Today I finished the corner timber and prepared it for fitting. I drilled the holes for the 5/16″ bolts that hold it to the steel reinforcement and added some screws to supplement the glue for the individual pieces that make up the part. I then gave it a coat of primer.
I cut away the heads of the through fixing bolts to the rearmost offside side rod in preparation for replacing the rotted sections of this and in order to coat the reinforcement with Vactan ready for painting.
Looking towards the front along the boot perimeter rail showing the extent of the rot and corrosion
Not a great deal of obvious progress today. I added the last section to the corner piece and that should be ready for trimming and drilling tomorrow.
Whilst the glue set I continued repairing screw holes in the rear framing. I will have to address the horizontal beam under the rear window before too long. But for now there is plenty to do around the boot floor and doors.
Painstaking manufacture of various bits of wood have been the order of the day today, including the spacer block between the RH boot door pillar and the corner pillar and the final pieces of the corner boot floor support and perimeter rail. I should be able to trim this to final shape tomorrow, for which I have made a cardboard template from the good side.
Also today I cut the wooden piece that forms the boot door abutment on the hinge pillar. In the process of this I came to the conclusion that the pillar itself is not quite the right profile, which means I will have to add some thin lamination to build it up so I can sand it back to the right shape. More time lost!
Damage to the base of the first OS pillar, showing gusset plate and corner timbers removed,
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.
