Today was a fruitful day. This morning I completed removal of the steel flitch plates in the nearside of the boot and ground down the remains of those bolts that I could not remove in order to provide a smooth location for the new steel, when the time comes.
I then sanded all the loose paint and dirt off the underside of the boot floor and crossmembers ready for painting when the framing has been repaired in this area.
Finally I cut out the rotten lower section of the third siderod rearwards from the wheelarch and cut and shaped a repair section ready for fitting.
Today’s major task was the removal of the corroded remains of the steel flitch plates that connect the boot floor cross members to the uprights. This was not completely achieved but should be tomorrow.
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.
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.