Just some bus pics...

Here's a few of my favorite bus pictures I've grabbed from various places.  I'll add more as I come across them.

Funny because it's true...



This one just looks ready to eat up the road...

Gullwing side door. ("A" for idea, "C-" on execution)

If I ever break down I hope these three stop by to lend a hand...

Here's what mine would have looked like had the painters not botched the job.

Slammed, splitty panel van.  Super sweet.

Crazy nice interior.  Done somewhere in Europe (iirc) w/ seats from a BMW...

If a '66 Coupe DeVille and a '66 Bus had too much sangria one night and hooked up in a seedy motel, I think their love-child would look something like this next one.  If I was ever going to do a drive-by this would be my vehicle of choice.

I think this one is used in parades, or some other similarly useless events.  I'd slap a hot-tub in the back of it and cruise college campuses, but that's probably just me.

My current favorite.  I want to be doing this sometime soon.











Fresh Paint

After years of waiting, Betty is finally starting to come together.  From my last post, I had the following list to get done before our last home game Nov. 13th -

-Carpet in the back -->Done!

-Windows out, rust removal/repair and POR-15 front and rear window sill, and everything removed to prep for paint -->Done!

-POR-15 the gutter rail -->Forgot, oops.

-Exterior painted -->Done!

-New seals / windows reinstalled -->Done!

And all with one weekend to spare.  I got it back from the body/paint guy on Thursday Nov. 4 and had the windows reinstalled the next day.  I was a bit unhappy when I arrived at the painter's, I had gone over more than once exactly what I wanted done and they didn't do it right.  They had painted it red all the way to the roofline when they were supposed to stop just below the windows.  I've decided to keep it as is after getting some good advice from some guys at thesamba.com, and it's growing on me but I still wish they had done it right.

Some pictures...

A few of the windowsills with the glass out.  The front one was a real head scratcher, it had been leaking since I owned the bus yet there was no rust there to speak of.  And I broke the front window getting it out.  Oh well, that's what the parts bus is for I guess.

Of course I didn't take pictures after the clean up, but it looked good.  I scraped/cleaned, applied metal ready and then the POR-15. 

Fresh back from the painters, right after the window installers left...

To get ready for the game, I installed some carpet in the back, rattle-canned on a couple coats of white on the rims, and put on her "Sunday's Best" hubcaps...

And finally off to the game.  The date was Saturday, November 13.  NC State 38, Wake Forest 3.  Betty was a pretty big hit, we were getting thumbs up, woo-hoo's, and peace signs thrown at us all day.  And, for the record, Betty is now 2-0 at home game appearances.

A couple of before/afters and I'm done with this post. 

Side Note - I understand that this site is free and all, but it's suckier than a sucky suck on suckday.

Merry Christmas to all and hopefully my next post will be a camping trip or road trip, and not a major bus repair.



Custom Interior Part 3

Well, as usual, things didn't go exactly as planned.  Long story short, I finally got Betty back from the upholsterer's a couple of weeks ago.  I was hoping to have it back and done for football season but we're through game 7 now and I still have a long way to go.  My new goal is to have it ready for the last home game of the season on Nov. 13th.

So I'm not sure what I was expecting but my interior pieces came back from the upholsterers looking like this...

He had the bus for way longer than I was hoping, but on the upside he ended up doing my toolbox, middle console, and both front door panels, all of which look awesome to me.  On the downside, I had things measured out and cut a bit too precisely and with the extra padding and vinyl on the seats everything didn't quite fit right.  I got most of it wedged in, but I had to take apart the back seat cushion, cut it down about an inch, then put it back together.

The uphostery guy had also started to do my rear interior panels, but they were pretty shot so I ordered new ones from Bus Depot and have just painted them black for now.  Eventually I'll get around to covering them so that all the extra holes don't show.

Installed all the interior panels after hunting and pecking for enough original fasteners to get it done.  I wanted to use straight through fasteners but realized I would have to drill all new holes to get everything to line up, so I raided all my old panels and snagged a few more from the parts bus out back.  Panels up and back seat in place (this took me 3 nights to accomplish)...

Hooking up amp, sub, and speakers...

And finally with the side seat fitted in place and speakers mounted...

Not exactly a replica of the SewFine beauty I was hoping for.  The original plan was to make a wedge to go into the void between the side seat and the back seat to give it the wrap around look, but after seeing it all put together I realized this configuration just wasn't going to work.  I think I could have worked it out to make it look cool, but in reality the seats are just too big to be very functional.  With this setup I would only be able to seat 3 people back there, sooooooo, on to plan B.

For plan B, I went back to my original plan of just having the two seats face each other.  Everything lined up so that I could use the existing seat mounts on the rear facing seat so I rolled with it.  Final pics of that setup, the front seats and panels, and some finishing touches.

Left to do before Nov. 13th -

-Carpet in the back
-Windows out, rust removal/repair and POR-15 front and rear window sill, and everything removed to prep for paint
-POR-15 the gutter rail
-Exterior painted
-New seals / windows reinstalled

Note to self - Don't count on making that deadline...

Custom Interior Part 2

With my interior parts and pieces off to the upholsterers, I began working on prepping the back of the bus.  Nothing new and exciting here but I thought I would document it none the less.  The general process was wash, Marine Clean, Metal Ready, POR-15, then insulate.  I did a lot of research on the sound proofing/insulation and ended up going with EZ Cool Insulation from http://www.lobucrod.com/.  I'm not interested in dead quiet or great sounding tunes, I would just like to carry on a conversation with my boys in the back without having to yell at them.  I hope this stuff will make that possible, but even if it doesn't the cost doesn't break the bank.  My plan is to put down two layers on the bottom front to back and one layer in the doors and sides.  There's no real reason for that plan except I think I would get more noise from the engine and road below than the sides.  I also don't have any way to test before and after but hopefully the difference is at least noticeable.  Some pictures...

