June, on the other hand can be rather warm - especially inside, and it is noticeable that the air is much warmer at the level of the bus roof than the floor. Effort is therefore best expended first thing in the morning.....

The mechanical side is still stuck on brake camshaft bushes, for which Maurice is engineering an extractor tool. Keeping things moving is important, so I am spending some time on the body. Bare aluminium is subject to corrosion - not as fast as steel, of course, but it is time to paint the roof properly and give it some protection. The other point is that mistakes are easier to hide up there while I get my hand in for the serious stuff. Pre-Kote by International made the dome grey for a while - which you can see in the first picture - while the etch-primer comes out a pale grey-green. It dries quickly, so within the hour it was given a green undercoat, but I didn't bother photographing that.

Starting the roof. Photo © J.Wilkins

Already looks like a Swift! Photo © J.Wilkins

For the next session I had done some homework - making a Flour-Grader mask for the front dash (if you hold your monitor upside-down you will see what I mean). Maybe it 's an old-style Cyberman? Anyway, cutting the headlamp holes with a jigsaw was intricate but fun - and once again the failure of a professional repair (probably at overhaul in 1976 as the back of the old panel is green) is obvious, as four out of nine fixing holes in the trim missed the metal by 50% on the nearside. Cleaning and rubbing down roof bay 2 was the prelude to a disappointment because I ran out of etch-primer about two-thirds of the way along and the new tin was at home. Drat! Starting at the other end, green undercoat was then applied to the front dome and bay 1 before that too ran out part way along bay 2. So, parts of bay 2 are now aluminium, primed or undercoated - but in the right order. The rest of the afternoon was spent in re-attaching the fuel-tank outriggers and cutting the remains of two generations of driving-mirror fixings off the corner pillar with the angle-grinder, then trimming a brand-new (old-stock) wooden fillet to fit inside the steel angle. The wood is where the winsdscreen and cab window pans meet and screw down, which is critical to progress.

The first top coat. Photo © J.Wilkins

Irresistible force meets a slowly-movable object Photo © J.Wilkins

Even in North Wales we had a bit of a heatwave in early June, so an early start was indicated when preparing the dome and bay 1 for gloss paint. On the boat it was easy, because it was possible to roll out of bed, put the kettle on and start work, while now I have to walk the dogs and then drive down to the island. A quick rub down with 1200 grit paper did not take long, so I finished the etch primer on bay 2 while the front was drying. Working alternately with the roller and laying off with a brush was fairly quick and I was able to avoid embarrassing overlaps except along the roof centreline (where nobody will see). By 10:30 it was done, but the sweat was rolling off me and threatening to drop onto my paint. Much cooler back at floor level for a cup of tea at last. Finishing off the windscreen framing with black gloss was next, then after a quick lunch I deployed Maurice's 'submarine', which is a home-fettled tool for pulling out bearings and bushes. It is made, honestly, from an eye-bolt used to lift the half-ton 'electronic counter-measures' antenna mast out of a nuclear submarine for servicing. A set of adaptors have been used for diverse applications such as wheel bearings on a Montego, and now Maurice has made a new adaptor from my measurements for the brake camshaft bushes. It was almost an anticlimax when it worked perfectly, and with no great effort to remove both nearside bushes in about 30 minutes. I had another cup of tea to celebrate and went home happy.

The nearside brake camshaft went on a trip to Imperial Engineering at Cheshunt (not on a 310, sadly) with its bushes mid-month. Very quickly I had a phone call to say that it was ready, but the bushes were more of a problem. However, after only a day or two I had another call to say that new bushes were actually a standard Glacier part - the bad news being that they could only be sourced in lots of 10. Still cheaper than manufacturing bushes from scratch - and now I have spares to sell to all my friends! The other progress has been with paint. Five-litre cans of chassis silver are cheaper (per litre) than 2.5 l cans, ditto pale-grey BDX primer. Paul, my paint supplier, said that my problem of lack of coverage might be overcome simply by tinting the BDX primer with my green top coat. He was right. a 50-50 mix gave a lovely Green Line 'Porcelain Green' coloured undercoat which covered superbly and dried without brushing to a smooth, satin sheen. The next coat will be 75-25 in favour of green gloss and should make a good base for the finishing coats. We only need to be sure what colour they should be! The roof is now in progress as far as bay 3 and the end is in sight. The rest of the day was spent in cleaning up and priming the brake shoe carrier and axle end, as well as anything else (like the road spring) that will be covered up when the hub is re-fitted. "It's getting better all the ti-i-i-me" as the Beatles would say.

