Thread: Progress on the bus . . .

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Johnboy, surely a good engineering hardware store in NP would have the fine metric bolts you may need for the seatbelts, M12 or 14 x 1.25 pitch is what you will require by the required length.

I still have the sheet music from when I posted it for you.. and I remember RSpears finding that happy elephant.. but............

I meant pics of the BUS.. with the graphics.. but you knew that I'm sure!

These were taken just the other day at our NSRA New Zealand (Taranaki) Nationals by a mate of mine.
The first one shows the 'Baby Elephant' as proposed by Roger Spears. (Thanks Roger!)
It sure drew a lot of laughs and comments by those of my friends 'in the know' regarding the circumstances and the troubles we've had with NZTA!

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Next we've got the opening bars to The Baby Elephant Walk, courtesy of 34_40. Thanks Mike!
That too raised a few chuckles.

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Then a frontal shot, showing the lines of the completed (almost) exterior, and the sign writing along the side, replicating it as it was when it was at work in Billings Oklahoma in the early fifties.

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Last one shows the interior, namely the driving area.
(The interior is yet to be finished, the dashboard will not look like that in a few month's time, and there will be carpet and other comforts.

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I've saved doing this for my 1,000th post...I wanted it to be a little bit 'special', seeing as I'm not as prolific a poster as many on here.

So there ya have it...my 1,000th post...and the bus in all its glory!

Has the journey through this build been worth it?
I don't know yet; ask me in twelve month's time when we've had some quality time in it.

Would I do it again?

If it were to involve all the same hassles the answer would be an emphatic NO!

I wouldn't live long enough to see the result!

The bus looks great, jb. Looking forward to seeing the inside tricked out to match the outside. I think you & Rosie are going to love tramping around with the bus.

JB, I'm just sitting here smiling..

The pictures brought it out of me. And that's a great way to mark your 1000th post! That bus is just so cool.. you cannot help but smile when you see it. Thanks for that.

That is just TOOOOO freaking neat!!!!!!!!!!!


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So good to see the Bus almost to the finish line Johnboy. Have you emailed a photo of the back to the people of Faigo as I'm sure they would get a giggle out of your message. Oh, I learnt two new words now due to that as I had to get the dictionary out and look up a couple of those words. And congratulations for being so polite as I'm sure you could of been tempted to use stronger language. Please update us with interior photo's when complete too as I will be keen to see the finished article.

Johnboy, congrats on getting it this far and surpassing hurdles that got in the way! It sure looks great and I'm sure you guys will enjoy going to shows in it!

looks good johnboy - I like the paintjob and sign-writing.
hope you and rosie get to clock up lots of kilometres in it!

Many thanks for the kind wishes folks; you lot are aware of the frustrations that we've had to put up with from petty bureaucrats etc., so good vibes coming from you mean one helluva lot to me.
They are truly appreciated.

I can only reiterate; many, many, thanks!

Another hiccough along the way; but a minor one this time.

We'd taken the bus back to Kurt Broker (Brokers Panel and Paint,) to rebuild the compound curves in the rear corners of the ceiling, and to roll some new panels for the ceiling itself.

That's all good; no problems there.

We also charged him with painting these new panels to match the panel that has all the graffiti signatures done by the (then) kids who rode this bus back in the fifties.

Went and saw it last Monday before the panels were installed, and noted that the new panels did not match the graffitied one, but thought the difference was too subtle to be a problem.

Went and saw it again today with the ceiling now installed.

Well it's not subtle, and it is a problem.
Well it is to me...I know I would lie there at night looking at it and thinking: "That's wrong.
That's wrong.
That's wrong.
That's wrong.
That's wrong."

It would drive me crazy! (Well crazier than I am already...)

That's going to have to be redone.

sigh

bugger
you could turn to drink!!!!!!


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Can you boarder it with pin stripping or something, make a feature out of it or is it that different it will drive you crazier?

Originally Posted by Kiwidreamer

Can you boarder it with pin stripping or something, make a feature out of it or is it that different it will drive you crazier?

It's very different.
And I know my eyes would be drawn to it all the time.

Kurt Broker did a very good job on the exterior; I'm pleased with it.
But this...no.

Its got to be changed.

Originally Posted by johnboy

It's very different.
And I know my eyes would be drawn to it all the time.

Kurt Broker did a very good job on the exterior; I'm pleased with it.
But this...no.

Its got to be changed.

I looked at the panels after paint, but before being installed and I agree that the shade of cream selected is much different from the vinyl overlaid panel with all of the graffiti that was to be the "master". In hindsight it's like they simply took color chips and found what they felt was the closest match instead of doing a custom color match to the master. With today's technology matching paint by spectrophotometer has become a science vs the art it was in times past. Watching one of the newer auto reality shows some time back their paint guy mixed up almost 100 tints trying to match existing white paint on a custom ride. It can be done.

Good luck getting it fixed, jb! Sorry you're having to deal with another rock in the road.....