Bracing for the Holidaze

I mentioned over the Summer that I got a new job. I haven't really talked much about the gig, other than to complain about the hours. Looking at the job numbers, and seeing how hard some folks are having it, I'm going to stop complaining about it. I read back through some old posts, and it seems like I gripe about not having time an awful lot. Seeing how I can't really do much about it, I'm not going to do that anymore. I should be grateful to have work doing something I'm pretty good at, and I get paid regularly.

Holidaze
The craziness started for most folks around Thanksgiving. I have a tradition where I take my boys out shopping the Saturday before Christmas. In past years, we've gone to Macy's or Fred Meyer. This year, my brother called and asked if the boys wanted to go shopping with their 3 year old cousin around the city of Portland. It was a blast, and it gave me a great reminder of how wonderful a city Portland is. The energy... the people... we truly live in an amazing place. The boys and I found a few unusual items for "mom", visited with our uncle/brother and cousin/niece. Last, we enjoyed some fresh Thai food for lunch off one of the street-carts. Yummy.

Today, my sister and her daughter arrived from Austin. They will be staying with my folks in close-in SE Portland for a few days before heading over to her mother-in-law's place. Her husband flies in on Xmas-eve. We'll have almost the entire extended family in town this year, but with the usual extended family challenges, I don't think we'll be celebrating as a full group until the middle of next week.

Bracket Progress
With an unexpected change in the weather, we were given a few dry hours today. After cleaning up the house, and wrapping what we got yesterday, I could think about the bus guilt-free. I had spent about 30 minutes in the dark on Friday night figuring out where the inter cooler could fit, and what I would need for pressure hose. That night, I ordered a couple 90* bends and a 45* bend (for the air filter end of the operation). Today, I figured I could start working on the bracket to hold the inter-cooler in place. I know my welding skills aren't that great, and I know that welding up a simple triangular brace would have taken me days. With this in mind, I grabbed a straight 1" steel bar and headed for the rear of the bus, prepped for the worst.

In looking at the scene, I didn't need a simple triangle; this thing needed to have an angled side and one corner was further forward than the other, meaning it couldn't be a closed triangle. I took the bar and bent it most of the way back on itself, and then twisted it so the top was a few inches further forward than the rear. I test fit the idea and noticed that the top corner needed a mount point that required another 90* bend. Luck was with me, though, as the bar had a couple inches of extra material on the top. I made another small bend, and it looked right. I guess I've paid some luck-dues, because I drilled 5/8" holes, and after some twisting and tweaking, they lined up about perfectly.

Looking at the finished product, the top of the inter-cooler is a couple inches lower than I expected, but the entire unit is in the slip-stream, but not below the low-point of the engine. It should be worth noting that the radiator and the front beam are both lower than the inter cooler, as placed. A front bracket still needs to be made, but I would rather have the exhaust in first, so I know what I have to work around.

The hoses should arrive some time this next week. This sets me up to get the induction system sealed up next weekend. My hopes to have test drives before New Years Eve could still become a reality. I still don't have an exhaust, of course. This will limit how far I can test a drive, but any movement out of the driveway would be a successful drive at this point. We'll see....

pictures:
top: rough-in placement of inter-cooler for hose need assessment
upper-middle: bracket in-place before attaching the cooler
lower-middle: same shot as the one above, but after the inter-cooler was attached
bottom: view from the side showing the road clearance of the inter-cooler. Consider the front bracket will raise it about an inch.