the bus

I just couldn't help myself. Nelly was finally back from the dead and running, but still had a lot of kinks to work out before becoming truly roadworthy. The 'kinks' were little things, you know, like the addition of shocks and seat belts and the ability...

We're elated, as we just picked up Nelly from the paint shop...AND SHE LOOKS AMAZING!! I mean, she is still an empty, windowless, non-running shell of a VW bus, but at least she looks like she's got some real potential now. Before getting her back from paint, I...

I (Travis) am fairly handy, with my ASE certification in engine and brakes, however I've never installed windows or a windshield before this. Like everything else, however, the best way to learn is to just dive in and do it! We ordered the seals through...

To this point, the biggest job by far has been a complete overhaul of Nelly's suspension and brake systems. Imagine essentially removing everything from the bottom/frame of the bus, re-doing or replacing it, then putting it all back together, and you get the idea of...

Coming in a close second to redoing the entire suspension, raising Nelly from the dead and getting her running and driving again was a huge task. For the 1.0 version of The ShutterBus we'll be running the stock drivetrain, but version 2.0 is coming soon...

At some point Nelly had been painted red and white over her original brown and tan two-tone scheme. The red paint was too old to keep, we certainly didn't want a poo-brown bus rolling around, so after a bit of thought we decided to go...

We took no time at all to unbolt, unscrew, pry off and remove all the old interior from the inside. Here’s a shot from the inside once it was all stripped and Travis began working on the engine!

Brown is everyone's favorite color, right? Right?! Maybe if it were 1978. Not in 2014! We'll be swapping the brown seats and interior panels for something a little more mod and a little less poo-colored, but that story is for another time. For now, here...

Upon unloading Nelly into the driveway, we got to work cleaning her out. We found this in the glovebox - the ORIGINAL window sticker. Amazing!