Painting the roof continued through June, although progress will have to be reviewed soon as I am approaching the rear bay (where the window pan is out) and dome which are not yet ready for refinishing. A mega-session in cooler conditions saw primer and undercoat applied to bay 4 and a rub-down and the second base coat on bays 2 and 3. It is encouraging to see that the reflections from my neighbours' coach windows now show what appears to be a green bus - and about time, too! Fitting the new brake camshaft bushes was another slight anti-climax, as once again the 'submarine' performed without any fuss and the camshaft pushed home with a bit of lubrication and wiggling. With the heavy stuff out of the way a coat of silver on the axle area was a good place to stop. Meanwhile, something was stirring on the Essex marshes where the fitters at EnsignBus were removing the tyres from the pair of Swift wheel rims that were fitted to MB90. Keith Wright and Maurice collected the rims during a trip around scrapyards in the Erith area looking at Leyland Nationals with Volvo engines and gearboxes. I will soon have enough wheels to make SM106 mobile again! A special thank you to Steve Newman and his team for helping out, and to Chris Sullivan for arranging the swap.

Bus-wise, nothing much happened in July as holidays intervened. I found an ideal storage location in the disused cask-maturing sheds of Scotland's most-southerly whisky distillery, but in such a remote location it's not a lot of use! Back on site in August, I found that it took time to get up to a productive speed. A frustrated attempt at releasing the offside brake camshaft was followed by a determined and successful effort at releasing the air-reservoir drain-plugs. There are three on the two tanks, as one is divided into front and rear brake circuits, and in total I collected three pints of water and a quarter-pint of oil, mostly from the smaller, front brakes reservoir. It must have reduced the reservoir capacity significantly as it is not large to start with! Yet more (very) basic maintenance has been ignored - and a black mark to the RM835 Group for leaving it like that. Fortunately there was no hint of rust in the drainage, so I am not worried unduly about the condition of the reservoirs, which look sound outside. More painting around the n/s rear axle finished an unexciting day. News from Maurice: the 'Ensign' rims have been grit-blasted and primed ready for transport, which is excellent.

Painting inside the nest boxes. Photo © J.Wilkins

Woodwork repairs to the front dash Photo © J.Wilkins

Despite the unseasonably cool weather, I have primed and painted another bay of the roof. Only one bay and the diddy rear dome to go! It was very upsetting to be left alone when the rest of the transport collection went off on their Anglesey Vintage Road Run, but there was more space to work in! Still with the windscreen-pan plan, I have emptied the detritus out of the fan boxes in the front dome (this included an LCBS coin bag which was stopping a rattle) and wire-brushed the steelwork which forms the structural front of the roof. A generous coat of Finnegan's No.1 added to the already heady aroma in the barn, so I had to return to ground level for fresh air and a cup of tea. Re-attaching some of the inner windscreen pan occupied a few happy minutes while it cooled enough to drink. The wooden framing on the near-side of the windscreen has suffered badly from ingress of rainwater and I have already replaced the lower horizontal member. Taking out the vertical member was a doddle as all the screws were on view, and the upper horizontal came out much easier than expected as it had countersunk screws through the panelling of the front dash under the angle which carries the winscreen rubber. No problem for the trusty hacksaw-blade, and then away for some more joinery homework!

