Today was spent drilling the cross bearers and the gusset plates I made yesterday.  Last job was to prime the new woodwork on the corners, ready for a coat of grey tomorrow.

This morning’s progress was slow, mostly spent cleaning up under the back of the bus following the recent demolition work.  I did manage to drill the holes for the through bolts in the repaired corner pillar, these bolt through the steel curved corner reinforcement, both gusset plates (one either side of the pillar) and the pillar itself.

Later int he day I cut three gusset plates from the remaining 2mm Zintec steel, one pair for the corner pillar and the third for the pillar that has the boot closing panel attached to it.

Today has been the first really warm day of the year and  I was able  by lunchtime to  complete removal of the rotten steel gusset plates around the boot OS side pillars, ground the remains of the bolts flush with the bearers and, where they could not be removed, with the pillars.

Next I sanded the bearers and the underside of the boot floor ready for painting with aluminium paint, which I completed before the end of the day, then I applied a coat of red oxide to the steel curved corner pieces.

Final job of the day was to apply a coat of grey topcoat to the corner section so it will be ready for fitting when I have made and fitted new steel gusset plates to the first OS pillar.