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Restoration | The Making of Miss Daisy

Shane Tretheway • Aug 10, 2018

The Making of Miss Daisy

Miss Daisy is bright yellow and beautiful now but she wasn't always this way. We were young (still are), had a dream, and were willing to take a risk. We wanted to start a photo bus business and that means we needed a cute VW Bus. Ones that were fully restored were expensive and often didn't have the look we were going for. 

We spent months looking at VW buses on all sorts of used car platforms across the U.S and we found Miss Daisy on Craigslist. Yes, on sketchy Craigslist. She was listed for sale for a couple months and we had our eye on her since the owner stated it had a rebuilt motor (Later we found out that wasn't the case...) We decided we liked the idea of restoring a bus ourselves so we could customize it and slowly pay for the projects. 

We drove to Dandridge, TN where Miss Daisy was located and she was in bad shape. She barely had paint on her, just a poor gray primer. She had some visible body damage with dings here and there. She was not taken care of very well but to be fair she was 48 years old. Her headliner was moldy, and yes there was a distinct smell. Parts of the floor board was rusted through to the point where we could stick our fingers through. But none of those concerns mattered. We fell in love with her and her potential. We didn't see all the dirt and grime. We saw her cute smile and the happiness she would bring to newlywed couples. 

We wrote the man a check and trailered her back home to Chattanooga. 
So now Miss Daisy was at home but there was so much to do. But where do we begin? We were told her motor was good but we really had no idea. Oh and did we mentioned that neither of us know how to drive a stick? Yeah, we had to learn on the bus! We did not know of any mechanics in the area that worked on vintage motors (sorry Automotive Artifex, we would have came to you sooo much sooner if we had known!) We found a place called Vee-Dub that specializes in VW motors but here's the kicker. They are located in Asheville, NC. So that's where we went. We trailered Miss Daisy all the way to Asheville and left her for a couple weeks while the mechanic worked on her. 

Two weeks go by and it's time to check on her again and pay the mechanic. Everything seems to be working fine, but again we can't drive a stick. We have the mechanic take Miss Daisy on and off the trailer for us. 
Now it's time to make her pretty. The mechanic recommends a body and paint shop down the road so that's where we go next. Ryan, the owner of Mobile Body & Paint takes a look at sad Miss Daisy and gives us an estimate on all her imperfections and we leave her in his hands. 

Miss Daisy spent about 3 months at Ryan's shop and It was so hard to leave her for so long but we knew it would be worth it. 
Ryan first started working on her body. She had some spots that needed some body filler. Miss Daisy got new flooring welded so it was safe to actually step on. 
After fixing her body damage and flooring it was time to start painting.  Miss daisy's original color was a teal exterior with black interior. The black seemed so dark inside so we decided to make the interior bright white to make it feel more spacious. Ryan did such a good job and she looked so sparkly clean when it was finished. 

Now it was time to choose a color.  There was already a blue photo bus in Knoxville and a white one in Atlanta and we wanted to do something different. We thought about red, but would that clash with a lot of wedding colors? Green is nice but do we choose a light sage or a deep hunter green? We even considered orange but eventually chose yellow for Miss Daisy. It's happy, like the sun and brings a smile. We didn't realize that yellow (and purple) are the most expensive colors to paint a car but c'est la vie. We are very happy with the color of our beautiful Miss Daisy. 


After months of waiting, we finally got the call that Miss Daisy was ready to be picked up. We were so excited and immediately packed our bags and made a trip to Asheville. We were finally going to see Miss Daisy in person! We were in awe when we pulled up to the body shop and saw bright yellow in the parking lot! Miss Daisy was finally transformed from our ugly gray duckling to our beautiful yellow VW bus.  After paying the mechanic, we were headed back to TN to take Miss Daisy home. 

But Miss Daisy wasn't perfect yet. She still needed some interior pieces replaced. Oh, and now we had a deadline. We wanted to debut Miss Daisy at the Chattanooga Pink Bride Show on August 12th. We had less than a month to get Miss Daisy ready for the show. We ordered her a new headliner because the one she had was disgusting. No matter how much we cleaned, it was not going to be enough. She was due for an upgrade. She received a new bamboo headliner and floor mat to finish her look. Just like something you would order from Ikea, assembly was not included. We had to figure out to install this beautiful headliner in this TN heat. 
It was a nail biter, but we managed to get her ready for the Pink Bride for the debut of SunKissed Photo Bus!
Our 6 month restoration was complete.

Our Story

By Shane Tretheway • 22 Sep, 2018
The Owners of Miss Daisy: See how our love of VWs came to be in Australia
SunKissed Photo Bus light up photos sign

Our First Wedding

By Shane Tretheway • 03 Sep, 2018
Yay! It's our first wedding with Miss Daisy! Just like the Pink Bride Show, we were nervous and excited. We had everything loaded in the bus and ready to go. I drove the bus and Kaley followed behind in our truck since were also photographing and filming the wedding. We were chugging along in the right lane on I-75 getting passed by nearly every car because we are slow. Remember when we mentioned that we had little knowledge of VW buses? Well we didn't realize how easily they can overheat and it was about 95 degrees this sunny August day. I get a call from Kaley saying "Pull Over! You are smoking!". I quickly took the next exit and pulled into the nearest gas station. Now what? How are we going to get to this wedding? We also have to photograph and film it. We called our most wonderful friend Julia and she came to the rescue. Julia immediately came to the gas station and we called a tow truck. They would be there in about 20 mins and Julia waited to give them the keys while Kaley and I took the truck and went to the wedding venue with our camera gear. We were stressed but had to keep going. We made it to the wedding in plenty of time to begin photographing/filming. The Tow truck arrived and dropped off poor Miss Daisy hours before the ceremony and guests arrived. We were very thankful not to cause a disruption to the bride and groom's wedding day. I got Miss Daisy in place where she would be in operation during the reception. Stress started to subside and we focused on documenting the couple's gorgeous wedding. Later our booth attendant arrived and made sure the kiosk and props were ready to go. Everything was working just fine and Miss Daisy fulfilled her duty as a super fun photo booth. Guests hopped in and out of the bus all night for their photos and had the best time. It wasn't the experience I had hoped for as our first wedding but we made it.
Debut of the SunKissed Photo Bus at The Chattanooga Pink Bride Show 2018

Our Debut |The Pink Bride 2018

By Shane Tretheway • 24 Aug, 2018
This was such a nerve wrecking day! This was the day we showed the world what we had worked so hard the last 6 months to create. Would it be a bust or success? We were so stressed but we had to keep going. Luckily Miss Daisy ran well and made it inside the Chattanooga Convention Center for the show.
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