Majorhangovers bus

I wouldnt be in too much of a rush to change it....shiny paint takes lots of buffing...i've got one really strong buff arm...same colour or something a bit different

 

Sooooo, Little update time, At Brighton Breeze i bought a rear bumper complete with bumper irons and Overriders (not a great pic):



Also when i got the bus Karmen Konnection threw in a replacement tailgate:



Because of this:



So after a bit of a rub down and a splash of paint (what i actually mean is after alot of rubbing down priming rubbing down learning how to paint.....)

I ended up with this, Its not perfect but its not too bad and passes my 10 foot Rule that is to say it looks OK from 10 feet away




Back to the bumper which I bare metaled and painted, and while i was at it i did the front too, I thought I'd taken more pics but cant seem to find them so here's the finished result (with new override rubbers from lhu1281) :

Front


Rear With tailgate too.




Now the eagle eyed among you will notice an almost imperceptible difference in colour between the new paint on the tailgate and the rest of the bus, I'm a little torn about this i cant decide whether to repaint the whole bus this colour which came from the paint code or to get something knocked up closer to faded colour and respray the whole thing that colour what do you reckon?

 

Looking pretty smart my good man. This may explain why you have been so quiet of late

I'm in 2 minds about the paint. l quite like the colour it has gone but l also like the original one too. If you want, bring down the old rear hatch and when the chap from ICI comes in I'll get him to scan it for you. if not try LE Went in Gloucester Rd around the industrial estate and see what they can come up with.

 

seems you have exactly the same issues as me with matching paint mate! i got the exact code made and it's crap....like birdy says scanning is the way to go and matching the fade i reckon.

 

I'm definitely respraying the whole thing, its just whether or not i go for the nice bright shiney happy yellowy beige or dark dingy faded dirty beige

As you may be able to tell I'm leaning more toward the brighter colour

 

thats looking fantastic ... !

 

If you're going to get a re-spray and pay all that money or take all that time and effort then go for a nice shiny new colour...I can't see the point of re-spraying an old tired colour personally, unless you are after the ratty look.

 

Yeah, thanks Fellas, The new (old) colour is growing on me, I'm probably going to get it mixed somwhere else, as kind of a double check for the colour, as that colour seems so far away from the original, but i'll order enough for the whole bus so whatever turns up will be the colour Colin is going to be

 

Use some g3 cutting compound on the faded paint and see what colour it comes up dude

£200 for bumper, over riders with rubbers and irons aswell was a good price

Ive seen the irons go for £75 before

 

what paint did you use on them black parts dude they look great

 

Colin's looking good

 

Looking good mate, Very Jealous of the over riders

The shiney paint will grow on you just as much as the faded paint!

 

So Christmas is a good excuse to do some work on the bus, The interior was just 4 ikea units and though the layout worked its not quite right.

So i ripped it out and after alot of head scratching, thought and a bit more head scratching, I'm building the new one from scratch keeping the bed as its a proper bluebird one, but all the units came out and are now storage in the spare room.

The first thing i decided was to make life difficult for myself by making the cupboards curved, so made a former for the doors laid some flexi 6mm mdf on it with a bit of glue and et voila-





then using the same former as a pattern i cut the base and top for the unit along with the sides, The whole unit is made of Ultra light MDF its supposedly 33% lighter than normal MDF, but TBH its a van and provided i can keep all the units down to below the weight of person i'm not that bothered.



Mid Assembly





All glued and screwed together with a coat of primer, the big round hole on the bottom is for the gas bottle to sit in, with the bottle sitting on the packers on the floor of the van it just fits under the rock and roll bed in seat form.



and with the uncut doors laid on



With Doors cut and hung and unit painted:



And a couple of the doors veneered



So its now down to putting the unit in the van. The first door on the unit is a little narrow, So i've used a narrow pull out rack, the bigger door next to it is where the fridge will live with the fridge door attached to the cupboard door (making a concealed fridge), i've a new smev sink to go in the top of that unit and to make an even more complicated unit to go behind the passengers seat.

Empty Van


With unit offered into position



I've also got the propex half fitted into position, choosing this position for was a pain in the proverbial, but it allows me to build in the under rock and roll bed drawer, which currently looks like this:



Thats it so far but its coming along

 

I weighed that unit before fitting and the unit without the doors, but with the rack fitted was 3 1/2 stone. i'm not putting any ply flooring under the unit either as thats another little bit of weight saved