The Story of Painting a Bus Part 1
In which, a girl, vanquishes all foes in her path and emerges victorious with a bus that will probably look like an ice cream truck.
Acquiring the paint
Our three day journey begins with a short drive to an Ace Hardware to pick up Ace Rust Stop, as I read somewhere the could custom tint it. This is not, in fact, the case. At least, not at this particular store. Foiled, but not defeated, I leave with foam rollers, paint thinner, sanding paper and enough sanding blocks for the team, teensy foam brushes for the details, and three rolls of green paint tape. Oh, and a couple cans of glossy black rustoleum for all those black parts.
Remembering a mention of Sherwin Williams Industrial Enamel, I mosey on over to a store where I reach the crisis of colors. So many shades of light blue, of teal, crap that retro mint catches my eye, that was not my plan. I call and text multiple people who have multiple opinions. Alright, this one is on me. I walk inside and outside, place colors against black and white, and choose...
Tantalizing Teal. I walk up to the desk with my cans of enamel to find that they cannot tint them at this store, but store on yada yada boulevard can. Alright, I can do this.
Store 3, otherwise known as Sherwin Williams #2, can tint my paint! But, they only have three quarts and am I sure that Sherwin Williams #1 has more of the paint I need? I am positive, and am sent back to SW#1 to acquire two more quarts with a nifty slip that says I do not have to pay for it. SW#2 tints my paint, I grab some rags.
And to my surprise, my paint is 40% off. 83$ for one gallon and one quart of paint.
Washing the bus
I return home from my journey to find my father has disconnected the heater hose to replace it, but does not have the replacement. I had charged him with doing a road trip check over, and while all this is good and great, I can now not go to the truck stop where I planned to wash my bus. I call it a night.
7am the next morning and I am up to get to the truck wash first thing. I have a cadre of friends arriving at 10am to get 'er done. I wait three hours at the truck wash. I push start time to 11, and then again to 12. And watch as they do magnificent job after magnificent job on big rigs. This has me very excited, my bus will be so shiny, squeaky, clean. It's my turn, and behold they wash my bus.
And, as I pull away a steam of dirty water runs down from my roof. Eff.
Prepping and Painting
This is a well known story. Tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape,tape, tape,tape, tape. Sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand. Wipe, wipe, wipe, wipe, wipe, wipe (you get the picture)
Remove all the hardware, but make one of the first dumb decisions so far to just tape up all the lights. Because it is
certainly easier to paint around all the lights than to remove them. Lesson learned.
While all helping hands have dropped away by painting time, it is one of the breezier parts. Just roll and try to get even-ish coverage. 8-ish pm finds us finished with our first coat. Needing to get it out of the neighbors' parking spots (I had only arranged to use them for the day), we discovered that I would be driving blind. Excellent taping and newspapering over every window. A dad and daughter trust fall ensues as he verbally guides me back out onto the street and back forward into my very own parking spot. Success, we call it a night.
Stay tuned for Part 2 with pics of the DUH DUH DUH second and final coat!