The previous few days and today have been about reinstalling the rear window. The glass had dropped and was loose due to the rotten sill and the rubber edging having disintegrated. Having replaced the timber above the boot and below the window and the N/S corner, I reinstalled the glass today with new rubber. Whilst it was a good fit top to bottom, there were gaps at the sides which must have always been there. So I centred the glass and filled the cavities with an air-setting rubber compound called Tek. Once this had been done and set I was able to install the triangle section beading that stops the glass falling out the back of the bus. This was a long and tedious job that was started yesterday afternoon and finished today.
The next job is to hang the boot doors, so I marked out the 1/8″ galvanised steel plate ready for cutting tomorrow to make the hinge plates.
Full view of rear window glass back in place with new rubber
Close-up of RH corner of rear window after refitting but before the beading had been replaced.
The last few days have been taken up with manufacturing the NS corner piece for the rear window. This took some time as it is a complex shape that tapers in two directions and has a lip that provides location for the glass. I made this in two pieces, the actual corner, made by laminating blocks of Iroko together and the lip as a plate that glues onto the corner, which I made out of some Ash left over from the boot floor boards. The parts were completed yesterday and a trial fit achieved, which revealed more sanding was required to get the right shape and a good fit for the lip piece.
Today I fitted the solid corner piece and the sill I made previously; these all had to be fitted at the same time so they would line up correctly. Then I glued on the lip piece. This now needs to be profile sanded to match the rest of the interior woodwork before it can be painted and the glass re fitted. I also pinned some of the outer panelwork to the sill, last thing.
Yesterday I removed and repaired the the rear window clamp moulding. I stripped the old paint off it, straightened out as best as possible, repaired any twists and cleaned out the screw holes. I primed it late morning and topcoated it late afternoon so it is ready to go back on.
Today I emptied the boot and removed the rear window glass, with a view to repairing the frame and replacing the sealing rubber. The glass had been loose sine I acquired the bus and the wooden sill had rotted away allowing the glass to drop down.
When I got the glass out, the OS lower timber corner was badly rotted so I removed that and started to make a replacement piece.
Restoration diary of a 70-year old AEC single-deck bus and the trials, tribulations and adventures of our 1966 Bristol bus.
