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| My 1969 microbus prior to getting a new coat of paint. She is quite straight considering her age, but it was the porous paint that made me decide to get her painted. |
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| My microbus from the side, I have to admit she is starting to look 47 years old. Although she is quite straight, the paint is looking very tired. |
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| You can see by the different coloured paint around the rear wheel arch that the arch has been replaced at some point. I've just noticed that the numerous stickers on the rear side windows, that are so common on many buses here in the U.K. actually make the bus look worse, I'll have to get rid of them to smarten her up before she's painted. |
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| The rear end of my microbus. The multi-coloured body panels, along with the rusty rear bumper add to it's overall tired look. It's funny how your bus looks different in photo's, you seem to notice all the small things that you don't normally see when looking at your bus in the flesh. |
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| The wheel arch on the drivers side has also been repaired in the past and touched up with a similar, but not matching colour. |
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| The front clip, which may have had some accident damage in the past as the lower half had quite a lot of filler in it which had started to crack and let water onto the steel panel causing surface rust to appear. |
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| The same applies to both the rear wheel arches. Both had been replaced at some point and the filler used to make the repair smooth had started to crack. |
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| The rusty rear bumper is a little out of shape, but that's they are there for, right? Once the bus was in the Oil Droppers workshop, Stuart told me I had a cross over bay rear bumper on her, and not an early bay one, Oh well. |
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| Fiona is finally in the Oil Droppers workshop. This is the first time I have really seen the roof of my old microbus. |
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| Looking down from the mezzanine floor at Oil Droppers, I notice a line of moss / mould that has formed along the length of the roof. |
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| Time to start stripping her down before the real prep work starts. It looks like the bus was painted green with the tail / reversing lights still in place as under the rubbers it was just primer. |
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| My microbus on the ramp at Oil Droppers. To finally have the bus in the workshop having a new coat of paint is quite exciting and long overdue. |
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| Stuart carried on stripping her down as I helped out by making the coffee. It really didn't take long to strip her down, mind you the amount of buses that Stuart has stripped down, he could probably do it with his eye's shut and it must second nature to him now. |
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| My bus is starting to look a bit bare. We were both a bit concerned about the windscreen, as it has to come out to make good the rust on the front clip, but I have quite a big stone chip in the screen and the chances of the screen cracking whilst we try to get it out are quite high. |
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| Looking along the side of my microbus whist she sits on the Oil Droppers ramp. You can see she's quite straight, considering her age but it's the paint that lets her down. |
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| Stuart continues to work hard stripping down Fiona as I sneak outside for a break. |
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| And so the prep work starts. Stuart leaves the windows in for as long as possible to keep the dust that can get inside the vehicle to the minimum, although it always manages to creep inside somehow..! |
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| Stuart starts to flatten off the old filler on my front clip. Stuart did warn me not to take photo's using the flash as you would be able to see all the filler dust in the air that he is generating... but did I listen, No.! hence all the white dots in this photo and the one above. |
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| A better photo of Stuarts handy work. The front clip has had the first application of filler to get her smoothed out. |
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| A few days later I popped back into the work shop and Stuart had been busy with the DA as most of the body had been rubbed down. |
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| He had also put some filler over the rear arches and down the rear of the larger vents I have. These were extended whilst the bus was in California, and whilst numerous people have suggested I have them cut back to the normal size, I like them, it makes Fiona different from all the other buses. |
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| The front clip had also had several more layers of filler. I suppose purists would have replaced the front clip, but I'm not a purist. She looks so much better even at this stage. |
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| More sanding done and more filler over the rear arches. Considering her age, (47) she really isn't that bad, I've seen much worse on younger U.K. buses. |
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| You can see the high and low spots over the rear arches now that they have had several layers of filler. |
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| This was what we found once we removed the middle side window. There was a lot of surface rust, but luckily we caught it in time. Stuart put some rust treatment on the rust, followed by a thin layer of filler and then paint. I knew the middle side windows were rusting as I had brown water marks in the inside of the bus. |
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| About a week later I popped back, and found Fiona had had the windows removed and was masked up and the first coat of primer was on her. What a difference... she looked like a different bus. Oh and yes, when the windscreen was being removed, it did crack so a new windscreen was added to my shopping list. |
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| Although the bus looks so much better already, I must admit that at this point I was kind of sad knowing that the bus I driven around for years and that I loved the look of, had gone. Those days were over, it was time to move on. |
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| It was a strange feeling as I walked around my bus, I felt sad yet excited at the same time. There isn't any turning back now and she does look so nice. This was the first coat of primer, just to highlight any low or high spots on the body which Stuart will address as necessary. |
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| I can't believe how different she looks just by being all one colour. Talking of colour, the bus was originally Delta green (L610) with a cloud white (L581) roof / bumpers. I couldn't decide if I wanted her back in the original colours as I thought it was a bit dark. Then one day I was passing so I popped into the workshop and saw a split screen Stuart had just completed in velvet green (L512) and silver white (L82) and I knew instantly that was to be the new colour for my bus. |