Start

After Marine Clean and Metal Ready

After POR-15

Brief Aside - I was bored the night I did the POR-15 and had some time to kill.  I found some car wax in my mother-in-law's garage and decided to give old Betty a wax job.  I was pretty amazed at the difference, even if I was technically (and literally) "polishing a turd."

On to the insulation/sound dampening.  Nothing new here either, I ended up buying 4 rolls of 4'x10' EZ Cool Insulation.  I used 3 rolls for the back, single layers for the sliding door and opposite side wall, and two layers for the bottom, wheel wells, and back cargo area.  I didn't really measure things out since this stuff should never be seen once I get the interior back in, I just eyeballed and cut and used scraps wherever I was off.  I attached the insulation using 3M general trim adhesive, installation was straight forward.  Hopefully I can get the front doors and front floor panel done with the remaining roll, but it will be a while before I get to the front of the bus I think.

As far as costs, 4 rolls of the insulation cost $160 and I spent $40 on the adhesive.  By my calculations an equal amount of Dynamat would cost over $600, my unscientific theory is that the Dynamat can't be THAT much better.  My other theory is that if it is that much better I probably wouldn't be able to hear my engine running, which is not a good thing.

I took it on a test run after finishing up the back, you can definitely tell a difference already.  I think once I get my interior back in and the side panels in place it's going to do what I hoped it would.  Here are a few pics...

So now I'm in a holding pattern, waiting for the upholstery guy to hopefully work some magic.  I have limited funds so I'm paying him to do the two back seats and the two front seats, I'll have to do the side panels, toolbox, and center console.  I might even learn how to sew and try to jazz them up a bit, we'll see.  I'm hoping to get the bus back by late July so by football season Betty should be looking good.

Custom Interior Part 1.5

Since beginning this interior project I have done a lot of looking around on The Samba to see what other people are doing inside their bus.  I've yet to find one like mine but there are a LOT of great ideas to be had there.  My favorite custom tin top interior has to be Klaussinator's, he's posted his setup in a few threads that I have found but this one is good to see his, plus some other's too...

Custom Interiors on The Samba

I mention this because his interior is made up almost exclusively from recycled (things from the dump, things laying around the house, etc...) materials.  This inspired me to start looking around the house and elsewhere to do my next two little projects.  I have enough scrap wood (from finished house projects) in the crawl space in my basement to build a small house, yet everytime I start a new project I head off to Lowes.  So the couple small things below are inspired by Klaussinator, and I intend to continue the trend of using old stuff whenever I can.  It actually made the project more fun.

First was a center console to go between the front seats.  I had enough scrap wood around my house for the box, and I found the hinges in a long forgotten box in my basement.  The interior lining is from an old jacket I found at my office; it was an employee's who passed away a couple of years ago.  He was a great guy and a great worker, so it's nice to have something of his riding around with me.  The pockets and such inside are from an old laptop bag.

Next was a toolbox for the back, I was tired of everything sliding around when I took a turn.  I'm not sure if this will stay permanently or not because it might take up more space than I like, but it works for now.  Again, all scrap wood, hinges, and fasteners.  Eventually both of these will be covered by my upholstery guy.

Custom Interior Part 1

This post is to document the beginning of Betty's custom interior.  I had originally planned on doing something very similar to the SO-23 setup (I came up with this before ever seeing an SO-23 interior, but the plans were similar).  Turn the middle seat around, put a table in the middle, and have the table retract down so the two seats plus the table make up the bed for camping...

I still think this is cool, but before I got around to it I found this one...

Wrap around couch, you say?  Too cool for school.  This one was done by Sewfine Products, http://www.sewfineproducts.com/.  Yes, I am going to attempt to replicate this look by totally ripping off their idea.

My plan was to attempt this look while using the existing seat mounting points.  I had two reasons for doing this.  The most important was that I intend on driving both my kids and my nephews around in here.  If I was ever in an accident I would really like to rely on the German engineers safety measures as opposed to my own.  Also, if anyone was ever hurt I could tell my wife to blame the original designers instead of taking the fall for something I fabbed up myself.  The second reason was just to see if I could.

I started by pulling out the interior and getting everything down to the frames.  This was pretty simple once I discovered how to properly use my Dremel and a cut-off wheel.  Afterwards I was left with this...

Rear seat -

Middle seat -

I started with the middle seat because I thought it would be the easiest to work with.  This one will be turned around facing the sliding door but on the opposite wall.  I built a box (w/ basically just a jigsaw, mind you, hence the poor cuts) to go around the frame, the idea is to have a removable cushion on top in order to access storage below.  In order to use the existing mounting brackets I (well technically not I, but my brother-in-law) also had to weld in a crossmember to the front bottom of the frame since the seat is not designed to face this way.  In progress and finished pics...

For the rear seat I had to go a different route since I couldn't really build a box to slide in around the frame.  I guess pictures can explain it better than I...

I cut out speaker holes and removed the side piece off the back seat because I would like to be able to continue to fold down the top half of that seat if possible.  I'm hoping the upholstery guy can figure something out that I can put in that void that is removable. 
A couple of coats of Poly with the help of the fam (brother-in-law and youngest son here) and the final dry fit before off to the upholstery guy it goes.

While that's being done I'm going to work on a few other minor projects and begin rust-proofing and insulating the back.  More to come...