28/6/2020

The last few days have been spent filling, preparing and painting the inner lining walls of the boot.  The outer surfaces have been painted red-brown to match the colour of the original (mostly rotted or split) wall panels.   I applied two coats of the brown to seal the plywood properly.  The inside faces are in white undercoat, awaiting the correct ochre brown final colour.   Next I turned my attention to the left-hand (nearside) boot door and found that it was just as poor a fit as the right hand door.  This necessitated removal of material from the bottom of the door frame, the boot floor sill and the top left-hand (curved) corner  of the door aperture.  It is impossible to see how the door can ever have fitted properly with the body frame the dimensions it has now.

23/6/2020

I fitted some support for the bottom of the curved lining panel to stiffen a bit where it meets the floor and to fill the gap at the bottom.  This was fitted from the outside, so I can run sealant around the inside at floor level.  I still need to put a couple of screws into the mid-level support for the lining panel and open out the hole for the tail lights.

Late morning I filled over the fibreglass repair to the gangway support in the boot, it will need a final finish tomorrow before painting but is just about done.

22/6/2020

I installed the nearside curved corner boot lining panel yesterday and spent today trimming it to  fit around the boot door aperture.
I also filled the gaps between the sections of the boot lining and replaced the screws in the rear seat support brackets – these had to be removed for the curved section of lining to be fitted.

In the afternoon I repaired some holes in the gangway well in the boot roof with fibreglass, this will need to be filled over and sanded tomorrow.

Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.