I have been concentrating on finishing the nearside rear quarter panel for the last couple of weeks (with interruptions) but at last it is in undercoat after many hours of careful filling and sanding. I applied the first coat of undercoat using a roller but didn’t brush it out and I wasn’t really satisfied with the finish. The second coat was sprayed on and it much better. I will apply a third undercoat and flat that back when it is time to lay on the top coat. I also ground out all the gouges and scars in the stainless steel corner bumpers then polished them. They are not perfect but acceptable. And shiny!
Final job for this entry was the fitting (today) of the last two pieces of vertical bearding for the nearside, so apart from paint the nearside is finished!
The beading for all of the nearside, except for the rear corner panel, is now fitted. I have to finish the corner panel with a skim of filler, which is what I have been doing today. Also today I ground out the scrapes from the nearside rear corner bumper, having discovered it is made from stainless steel. I should be able to finish polishing it in the next few days.
The hiatus in progress was due to a number of things including getting Alfred ready for an MOT and maintenance on the MW. That completed, I was able to fit the offside corner panel today. As with the nearside corner, this panel needed to be extended by about 1.5″. I did this by welding in a strip of aluminium recovered from the wheelarch panel left over from restoring the MW.
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.
