It’s never easy being original
It’s one thing loving the cool aesthetic of an original paint ‘survivor’ bus, but keeping the look, without the bus deteriorating in the English weather is a whole different ball game!
best be heading back before the snow takes overIf you’ve followed the earlier ongoing adventures of my bus, you’ll know by now, that I’m keen to preserve, rather than restore the bus. This meant things like making sure the underneath was protected as much as possible.
the undersides transformation with second and final coat of the red oxide coloured Epoxy Mastic 121It got thoroughly cleaned, treated and protected with Epoxy Mastic 121. This way, hopefully the camper will be preserved for the future and probably end up outlasting me!
front wheel arch transformation with second and final coat of the red oxide coloured Epoxy Mastic 121Protecting the original paint that remains on top requires a different approach. For this I try to make sure the bus gets washed and then I protect it with a coat of Collinite 476 wax.
Great to have a helping hand
Luckily for me, Lorna agreed to give me a hand this time around getting the bus done. Clearly must be a case of crazy love, she’s a keeper! 🙂
Original paint buses need looking after and Collinite 476 wax is ace!This Collinite 476 wax is amazing. After you’ve washed the bus, you rub the wax onto the paint with a sponge applicator, let it dry off a little to a slight haze, and then buff it with a microfiber cloth to a low lustre sheen. Simples.
can you see the before and after difference?My bad, as the bus was a bit over due a waxing, but it was very easy to see the before/after difference once the wax was applied.
All waxed ready for a quick buffing up to finishAfter a few minutes and it had begun to go a bit hazy, time to get buffing with the microfiber cloth to finish the process off. Bit of an arm aching process, but made easier between the two of us. 🙂 Maybe I should look at getting a DA polisher one day! I may of thought that the last time I waxed the bus, and the time before that too!
A job well done!
As it happened, our timing for waxing the bus couldn’t have been better! The next day we had a bit of rain. Good to see the effects of the wax in action. The rain drops simply beaded on the surface an ran off.
Good timing, as you can see, the waxing works a treat!Nothing like seeing a positive result from our hard work! Another great thing about the Collinite 476 wax is that it lasts for ages, so should be good for another 12 months. Happy days 🙂
A time for change
Spring is often seen as a time of big change. So apart from the new vdubxs branding and ongoing updates to a whole new website look and feel (to be rolled out soon 😉 ) there other changes in the pipeline…
after the winter and spring driving, it’s always nice to feel the warmth of the sun againAlthough I generally try to work on the principle of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, I do have a few upgrades planed for the bus to improve things from a user experience perspective. Well that’s the idea at least!
A box of goodies from Type2 Detectives, but what’s inside?Firstly there was a large heavy box delivery from Paul at Type2 Detectives. This will be a big feature of part of the camper 2019 upgrades. Any thoughts on what I might have ordered?
More upgrades in a box, this time from FBIVW…Then another big, heavy box got delivered from Graham at FBIVW which will also be used to make some substantial improvements to the bus. Lorna especially will like this upgrade I suspect. I wonder what this could be?
Large fragile goodies all the way from GermanyThen another large, but more fragile box from a Germany also arrived. This should also make a massive improvement to things moving forward. A friend in Germany introduced and recommended me to this, looking forward to trying it out!
Can you tell what it is yet?
At the moment, it’s becoming a bit of postal depot at home! Looks like there’s going to be quite a few changes happening shortly. Can you guess what all the parcels are?
