turquoise

I love driving my Volkswagen.  I love seeing the van bring a smile to people’s faces.  I love even more when a kid punches his buddy in the arm when he sees my van a la “punch buggy [insert color here]“.  This commercial gives a good example, but we play by the old rules.  It has to be an OLD Volkswagen- pre 1980 beetle or bus to equate to a jab in the arm.  My arm would be WAY to sore if my wife played like they do in the commercial.

Restoring my bus over the last year and a half has been like having a second job, but worth it every time I get to load up the longboards and cruise to the beach for a surf session.  I finished restoring the exterior (for the most part) last year and am now moving on to the interior.  The inside of my bus was pretty much gutted by previous owners who were more concerned about pasting weed stickers all over my dash.  I had my work cut out for me.

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This June I finally painted the saga that is my 1964 Volkswagen Van.

A few things I learned…

-If you take the logo off the car to paint it, AND you set it on the ground, be careful not to step on it, as this action will result in a footprint on said logo.  You may ask “why did you set it on the ground?”  To that I say “I don’t know”.

-If you paint a car in your slippers overspray will be on your feet for weeks.

-a one car garage is not big enough to paint a van. Unless it is some type of small toy van.

-If you are looking into purchasing a sauna, simply buy a respirator and lock yourself in your garage for several hours as this will produce a similar result.

-If you are taking on such a large project, make sure your wife approves, since all sporting equipment, tools, storage bins & miscellaneous tchochkes will clutter your house for the length of the project.

The paint codes for the VW enthusiasts are…

Top:    L-289 – Blue-White
Bottom:    L-380 – Turquoise

I chose these colors because they were the colors on the van from the factory and they have a great tropical & vintage look to them.