Ric's Bus is finished!

Ric's bus is all done! Also, because of a delay in securing a special paint, there has been a change of plans. Tomorrow I will be heading down to North Charleston, SC instead of to Asheville, NC. I will stop by Asheville on my way back up to paint Jamie's pop top canvas though, so not to worry!

Anyway, on to the pics!

Quick update.

Since I am trying to finish this by tomorrow, I will be brief and let my pics do the talking.

Ric's bus design has changed a bit. Its a barn bus now :)


this will be on the nose... albeit with bigger wings.


ric has a sweet lift... this is the beginning of the week.


snoopy's design.

Apologies! I have been working hard, but not really updating this.

1000 miles down, 1400 to go

I am currently in Roan Mountain, TN getting things in order to start my first bus mural of the trip! This wasn't my first stop but it is the first one where I have access to the internet... so I have some updating to do!

First thing, for those of you that might worry, the bus is running cool and excellent. No problems thus far except a squeaky wheel bearing and I had Reggie (Bud's Air-cooled parts... remember the t-shirt?) order me some new ones so I can install the when they get in.

My first stop was at Mark Dearing's Shop in Salem, VA. Both Mark and Sandra were happy to receive the sign I painted for them.



I was able to pick up a couple of new parts for me and my friend Tracy... a nose cone for her splitty and a nice louvered window for my bus. While I was there I randomly met a nice family that said they had been talking about me all week! They were on a long journey too... from Miami, FL to Nova Scotia and back in a late vanagon Westy w/ a Bostig engine conversion. Turns out they had been following Aswah's bus mural progress and had no idea who painted it... then surprise! There I was, camped out at mark's shop. After a bit of chatting, it looks like Jessica and I will be flying down to Miami, FL sometime over this winter. :) Mark Took me to see some sights:



My next stop was in Erwin, TN for the Buses on the River Campout (BOTR.) I met MANY Moonies that I have only ever met through the website (www.fullmoonbusclub.com) I sold a bunch of shirts, ate way too much awesome food, slept too little and figured out how to print out of my bus! Then of course... AWESOME LOCATION! Wow @ TN, and thanks to Boyd Smith for hosting such an enjoyable event. Here are some pics:

The River from Busses on the river:


A little paintedbus tattoo for Jed and Turtle's bus:


Now, as I said earlier, I am in Roan Mountain, TN and am getting my head into mural painting mode. So, pics regarding that later on this week.
Here is Ric's Driveway :)



Finally, my cell phone doesn't have service up here in the mountains, so don't try to call me. I will end up having 30 text messages and voice mails to go through. :)

Mark's sign, painting portion done.

Tonight or tomorrow (after i get down to CT) I will be cutting it down to the final shape, then sealing it up. Other than that, this sign is ready go!

Better pictures forthcoming. I am waiting until business slows down a bit at the coffeehouse before I go hauling it out of the basement! (Thanks again to Chris And Brenda for allowing me to use the space.)

Mark's sign, almost done

I decided to do my thing to mark's logo... A little shading and POP!



this is a giant sign btw...

Mark's sign, progress

I have been hard at work on Mark's sign. First, I had to find some sort of decent material to paint on... So I went to home depot and bought probably their most expensive (and heaviest) plywood. It says cabinet grade on it, but I was mostly just looking for the smoothest option. Its like 7 or 8 ply thick... heavy duty!

My next big problem was where I was going to paint it. A 4' x 8' sheet of anything isn't going to fit up my stairs to the 3rd floor, so I was going to paint it out back or in the basement. But then, OH YEAH! I forgot that our house was being painted, so out back wouldn't work... and going in and out of the house at all isn't that good either b/c they are addressing the lead paint issue. SO I was really stuck until my friend Chris offered the basement of his coffeehouse downtown to me! Awesome Chris! Front Street Coffeehouse, if you are local.

So yesterday I spent the whole day prepping and sanding and priming and blocking out the shape of the sign. I will be trimming it down a little before I deliver it next week to give it some rounded edges etc. You can see where it will be cut in the picture below. All the primer grey will be gone, and the edges of the sign beveled, sealed and painted.

So here ya go mark! Slightly different than the concept art, but I think this will be easier to read and wont be so crowded. I still have a little touching up to do on this part, but it is mostly done. First thing tomorrow I will do that, then work on the bus image and finally the phone number and address. Click images for bigger pics.


Standing back a little:



...and a close up:

Mark's sign

Mark owns and runs Salem Import Service in Salem, VA. This is an "all makes" auto shop, but they specialize in air-cooled VWs. I met him through the Full Moon Bus Club website and have agreed to make him a new sign for out by the street.

Today I came up with a rough idea for his sign. If it is approved, I will be painting it this week and delivering it in person to Salem ,VA probably next Tuesday or Wednesday. It's going to be a big one! Roughly 4' x 8'... and enough to either fill my bus up or convince me to leave my massive roof rack on for my 3-week mural painting tour.

Mark has been restoring his incredible 23 window deluxe bus and I thought it would be appropriate to use a representation of his now restored bus as the main image. In one of his various internet banner logos, he has a red and white splitty bus that I modeled this after. I also have plans to cut down the top of the sign so its nicely rounded... same deal with the bottom corners. In terms of color choice, I referenced the Virginia Tech logo since Mark is an avid supporter and fan. But at this point, it's just an idea and we will see what he thinks.

And Mark- this is more of a general layout than anything else. I have a particular style I paint in (I am sure you are familiar with it) and as a result, the finished text and image will reflect my personal aesthetics. Unfortunately, I dont have Ken Mitchell font on my photoshop, lol. It will be close to whatever is approved, but not exactly the same.

Finally... a bay dash for you baywindow bus drivers!

This is my dash :) Will be in screen print format (and possibly on a t-shirt) by tomorrow!

12 days to go!

Thanks to my new bus working its kinks out, I was stranded in CT all last week pulling a gas tank and fighting tenacious VW gremlins. Now that I am back (and victorious), I realized that I am leaving on my trip in 12 days! There are many things I need to do before I take off. :D

I have to finish up designing some shirts, and print said shirts. I have to finish designing Snoopy's mural... and Doc Ric's mural edits. I have a pop-top canvas mural for Jamie to design. And finally a giant new sign for Salem Import Service, to be painted beforehand and delivered.

I wanted to work on the t-shirt designs first since some of them have been waiting a while. First up is the design for Reggie's RSVP campout. RSVP is an acronym for Reggie's Stimulus Vacation Package. Like Reggie said, times are hard...we need a free campout! Bonus about the campout is that directly across the river there is an old time fiddler's convention going on! I will be sure to be in Lenoir, NC for this one!




Also on my t-shirt list is one for Sergio from CT. I met him at the Lebanon VW Show. A little before the awards were given out, a bunch of watercooled cars pulled up. One of these guys was Sergio who works for VW. He was driving his MK II Jetta and asked if I could design a t-shirt for him of his car. As I have been asked repeatedly for watercooled options, I decided to go for it. He let me borrow his phone to take some pictures of his car and send them to myself... modern technology! Here is what I came up with... certainly the first of many watercooled vw designs to come!




I am also working on a baywindow dash shirt for those fans of the '68- '79 VW bus... like me! But you will have to be little more patient for that ;)