Hoot the bus before and after

Sadly as the original restoration thread has been lost to the electronic grave yard, I have decided to post a few pictures of the resto.
Hoot (formally called Snot the bus) joined the family September last year. Over 2 hours work every night apart from Christmas day, boxing day and New years eve, she was completed in time to make it to Elemental ( just )


Well first set of photos as she was when she arrived

 

Engine removed


Front suspension removed



Off to the painters all stripped down

 

No longer Snot the bus, welcome Hoot! (You'll see why she was re-named Hoot later)



Very happy me





Glass back in



Rebuilt engine ready to go in ( not as shiny as Jokers )

 

Job done!

 

Very nice van
Tidy engine bay

 

And our first camping trip, now you can see why she's called Hoot

 

loving the owls

 

+1 cool owls

 

Anna gets the credit for the owls

 

God I love that bus !

I love everybody's bus !

 

It kills me that so many people were able to find a green bus but I somehow got stuck with a beige one. I just love the greens and here you go and paint,.... nope, sorry. None of my business. Moving on.
About your fire extinguisher placement though. Since most bus fires start in the engine compartment and are fed by faulty fuel lines, by the time you realize you're on fire, pull over and run to the back,.... well how did you plan to get to the fire extinguisher, really? It will be engulfed in flames before you have the parking brake engaged.
Perhaps you'll get lucky and the heat will cause it to explode. Maybe that will put out the fire without you having to do anything at all.
Seriously though, that's a beautiful bus (even though it's now blue). I was just being cheeky. But do rethink that extinguisher, for your own sake.

 

Nice van and a unique name, Baywatcher, i think you'll find the fire extinguisher is an auto sensing one, it goes off once engine temp reaches a set level, the red pipes you see are to direct the spray around the engine bay area.

 

Hi BayWatcher, was just responding to your earlier post, when I see you have responded again.
Thanks for the comments. We thought long and hard before changing the colour, but there was no way we could have lived with that colour!

With regards to the fire extinguisher, Rickrooo is spot on. It's a Fire Tech automatic system. The red tube winds it's way around the whole engine bay and is pressurised
If you have a fire the pipe bursts in the area of the fire. The Late bay are doing a group buy of these systems

 

There seems to be two schools of thought on the old original greens, oranges, and yellows with the blinding plaid upholstery. 1) toss it and modernize the whole thing and 2) keep it original because the 70's were charmingly hilarious.
I'm just a two. I love the time capsule effect of an original bus.
The modernized buses are pretty and I will admit it would be fun to have another bus to toy with like that. But to me it just feels like putting a great glass pyramid in front of the Louvre. Ouch.
You should have seen the bus that won the Texas VW Classic this year. It looked like it had been stripped and whipped back together by Martha Stewart and her faculty.
Gorgeous though it may have been, it looked like it would have spat grease on passing hippies out of spite.
When a Bus has a lemon zester where the roach clip used to go, something has gone tragically wrong.

 

Baywatcher, i'm with you on the originality but Marins bus is cool and i'm happy that people can decide for themselves, i actually had mine earlier this year from California so don't fret too much 70's will live on in all it's Brownness......Rick. ;D

 

Oh I don't mean to criticize or belittle his choice of painting it blue. I was really just being silly. Sad that the dryer one's sense of humor, the less clearly it translates in print.
Anyway, that's what I meant when I said there are two schools of thought.
It would be no fun if we all liked the exact same things.
The Hootster is a beautiful bus. It's not my style, but I appreciate and respect it.
There is no denying it is pretty.

 

nice camper, well done

 

Thanks guys. The great thing about the VW scene is there is enough room for every one! Personally I'm a Lover not a fighter, so I love everyone's bus, whether original or highly modified.


If I ever have another bus, I may do things differently, but you never know LOL


Oh and no offence taken BayWatcher,