It was two and a half years ago that our oldest son dragged, er, ummmm,
invited a friend of his to join him on an adventure and they drove a couple of hours north of here to go look at a beat up old VW bus. Somewhere, miles off the interstate, back where the country road became a dirt road, and then the dirt road just virtually disappeared......there was "a guy with a bus". Jarrad and his buddy had a few trepidations about hanging out too long so far off the beaten path, but Jarrad was determined to bring this bus home with him. And so, they managed to get it up onto the flatbed trailer and began hauling it back home.
THAT began the odyssey of "The Bus". This is what it looked like in the early stages of restoration.
Yea, there's some rust, some mechanical issues and a really rough looking interior.
I can just read Joel's mind as he was looking at the engine,"Are you kidding me??? This is too much work."
And I don't think Jeremy had caught on to Jarrad's enthusiasm just yet, either.
Remember what I told you about our family motto in an earlier post? "How hard can it be?" Once again, met with fits of giggles.
"You're gonna love it mom. Just wait till it's done!"
Oh, my! That is one sad looking door.
Do you remember this post from a few years ago??? Jarrad came to our house and asked if I could reupholster his car seats. Whaaaat? I've never done that before. But we did it. We used faux ostrich leather for the center strip and suede fabric for the outer sides of the seats and seat backs.
I cut and sewed and Jarrad used his muscle to put the seat covers back onto the skeleton seats.
Just a few more anchors and the back seat will be finished as well.
Ah, not bad, even if I do say so myself!
And, it was a fun project to do together.
Well, this is how the bus looks today.....are you ready? Drum roll, please!
Can you believe it? Pretty amazing, isn't it? And Jarrad did all the body work, engine refitting, brakes, exhaust and interior himself. What an accomplishment! Jeremy helped him with some welding, too.......I couldn't tell you what they welded(I know one of the things had to do with bumpers). It has a kick butt sound system, and roars like a muscle car from the 60's as we're tearing down the highway. Yes, I was holding on at one point! But it was fuuuuuuuuun!
Yesterday Jarrad picked me up and we drove to an airport hoping to take some shots inside a hangar. When that didn't pan out, we opted for some industrial looking shots instead. What a great time we had together.
She's as pretty from the back as she is from the front, wouldn't you say?
Check out the pretty red pinstripe detailing. Those are some cool wheels, too.
The proud owner in all his glory....having a blast, waving to admirers, while the hula girl mascot looks on. Too. Much. Fun.
So then we headed out to Sand Key Park to get some shots before sunset. Look at how her paint job just glows. I love the cream/black combo set off by the red pinstripe. And I can't begin to tell you how many hours Jarrad spent to get all that chrome to shine like it does.
This is crazy........Jarrad used his router and created the VW logo on the wood floor he installed. That knocked my socks off. He even installed wood paneling on the sides and roof of the interior. Really gorgeous wood working, buddy!
For all you guys out there I wish I could tell you more about what is under the hood, but I don't have a clue. Jarrad is uploading a video we shot yesterday and in it he describes what he did mechanically and I'll include a link to the video as soon as he sends it to me.
I know that one of the things he did was to fashion this scoop on the rear quarter panel to assist with air cooling the engine. Very slick, indeed.
Front seats and wood door inserts and armrests.
And of course he used his lathe to hand turn the gear shift knob from an exotic wood....just because he could!
And to make the bus more functional he created a center console that also holds drink cups.
How do you like that ceiling? It's not easy doing curves like that, you know?
And of course he built in a cooler which you can drain outside without lifting the cooler out of the van. He thought of everything.
The back seat we reupholstered looks pretty good now that everything around it is completely redone. Check out those speakers below the seat.
Alrighty, this post is getting a bit lengthy, so I think I'll end it here and continue the grand tour in the next post.
Bye for now,
Deb
