Work this week has been concerned with making and fitting beading to the nearside, with a view to completing as much as possible before fitting the remaining window and making the rear mudwings.
So far the lower waistrail beading has been completed from the entrance to the rear numberplate box and the upper, half-round beading is almost complete, just the longest run needs trimming to fit between the entrance and the piece that curves around the rear corner. The latter is only temporarily attached as it will need to be removed again to allow the last window to be replaced.
At the entrance, the vertical beading above and below the waistrail and the half-round beading under the small window has been fitted.
Since the last entry, all the roof sheets have been fastened back to the nearside cant rail with the exception of the rearmost window which is still awaiting its glass.
When that job was complete, I replaced the rainstrip over the entrance door.
The paint around the front destination screen was stripped and the window beading and glass removed so that the interior of the destination box can be repainted, the blind installed and the lighting rewired.
The beading was replaced from the front destination box to the rainstrip above the door, this was a reclaimed piece which I’m not entirely happy with but will have to do.
The vertical beading between the front fairing and the entrance door was replaced too, with a new piece and finally today I made a plywood template for the replacement glass for the front destination box.
The paint is now all removed from the roof, the four ventilator covers (which are made from chromed tinplate!) and around the front and rear destination/route number boxes. This job was completed late yesterday. Today was spent fitting the fairing above the door and making a start on reattaching the lower edge of the cant panel/roof sheets above the nearside windows.
View of the roof in bare aluminium looking towards the rear from the front.
Roof ventilator covers.
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.
