What is it that makes a VW Photo Bus so appealing? Could it be that iconic shape of the bus that stands out so well? Or maybe it’s what the bus came to be known for in it’s time.. peace and love. What about the interior? Could it be that when you step inside you feel like you’re transported back to 1978? I think it could be all of these things wrapped up into one.

There’s SO much more that goes into a Photo Bus than just putting in a photo booth in it. It takes a lot of preparation, and a lot of design and aesthetic abilities to create a great looking bus! We wanted to showcase that here in our “you have the floor” blog. So what’s this blog about? You guessed it…. building out the floor of the bus!

**Quick disclaimer. You’ll notice that all of these photos except one (the top picture) were taken from an iPhone. These Behind The Booth blog sections are meant to be “raw” in order to show you the reality of what goes into all that we do at Phos, as well as our heart for why we do it.** Let’s get into it! 🙂

When we first bought our beloved bus she had a thick sheet of black rubber over the metal floor, dark brown painted plastic on the side panels, and a seat that was degrading fast from termite damage! Seeing as we named her Winnie (after Winnie the Pooh of course,) we decided on keeping the dark brown color of the side panels… only transferring that color scheme onto the floors.

As shown above, we wanted the bus to have a bit more insulation before putting the flooring on. This is that silver metallic stuff you see. If you’ve never rode in an original VW, it can be LOUD! Like, super loud. It really is a tin can on wheels… and that means a lot of vibration and a lot of cabin noise! Those pieces of wood that you see to the left were wedged under the siding in order to hold up the table that originally came with Winnie. After a while we weren’t surprised anymore at any quirky thing we found… because these vehicles are full of quirks that you can’t help but laugh at. The funniest part of that wood, was that it wasn’t held in place by anything. I simply had to tug on it slightly in order for it to loosen up!

Wondering what that board says? It says, “Don’t break please!” This is because it was one of the only items we kept to re-use in the bus again… and I didn’t want my oldest son to break it by accident if he were to use it for a fort while we stored it in the garage. #dadlife.

This grainy picture is my sloppy first attempt to cut a floor board. I soon learned my lesson after my hands were killing me from all of the vibrations of the saw! Hahah. It took us a very short time to find the boards we wanted. If you’re a business owner, you understand that doesn’t usually happen on the first try! So we were very thankful and blessed for that. We ended up going to Home Depot for some random items and spotted these boards that were basically the exact color we were looking for. And the best part? They were on sale! Out of four boxes, I ended up cutting and using about two and a half of them. This left me some leeway for cutting extra pieces whenever they get worn out over time from use.

After a crazy long day of cutting and configuring the boards to fit how and where they needed to, Haley brought this little cutie out to me. She snapped this pic of our youngest son Jack just hanging out and enjoying the now almost fully finished bus floor. I know it looks like he’s naked.. but he has a diaper on. We aren’t that big of hippies. Not yet at least! Hahaha.

Thanks for taking this journey with us. It’s not easy, and it’s definitely a ton of work. To say all of that, I hope that these Behind the Booth blogs I will be starting would give you some sort of inspiration as well as let you take a peek into the real life of who we are and what we do. Also most importantly, why we do what we do… to show God’s Phos to people through our photo booths! Have an awesome day guys.