I can’t believe it’s a month since I last recorded any progress. However, there has been progress; lots of rusty screws have been winkled out of the offside framing, several rust-eaten flitch plates have been removed and the first three replacements manufactured. The emergency door hinges have been freed up, de-rusted and prepared for painting. The frame around the emergency door opening has had all the rusty screw and nail remains removed and the holes dowelled. A new steel plate for the top right corner of the door opening has been manufactured and is ready for installation.
More lower side panels have been removed and the fuel tank exposed, this will need to be dropped and cleaned ready for treating any rust and repainting.
Most recent work (today and yesterday) has been cutting out rotten timber framing above windows 3 and 4 apertures. I cut some Iroko this afternoon in preparation for repairing this section.
Heavily-corroded flitch plate at joint between wast rail and cab door frame vertical.
Entries from 4/10 were lost due to failure of QHoster in allowing their installation to be hacked and encrypted by ransomware. A summary follows:
The angle brackets have been fitted, these reinforce the joints between the lower perimeter frame and the body cross-bearers at the boot.
Next the external cladding panels for the waistrail above the boot doors and below the rear window was fitted.
The entrance steps were next on the list, the last of the non-slip strips fitted and the bottom step drilled for the rearmost handrail which has been temporarily fitted to provide location guidance for the horizontal beading below the rear bulkhead window.
Work then turned to fitting the cladding to the nearside from the windows downwards in preparation for fitting the nearside windows.
Next, three droplight frames were painted ready for assembly then the two broken droplights were reglazed and the brass frames repaired as necessary. Over the last few days I have fitted out the first of the frames (bay 2) with the Delrin strips which will take the screws for the droplight fittings. The droplight components have been “chromed” as necessary and the top seal glued with silicone to its aluminium runner – this will be fitted last after the glazing is installed in the frame.
This week’s work has been the manufacture of the right-angle brackets that reinforce the joint between the lower side frames and the body bearers. Ten were required, each with four mounting holes 1/4″ clear. These are attached to the side frames using recessed coach bolts then bolted through the body bearers and vertical reinforcement plates. These are now mostly fitted with just three on the offside remaining to do, hopefully first thing tomorrow morning.
New brackets to reinforce the joints between the body horizontal bearers and the lower side frame at the rear.
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.
