The busy week is finally over and we are ready for Midnight Madness over at Pepperdine. My first full week here in California was full of working, which is actually something I liked because the Bus is now for real and looks so frickin sharp. Here is our recap of the busiest week yet.

Monday the three of us decided to start out at the most popular copy center (rhymes with plinko) to put in our order for our decals for the side of the bus. We knew we wanted the website on each side of the bus, and two actual eBUS live logos for the front and back of the bus. Now although we knew what we wanted, by no means did this super copy center have the means or knowledge to help us out. But we decided to let it go and move on. We needed to have these logos printed by Thursday, so off we went. A local sign shop was only a block away, so we decided to check it out. This was the best idea any of us had because they turned out to be so money. The old owner was there and helped us out so much even though he doesn’t even work there anymore. He loved our bus and the idea of eBUS live. After an hour or so of perfecting the computer document of our logo, we had our order in and it was time to move on. The rest of the day was spent looking for some t-shirts so we could have a more uniform look to us for the big event on Friday. After being rejected by a few stores we decided to purchase the paint for the bus. Home Depot had paint but we decided to not settle and search for some automotive paint stores, so we could have the best deal.

Tuesday only consisted of a two man team since Luke D. had to work. But Carson and I were motivated and ready to keep the ball rolling. Washing the bus was next on our agenda, since painting a dirty bus didn’t seem like a very good idea. We found one of those drive-up self car washing stations in Venice and knew it would work. The clearance under the roof was only by a few feet, but it would work out we thought. After purchasing $10 in quarters we finally pulled up in our wash gear and our big brushes. I am shorter than Carson so I was designated the roof cleaner. I had to squat around like smeegle from Lord of the Rings, but I managed to clean the top. Carson worked diligently cleaning the entire rest of the bus. I swear squatting under a low clearance is why the roof took so long. The bus was finally washed, but the day was not nearly over. Paint was next on our list, and we had even found a few paint specialist stores. We knew the color we wanted, which for those who voted thanks for your time but unfortunately the top pick (green) wasn’t something we could use because we needed to be set apart from similar projects. Black was second but we realized it may look too dirty. Charcoal gray was our final decision. The paint specialists weren’t much help as they thought that rolling paint onto the bus was one of the dumbest things they had ever heard. I mean, we know it’s not the best possible way to get it painted, but is it that bad?

We realized that Home Depot was our best bet for paint. We were even lucky enough to find that the depot’s paint man was actually quite knowledgeable. He realized that we were going to roll the bus no matter what so he helped pick out the best possible paint for the job. Our charcoal gray was also selected; Distant Thunder* was the exact name and I am sure you all will love it. (Check out the pics). We were feeling so good that we decided to keep on going and search for t-shirts. By this time it was about 5 or 6 PM, and we had not yet eaten the entire day. For those of you who know Carson this is not that big of a deal. And those of you who know me you would probably guess it was. Well I began to feel drained and kept asking if we could eat. Carson offered a stop at some restaurant. But I decided to keep on going; my motto was that I couldn’t eat until we had purchased shirts. Setting stipulations like this help get things done in my mind. We never ended up finding shirts, but finding some fabric for our curtains was suffice I felt, especially since it was like 9 at night and my body was growing weak. The day was a success so we decided to treat ourselves to the 555 deal at Domino’s. Right as our pizza was ready, we got a call from Luke D. explaining how his car wouldn’t start and he needed a ride. We had been planning on driving to his friend matt’s house to stay the night, so eating in the car was what we were forced to do. I was so hungry that it was ok with me, but I did feel bad for Carson since he had to eat and drive.

Wednesday was no time to rest. Luke D. was busy so it was up to Carson and I to begin the painting the enormous bus. Taping started the day off in our super sunny deserted location. We felt great because this only took us about an hour. However we were soon faced with the hardest part. Making sure that all that old school yellow was covered with our grayish primer. The good part about the bus being so yellow is that we could tell where we had not yet painted over; the bad part is obvious to most probably. This is that there was no getting away from not having to paint EVERY square inch. I started out on the roof, since I was the roof cleaner, and Carson began priming the sides. We began rolling our lives away and realized that the bumpy surface was going to be a lot harder than we had anticipated. The sides of the roof were the only easy section to roll, but the center of that (because of two rivets) and the entire sides were full of little nooks and crannies. (On a positive note I was able to obtain my first suntan from the California sun.) I am definitely not used to receiving one of those in the middle of October. Before we knew it the sun was slowly going away, but we had finally primed the bus. Now many may think that a full day of priming is a waste. An example is when Luke D. called and asked how many coats of paint we had completed. We laughed it off and explained that the priming is the most difficult and look forward to an easier day of painting.

Thursday was exactly like Wednesday in regards to wasting no time. We woke up around 8 am and headed to the bus. I hopped on the roof, Luke D. grabbed the other roller and Carson nabbed a brush. The third team member really made a difference, and not having to cover a yellow inconsistent surface was even more of a help.

We were flying and our bus was beginning to look so sharp. As mentioned before, Distant Thunder* is the exact shade we chose, and it makes a great canvas, let me tell you. About ¾’s of the way through Pete skateboarded on up ready to lend a helping hand. This was great because we were in need of some more brush work.

Busses have so many little cracks to get into. The first coat was finally finished and a break for lunch was in order. Luke D. suggested Lilly’s, a great little restaurant that gave us tons of energy to continue. Luke D. was on a roll because right after his prime lunch choice he recruited an old friend, Lacey, to come and do some more painting. We now had five members painting the second coat. This was great because it began to fly right on there. The only problem was we had no idea what had been painted twice because there were so many of us, and the sun was drying the second coat so fast. But everything was looking so good that we just kept on going realizing that more than two coats in some areas wouldn’t be a bad idea anyway.

This morning wasn’t as hectic as the others. We woke up early to go get some t-shirts and realized that some dark gray hoodies would be a perfect look for the team. The decals and logos were next on the list so we headed to the sign shop to pick them up. We were a little bit nervous to see if they turned out the way we planned, but these guys were awesome and pulled through in the clutch. The light green website for the side of the bus looked so good. It looks even better on the side of a bus painted Distant Thunder*. Applying the website was the next and pretty much final difficult task.

There was the background black decal to apply first and then we had to match up the green for on top of that. Luke D., Carson and I were very successful and the Bus looks great! Be sure and let us know what you think about the color and the website decal.

*note: please read with an aggressive sort of growl, this allows getting the true feeling from this magnificent color.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 13th, 2006 at 11:00 am and is filed under eBUS live Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.