Roof Remodeling Part 1: Functionality

Michael has never been a fan of all the junk that RVers and BusNuts put on their vehicles. He likes the "sleek" look, as he puts it, and wants as little (if nothing) up on the roof so he can avoid letting the world know that we are recreational vehicularists as seen below.

Too Much Stuff!

But we did have to desecrate our bus's roof by installing a bathroom vent on the roof. It will help eliminate odors and circulate any hot air out of the bus.


Step one was to cut a hole. Thank goodness our tall friend Jeff was there to assist. Standing at 6'4", he ripped through the roof. Ok, he also had the help of Michael's new Sawzall, a Father's Day present from Max and Simone. 

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But we did have to desecrate our bus's roof by installing a bathroom vent on the roof. It will help eliminate odors and circulate any hot air out of the bus.

Step one was to cut a hole. Thank goodness our tall friend Jeff was there to assist. Standing at 6'4", he ripped through the roof. Ok, he also had the help of Michael's new Sawzall, a Father's Day present from Max and Simone. 

Well thank goodness for weather sealant and adhesive! And no thanks to the Fleet Farm employees (at least in this one instant). Michael sent me to the store to get some sort of goop that would simultaneously adhere the fin to the roof and be waterproof. Who wants a flooded bathroom, right? I had no idea what to get so I asked. Unfortunately, the advisors at the store were just guessing themselves because they had never had to do something like this. I got the feeling that I should have gone to Home Depot and not to a place where 9 to 5ers go on the weekend to fulfill their man tendencies by buying as much gear and tools as they can to look as if they do fun shit. I still haven't pinpointed what Fleet Farm is. The most accurate and least creative way to put it is, "It's a Big 5 mixed with part Walmart and a splash of Home Depot and a pinch of Petco." Anyway, I got the wrong thing. It was an adhesive and water-resistant, but in tiny print it warned that it should not be under constant exposure to water. One of the criteria I gave the 2 employees!

Luckily Michael went in and found the right thing - a sticky globby substance that was a bitch to work with. We're not professionals so we erred on the side of more instead of less goop. 

Our Vent Drowning in Weatherproof Sealant!

Michael would slather the sealant onto the bus, then drop the vent and then push the bolts through, which also oozed the sealant through to the interior of the bus. I was inside under those bolts frantically trying to put 2 washers (one flat and one lock) and a nut through the bolt's threads. Why was I frantic? Because this miracle gunk dried in 30 minutes and we had to tighten it into place within that time frame. 

Michael had to fabricate 2 metal frame pieces onto which the 2 sides of bolts would latch. It took quite a while to test, but it was a good thing we did it before we applied the sealant. It definintely took about 2+ hours to test and widen holes where the bolts weren't fitting in properly.