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| I popped back the next week and was shocked (in a good way), to see how different my old bus looked. The velvet green paint I think really suits her. I'm also glad I asked Stuart to paint the green up to the roof line and not just up to the middle belt line. |
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| You can see just how different my old 1969 microbus looks. I'm so pleased with the finish of the paint. She looks a lot smoother all over than I expected but as Stuart explained, although I only wanted a paint job to protect her from the elements, and wasn't really bothered about the rough bits, it was his reputation on the line so he couldn't just ignore the rough bodywork, as my bus is an advertisement for the standard of work he turns out on a regular basis. |
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| My microbus has a new shiny white roof. I do like that silver white (L82). It's not too bright and suits the velvet green. I think if the white was too bright it wouldn't look so good against the green. |
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| A closer look at the finish of the paint on the roof, this is probably the last time I'll get a good look at the roof. How nice and smooth are my gutters? |
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| Wow, how smooth and straight are the sides of my old bus now... That really is a nice reflection, and it isn't even polished yet. |
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| Looking at my bus through a beetle body that Oil Droppers are currently doing a complete body off restoration on for another customer. |
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| You can't really see the true colour under the artificial lights in the workshop so I took a couple of photos using the flash, which gives a better indication of the true colour. As my bus was originally a deluxe microbus, I decided to buy some new deluxe trim which I think finishes off the look of the bus. I got the deluxe trim from Just Kampers. http://www.justkampers.com |
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| Stuart has started to re-assemble the bus. The lights / number plate and Volkswagen script also help to break up the fresh paint and make the rear end look really nice. |
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| Back to taking photos without the flash, but even without the flash you can see just how nice she looks now. Once the white bumpers go back on they will help to finish off the look at the front. |
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| The same angle just with a bit of zoom to show how straight the sides of my bus are now. That really is an almost perfect reflection. |
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| I can't believe how different the bus looks now, I should have got Oil Droppers to paint her years ago. Stuart prides himself on a clean and neat workshop, so this photo I took of Fiona with a kneeling mat still under her will eventually drive him crazy.! |
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| This rear side panel was by far the worst on my bus as the filler had cracked quite badly, but look at it now, all smooth and shiny and finished in that gorgeous velvet green paint. |
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| The windscreen broke when it was removed, (as we expected it would), so I had to get a new one. Having looked on e-bay nothing really appealed to me so I decided to get a new one from 'Cool Air' ( http://www.coolairvw.co.uk/ ) it was a light green tinted screen with a dark green tint at the top (even though the top tint looks blue in this photo) It wasn't cheap at £149.95 but well worth it in my opinion. |
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| The rear screen is back in, and I'm glad I spent a few hours at home removing some of the old stickers from not only the rear screen but also all the side windows. |
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| You can see how clean the bus looks now without all those stickers over the side glass. I'm glad I decided to buy that deluxe belt trim as I think it compliments the green paint and matches the chrome Porsche 356 wheels. |
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| I still can't believe how clean and straight and shiny my old 1969 microbus is now, it'll be like driving a new bus. It'll take some getting used to that green top tinted windscreen as the darker top tint must be at least 5/6" deep and is just above my eye level when sat in the bus. |
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| That rear panel / wheel arch looks amazing compared to what it was, as does the whole bus. The reflection on the rear panel and sliding door is incredible, as anyone that knew my bus will agree. |
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| Whilst my bus was in with Oil Droppers I took the opportunity to get them to also protect the underside from the elements. Oil Droppers use a product called Shutz which is supposed to be the best product. I do like this photo, as at a quick glance it looks like a two tone paint scheme which I think looks really cool. |
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| Stuart from Oil Droppers sprayed the Shutz over the complete underside. |
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| The underside of my microbus now looks all black and shiny. Hopefully that will protect her from all the salt they put on the roads over here in the U.K. |
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| It's reassuring to know the underneath my early bay is also protected as well as the body. Hopefully all this work will protect my bus for years to come. |
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| What a difference to the front end. Freshly painted bumpers and VW badge add a fresh new look to Fiona. The twin mount aerial is a new purchase as the old single mount one I had kept leaning back over the passenger door at speed (!) She does look good under the artificial lights in the workshop, but to see the true velvet green colour she needs to be out in natural daylight. |
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| I love this photo taken by Stuart in the Oil Droppers yard. The sun is shining and the true colour is bursting through. I do like the velvet green as it gives the bus the 'old' look. The deluxe trim is also another good purchase as it suits both the bus and the colour. |
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| The other side of the bus that is in the shade, you can really notice the colour difference. Oil Droppers also put new cab door window scrapers / felt and rubbers in, as the old ones had perished and rain would run down the windows and through the gaps into the doors. I just need to make new door cards now as the old ones are water damaged. So that was Fiona getting a new coat of paint, and much more. A huge 'Thanks buddy' to Stuart at Oil Droppers for all his hard work and quality workmanship. He did much more prep work than I expected, but like he said it's his reputation on the line. I can't recommend Oil Droppers enough if you have an air-cooled vehicle. They can carry out almost any kind of job on your air cooled ride, including welding, servicing, restorations, engine rebuilds and so much more. So why not get in touch with them. You can find them on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oildroppers or you can visit their webpage by going to: http://oildroppers.wix.com/oil-droppers So here's to the summer when I can get out and about to all the VW shows across the country in my new look microbus. |
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