Hi guys,
The update you've hopefully all been waiting for!
Went to Devon last week and arrived on Friday evening late. After breakfast I went down to Carls workshop for my first glimpse of the bus in full paint! When I arrived, my friend Bob (who's the owner of Buster BoJangles) had already beat me to it. I could tell by the look on Bob's face that he was as chuffed as I was. The bus looks absolutely stunning (hopefully you'll agree when you see the pictures).
Carl tells me that to acheive the finish on this bus in the finished paint, it now has seven base coats of the finished colour and three coats of laquer which now makes it from bare metal to the finish, approximately 18 coats! I always had in my head that this finish was going to be metallic but I was wrong. It is actually a base coat colour with a pearl mixture which Carl mixes then the laquer over the top. Carl did a trial polished area on the front for me and it came up amazing, like a sheet of glass. When you get the sun reflect on an edge, it just shoots the light off like a lazer. Can't wait to see it all polished.
The first job we had to do was to polish the roof cap which is the metallic black with the red ghosted fleck. You'll see in the pictures Carl colour sanding this by hand then mopping with different grades of compound to get it up to a mirror finish. You will see a photo I've taken of just looking down on the top edge of the roof cap when it was on the bench and giving a clear reflection of the workshop roof 15 feet above! It looks like a photograph of just the roof. Carl then colour sanded around the edge of the roof and polished it, just enough so that when the roof cap was fitted the rest could then be colour sanded and polished after it came back from Lee fully trimmed. Before we fitted the roofcap, Carl waxoiled all the roof area that would be covered. It was a shame to see all that lovely black paint covered up with the roof cap never to be seen again! We then redrilled all the fixing holes around the edge of the upturned lip of the roof and then rescrewed the pop top down. Carl then fitted the aerial in the roof above the cab area and ran the cable down the right hand windscreen pillar so Lee could then do the headlining. In the mean time I was drilling holes through the floor in the back where we're going to run flexible condute which will run from under the seat behind the driver back to the storage area underneath the rock and roll bed. There will be two flexible condutes running from this area so there will be no cables running below the base of the floor, it'll all be run under the bus. We then fitted the Rock N Roll bed back in so Lee can get the rake at the back of the seat which he needs for setting out his pleats on the last two side panels. The base boards on the bed are 12mm birchply which are also going to be trimmed in black vinyl and the edges will finish underneath where it screws to the box section of the rock n roll bed. So there'll be no visible joins in the vinyl shown anywhere. The modifications Carl and I did on the handle of the bed was a big success and now works a lot better than when it came from Blue Bird.
The deadline for getting the bus ready was for Tuesday afternoon and after looking at the weather on Monday, I could visualise having a bus full of water because it was literally just an open top with no windows in the bus but luckily we awoke to a nice sunny, dry day and Bob came back down on Tuesday afternoon around 2pm with the trailer hitched to the back of his T5 and very kindly loaded the bus and took myself, my wife and Carl down to Lee's fathers place which is near Holsworthy in North Devon where the bus was then stored in his fathers garage. This is now a massive leap forward and is now downhill towards the finishing deadline and it's debut at the Brighton Breeze. Lee came home from work for an hour so I could run through how things were to be laid out in the bus. We've got some real trick things up our sleeves as far as trimming which we've never seen done before so it'll be a nice little surprise for everybody when you all get to see it finished.
I owe a massive thanks to Bob for taking time out to deliver the bus for me.
Here at last are the pictures you've all been waiting for! Hope you're as chuffed as I am.
Being as the Pop Top is fitted with a Just Kampers roof cap, we decided to try and lose some weight from the original top. To do this we decided to cut out the original sheet aluminium which was the original roof section. By doing this we can then bond the original roof bars to the new cap which will add strength to the roof and also allow us to be able to put a thicker polystyrene insulation in rather than the 15mm that was originally installed. We also bonded support plates around the outside edges where all the cross members attach to the outer edge. Once this work is finished, Carl will then paint the Pop Top in the metallic black and then this can be delivered to Lee to do the trimming from the inside.
Here you can see the underside of the roof cap. As you can see, I had made all new timber sections which Carl had bonded around the inside. Here you can see him cleaning up around the edge.
Here you can see we decided to waxoyl the timber as well as it won't do it any harm.
