1969 Bay Window, with air suspension, (with Video)

I have been slowly working on my 1969 Bay Window Deluxe. I am on a budget, and my goal is to make it look like a rat rod/hoodride. Nothing fancy, but driveable. I purchased the Bus for $200 with an engine. I sold the engine, so the bus is practicaly free. I put the running engine of my 67 beetle. Here are some before and after pictures. Still lots of work to do, but hopefully it will be drivable in a few weeks.












Rust bullet everything.








I do not have the skills or money to replace all the floor pieces, so I coated everything with rust bullet, and hope for the
best. Maybe a couple of years down the road, I'll do it correctly.


The windshield frame was in great condition. I coated it with rust bullet and primer paint.


Entire floor coated with beadliner, on top of the Rust bullet.


Installed new windshield seal with my son. About 2 hours of work, but it looks great


Welded up some patches with an old hood as material and coated the floor with Bedliner.
Sorry for the welds......


Cleaned up the dash and it looks a lot better




Finished engine bay with some neon lights and new paint




rendering of final product

good work! keep us updated!

Wow- those early interior shots look like somebody field dressed a deer in that thing :Oh No:

The lady told me that her grandchildren used the bus for a massacre theme during halloween some years ago. It is animal blood, you can see some of th bottles on the floor.

sweet build. keep those pics commin

Got my 6-inch narrowed link pin beam the other day, installed it today as a "test fit"....and I think it looks awesome. Still need lots of parts...air shocks, bags, etc...
But it is going to be on the floor...







YES I GOT MY JACK STUCK, I HAVE TO BUY A LOW PROFILE JACK

schweet dude! thats one sick bay...

to be honest with ya, i've never really been into bays, always just the splitties, but after seeing that, i'd definately consider buying one

That means a lot to me bugman114. I keep looking at the Busselecta picture and I know it is going to be there, only better. It is tons of work. As long as people say...What the hell is that?!!! It looks cool as hell!!!!.
Then I have acomplished something

As they say on thesamba "Slam it on earlies" , lol. Maybe when i finish some of my projects, i'll pick one up. They seem to be fairly cheap still, unlike splitties (which is the main reason you don't see one in my signature, lol). But i will definately be keeping an eye out for a good deal on one (and to think of all the cheap ones i've seen come and go ................

)

lol

flat black is lame you should have buffed that og paint it would have be sick

and fix the wheel wells

I have to paint the front ones, but since I have to cut and make wheel tubs, I am waiting until everything is done, because the tire already hits the inside and I still have about 2 more inches to go down.
The rear wheel openings where hacked a long time ago, so I have to buy new wheel arches. I always like the rat rod flat black paint look.

have you notched the frame yet and what are the plans for the back? horse shoe plates and a few splines?

YES I GOT MY JACK STUCK, I HAVE TO BUY A LOW PROFILE JACK Embarassed

I have done that a couple times, I just stick a piece of wood under the tire then let the jack down, just enough room to get it out ... thats a sweet looking bay.

I cut the front inner fenders for the tubs today. I will notch the frame front and back. The frame rails will be basically raised with thicker material. I was taking some more measurements today and it needs to go down 4 more inches, so the frame rails will be resting on the floor (fully deflated air shocks). Ride height will be about what it is now.
For the rear I have to buy the boomerang/horseshoe plates and will go down 2 splines. It will have a minor rake, as the exhaust will be touching the floor before the framerails.

As for the jack...well 59suicide, you are correct...I need to get some 2X4's and make a little jig so I can work on it for the next week or so. After I install the air shocks, it should be as easy as pushing a button

Looks like it has come a long way. Nice job. I dig the flat paint. Do what you like.

p.s. ride it low, air is for girls ...................................

yeah bags are for groceries and if you were going to bags why not just buy an air beam instead of shocks

Why not bags??? Well, too much $$$$ for the air beam. My idea of the air shocks would be for the ride comfort, I have many friends running air bags on their slammed pickups and they all say the same thing...for a daily driver bags are a pain to maintain. I am still in the test fit portion of the build, I may change some things.

I am just ragging you. Its looking good!

daily driving height

seriously though thats one awesome bay

updates

just a heads up on the air shocks...if you want ride quality(comfortable) dont use air shocks! they are very stiff when inflated and they require alot of air pressure to raise the bus....@100 psi. if you want adjustability and comfort bags are the way to go.

I have been short of $$$ this last month or so, I got a some linkpins and some other front suspension parts, but I probably won't have the bus on the ground until the last week of october. And my engine has a broken stud on the rear exhaust port, so I have to take the engine out to have better access for welding a nut onto it.
The air shock I want to use are the same ones Airkewld.com use on their suspension kits. I have a good small compressor that would be more than able to push 150psi under normal conditions. There are some ride quality concerns still on the idea but $$$ is the main problem, so we will try this out first.

Finally on the ground. Still have to put some hardware in, and tighten some bolts, but most of the ride height is done. Working on the air shock mounts for now.