First job this week was to finish countersinking the O/S half-round waist beading. Then I temporarily fitted the longest piece to align it and drilled enough fixing holes so that I could fit it myself. Noted some rust appearing on the non-opening window frame behind the cab. It sanded off easily, though. Next job was to prime the rear of the prepared beading, in lieu of using sealant which creates too much mess. I then decided the misaligned beading at the emergency door was not acceptable so moved the corner beading down by at least an eighth of an inch. This took a long time and was very difficult to achieve a good job. I shall tackle the emergency door next. An improvement in the weather meant I was able to finish painting four of the wheels and part finish the remaining three. I have run out of paint now so the three will have to wait but they are at least partially sealed. The following day was dry and sunny so I wire-brushed another set of wheel rings and primed them with red oxide, applying a second coat the following day. I fitted the long half-round beading on the offside but ran into a problem by breaking a small pilot drill with the end stuck in the hole, removal of which is a job for later. I next gave the primed wheel rings a coat of black enamel, then fitted the short piece of beading to finish of the O/S waistrail half-round beading. I needed to drill two extra holes in the beading due to the coincidence of holes with mounting screws for the panel work underneath. This means I have to fill the two unused holes, first job for next week!
Typical state of wheels before blasting and painting. This one will probably be the spare.
A slow start to the week. I finished spraying brown on the various parts of the cab window frame, then drilled a 4m length of half-round beading; in 100 holes, I managed to get one slightly off-centre. I decided to use this for the curved section and the short piece for the emergency door, which may allow me to omit the off-centre hole. I cut and fitted the curved rear corner piece up to the emergency door the following day, then fitted the vertical wind deflector and beading to the to the emergency door with the handle recess casting temporarily in place. I am unsure that the beading is correctly aligned at the moment though. However, I decided to proceed with the beading and drilled and started to countersink a 4m length of half-round to complete and fit on Monday.
Started the week by stripping paint from the parts of the sliding frame of the cab window. I also prepared the first of the wheel rings for primer and applied red oxide to one side. The next day I applied the second coat of primer to the first set of rings, stripped all but the bottom section of the sliding pane and mixed the black cellulose for the wheels. I managed to spray the insides of four wheels the following day. Whilst the results were poor, a matt finish due to the cold and damp weather, this is ultimately of no consquence as I shall finish them in black enamel in due course. I managed to partially spray the first set of rings, too. I also primed the two verticals for the sliding pane. After that, I needed a rest from solvents so ran the cable that carries the rear light feeds from the box in the boot as far as the switch for the boot light, pending the arrival of some more cable clips. I next cleaned and primed the remainder of the frame parts for the sliding pane of the cab window and measured up the O/S of the bus for the beading. Final job of the week was to finish cleaning and polishing the glass for the sliding pain of the cab window and spray some of the frame brown.
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.