The bench seat used for its proper purpose Photo © E.Wilkins

Lisa takes a turn.. Photo © D.Wilkins

..while Maurice gets on with the job. Photo © E.Wilkins

Maurice came up at the Bank Holiday, so a joint working session saw a number of improvements. His special task was making a proper job of fitting the brake camshaft with its new 'O'-rings and grease nipples, while I carried on with preparing the roof for more paint and tinkering with the woodwork of the front dash. Paint was also applied to the nest-boxes and destination blind box interiors. The newly-finished blind tension-roller bars were also fitted, and we proved that the rear blind box is a full centimetre narrower than the front! We also had a visit from the family, so the interior had to be tidy enough for guests. Lisa particularly liked the huge steering-wheel. For homework we removed the panels rivetted over the air intake grilles and started to clean them up for installation.

Working from a ladder has proved to be difficult, so I treated myself (from a chap on eBay called BPS Access Solutions) to a small scaffolding tower. Designed for up to 4m working height, it is only 60cm wide, so will fit between the vehicles very neatly. It proved to be so easy to work from that I went ahead and put a nearly-top-coat (90% gloss) on three bays as it was a pleasantly warm morning. Sadly, the offending brake camshaft nut resisted the attention of a specially modified open-ended spanner (30mm but opened out by around 1mm to fit a Whitworth size). Heat and penetrating oil were applied - maybe it will just get bored and give up! Part of the problem is getting something hard to lever against, as expanding the shoes into the drum is not firm enough to give it a sharp knock. The nest-boxes were finished off inside - a leisurely task performed while sitting down and drinking a cup of tea atop the tower. There's comfy, now!

The new scaffold tower. Photo © J.Wilkins

The new door-pillar framing. Photo © J.Wilkins

Sadly, September proved a poor month for bus restoration due to a combination of domestic circumstances, but the opportunity was taken to do some thinking-out at home. The first weekend of October saw the 'nearly-top-coat' extend to bay number 6, which means that the roof is now protected well enough to stand until the final livery application. Bay 7 must wait as there is work to do on the window pans and panelling, and the rear dome needs cleaning up - both of which are jobs for the winter. While the green paint was out I have quickly rubbed down and painted the lower dash panel that covers the towing eye brackets. It is a difficult piece of work as it is a curved tray construction and won't be easy to replace. For now it will have to carry its dents with pride, along with a new black/white number plate which I am making at home using vinyl lettering from Squirrel Preservation.

I have concluded that a special tool must be made to hold the cam end of the reluctant brake camshaft so that the necessary urge can be applied to the nut. It shouldn't be too difficult or expensive, so I have traced off the outline of the cam to work up a design. The other job that is moving ahead is the new woodwork for the n/s front door pillar, which also requires rebates for the horizontal rails to locate into. The bus already looks better because the wood forms the profile of the bodyside and your eye is no longer drawn to the straight front angle. A further day was spent on woodworking to the exclusion of other tasks - rebating the door-pillar vertical to accept the ends of the horizontals with their curved, projecting ends. Then it was back to the cabside, where the odd bits and bobs which join the two major rails under the window received attention. Some wasting has taken place here, so new pieces and a more sensible method of jointing have been devised. This is an area that simply has to be sorted soon - it has dragged on too long because there is always something more exciting to do! A bit of a blow came when examining the nearside interior windscreen pan - yes, the MCW part which was so hard to prepare for painting. I should have examined it more critically, because it won't replace the original part which fits below the destination blind box in a different way and because it is actually shallower by nearly a centimetre. That would affect the security of the windscreen in my view, which is unacceptable, so it must be replaced, and that will be tricky, as it has bends in two conflicting directions!

Another session of woodwork saw light at the end of the tunnel that is the driver's cab side. Small infills which are rebated into the top and upper rails have been replaced or remanufactured, together with the radius pieces which fit into the corner angle. All the pieces have been given a coat of aluminium primer and will be ready for final fitting at the next session - very fiddly and slow work! I still have to work out how to fit the driving mirror, which fits on bolts long-since rusted into oblivion.

