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.
During the paint stripping exercise today I found a split in the roof sheets, either side of the beading between the second and third bays at the top of the cant section. I initially tried aluminium solder to repair the crack but couldn’t get enough heat into the panel without the risk of damage to the inner frame. So although it is the kind of repair I despise, I tapped the panels down a little with the panel hammer either side of the beading and riveted a repair panel over each crack. I should be able to fill over the repairs and shape back to the normal roof profile.
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.
