Painting out the windows

We’ve had our bus now for coming up four years.  We bought it off a school bus run in Wyong, NSW.

Roll on a couple of years and we wanted some privacy and protection from the sun.  We couldn’t afford to put window tint on so bought some window covering from Super Cheap Auto and got some $12 a sheet of solar shade, a static cling film.  Each sheet covered one window.

After two years we were noticing mould growing underneath!  Yuck and so not good for the health!  So off came the film and in came the heat!

We did a lot of research on what we could do short of repaneling the bus!  Reading on the bus forum we learned that if you use ESP direct onto a clean window then undercoat should stick!  We tried it on a small window and it worked!  

Firstly on the recommendation of the local paint shop, we cleaned the area with mineral turps before applying the ESP.  When the ESP was dry we applied a coat of oil based undercoat, followed by two coasts of Duraguard  Ultra Premium Gloss (a water based, UV  absorbing and antifungal paint with a 15 year warranty).

Here it is after one coat of Duraguard.

The man doing the work!

And here it is … the finished product. 

We are very happy with it. It makes a difference to the inside temperature. Even with the sun shining on the side of the bus, the painted glass was cool to the touch.