The Acme Custom Bus

I have owned several VWs in years gone by. A ruff chopped Beetle with full dancing hydraulics being the first, followed by an original '64 Westy I had for several years. I got itchy feet with that and stupidly let it go. Then I went to the dark side for a year with a Dodge Monaco low-rider, but it just wasn't the same. So five years ago now I stumbled across this nasty Swedish import that a friend wanted to get rid of. I had a very good idea of exactly how I wanted it to look with the help of www.Busselecta.com. I always wanted it to be bare metal because of seeing lots of build up pictures from other people in magazines and thought it was a good look. And to the best of my knowledge it had never been done before. After the poor Bus had a ton of welding completed, and had the entire underside and interior had been sandblasted, I set to it with an angle grinder and some twisted knot nasty wheels to rid the whole body of any traces of that paint stuff. It took several months and lots of dangerous incidents with the angle grinder to finally buff every inch.

During this time I had experimented with different lacquers and sealants. And for the first year or so the body was sealed in a secret marine seal. These days it is sealed with my own blend of lacquer/wood sealant and a big bucket full of matting agent, and this is the way I want it to stay. After the body was sealed and the interior received plenty of coats of paint I could begin to build the thing back up. The interior I built myself with an L shape bench type set up after the entire body was sound proofed with Bitumin sound deadening pads. Inside the bench is a full Alpine sound system with a couple of amps and a sub which provides a seriously nice sound, it has to be heard to be believed! Up front are a set of Empi racing buckets to get good and comfy on those long trips. A monster tach hangs out the window. Oil temp, voltage meter, etc. are all on display too.

The stance is provided by a Creative Engineering 4" narrowed beam and a set of 4" drop spindles. The rear is adjustable spring plated IRS. A set of full polished Randar rims sit under there very nicely with 145 rubber up front 155 at the back. Up front is a massive Boz bar supplied by Boatyard Buses. I can admit that I am an accessory addict right now and have been sourcing roof racks, vintage coolers and making trikes and stuff to make this whip different from everyone else's. The Bus has been copied by several people over here and I just want to keep developing and adding touches that no one else would have a clue about, so the battle continues.

Right now I am really considering selling because I feel the need to get my teeth into a brand new project. An early 356 to be exact! I was a bit chicken to do it but the Acme Custom Bus finally up for sale!!! It will happen one day very soon...