yes I know its not a bike...but its still a project so I figured this was the best place to put it:
Ok, so I windsurf and head to the beach a lot.. and always need something to cart my windsurfing gear around in, or a mobile place to drink/sleep...
So Im setting about to build a magic surf bus..
Some Background: Magic Surf Bus (The original)
Back in late 2005, after becoming bored of my old car (nissan silvia) I decided to go out on a limb and be different...and purchased a 1990 Ford Econovan..
the 2 litre four banger pumped out a whopping 60kw at the fly back in its day..and with 240,000kms without a rebuild..it was lucky to be making half that at the time of purchase (for the princely sum of $1500)
not happy with the original looking boring white ford, my friends and I immediately set out on building seats in the back and a floor...
and the neccessary emergency escape instructions on the rear:
we then sprayed the entire interior (including walls and roof) in matt black... with $2 export spray cans from supercheap (naturally)
We decided that this wasnt good enough though, so then proceeded to paint the outside of the van...
now obviously sanding back to metal, priming and spraying is a lot of effort...so a light sand over the relatively decent original coat was all that we figured we needed before we used wall rollers to roll the paint on
a bit of masking tape and newspaper later...
after getting a bit worried about the finish at this point, removing the masking taped lines revealed the possibility of actually doing something successfully for once in my life...
and no painted van would be complete without putting an aussie flag on the roof...
then on goes some more details with some trees/grass (still requires outlining in black)
After almost a week straight of prepping and painting with my friends each day during the uni break, as long as numerous trips to bunnings for new rollers and brushes each day (as we would always forget to leave them to soak) we had almost finished:
The bumpers and taillight surrounds were painted gloss black, and the headlights were given a lick of paint to make them angry { \ / }
Unfortunately I lost the pics of that... and then the van died a horrible horrible death and ended up at the wreckers...
Many drunken trips to the beach with 10 people in the back (sober driver of course) or out on the town were the best... and the wonderful memories got me thinking I should do it all again..
THE NEW VAN:
a couple of years on, Ive just bought a plain white 95 ford econovan with a decent motor in it.. and am ready to start the process again...
once again it needs to be able to hold windsurfing equipment, but preferably be able to hold people in the back at the same time...
After buying some proper bus-style seats from arwon to put in the back (which arent in yet) the plan seems to be:
-Paint interior black
-Carpet floor
-install ADR compliant 3 seater bench seat at very rear facing forwards, possibly install another 3 seater bench at the front facing rearwards
-mount camo-cargo netting to inside of roof so that boards/sails can sit up against roof supported by cargo netting fixed at corners
-throw a couple of bean bags in
-install CD player/speakers and possibly sub eventually...
-put some lights in the back (not simpsons style strobe light - welcome to the second-base mobile aha)
-some form of esky/beverage cooling device
-lowered with sunrasia style 4WD style rims or similar
anyone who knows where any of this could be located cheaply and easily...
..please let me know...im a poor student on a budget...
I will keep everyone updated regularly as it gets built...
it also needs PSB stickers
drifting in cars is for pussys
trust me 
