The Story of Paint

The BoggsMobile was painted at the Prevost factory before delivery to the Featherlite conversion facility in Sanford Florida. It was delivered there in early 1995 and was converted to its present configuration as a motorhome over the next several months. After the conversion was completed it was delivered to the buyer in southern California in late 1995 or early 1996 and was titled as a 96.

That is pretty normal in bus conversions, but there was one thing that was abnormal about this bus build. Normally the end buyer purchases the bus from the converter. This customer ordered the bus from Prevost to his specifications and then priced conversion packages from a few of the major converters.

He then hired the conversion company to convert his bus rather than a bus they had purchased from Presost. We have some of this correspondence. Going this route probably cost him considerably more, but he had the exact bus he wanted.

The reason this detail is important is the customer was dissatisfied with the finish on the paint when he received the completed bus conversion in 1996. The converter had nothing to do with the paint so the customer had to fight an international giant over the paint job on his bus.

We have some of those letters too. Including the final letter from Prevost telling the buyer that Prevost was agreeing to repaint the whole coach AND give him a sizable amount of money in return for his trouble.

Evidently, little the shepherd boy in southern California had a mighty stone that brought Goliath to his corporate knees in a hurry.😎😍 The new paint job, which was the same as the original design, was completed in 1997.

Why am I telling this story? Because the 1997 paint on the BoggsMobile is now twenty six years old and is in really sad shape. The clear coat has been peeling in places for years. We had some small sections repaired in 2013 and those sections are fine. Everything else is turning loose now and it looks bad.

Boy O' boy! It looks ok from this distance!😎🤣

It not only looks bad but it is hard to keep clean and the paint is beginning to be affected as well. We hate to make a huge investment in a twenty eight year old bus, but we do not want to watch the investment we have already made deteriorate right before our eyes.

We have been researching paint and even vinyl wrap options recently. Part of my trip this last week took me through Nashville where we have explored some options and the results are not encouraging. The surface needs so much preparation because of the clearcoat issues and other problems, it makes every remedy nearly ridiculous.

If we do this, we are determined to use a shop that knows its way around buses or motorhomes and is completely comfortable painting stainless steel. I am not interested in my brother-in-law's first cousin's ex-husband's neighbor who paints cars under his tree in the backyard.😍 We need the Lord to guide our steps IF we are to make any steps at all.

Pray that God will guide us. That is all we ever need, God leading the way. We are not in a super rush. Thank you and thank you for stopping by today.  

Davy