The Walkers Pay a Visit - Interior Work Gets Done (1/27/06)

Saturday - Let the fun begin

The Walker family (Colette, Steve, Sydney, and Evan) made the trip down to Lynchburg this past weekend. Jeanell and Colette took control of childcare and food preparation so Steve and I could have a bit of good, clean, Hoopty fun. There was plenty on the agenda and the work began bright and early Saturday morning. The first order of business was to take the old trusty green seats to their final resting place. Though they served the youth of America well for many years, it was time to let them rust in peace with the rest of their brethren in the big short bus in the sky. Apparently the first step in reaching bus-seat nirvana is a brief layover in the Lynchburg landfill. Who knew?

With the interior of the bus free of clutter, we started attacking the task at hand. Wall cleaning and some scuff sanding prepared the Hoopty for a little makeover of her own. A quick trip to Lowes so we could grossly underestimate the amount of spray paint we needed and the beautification process had begun.

All window trim was taped and all interior walls from the front of the lounge area, back to the back door were primed. Despite wearing the masks specifically rated for paint, I feel we developed a new perspective of all those lost souls who feel compelled to huff paint fumes. What a bizarre addiction. A couple days later and I'm still digging out nicely primed and painted boogers. This pictures clearly shows the intensity of our concentration - "....beer? Did someone say beer?"

The lounge area primer was then followed up with a coat or two of flat black while the equipment storage area received a coat or two or three of tougher, white appliance paint. Strange how my side came out rather nicely while Steve's side suffered from multiple runs, drips, and mysteriously faulty spray can nozzles. Hmmmmm.

Yes, I know, the transition from black to white looks very rough and un-crisp (is that a word?), but never fear, there is a master plan in place. The flat black is nothing more than an accent color. Most will be covered by the benches. The remaining black wall areas and the unpainted ceiling is going to get a special treatment at a later date (think wood.....huh-huh he said "wood")

Sunday - to' up from the flo' up

Sunday's weather left a lot to be desired. Soggy, rainy, and generally yuckified, but slavemaster Steve wouldn't let the weather get in our way. Out came the trusty tailgating ez-up and the work day began.

The time had come to start installing the underlayment and the lowes-clearance-rack-american-cherry-that-I-don't-think-looks-very-much
-like-real-cherry-laminate-snap-together-flooring. I would do the fancy, difficult, and very skilled cutting operations while Steve tryed to figure out that roundish thing with the thin yellow pull-out strip with lots of numbers on it.

I don't know why Colette kept calling me Mickey Mouse? Better safe than deaf as a doornail.. no... deaf as a bat... no.... deaf as..... Pete Townshend....no.... deaf as something that can't hear very well. By the way, I always try my hardest to blink at the very moment a picture is taken. It's a personal goal of mine to have every picture in my life look like I'm blind as a.....uh, well.....look like someone who squints a lot.
Here's Smooth working some of his floor magic. Notice the soft touch, the look of concentration, and the perfect board alignment. He could accurately measure and perfectly place the smallest piece of flooring. Man, this dude is a pro working with short wood.....

Talk about "Team United". Here we're finishing the last couple rows of Hoopty flooring.

The final product is a thing of beauty. Yes we have a short bus with cherry (laminate) flooring. It seems silly, but oh so sweet at the same time.

A floor like that in a bus like the Hoopty often causes a spontaneous Hokie cheer.....
.....especially among those who aspire to one day reach the pinnacle of all things holy and good - driving the Hokie Hoopty.

And so ended a very fun and extremely productive weekend. Nothing could be better than spending quality time with the friends you love while working on an incredibly bizarre project that has little redeeming value in a society that demands you constantly buy, sell, produce, and strive to make it to the top (whatever the top may be). The fact is, our bus is a great excuse to create what matters most - time spent together.
Chairs
We're now up to seven! Only five more to go.

Page Additions
Even more buses! I've added the Texas A&M Gigem Bus (looks a lot like ours will), the Pitt/Penn State Bus, and the University of Georgia Bus. For the NFL two new Patriots buses were added as well as a Giants bus. Enjoy.

HTML Help
Smooth Walker came through for us and got rid of all our extra U1's, and it is very, very important that you don't have too many U1's. Our links line up.

For all of his hard work this weekend and for solving the goofy html link problem, I hereby declare Steve Walker The Hokie Hoopty Crew Member of the Month for January. Enjoy it before February gets here. Thanks.

Paint Scheming

Paint
This weekend I busted some skin off of my knuckles while trying to tear up some of the floor covering in the driver's compartment (ie, front of the bus). I was unhappy about the loss of epidermal tissue. However, it did give me a chance to use one of the bandaids in the fabulously stocked first aid kit that was generously included in our low-low-low Hoopty purchase price. I just thought you would want to know.

The minor mangling of my digits left me somewhat disenchanted with hard labor and so I turned to more rewarding pursuits. Spray paint. It was time to test out part of the paint scheme to see how it looks. So I grabbed a couple cans of spray paint, some painters tape, and the side of a bus.
I like the combination of colors. It looks old school. I may try it out again with slightly smaller white stripes. All input is welcome. Send your comments to:
yourvaluableinput@randuisgoingtodoithiswayanyway.com

Here you can see there are three sets of the metal reinforcements and so there will be three sets of horizontal stripes. I think the bumpers will be orange and the wheels and grill will be white. We'll need to come up with something for the front end to dress up the maroon since there are no metal reinforcements there. I think our rear end is fine but we may have too much junk in our..... nah, that's just too easy.

Yes, I know, the colors I used aren't exactly Chicago Maroon (PMS 208) or Burnt Orange (PMS 158) but they worked just fine for this particular test.

Chairs
Jeanell found the exact same chairs that Santa brought me at Bed Bath & Beyond. She bought one there, so we're up to six.

Page additions
Note that I have added links to a couple new buses (Ga Tech Bus 2, U of FL Bus 2, Orangeforce one builder site, Colts Fanbulance, and DaBears Bus). I have also added a whole new section related to the best of the best tailgaiting products, services, etc. Wow, with all of the people looking at this site, this is practically free publicity for these guys. Hmmmm.........

Big Google News!
Go ahead. Do it. Type "hokie hoopty" into google and see what you get. Yeah Dawg, we made the big time. Looks like our site has been indexed or whatever the computer terminology is for making it onto google. Either way, this has to make us more famouser. Note that we have a couple Hokies with links to us. Thanks for the Hokie love.

HTML Help
Calling all geeks. That includes you Bret and Steve. Can anyone tell me why the links categories on this page stair step their way to the right if you're using crappy ol Internet Explorer, but they line up very nicely if you're using firefox? What magical elvish (which is similiar to Elvis spoken by someone with a lisp) lyrics must I sing into bloggers ear to get IE to understand? Send answers to:
thehokiehoopty@go-hokies.com....... please.