Samantha & Herb's Bus Conversion Journey - Part Three | You Can't Paint A Bus With A Roller! (Or Can You?)

We knew this bus build would challenge us, so while our spirits were at their highest, we decided to tackle quite a few of the outside jobs first, before moving to the inside of the bus.
 
This strategy also allowed us to keep pondering the question of “What if we did it this way instead?” and gave us faith that we were absolutely, 100% happy with our design choices.
 
So, first things first we decided to paint the outside of the bus.  We were going to spray the bus and I had even purchased a spray gun for the job, but it didn’t exactly work out that way in the end.  Let me take you back a step and start with the most important element of any painting job and that is the preparation.
 
Making sure your surface is prepared properly is without a doubt the most frustrating and time-consuming part, but it’s the most important.  We literally started from the top of the bus and worked our way down.
 
The roof of the bus only had some very, very minor surface rust spots that were easily cleaned off with some solvent and a high-pressure water hose.  I did, however, make a little pen mark where I removed each spot and we lightly sanded the area with a 220 grit sandpaper and then spot applied a rust converter, an SLS etch primer (in a spray can) and then finally the satin white finishing coats.  We were fortunate that White Knight Paints sponsored all of the paint for our bus build as they had seen our previous projects and were happy to come on board.  We are so grateful for their contribution and helpful advice.