I also explored the replacement of the front entrance step, which (fortunately) Blue Lake did not mangle too severely. As they reused the standard fixing points and framing for their improvised lowering, it will be possible to remove the replacement droppers and put the standard parts back together. To prevent the weight of the step hanging from the nearside corner pillar, a substantial angle is brought out from the front chassis cross-piece and bolted to the threshold. Unfortunately, the cross-piece, which is a substantial piece of forged angle, is quite evidently bent backwards, which prevents the support from bolting in correctly. How it was bent is an interesting question as the force required is almost inconceivable until the section between the longitudinal chassis rails is examined. Here it is obvious that a chain has been put around the cross-piece and given a huge tug, which has crushed the arms of the angle and imparted a distinct curve. Does this relate to recovery from Northchapel, as there is no rusting in the area where the paint has been damaged? Either way, a decision has to be made now on how to proceed. The heads of the bolts joining the two arms of the step frame were cut through with my angle-grinder and the parts separated for cleaning-up or replacement.

Must finish that CDT homework... Photo © J.Wilkins

....with more Sticky-backed Plastic Photo © J.Wilkins

For light relief in the evenings away from the bus I have finished the new front numberplate, and it looks just fine. The Squirrel letters went on a treat (and yes that is an EXCEL spreadsheet that I used to design the letter spacings). Thanks to Keith Wright for the loan of the plate off MBA540 which I used as a pattern. The size, by the way, is 22 X 5 inches, and I used a proper ha'penny for the corner radius, since she is a pre-decimal machine. The other job to move forward was the painting of the 'Ensign' wheel rims ready for tyre-changing. After a gap for half-term, work resumed and the new number plate was rivetted in position on the dash and a real 'seventies' look restored. The woodwork on the driver's cab side was finally screwed in place using round-headed, number 10 screws backed up by large washers as the aluminium panel is not particularly strong. The interior of the destination blind box was given a white top-coat, and a set of new bolts were put into the universal joint flange so we no longer need to worry about damage to the silencer when the engine is turned over. If the last bit didn't make sense, it was because the outer end of the minuscule prop-shaft had been removed for towing and the inner end dropped down and flailed about as it rotated. After that there was only one job left - the front chassis cross-member. Luckily, none of the many fixing bolts were particularly stubborn, so it was a doddle to remove apart from being so bent that it was wedged tightly between a couple of fixing brackets. Now we just have to find someone to straighten it! Painting the grit-blasted 'Ensign' rims occupied some evenings, with experiments at painting Tyvek to make a new destination blind taking up a couple more. Fablon letters have to be cut out and stuck down to emulate the Chiswick screen-printing method, so it is fairly labour-intensive work, but good therapy in place of watching East-Enders (what's that, an RTL and an RLH? Get away!).

At the next visit a determined effort was made on the front step frame. The new diagonal member and lateral floor bracket were tack-welded together some while ago, but it has now been offered up, the front end bent to match the front dash and a set of fixing holes drilled to match those in the dash and the 'rusty-riser'. The same kind colleague then welded the nose up properly and added a fillet where the top of the angle had been cut to make the bend at the front dash. Experiments at offering up the MCW 'Checkmate' riser panels recovered from the spare step were not encouraging, as the long piece seemed a good centimetre too short. Drat and double-drat as Dick Dastardly would have said. A charming, rainy afternoon was then spent with Maurice, Len and Stuart swapping a pair of tyres from the Wigley stock onto the 'Ensign' rims. At least the wet conditions kept everything nice and slippery, which was a bonus. Thanks again, everybody. Four down and two to go. The wheels were then stored in the back of my trusty Espace until the following weekend before they were inflated by my AEC-friendly crane-hire company and taken to meet the bus. Luckily my wife was not using the car that week!

