Looking to start up a Photo Bus

[Mandarella44]

Hello! I'm completely new to VW bus' and it has been a dream of mine to have my own VW Photo Booth Bus. Does anyone on here have experience with this and can maybe lend some insight on everything needed to make this happen? I'm trying to see all angles of this before I dive head first and get way in over my head.

[SGKent]

define photo bus
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[panic_fan]

[Mandarella44]

So my vision is to get a bus and make a photo booth inside where I can travel to events and weddings and essentially have a mobile photo booth. Guests would be able to sit on the bench and take photos with a manual shutter release (I think thats what it's called?) and print them out to take home. It would have a fun romantic vintage vibe to go with the feel of having a VW bus.

[Mandarella44]

[cmonSTART]

Serious question - don't take it the wrong way:

Are you planning on towing this to events or driving it?
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'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS

[Mandarella44]

[panic_fan]

[cmonSTART]

Ok, I can't speak to the photo bus end of things, but I can speak to using a bus as an essential daily work vehicle. I used my bus as a daily service vehicle for a bit more than 2 years. It was a fun ride and a great ice breaker with customers - one of my favorite vehicles and surprisingly easy to work out of. People loved it! I would park the bus roughly 12/1 each year for winter work and pick it up again roughly 3/1, which avoided most of the serious heat issues. (most...)

Here's the thing: In order to have a bus reliable enough to get you where you NEED to get to, ON TIME, mechanical work will be a very routine thing - almost a way of life. I spent weekends doing preventative maintenance (brakes, hoses, you name it..), my first Winter was spent doing a complete rebuild, cases empty and split, etc. And, I still occasionally broke down and had to figure it out/fix/band-aid it to get me through my day, and then usually spend some time late night that night addressing the issue. (New-ish vacuum hose split once, new-ish front main seal gave up.... several things over the years.)

Point is: Working or using a 40+ year old vehicle mechanical and body work will likely be a way of life - it almost has to be with a vehicle that age, so you need to enjoy that aspect.

There's a video of some bears here on the site - I hated that video when I first go my VW - couple of kill-joys. But here I am 4+ years later and I have to say the video is pretty darn truthful.

Definitely not saying don't do it, just know what you're diving into.
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'78 Bus 2.0FI
de K1IGS

[Xevin]

They all over the place. Here’s a couple in Oregon Washington. I would reach out to them since you wouldn’t be competing with them. You guys should have your own yearly Vegas style convention

https://www.littlephotobus.com/

https://www.thefotobus.co/

http://www.shutterbusco.com/intro/
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Keep on Busin'

[guanella74]

We have been doing this for 5 years or so now, just started franchising, and have learned a lot. We also have the full setup (with the experience to know what to do, what not to do, and how to make it both safe from the bus perspective and successful on the business side).

https://theshutterbus.com/colorado/story/

It's amazing fun, but more than meets the eye using these buses as 'work' vehicles - as a few of the others have mentioned. Give us a shout any time - would love to chat with you. Cheers,
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- Travis

1974 Westy CampMobile - the OG!
1979 Transporter
1979 Transporter
1977 Transporter
1974 Transporter
1973 Transporter
1971 Westy

[Mandarella44]

[Mandarella44]

I guess I should also add, I’m willing to invest about 15-20k between the cost of the bus, mechanical and cosmetic updates and equipment.

[Magion]

Based on the fact that you do not know much about photography and not much about VW buses I would look elsewhere. They are both very time consuming and very expensive hobbies to me.
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1975 Westfalia in Brilliant Orange
1995 Westfalia in Caribbean Green

[SGKent]

the question is only time and money. We have many folks who came here not knowing which end of a screw driver to hold. That said, a 45 year old car will take a lot of time to get into a daily driver condition. And, cars of that era were designed to require maintenance every 12,000 - 15,000 miles. For a daily driver that means once a year oil change, points, condenser, air cleaners, check all the fluids - as well as small maintenance type items that come up. The kinds of shops that do that work are far in between and at $50 to $150 an hour it can eat up a wallet fast. I probably spent 3 to 4 hours a month average working on my bus in the 1970's. That does not include washing and waxing which is a big maintenance item. Numerous relationships that said - "that bus is more important to you than I am". So be prepared. Keep a second car. Nothing like giving up a weekend to replace a clutch and repack black greasy get everywhere CV joints.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[Brian]

[visibleink]

Do it.

Buy a bus take lots of pics of hotties in it and post here.
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Been on the samba so long I remember petting that dog to see VWs, WYHI, and green bug girl.

<-- Helga, she slammed her dub in '53 and adjusted valves with her teeth

[aeromech]

[visibleink]

[airschooled]