Absence and illness are the reason for the gap between this and the previous entry. Last week I made the steel striker plate for the boot door catch and made and painted the steel cover plates for the body mount openings in the boot. Last weekend Rebecca helped me fit these as I was unable to get my head into the boot due to a bout of Labrynthitis. Over the last few days I have stripped, straightened and painted the two sections of rain deflector for the nearside. The small shaped piece that fits above the last window towards the rear has been fitted along with all the wooden triangular supports at each window dividing pillar. The long piece, at over 15ft is very unwieldy so I have only painted the inside in the ochre colour, ready for fitting.
Whilst I was painting the rain deflector I also painted over the sealant applied around the edge of the boot floor lino.
Having laid the lino, which still requires some internal finishing around the edges, I was able to fit the steel sill (manufactured some time ago) and finish hanging the boot doors and getting them lined up nicely with good gaps all around. This necessitated shimming the top and bottom hinges and sanding yet more wood off the bottom of the doors where they were striking the sill. I also had to make some modification to the door locking mechanism in order for it to fasten correctly at both the top and the bottom. The top edges of the doors were very uneven and the gaps equally bad, so I built up the top surfaces with filler and sanded it back to a good shape. Not the best of solutions but should be ok.
Boot doors aligned and gaps made good
I also completed assembly of the step light, with the exception of the brass hinge pins which still haven’t arrived.
This week work has returned to the boot. I made a template for the boot floor and then cut a piece of new lino for it. Rebecca helped to glue down the lino, however we didn’t quite get it in exactly the correct position so some remedial work is needed. I was annoyed to find the new lino had some cuts and scratches in it that were not done by us! Having fitted the lino, I was able to fit the new steel sill (after painting the underside) that I made a while ago, then I hung the doors. This revealed several fitting problems that hopefully I can overcome by shimming the hinges.
In between doing the above, I found time to paint the step light inside with some white paint and cut two rubber gaskets, one for mounting against the body and the other for sealing the lid to the base. I also found some thin clear acrylic so I cut two pieces to form one thick piece for the small window in the light. Still waiting for the brass hinge split pins to arrive.
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.
