I had a 1969 VW Drop Panel Van and it was all primer grey.
That was fine when it got a ding or some rust I sanded it and painted more primer.
The Problem with primer is that it is not water proof if it is not a sealing primer, silly me.
It was also not very visible on a gray street.
I decided to paint a band all around the van and the roof white, rims white with red centers.
My girl friend thought with my artistic skills it could be painted with Hawaiian flowers and Butterfly.
I started with Hibiscus on the hubcaps…
The bed of the Van had rotted out so I ordered another from Buzboys and got the original metal bed.
When I went to install the bed I used pop rivets instead of welding (better then welding near a gas tank), Boom I kill you!!!
The hand pop rivet device took five or more strong squeezes to pop one rivet out of about 200 rivets, ouch carpal tunnel…
My dear friend Cary said why are you doing it that way he had a power pneumatic drill and pneumatic pop rivet gun.
Just a wurrrrr and a popppp and the rivet was in. We also sealed the bed with a outdoor silicon sealer after etching with a chemical and painting.
Even with these wonderful tools it took five hours of work and two hours of swearing…
I had painted the bed red some of the original panels were ruby red and some were VW bus Yellow.
Red and bed rhyme so why not. To protect the bed I painted with a clear rhino lining..
About this time my friend Tim’s some was having medical issues and was encouraged by wearing Superman hats and gear…
so I decided to paint the Superman logo inside the bed.
From that point on everything went superman, back window. logo on spare tire and thanks to a 3D printer knobs and vents on the inside of the van.
The van has ten inset panels around the bed and I am drawing the life of superman to be printed in vinyl around the van, still in progress.
So that is the Superman Van story hope to have the panels done by Comic-Con.
Superman Van 