The last few days have been concerned with removing the offside wheel housing and mudwing. I found the timber in the wheelarch framing to be in much better condition than the nearside and it looks savable. Today was spent removing the remains of the steel flitchplates that join the floor bearer to the wheelarch timbers. The floor bearer at this location is in fairly rough condition so I will make larger steel reinforcement plates to extend further into the centre of the body.
Other work over the last few days has been applying primer to the ply sections for boot interior lining.
The timber before removal of the remains of the rotten flitch plate.
Continued with cutting new timber sections for the rear N/S wheelarch until my bandsaw blade gave out. Turned my attention to the corroded flitch plates that attach the body bearer aft of the wheelbox area to the vertical side rod. In order to make this easier and to gain access to damaged framework, I removed the inner wheelarch cover, which came out with comparative ease. It is secured to a bracket under the seats over the wheel box. There is a steel plate attached to the top of the cover which also came away easily. This has pyramid plate treads attached to it and is rotten.
Having removed the wheelarch cover I can now see that it will be fairly straightforward to remove the remaining wheelarch timber.
After that, I removed the flitch plate from behind the body bearer and then it was finishing time.
When I make the new flitch plate I will extend it further along the bearer toward the middle of the bus as the bearer could do with some reinforcement on this area, although it is thankfully not rotten.
Removed the rearward top section of the wheelarch framing. This is badly rotted so was fairly easy to remove, however the forward one is going to be much less easy and I am tempted to repair it in situ and leave it as it is. This may not be an option as the inside beading is pulling away from it where the screws have all rotted in their holes. I will investigate further tomorrow.
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.
