channel] who is restoring a Willys Pickup. He is doing a great job and I love watching how his mind works. He does a lot without any fancy tools, proving once again you don’t need to spend a king’s ransom to play with cars in your garage.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

https://youtu.be/17mumd38By8

March 9, 2025March 30, 2025

Welds Failed AGAIN on my Floor Panel for my Range Rover Classic (Post #694) 3/9/2025

Well that was a waste of a weekend. In a misguided attempt to correct bad welding, I propose it is my ground. Turns out that was wrong too.

So we filmed a lot of wasteful effort to get the floor bed installed.

I received a lot of help from people emailing me and messaging me. The consensus, the welder is not hot enough. I need to turn up the voltage.

This is an exercise in frustration. My next video will be with hotter settings on the welder and hopefully some welds that stick.

I’m pretty sure the bracing is in the wrong place on the frame supports too. There is a bow in the bed that can only be explained by these braces being in the wrong place.

Welds Failed on my Floor Panel for my Range Rover Classic (Post #693) 3/2/2025

Today was a punch in the gut. My welds will.not.stick. I have no idea what is going on. I’ve tried several thing and I can’t get these welds to stick.

My goal this weekend was to get the bed installed and to move on to something else. Unfortunately this is a big set back.

I will have to investigate what is going on. Sort out what I’m doing wrong and hopefully get some welds to work.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.