Here you can see Carl colour sanding the Pop Top by hand and then using the machine and different grades of compound to bring it up like a mirror.
You can also see him repeating the same process on the roof before the roof cap could be fitted.
Here can see Carl Waxoyling the roof in preperation for when we fitted the Roof cap.
This is Gilbert, Carls new work experience lad. We think he's a cousin of Wilson (The film star from Cast Away) and believe it or not he was actually found by Carl floating on the shore! Doesn't seem to say anything but he "shore" watches a lot. I think Carl has high hopes for him in the future. :lol:
Here you can see Carl marking out the holes to be drilled for fixing the Pop Top which we set out every hundred mm. Even this was done with precision.
This is the shot I mentioned earlier which I took looking straight down on to the polished Pop Top showing the reflection of the roof 15 feet above.
This is a section that Blue Bird supplied with the Rock N Roll bed that goes behind the back of the bed but for some reason is approximately 500mm too short to go the full width of the bed. So when the bed is in a seat position, you would have a gap either side at the back approximately 250mm wide either side. This was unacceptable so Carl folded another section the same and welded it on so we could go full length, this was then positioned lower than which was required to support the back part of the rock n roll bed when in the bed position. We did this deliberately so that Lee can make a trim panel which will fit on top and go full width which is then scribed round the ends of the box section on the back of the bed in to the two side panels to give a really neat finish on the parcel shelf. We can then pack this panel up to the height required to level the bed once it's all installed.
Here's a picture of the Rock N Roll bed installed. Once Lee has trimmed the base boards and made the cushions it will then be removed so the whole floor can have the underlay and carpet fitted. The whole carpetting throughout the bus will be done in black box weave which Lee will make himself and also trim all the edges. It will be done in a way where it will not curl up at the edges.
Here is a mock up of the rear locker above the bed area. We have already prefitted my oak one with all the fixings and the cross member ready to go. It is quite critical that Lee gets the profile right across the cross member so we get a snug fit when the locker goes in, therefore he can use this mock up to lift up and try. It also gives him a good indication of where to finish the headlining and what is seen and not seen. This makes it so much easier for when the bus comes back because it will take approximately a few minutes to install the real locker.
This hole is for the Propex heater which is also plumbed in to the main hot air tube which runs to the front of the bus.
This is all the original floor. It still amazes me that this is a UK bus!
These holes are drilled oversize in the Ply so we can drop the plastic bushes in that the condute snaps in to.
Here you can see the inside of the bus after I'd cleaned and washed everything for Lee. I even completely washed the dash area, behind the dash and the wiring so the bus is completely clean inside ready for Lee. After 3 years of having all this work done, it's surprising how grubby it gets.
Here are the first glimpses of the bus in full paint. You really can't appreciate by the photos how good the finish is going to be once it's been colour sanded and polished which will take Carl a good weeks work to complete when it returns from Lee.
Here we go!
This is the view that greeted me when I arrived on Saturday morning.
I couldn't resist asking Carl to colour sand and polish a little area for me on the front to look at. Just amazing!
Carl told me it took seven hours to mask the bus once in the paint booth and almost seven roles of masking tape!!! You can't risk getting any paint on top of the finished laquer around the door shuts.
The white dust in these photos are remenants from polishing the Pop Top which were airborne. Once the bus is back from trimming, Carl will then align all the doors correctly.
I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves now! Everyone that has passed by have made positive remarks about the colour and how nice it looks. Here's Bob securing the bus to his trailer ready for its journey to Lee. After the bus was delivered we arrived back at Carls workshop about 6.30pm on Tuesday. I then left for home about 7pm for the gruelling 240 miles back to London and arrived home about 11.30pm!
I had an email from Carl last night saying that he has now balanced all Conrods and Pistons for the engine build to +/- 0.1g. I will be speaking to Carl and Lee today to find out what the next steps are with the build. It is going to look amazing when the black bumpers go on because they've also got the red fleck in the paintwork and with all the chrome work back on, not too much, just the right amount I think.
So once again thanks to everybody that's taken the time to look. Hope you're all as pleased with what you see as I was last weekend. The pictures really don't do it justice. I will keep you updated with what's going on as soon as I know.
Regards.
Steve
