I scheduled a detail with the owner of this VW Camper Bus and started on schedule this morning. This is bar none the most interesting vehicle I have detailed to date, and really enjoyed getting into all the nooks and crannies. The story behind it is that the wife found the owner's original Bus that he drove back in high school and had it restored 7 years ago to present it as his 50th birthday present (pretty sweet, right?). There are some small rust bubbles beginning to form and some large vertical cracks in the paint due to what I am assuming is poor prep work. It has been his daily driver ever since but has recently been living outside due to their relocation to a new house. Because of this, the Bus has had a layer of dirt and salt on the exterior and the interior became dusty as a result and the owner wanted it brought back to it's former glory for the weekend! Products + Process Exterior: -ONR wash (2 times) -Dried with Showroom FX WW -Clayed with Clay Magic & Luber to remove iron fallout on the vertical panels -XMT 360 AIO applied VIA PC and a grey LC pad -2 layers of Collinite 845 applied by hand -Duragloss Aquawax on all glass -Collinite metal wax on chrome and metal work -303 Protectant applied to rubber molding and trim -Optimum Opti-bond on tires -Planet Polish WS+S on rims Interior: -Vacuum with Shop Vac and various attachments -Wipedown of the dash and vinyl seats -303 Protectant applied appropriately -Autoglym Fast Glass on all windows The befores: To be fair, it was not in terrible shape but the paint had some staining, bird do-do and salt film over it that the camera would not pick up completely (did my best to show it) A faint 50/50 line of the stained/discolored paint: 50/50 of ONR: That was one big roof by the way! The Afters: All staining was dealt with and the paint and metal work were gleaming in the California sun. You could get a decent party going back here! I could not for the life of me find reverse I loved working on the Bus and has been one of the most enjoyable details I have performed to date and I was proud of how it turned out as was the owner. Stay posted for a few more classics coming up!
that was pretty cool. thanks for sharing. i bet that would be an interesting detail to say the least.
awesome! if it's like all other volks, reverse is found pushing on the stick shift, going up and to the left.
Not on aircooled VW's. On aircooled's you push down on the stick shift and go down and to the left. :thumb: It can get confusing when you have both. Great job on the detail, I love old VW's! Have a '72 Super Beetle myself, I love that car.
This vehicle might be one of the coolest details I have seen in a loooong time. Very nice work, its a shame the paint is starting to crack though. Any idea how much had to be restored?
Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated! The more I walked around the Bus, the more little nooks and crannies that I found. For such a purportedly simple vehicle, there were quite a few intricate details but it was a joy to work on. Thanks for the comment! Thanks guys! As soon as I realized I needed to back it up, I started rowing through the gears to try and find reverse but could not. So I googled it and found where reverse is located but still could not get past that plastic gate that you pull the shifter past 2nd. Maybe next time I will get it! You are very welcome, thanks for the nice reply! Thanks for that, I truely appreciate the nice response. I spoke to the husband about the restoration and this is the core of the story: The wife went through the process to find if the she could find her husband's first ever car and the same one that they first dated in: the bus. She found it through a VIN search to see if it was still registered but it was actually in pieces at a parts yard so she bought as many parts back as possible and had it restored. They wanted to keep it faithful to the original factory specs so the paint is a single stage white with as many original parts inside and out as they could find. I personally believe that the re-emergence of rust and the cracks in the paint are coming from the failure to fully remove all rust off the body before sending it to paint. They aren't exactly short on money so he said that if it needs to be restored again, then that is what he will do. Pretty sweet I thought.
oh yes OH yes OH YES how sweet is this VW Bus? I would love to have one of these in my collection one of these days. A stunning example, and yes, how great of his wife not to only track down the original, but also restore it. A GOOD WOMAN!
Sorry I missed your response Jason, it is a repaint in the original factory single stage paint. I got a bit of white on my pads during the one step polishing but the paint was fairly hard.
