Tag Archives: front mudwing

25/5/2025

Painted the new front O/S wing, using etch primer I bought for the roof, evil smelling stuff which I don’t think I will use on the roof.  Coo Var has some water-based all-metals primer, grey in colour, which seems a better choice.  Next job was to paint the final coats on the battery trays, using chassis silver.  While they were drying, I looked out the battery cables and measured out what I need, 4m from the nearside battery to the cab, 2m linking the batteries and 2m from offside to the cab.  I also removed the remaining original battery cable from under the bus.   A poor start on Thursday saw me using the wrong (water-based) primer over the etch primer on the new front O/S wing.   Attempts to remove it when it was dry proved fruitless so I coated i with chassis silver in the hope that sealing it would fix the problem.  Things impproved with the removal of the rotted conduit from the recovered battery cables, I found I had enough good cable to wire the new arrangement of  batteries although some of it will need new insulation, which is on order.  I had to make a minor adjustment to the floor aperture for the offside battery tray, as I had made the tray slightly too big.  This job took pretty much all of Friday, but the result was worthwhile and neat in the end.  I decided next  to clean the paint and rust off the control box side panel, ready for painting.  Final job of the week was to apply a coat of wood primer to the enlargded aperture for the battery tray, and the top of the chassis on the offside, which was exposed when the old tray was removed.

18/5/2025

A good start to the week with progress on the second battery tray, with the sides and base welded together and the ends cut, punched and folded then welded together.    Some work on the MW saw the back axle reassembled and the brakes  adjusted.   After that, I finished of the battery trays by grinding all the welds, I’m pleased with the result, though one is a bit large for the hole in the floor so some work is needed to fit it.  Once these were pirmed, I moved on to the new front wing.  I drilled two mounting holes for reference  for when it becomes time to fit it.   Final job of the week was to further trim the wing to improve the fit.   It is now ready for a primer coat.

4/5/2025

Started the week by folding another battery box side, incorrectly unfortunately.  I folded another, correctly then marked out the fourth ready to fold.  I’m still working on the MW, in between, cleaning oil off the brake linings and other components.  Colin came to help on Thursday and removed the battery trays and cover boxes from the nearside, ready for plating over and helped me straighten the incorrectly folded battery box side and refold it correctly.  The holes  left by the NS battery boxes should give me some access to the chassis that side, too, so I can clean it down and silver it.  We also trial fitted the new front wing and got it trimmed and temporarily in the right place, ready for final finishing.  The final job of the week was to start drilling the holes in the metalwork for the first battery box.