Vista Dome, A study by Dadeo Lazer

[dadeo]

Vista Dome, A study by Dadeo Lazer

It was at the Grateful Dead shows in Las Vegas, summer 1994, this show accually, where I first witnessed a modified school bus. I loooked at it and thought "thats kinna weird". It had a high roof and a caboose style platform on the back. I stood looking at it for a while, then it dawned on me: "those are VW busses on the roof"!! I was hooked.

Over the years, I've wondered if the VW(s) are for added light and head room, or is it accually an upstairs? I've since seen that both can be done (sometimes on the same vehicle)! I've collected many pictures from the internet of different examples. Some with the VW facing fowards, others backwards. Some with it centered, others foward or aft. Many possibilities! Some varients I've seen are: The Bug Bus, A VW bus with bug on the roof; a Citroen van with a 2cv on it, etc..

The next step was to wonder how it's attached. I wondered If the "parasite" vehicle was just welded to its "host", skin to skin, or was there maybe brackets, braces or other supports? I'm still not sure as to this, though the best example I've seen was welded on, then had fiber glass and bondo applied to the seam.

Evolution:
The earliest example of this style of raising the roof that I've seen may be from the book "Roll Your Own". I have no idea who "invented" this or when, but I have a theory as to how.
Please compare the following pictures:



I think the first person to do his was inspired by the California Zephyr observation cars of the 50s. Then I read this which seems to agree: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vista-Dome

This is an ongoing study, and any input is appreciated. Eventually, an experiment will hopefully be attempted.

[Sharkey]

I don't want to throw a wrench into your research, but I think it's more likely that some impoverished bus person with limited construction skills decided that grafting a VW to the roof of his bus was a quick, cheap and easy way to get operable windows and additional head room in a dark and cramped school bus. Old VW buses were a dime a dozen back then, and considering that you got nicely gasketed windows, some of which opened, a leak resistant roof with a gutter all around, and only had to cut a hole in the school bus roof and tie it all down with string made it quite attractive.

If you were a very luck hippie, you found a donor VW with the rag top, then you had a roll-back canvas skylight, or perhaps the VW's with all of the extra windows at the top, lots of light! What do they call them, 22-window vans or some such?

If grafting a VW on your bus was a conscious attempt at emulating the Vista Dome, more would have been done to install elevated seating to allow the VW to be used as an observation car.

Of course, I'm not really the one to ask about this, as I don't particularly like the look or function of a VW as a "roof raise".

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Oh, and don't forget the bus in Roger's book on pages 154-155 that has a VW bus that was cut in half lengthwise and a section added into the center to make it the same width as the school bus.