Thursday, June 23, 2011







Defenese its french. I need to spell check before i paint. this keeps me humble.
Just finished paint, but i lost my camera while rafting on saturday so a cell phone picture will have to do.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Test fitting the bumper, grill and mirror. looks so dope.

now i need to decide what to do with the top half. leave it white or paint it black?

Paint me.

So this is the paint step on my bus project. I used 3 coats of automotive grade primer sanding with 400 grit sandpaper in between. Then painted the body with Rustoleum black gloss paint cutting it with acetone. 









Thursday, June 16, 2011

Awkward

Just bought my first tranny. I'm scared and excited. What if "it" doesnt work after the operation/rebuild? Tension is in the air. Thank you Don from http://www.donsbusbox.com/rebuilt.html in helping to build the best tranny colfax avenue has ever seen.

Tranny woes.

So i called the tranny shop who was in possession of my tranny, they told me they could figure out how to reassemble the tranny after a partial disassemble so i got a box full of tranny parts. ive never spent much time around trannys so i didnt know what to do, i couldnt tell what was important and what could be thrown away, how did the main input shaft connect inside the tranny? Luckily i found a man in arizona who knows trannys well, the ins and outs; for the record I do not envy his knowledge; so i sent my broken tranny to him hoping he can slide the bearings on the shafts and put the ring on the pinion to get my tranny back into good strong tranny shape. Bangkok has my tranny now.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Update

 This is a quick sketch of my plans for the bumper. I decided to focus more on a clean strong base rather than the bulky off road style brush guards.
Freshly bent tubing. Bends @ 14 inches on each side and in the center @ 30 inches
 Welded together with rounded corners to give it a little fresh smile once its mounted. The 4 inch braces are 10 inches apart.

Painted that beautiful green, i call it post st pattys day vomit.
Funny story. This whole project i have been enthralled with the possibility of a zombie apocalypse, so when i was building the bumper i thought out loud "this is a week point if i hit multiple zombies." so i added reinforcements to withstand driving through a large crowd of zombies.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Trim paint

 The mirrors, wipers, bumpers and the front vent will be painted green.

Custom built rear bumper that i mad a few years back, now I'm going to match it with a zombie stabbing, living dead crushing front bumper, infused with inspiration from a field of lilies.

Paint? gosh, i need to wrench or else im going to fall deeply in love with bondo.

 This is the current idea for the paint scheme. Flat black body with green accents (number 3 in the test below)

 My to-do list is shrinking!!!
 Brand Spankin New CV Axles!
 Girl entrance.
Bones entrance. Ill definitely need to repaint those stencils.
Tomorrow I'm going to fix the dent in the front, bondo my nemesis, wont leave me alone.
I hope the transmission shop calls me with a quote, im going to be running tight on cash for the trip. i guess that means it's time to sell plasma....and a kidney....and sperm.....and my hair, they can clone it and discover the wonders of its lusciousness.   

Thursday, June 9, 2011

 This is a flat black paint on the driver side vent, it's too glossy for my taste. I want charcoal.
 Passenger vent post bondo and primer

 Look what i found in the fuel tank...was someone siphoning my fuel and lost a hose. I hope someone tries this once its full of diesel hahahahahahahaha.
New fuel level sender, yes please!

Still waiting on:
-Transmission to be rebuilt
-Rear axles
-Rear axle bearings
-Fuel tank tap for return line
-Random engine gaskets

Paint for the bus?

Here is the paint scheme for my bus, with possible zombie infused designs.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Drivetrain

Just dropped the transaxle off at Affordable Transmissions to be rebuilt. These guys do great work for a reasonable cost (i hope the same is true) it should be rebuilt in the next few days.
I also ordered 2 new CV axles from checker and they'll be in tomorrow morning. i need to check the rear brakes and bearings while everything is apart and if i run out of stuff to do ill go to the park with my dogamus maximus. 

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Back up engine....yes please

This morning my friend tina told me about a TDI in the junkyard, so tomorrow im going to pull it out and save it just in case this one doesnt work... plus those engines are kinda rare so if i can get a spare for under 400 bucks im all over it. And if my curent one works then ill throw the spare in my brothers corrado and make it a soot smoking monster. stoked.

Monday, June 6, 2011

POOP. Proof of our progress

 
This is the engine installed, the wiring is almost figured out.

 
Turbo charger with intercooler piping.


 
Ol Shoot grinding the welds down and preparing the body for bondo

 
Passenger air duct installed ready for bondo

 
Bondo. The only thing I hate more than bondo is Bin Laden.

 
Made a Flambongo (flamingo beer bong) while waiting for the bondo to dry.

 
Sanded and primed duct.

 
Side dump exhaust, what do you think?


 
The cooling ducts, looks like they were designed by Volkswagen. :)