Finally Hitting The Road I finally finished all of the construction on the inside and outside and I painted the beast. I intended on adding vinyl stick-on graphics to the side of the bus after I painted it, but I decided to put that off until later. |
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The driver side after the paint job. Note the hinged custom steel generator cover panel just in front of the battery compartment door. I painted all of the tanks and other hanging stuff underneath with rubberized undercoating. To paint the bus I used automotive paint that I got at Napa Auto Parts. It took 2 gallons of white paint, 1 gallon of blue paint, 3 gallons of clear coat, 3 pints of clear coat hardener and 2 gallons of reducer. $700 in paint! I did 3 color coats and 3 clear coats. It actually looks pretty much like a factory paint job, except for a couple of drips, runs and little bugs that got stuck to the clear coat. Not bad for my first attempt at automotive painting. I see why people do this in special paint booths normally. |
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This photo was taken at the Virginia Welcome Center at the TN/VA border. We did it! We actually took this thing on a trip! I didn't think I would ever get finished with all of the details that went into making this thing. Everything worked great. There were a few minor kinks to work out, but all-in-all it was very cool. When we were done with our first trip we had traveled through 5 states: TN, VA, MD, PA, OH, KY, Washington D.C. We traveled 2400+ miles. The white dome on top is our mobile DirecTV satellite dish. That thing is great! We watched satellite TV while we were driving down the highway. It cuts out for a second when you go under an overpass and when the terrain or trees are too tall to the south but, overall it was great. |
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