TheSamba.com :: View topic - The Resurection of El Standito. OG paint 64 Walkthru Bus.

Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:13 am

About 4 weeks ago, I bought an original paint Turkis / white '64 standard walkthru bus out of an Oklahoma field. My intentions would be to find a neglected bus and not do a resto but try to bring out the potential it already had. I wanted to bring back the original paint and interior look and go from 'left for dead' in the weeds to 'slammed' in the weeds, so Ive taken pics of the process week by week.

Heres the bus as I found it 4 weeks ago.

Then after getting it home, It was time to color sand and buff the body panels and doors.

Week #2. Next was getting my 5 spokes chrome plated thru John C GFK with new 175x55 front tires and Yokohama 215x60 rears.

Got a 3/4 length industrial rack from Dave Sanders in San Jose.

Found a set of original como green panels on this site from Erik Kemp up in Portland and a rare como green walkthru middle seat here locally.

Week #3 I recieved my narrowed bus beam and drop spindles from Patrick Hall of Vintage Werks in Salem, Or. This guy builds awesome Beams.

Got the rear suspension in and the Yokohama 215x60's on the rear

Week#4
This is what I use to remove surface rust from the OG paint. C.L.R. It can be found at any grocery store. I did half of the bumper for reference. Its good stuff.

Colorsanded and buffed the original paint using 1200 grit, 3M 'Finesse It' glaze and my DeWalt Hi Speed buffer

Had to use laquer thinner and 1500 grit to get the black spraypaint off the decklid and rear corners.

Finally rolled out into the driveway.

2 days ago

Checking bumper allignment. This bumper was mangled. Im still looking for an earlier slash rear blade.

Rattle canned the rack with 'Rustoleum aluminum silver'

This week I should have the motor in. Also I had to fix a lot of wiring. Put in a new fuse block, ignition, dome light switch. Redid all new brakes, master cylinder and lines. Also installed new rubber. I should have all the glass in this week sometime.
So here it is 4 weeks later. Original paint can be saved its just a lot of elbow grease and patience.

Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:20 am

Looking good, are you going to use it as a daily driver? What motor are you putting back in? Keep the pics comming.

Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:27 am

Miguel Arroyo wrote: Looking good, are you going to use it as a daily driver? What motor are you putting back in? Keep the pics comming.

Hell with the price of Diesel, I outta make it my daily! :lol: but Im gonna put a 1600 dual port in it. Nothing special just something good and reliable.

Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:39 am

Make sure you check the transaxle for leaks before you drive to Ennis.

Sun Mar 27, 2005 9:30 am

looks good Skim...

Sun Mar 27, 2005 10:17 am

Awesome work and naming the products and tools you used helps out other people

Sun Mar 27, 2005 10:37 am

How much $ do you think you have in lowering it?

Sun Mar 27, 2005 10:49 am

BIG BALLS MAGOO wrote: How much $ do you think you have in lowering it?

About $1000. That included the new narrowed beam made from all new chromoly tubing, new center pin, modified lower trailing arms, narrowed tie rods and torsion bars, drop spindles, adjusters and the cut and notched rear spring plates to run the Type 3 non reduction trans.

Sun Mar 27, 2005 11:29 am

Woah, that things in pretty good shape nice find :)

Sun Mar 27, 2005 1:24 pm

Skim, you are an inspiration to all.
I picked up a project two weeks ago and have been trying to get it back together to drive to the TX Classic at the end of April. So far I have the body off the pan, new narrowed beam installed with drop spindles, notched spring plates, complete brakes, and new wiring harness. Time is a wasting but I am still waiting on some parts so I can finish it up. Ennis would be sweet, however, I do not think I will make it this year.

Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:31 pm

Wow Skim nice work that thing looks great. I only wish I could find a bus like that here. If I took CLR to any busses around here I would be left with a pile of bolts and glass.

Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:40 pm

70 140 wrote: Wow Skim nice work that thing looks great. I only wish I could find a bus like that here. If I took CLR to any busses around here I would be left with a pile of bolts and glass.

Thanks for the comments.

All I know is that Oklahoma has a lot of busses. Atleast 85% of all the different busses I have found have been up in Oklahoma.

Mon Mar 28, 2005 2:21 pm

Where's my OG Painted Logo.. :lol:

Damn, find you the perfect logo and you go and repaint it.. :twisted:

Tue Mar 29, 2005 8:18 am

EvilBus wrote: Where's my OG Painted Logo.. :lol:

Damn, find you the perfect logo and you go and repaint it.. :twisted:

Sorry man. I couldnt go on having that psychadelic emblem on that og paint bus.

Tue Mar 29, 2005 9:26 am

Skim wrote: EvilBus wrote: Where's my OG Painted Logo.. :lol:

Damn, find you the perfect logo and you go and repaint it.. :twisted:

Sorry man. I couldnt go on having that psychadelic emblem on that og paint bus.

:lol: damn..

Tue Mar 29, 2005 2:02 pm

Looks really sharp. Hard to believe that is the same bus you found in the field, if you look at the first pic compared to the last.

Tue Mar 29, 2005 2:11 pm

6d7vdub wrote: Looks really sharp. Hard to believe that is the same bus you found in the field, if you look at the first pic compared to the last.

Yeah and the headliner is cool too.. Damn nice find. He should have kept the OG patina psycho logo, but Green is cool too.

Tue Mar 29, 2005 5:03 pm

looks sweet skim. it's good to see another og paint bus preserved.

Wed Mar 30, 2005 2:23 pm

Nice job Skim. That bus looks tight! Showing the step by step stuff is cool also. Keep bustin' out the pics! :D

Fri Apr 01, 2005 6:54 pm

Hmm good to know about Oklahoma...I'm kind of wanting an early single.

Anyway...looks like you painted the front bumper after all that work with the CLR ?