Hanging one of the newly-painted wheels on the offside front made a further improvement. I am beginning to see why the boy-racers are so keen on their 'alloys', since even a proper paint job and a chromed guard ring make a difference and say AEC in capital letters. The rest of the day was less enthusing, as the reluctant brake camshaft resisted all I could throw at it - including my makeshift plate 'spanner' to stop it turning. Difficulty of access is one of the problems, so I am contemplating removing the offside telescopic damper to make more room. Ideally, the silencer could come off, but I know it will never go back - so it stays put for now. Switching to the nearside I set about preparing to remount the hub, and finishing tidying the brakes. The cam-rollers with flats worn from seizure were replaced with new parts from the Brake House at Perivale, who also supplied replacement bushes for the pivot pins. It turns out that these are standard Routemaster brake shoes, which is handy. Back to the hub, which was astonishingly filthy, and the secret weapon this time was the redundant shower-tray from our boat, which made a fine containment for half a gallon of paraffin which was used with a wire brush to remove the tarmac-like, oil-bound grime and road-dirt. The inner bearing was easily removed because I have practised this move before. It was then necessary to drill the tails off the rivets holding the conical guard at the rear and a large pile of solidified grease, oil and rust removed from inside. What a ****** mess. The hub was then taken home for the more pleasant job of de-greasing, wire-brushing and painting. I also put together a worthwhile order for rivets for a number of different jobs and phoned the Rivet Supply Company. What a nice bunch they are - really concerned about sourcing the correct part despite the rather trivial order that was forthcoming (details on the KNOWLEDGE page).

The painted hub and grease shield Photo © J.Wilkins

The replica rear blind Photo © J.Wilkins

Meanwhile, back at the front step, I set up my circular saw to make a neat job of cutting back the edge of the plywood floor. The new material has to be joined over the longitudinal support or it would forever crack the Treadmaster where it flexes. Then it was back to the driver's cab window and the driving-mirror attachment. This unpleasant, 3-D jigsaw puzzle must be solved before progress is made re-instating the fibreglass window pans. Finally, the cab window pan was assessed for GRP repairs where it has been broken by repeated attempts to tighten (and ultimately remake) the mirror fixing. A first layer of mat was laid inside to restore the profile, then the missing area was bulked up from the outside with repeated applications of small scraps of glass tissue wetted down thoroughly. It will have to be finished with a coat of filler to restore a smooth surface, although most of the repaired area will be beneath the overlap of the windscreen pan. The windscreen pan has a large piece missing in this area - but that is for later. Finally, the angled strip running along the top of the front dash off-side was un-riveted and the blind holes cleaned out ready for cleaning up and repainting. The angle is what locates and supports the bottom of the windscreen pan and rubber. Back home, the chief task was to fit the grease guard to the back of the hub - riveting stuff! More amusing was making up a replica rear blind in Chiswick style using Fablon lettering stuck onto white Tyvek. Painting it over with a semi-matt black paint and peeling off the letters gave a very good effect (seen hanging in the stairs to dry properly). It is upside down because I have put 'Black' at the top and left room for additions (the Tyvek is expensive).

In the last session of 2006 I succeeded in overcoming the driving mirror problem by re-attaching the original damaged woodwork to the corner pillar. Luckily, some sensible person had retained the beading from the joint of the windscreen and cab-window mouldings - which was then attached to the woodwork using the original fixing holes to make a jig for drilling the new bolt holes. The woodwork has just managed to maintain the impression of about half of one bolt, which gives me more confidence that the new holes will be in the correct place. Drilling obliquely through the fillet plate and then through the corner angle itself was not a nice job since a regular twist-drill will do almost anything to avoid cutting on the side, but the corroded remains of the old bolts came out easily and then guided the rest of the bore. Once through, the new holes were opened out to 8mm and a spare bolt put through from the inside. It was lovely to see the protruding screw-threads onto which will mount the mirror bracket. There is no space at the back of the angle for the bolt-head, so we will have to weld or braze the bolts in place and cut the heads off flush with the inside. The rest of the day was spent in cleaning up the front dash (removing the 'Checkmate' panel from the entrance) so that the area can be painted properly. It was a wonderful thought that I can now put the cab window in place and drill through from the inside for the mirror mounting. I also found the famously prominent windscreen handrails from storage with a view to getting them cleaned up and powder-coated. A fitting end to 2006.