The last few days have been taken up with manufacturing the NS corner piece for the rear window. This took some time as it is a complex shape that tapers in two directions and has a lip that provides location for the glass. I made this in two pieces, the actual corner, made by laminating blocks of Iroko together and the lip as a plate that glues onto the corner, which I made out of some Ash left over from the boot floor boards. The parts were completed yesterday and a trial fit achieved, which revealed more sanding was required to get the right shape and a good fit for the lip piece.
Today I fitted the solid corner piece and the sill I made previously; these all had to be fitted at the same time so they would line up correctly. Then I glued on the lip piece. This now needs to be profile sanded to match the rest of the interior woodwork before it can be painted and the glass re fitted. I also pinned some of the outer panelwork to the sill, last thing.
Yesterday I removed and repaired the the rear window clamp moulding. I stripped the old paint off it, straightened out as best as possible, repaired any twists and cleaned out the screw holes. I primed it late morning and topcoated it late afternoon so it is ready to go back on.
Today I emptied the boot and removed the rear window glass, with a view to repairing the frame and replacing the sealing rubber. The glass had been loose sine I acquired the bus and the wooden sill had rotted away allowing the glass to drop down.
When I got the glass out, the OS lower timber corner was badly rotted so I removed that and started to make a replacement piece.
Mostly finishing off the woodwork from yesterday. I realised that it was going to necessary to replace the rubber seal around the rear window and also move the glass back into the correct position, so I removed the moulding that holds the glass in from the outside. This will enable me to replace the rubber without taking the glass out and at the same time fill the screw holes for the window moulding.
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.
