Well it has been some time since I last updated the Blog, 1st time this year in fact. The Bus is now a Motor-Home, Her name is Was’A’Bus & she has been up at Kunda Park on the Sunshine Coast since March being painted & having a few other mods done.

Wayne Smith owner of  North Coast Bus & Coach has done a great job with the paint & mods considering the condition of the unit he started with! Thanks for the Great job Wayne she really does look like a Motor-Home now. If anybody wants to contact North Coast Bus & Coach  Wayne’s web site is http://www.ncbc.com.au/

Well what have we done, Wayne has added a removable panel behind the Dr/Side front wheel for the front Air conditioning unit + an extra fuel tank to supply the Generator & the diesel hot water system, ventilation panels for both Air conditioners, Generator, Transmission oil cooler & new radiator grill, A 4.5 tonne tow-bar has been installed, the windscreens have been out, rust repaired to the surround screens refitted & sealed, New windscreen wiper system & screen protector fitted, The rust along the top & bottom of the panels below the windows has been fixed & repairs covered with Anodized Aluminum moldings. New door brushes have been fitted to reduce wind noise & water entering the stair well.

Then the paint preparation & painting started, one does not realize scale of the task when it comes to repainting a well used 12m Bus/Motor-Home. it is not until you start to sand back the old paint you can get a sense of the real condition of the canvas, the original paint did not look bad from a distance but when the preparation was started all of the stone chips, bad previous repairs, dents & flaking paint starts to show itself.

The Bus as started with:

Looked good from a distance but once the bump rubbers were removed from the sides the rust became evident. Myself with the much appreciated help from 2 very good friends, Colin Ball & Peter Watson we removed all of the side windows, repaired the rust scale then refitted & sealed the windows back in place.  Peter & Colin thank you very much I could not have done this task without you both!

Well the preparation & Painting what can I say this was a mammoth task, I was helping ( although I think sometimes hindering Wayne ) with the sanding, Masking, removing & refitting items. I did not realize the number of times the bus would need to be masked up, unmasked & re-masked again before the painting was completed. there was cracked fibre-glass to be repaired, panels to be replaced, dent, hollows & bumps to be filled. almost every panel on the bus had to be spray puttied. due to the amount of stone chips in the area of the lower panels we decided to spray this area with Stone Guard & redo it in silver paint.

Some of the preparation work & masking during the Painting:-

We used approximately 250m of brown paper, around 14 rolls of 20mm masking tape, 25m of plastic masking sheet for the roof , 4l of acetone, 6l of turps, 4l of wax & grease remover, a large quantity of sanding disks & numerous other materials just for the preparation.

Once the Stone Guard & Silver were applied the basic colors of White & Black were then done, this then left the Blue Metallic & Pearl Tangerine graphics to be sprayed. with the painting basically completed the Black pin stripping around the Blue & Tangerine was administered.

The Fiamma 5m wind out Awning has now been fitted & 4 New Chrome wheels to complement the new paint, with new tyres on the rear, re-assembly of the now Motor-Home is well under way.

The new wipers, Mirrors, door seals, some new Led lights on the side panels & roof to modernize & most important the new Windscreen protector. The front & rear bumpers are fitted, now a cleanup, some sealing with Sikaflex to stop water ingression at key points & the transformation is complete.

Time to take Was’A’Bus home & give Wayne a well deserved break :-

We are excited to have Was’A’Bus home, she looks great ( well Karen & I think she does ) Wayne has done an excellent  job with what he had to start with and We could not be happier it has been a long project.

Thanks very much for your efforts Wayne!

Remember if you want any Coach, Bus or Motor-Home repairs Wayne can be contacted at http://www.ncbc.com.au/

Next job will be fitting of the Auto Transmission, but that will be another Post.