Painting Atlas
Paintings Atlas Blue:
When we were looking to buy our school bus we knew that we wanted to paint it. We watched countless YouTube videos about how these people used paint sprayers and oil based paint. Come August we realized we needed to paint ASAP because the weather would quickly start to change. We went to Lowe’s and found the color that we liked. Well, we didn’t really look, it was more of - Devin found it, said “hey do you like this?” Jade said “oooo that’s nice” and boom, we had our color for Atlas. Little did we know, it was not going to be as easy as that.
Prepping for paint: Stickers are the biggest pain when it comes to prepping. We had used a heat gun to remove the stickers weeks prior but there was still a THICK goo left on the bus. We attempted to use acetone but had no luck so with a bit more research, we found Goo Gone. Goo gone worked GREAT. We bought a bottle at Walmart along with a new scraper. We just followed the directions on the bottle, this took about a day.
After using the Goo Gone and getting all of the stickers off, we gave Atlas an acetone bath to clean her off! We bough a pair of rubber gloves from Dollar Tree to protect our hands, which worked perfectly.
Buying paint: With all of our research, again, you usually paint vehicles with oil based paint so we went to the person at Lowes, asked what oil based paint they recommend and they informed us that you can’t tint oil based paint. SO Jade said “well, we’re painting a school bus so what can we use” She pointed us in the direction of using a bonding primer that can be painted on anything and then any paint can be painted on that primer. We bought two gallons of each, a few cans on white and black Rustoleum spray paint, painters tape, a massive roll of plastic to use to cover anything we needed to, a new paint brush, and paint trays. We did not use a paint spray because we feared painting the whole neighborhood!
We could have used Rustoleum for the whole bus but because we wanted a specific color, we could not. Most people that do use Rustoleum go with a white, grey or black.
Painting the Body of Atlas: The total time it took us was about five days. We used the black spray paint to touch up around the lights, bumper and fender along with underneath where you could see the protecting guard around the fuel tank. We used the white for around the sides of the roof, tires and the inside. Keep reading to see what we used on the roof!
Painting the Roof of Atlas: We had researched what our best option was and like most bus builds, we used Tropicool. Tropicool helps with regulating the temperature of your bus in super hot climates, it is more on the expensive side for a bucket of paint but hopefully it will be well worth it! We payed about $60 or so for a gallon from Home Depot.
Painting the inside: We removed all of the ceiling panels except the very front one. We knew our ceiling would be eventually white so we spray painted the yellow showing metal on the inside white. Make sure you cover everything with plastic! Once our overspray settled, it was like a dusting had come through and claimed it’s territory… but that’s why they make acetone, right?
But that is all for painting the bus! If you have any questions about what we used, how we used it, or anything like that, please do not hesitate to go to “Contact.” We’ll get back to you ASAP! Until then, BonBon Voyage my friend!
Primer - painting Tropicool of roof - Painted and window trimmed Atlas 3 months later!