All photos by Mark Kawakami
For the past twenty years, Paul Boutilier and his yellow ‘67 VW bus with “Soulbus” license plates has been a staple on Hermosa Avenue in Hermosa Beach while he used the kombi as his work van for his window washing business, Classic Window Cleaning. 6 months ago, Paul was ready for a change.
“I’ve owned quite a few of cars; a ‘63 galaxie, a ‘59 bug, and countless other VWs,” he said. “When I sold the Soulbus, people were upset.”
Boutilier has it figured it out on scoring deals on craiglist. He searches the website and snaps shots of things he likes with his ipad only to contact the seller months later.
“I saw this 65 GMC months before I purchased,” he said. “After not seeing the listing, I called the guy to see if it was still for sale.”
With a much better deal than the asking price, Boutiliear came home with a fairly original worktruck all the way to the powerplant.
“It’s a V6 305 put out by GMC that was also used in firetrucks,” he said. “The pistons are the size of coffee cans.”
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His plans for the future is to do nothing major as he favors the patina of the original paint.
“I got hit by a mustang on Catalina Avenue making a left on Beryl dinging my door,” he said. “Once I get it straightened out, I want to have my window washing business name and logo painted on the side.” 
With his truck sitting low on whitewalls and lancers, he has thoughts about taking advantage of his kustom stance.
“One of the things that stand out on my truck is the huge back bumper,” he said. “It would be cool to weld in flint so that the bumper sparks when I hit the ground.”
With peanut shells on the floor, fresh pinstriping on the dash, window cleaning gear in back, and the hits of the late 50s and early 60s on the sound system Paul’s truck is meant for one thing, to be driven daily.
“ Yeah it’s a work truck,” he said. “But it can still lay down a mean patch of rubber.” DZ
