Raible Designs

Monday July 07, 2008

Bus Project Update This evening, Jeremy from MotorWorks Restorations stopped by and picked up the bus. It'll be in the shop for around 6 months. It's scheduled to be returned in January of next year with a straight body and a slick yellow and white paint job. The engine, interior and suspension will be up to me at that point.

It's hard to believe I bought it 4 years ago. With any luck, I'll have it completely restored sometime in 2010. You can read more about its history in The Bus category. Posted in The Bus at Jul 07 2008, 10:06:55 PM MDT Add a Comment

Saturday January 26, 2008

Release Your Inner Hippie With The VW Bus PC I wonder if I can get one of these in yellow?

Thanks to Jim Head for sending me a link to this. Posted in The Bus at Jan 26 2008, 10:34:48 AM MST Add a Comment

Saturday January 19, 2008

Bus Project Update This afternoon, Jeremy Vreeman from Motorworks Restorations stopped by to take a look at my bus. I first e-mailed Jeremy way back in June of last year, so this meeting has been a long time coming. He took lots of pictures and we talked at length about the things I wanted as part of this restoration project. To start with, I'm going to have Motorworks do paint and body, and possibly suspension. Jeremy said they could probably take it out of my hands in March and have it back to me 2-3 months later.

I'm pretty pumped - for a number of reasons. The first is Motorworks seems to be best company on the Front Range to help me make "Daddy's Bus" into my dream car. I realize it's going to cost quite a bit of cash (a full restoration to pristine condition is 50K), but it's something I've always wanted to do. Furthermore, it's not a bad investment (most car restorations are). Jeremy told me about a deal he just saw where a guy sold his restored '59 for 70K. I'm certainly not planning on spending that kind of money this year, but with 15K already into the project, it's likely I'll spend another 30K over the next 5-10 years. The last reason I'm excited is because anything is possible with this bus at Motorworks. Jeremy was telling me about a project they have right now that closely resembles a "Pimp My Ride" episode: flat screens, A/C and even Wi-Fi (I didn't ask why an EVDO card wouldn't work).

I don't plan on selling the bus when I'm done. I hope to drive it during the summer and possibly show it. I think it'd be pretty cool for the kids and I to cruise around town in one of the coolest cars ever. It should be a great childhood memory for them. Hopefully it's not too painful when one of them totals it in high school. Posted in The Bus at Jan 19 2008, 02:03:52 PM MST 1 Comment

Friday October 26, 2007

The Perfect Day for a Homecoming Today was a great day and a terrific start to a fun-filled weekend. The morning, I delivered my last talk at the Colorado Software Summit then drove home on a beautiful Colorado day. See proof below:

I got home just in time to meet the tow truck who was hauling my bus home. The shop were it was at was too slow. I've been talking to MotorWorks Restorations (in the Springs) and I hope to get it into their shop w/in the next couple of weeks. After they've completed the body and paint (and possibly electrical), I hope to rebuild the engine, finish the interior and have it on the road by next summer.

I missed my delivery of Leopard this morning, but I can still get it before Monday if I can make it to the Fedex store before 7PM tonight. With happy hour starting at 5:30 and the Homecoming DU Hockey game at 7, this day just keeps getting better.

Hope y'all have a great weekend! Posted in The Bus at Oct 26 2007, 04:25:30 PM MDT 2 Comments

Friday June 08, 2007

Bus Project Update Not much has changed on my bus since the last time I visited it in the shop. However, this time it is out of the corner and the guy (Mike Lopez of Twins Auto Body) is actively working on it. He's in the midst of replacing the floor pan and doing all of the welding it needs before prepping for paint. I doubt it'll be done this summer, but I'm still hopeful. We snapped a few pics to record its progress.

Posted in The Bus at Jun 08 2007, 10:12:37 AM MDT 1 Comment

Monday February 12, 2007

Bus Ball A reader sent me an e-mail about ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons' Bus Ball. His suggestions was if I don't get my bus fixed, I should turn it into one of these. Looks like motion sickness waiting to happen. I'm sure the kids would love it though.

Posted in The Bus at Feb 12 2007, 04:32:19 PM MST 1 Comment

Saturday November 11, 2006

Bus Project Update On my way up to the NoFluff show this morning, I stopped by Twins Auto Body and snapped a couple pictures of the bus. From the looks of it, the guy hasn't worked on it in quite some time. I'd like to be driving it around next summer, hopefully it'll be done by then.

Posted in The Bus at Nov 11 2006, 09:26:28 PM MST Add a Comment

Monday April 17, 2006

Off to The Shop! It's been quite some time since I last worked on the bus. Something about the spring weather around here motivated me to finish it up last weekend and get it ready for the shop. It only took a couple hours to pull off the remaining items I could, and then I called the tow truck. He showed up this morning, and now it's off to the shop for body work and paint.

With any luck, when it comes back it'll look like this one. I doubt it though - there's going to be quite a bit more work to do on suspension, electrical and interior. Estimated time at the shop: 6 months to a year. Below are some "before the shop" pictures I snapped.

Images powered by Lightbox JS v2.0 and Flickr. Posted in The Bus at Apr 17 2006, 03:38:40 PM MDT 3 Comments

Sunday March 05, 2006

Dream Bus This is a 23-window bus, and looks to be a bit older than mine (a '66 21-window). However, it has the same paint job I'm dreamin' of. Sure is beautiful.

Found at vwtrends.com. Posted in The Bus at Mar 05 2006, 09:42:25 PM MST 3 Comments

Friday December 16, 2005

How to Keep your Volkswagen Alive The illustrator for How to Keep your Volkswagen Alive has passed away. I read about this on the Dead Bus Diaries, which links to an nice obituary.

I've used this book many times in my VW career - which started way back in high school. I had a friend who was into VWs and he convinced me that my first car should be a VW Bug. I bought a '69 bug, and after driving it for 2 months, the generator went out and I decided it was time to start restoring it. I took a belt sander to it the next day, and used this book to remove the engine. Days later I was ripping out all the wiring getting ready to head to the paint shop. Needless to say, I had no idea what I was doing and the car suffered quite heavily for it. When I tried to put things back together, hardly anything worked and I had large waves in the body from grinding parts of the car down to bare metal.

I've re-built 5 VW engines in my lifetime, and I've always had this book by my side. It took me 4 times to get it right, but this was largely due to my lack of experience. Furthermore, I'd often get the engine finished and then head out on a road trip instead of waiting 500 miles for the initial settling in. Since I'm about to start rebuilding my Bus's engine, it's about time I bought a new copy of this book, so I just did that on Amazon. I haven't taken the engine out of the bus yet, but that sounds like a fun activity for next week when my Dad is in town. Posted in The Bus at Dec 16 2005, 10:46:31 AM MST 6 Comments