Painting a School Bus
Jeff has started working on the outside of the bus because around this time of year it rains; the ground gets damp, and then the snow begins to fall. Jeff says that we go from the "rainy season" (autumn) straight into winter. The ground does not dry out until late April. As you can see in the picture above, the bus is parked in our yard. This will be a muddy, slippery, mess once the rainy season starts.
Therefore, Jeff wants to finish the outside of the bus and get it move into our driveway. (Side note- the air units, vent pipes, and circulation vents have been installed on the top of the bus.)
When we bought our first bus, it was already painted and we didn't change the color. Therefore, this time we had to do a little research on how to paint a school bus. We found this website helpful.
Option #1 - Take it to an auto body shop that paints cars. This was going to cost around $ 2000.00. There had to be a more economical way!
Option #2 - Take the bus to a guy Jeff met that repairs RVs/campers. This option was going to cost around $ 1600.00. That sounded better but we decided to look into other options. If we took option #2, I was going to have to give up some cute décor inside the bus. Now ladies, you know that having to sacrifice the cute and pretty things was just not an option I liked. So... Option #3 was a must find.
Option #3- Figure out how to paint the bus ourselves. Jeff and I looked over several websites and we found this site. Total cost would be under $200.00. Now this option sounded like a winner to me. However, it didn't come without sacrifice. But, I am getting ahead of myself.
There were a few things that had to be done before Jeff could start painting the bus.
1. Jeff had to cover up the windows that we no longer wanted to use. He started by gluing Styrofoam insulation to the windows using Liquid Nails. Next, he measured the windows and cut Trim Coil Metal Siding to fit each window. (The siding comes in a roll and can be bought at your local Lowes.) Jeff glued the siding onto the foam with Liquid Nails and then used 1/2 inch self-tapping metal screws to secure the metal siding in place around the edge of the window.
He even covered up all the glass on the back door and the holes where he removed some of the lights.
2. He washed the bus with a presser washer.
3. Jeff used an electric sander to sand all the rust and rough spots.
4. Finally, Joshua and Jeff removed all the reflectors that needed to be replaced. Then, Jeff spray painted the bus black in spots.
Now just imagine my face when I woke up the next morning and saw black spray paint all over the bus! It looked like a graffiti artist painted the bus after drinking a six pack. I was quite surprised. After breakfast, I politely ask my husband to explain, "WHY DID YOU SPRAY BLACK PAINT ON THE BUS!" Of course, his sweet reply was because if he didn't and it rained he would have to sand the rust off again. To which, I ever so calmly said, "OHHH, that was a great idea!"
5. Now that the bus was ready to paint, we had to decide on the colors.
I came up with what I thought was an ingenious idea which was to have the children enter a contest for the best bus design. I drew the bus, printed it off with instructions and handed them out to the children. Let's just say they didn't think it was such a good idea.
Therefore, Jeff and I sat down and searched the internet for RV colors. Also, we looked at several designs of skoolies. I wanted something with stripes and swirls. Jeff wanted simple and easy. Well, I had to give in because I was not the one painting the bus. However, Jeff is sweet guy and said that he would put one stripe on the bus. That sounded like a great compromise to me.
So, I got out my colored pencils and set to work coloring our bus! We decided to go with blue, tan or almond, and a gold or copper stripe.
This is the right side of the bus. I left the stripe white because we hadn't picked the exact color.
This is the left side. We decided the back was going to be solid blue.
Now, back to the sacrifice because we chose OPTION #3 - painting the bus ourselves.
Jeff called several different stores before finding one who had the paint we needed. The next day, he left to go get the paint. Around 3:00, he returned with NO paint. He had driven to several stores and no one had what he needed; even though, they told him on the phone that they carried the product. Finally, at the end of the day, he talked to a lady in a town over an hour away and she said that she could help him in the morning.
Jeff left early the next morning, hoping to get home by lunch so he could get coat number one on the bus before dinner. Didn't happen! He got to the store and the clerk had trouble mixing the paint. After 2 hours, he had the blue and almond but they were having trouble with the gold. Jeff called and explained the problems he was having and I suggested to just get a grey paint for the stripe. If we didn't like the grey stripe we could just paint over it with blue.
Well.....
Just look what color he came home with! See the color on the bottom of the can on the right. What color does that look like to you? Let me tell you, I was told it was Heritage Gold. I said, "OH HECK NO! That is SCHOOL BUS YELLOW!" Yep, I bet you thought the same thing!! Jeff said that he honestly didn't think I was going to like it but he was just tired of the clerk continuing to mix the colors wrong.
After the day Jeff had, I did what any wise women would do, I just sashayed my bottom right up to the house and started fixing dinner.
After dinner, Jeff and I went back outside to the bus where we agreed that the stripe would look much better black which is the color Jeff suggested in the beginning. I had to admit I was wrong and it cost us $30.00! Ugh!
The next morning, Jeff washed the bus again. Then, wiped the entire bus down with paint thinner. He decided to just go to Lowe's and get an oil base exterior paint in BLACK for the stripe.
After lunch, he started painting the almond color.
The next day, he painted the blue.
When Jeff finished painting the blue, there was some comments made by family members that it resembled a prison bus. Truthfully, there are days I feel like a warden so this is fitting!
The following day, he marked off the stripe. He decided to wait a few days before painting on the black stripe. He busied himself by doing a few things inside the bus. I will write about those in another post.
After being sick for several days, I walked outside and saw this sitting in our driveway.....
It is so pretty!!! Jeff took the "Blue Bird" letters off and painted them black and came up with the design on front of the bus. He did an amazing job, don't you think?
Notice that Jeff added another stripe across the top. He also painted the mirrors and secured them back on the bus. He is awesome!!
Before
After
Wow! We are pleased with the results for the money we spent. Jeff wanted me to tell you all that this paint is extremely hard to paint with and it does bubble up. Because he was painting the bus outside, bugs were attracted to the paint and got stuck in it. He removed them and touched up the spots the following day. Also, Jeff said that if we had taken option #1 or #2 the paint job would have a professional look. We both agreed for the price difference, we were pleased with the results.
What option would you have chosen?
If you are thinking about turning a school bus into an RV and want to paint it yourself, Jeff is available to answer questions if you leave them in the comments below.
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