The first weekend of July kicked off the second half of the year in style. Maurice was invited to come for a session working on tasks that I cannot do on my own, or indeed at all. The key objectives were the rivets holding the wheel-arch moulding inside the luggage pen and the welding of studs in the offside front corner-angle to attach the driving mirror. So much hung on completing those foundation tasks that a whole range of possibilities such as reinstating permanently the cab window, windscreen and front doors would be presented. Friday saw the installation of 18 mushroom-headed rivets in the luggage-pen, where they hold the internal framing (see the end of the last page) and the inside face of the grp wheel-arch moulding, with a further 17 going into the step area where they secure the checkmate step-riser to the saloon floor and front dash. We were becoming fairly slick by the time we had finished (leaving the easier ones until last, of course) and Maurice's ingenuity in fashioning the appropriate dollies to form or hold the heads had really shown its worth. The slight difference in the head form compared with PRV's originals can only be detected with close scrutiny, and will be less visible when the heads have tarnished with age. We then beat a hasty retreat to pick up some aluminium sheet and welding rods from David Williams in Llandudno before they closed at 16:00h.

First he tacked the head-end... Photo © J.Wilkins

..then he worked on the outer end. Photo © J.Wilkins

Finished job awaits cleaning up Photo © J.Wilkins

Saturday was welding day, so arrangements for an electricity supply were put in place and we set to bright and early. First we had to take off the grp pans for the windscreen and cab side and clean up the metalwork, then put them back on and insert the bolts through the mirror mount to ensure that everything was in place. Once certain that it would work, the head-ends of the bolts were tacked in place before it was all disassembled again for the outer end to be welded to the fillet plate that is inserted (and welded) inside the open end of the corner angle. The heads were then cut off the bolts and the back of the angle dressed with an angle grinder, leaving two threaded studs sticking out at the right position to attach the mirror bracket. Wire brush and paint were then applied, while Maurice looked at another welding problem where a bracket holding one of the wooden quadrants at the offside rear quarter panel had almost given way. I don't think it is original PRV work, but there's no reason to change it. Other tasks were to screw down the front floor and step tread, attach the kick-plate to the front dash and drill through the new windscreen trim panel for the nearside driving mirror. The old holes also needed cleaning up with a 1/4 inch UNF tap, which was easy-peasy, while Maurice fettled the bracket. We also fitted the refurbished fuel filler cap which Maurice has fitted with a new pivot pin, neat circlips and a new rubber gasket. It turns out that it also requires a couple of spacers to hold it central on the pivot pin - a historical problem of omission that had resulted in uneven wear to the old gasket. A truly great weekend, rounded off by leading a party from the Open University to look at some of my favourite local rocks.

In an unprecedented four work-sessions in the space of ten days, a great deal of useful stuff has been achieved. Sadly, we are due to go off for our annual holiday (Connemara, if you are interested) shortly, so I have put in some short spells to paint the bits that were welded. That way, on our return in August, I shall be able to reinstate the cab window and panelling without spending weeks waiting for paint to dry. More bits of body were also painted in primer and undercoat, and I have discovered that a foam mini-roller is the best thing ever for painting the wheel rims! In particular, it is possible to run a lightly-loaded roller over the countersunk locating holes for the studs without painting the recess, a trick that is very difficult to emulate with a brush.

Admire the shiny interior... Photo © J.Wilkins

..and the not-so-shiny exterior. Photo © J.Wilkins

The nasty stress crack in the minimalist entrance bulkhead. Photo © J.Wilkins

The most interesting bus-spot while we were away were two Leyland Lynx in red/white livery near to Carraroe, but no opportunity to investigate! Anyway, on our return the paint was dry, so I spent a happy morning reinstating the cab interior panelling that had been take away for painting years ago, and very nice it looked when it was complemented by a cab window set in new rubber. A trial length of weatherstrip was then added to the offside windscreen aperture, which finished it off very nicely. An interesting discovery was that the spare cab window, presumably from SM533 and by MCW/Beclawat, does not fit. There was a gap between window and weatherstrip - which is a shame as the frame is in better condition. Another serious problem to be addressed is the stress crack to the 'minimalist' front bulkhead behind the entrance doors. There seems to be a history of repair in this area which shows signs of welding, but that is no solution to cracked aluminium and it was not a success. My idea is to double the plate, but to extend it all the way down to the top of the step-riser. It will make a neater job of fairing-in the corner panel, as well. An hour was spent in making a template for cutting the top of the new plate, as it is a complex bit of fitting at the rear of the door guide and the bulkhead has a long, diagonal protrusion into the saloon which is a very awkward shape. A few weeks ago I cut into the beading on the edge of the bulkhead and removed the lower section by drilling out the countersunk rivets. A piece of regular wheel-arch moulding is in stock as replacement. The other activity was to remove all the panelling above the entrance doors, which were mucky, badly-painted and quite damaged by repeated impact from the door guides. All were stripped, abraded etch-primed and undercoated after a certain amount of crude panel-beating to knock out the worst damage. There is also wood in there, which was a surprise, and a length of channel which carried an inordinate amount of loose rust, dirt, screws, bolts and pop-rivet ends which must have arisen over many years of repairs. It also proved possible to remove the outer, steel section that runs over the door and carries the indicator ear, which has clearly sustained impact damage in the past. Most of the dents were knocked out, but it is not in good condition due to chronic leakage of water from the dome and must be assessed for remanufacture.

The Bank Holiday weather was not conducive to days-out or other tasks like gardening, so I managed a couple of short sessions to keep the job moving along. The swallows in the garage have now hatched their second brood, but the weather is running out for them and Africa would be a better bet than our early Autumn. In the end, the condition of the front entrance valence panel proved to be less serious than supposed, as corrosion was limited to the upper part and it is held and stiffened by two rows of rivets which attach the gutter. After de-rusting and stripping with a 3M rotary sander it looked much better, and even more so after anti-corrosion primer and undercoat. Draught-excluder brushes above the doors are attached to the trim panels with a folded section, the forward part of which was horribly damaged at the front end and beyond straightening so it has been re-manufatured. It’s great to be able to turn out work like that in-house using the ‘ship’ (improvised folding jig) as required, especially as the new part was made from scrap 1.2mm sheet left over from the first attempt at the nearside windscreen trim panel! The draught-excluder brushes are obviously original, as they have been marked with the magic kit-number 56 by laborious punching. The new reinforcing plate for the entrance bulkhead has been made, offered-up and trimmed to size. The concept has been proved, and now it only remains to drill about 40 holes and attach it to the door aperture. I also removed the trunking at the rear of the bulkhead, which carries air pipes to the door-motor, and discovered that it has been reinforced with a piece of 1" steel angle. I also found where someone has drilled enthusiastically through the trunking and into an electrical cable, which has been very neatly repaired. Being able to work from behind will make drilling holes for the pop-rivets much easier - particularly as there is also the cosmetic entrance-corner return to fit - and will avoid the urge to make a new set to join the other three sets. The bulkhead itself has also been stripped of paint both sides ready for a new finish to prevent any corrosion out of sight, and to get rid of the mucky, modern grey paint where it will show in the saloon. The inside of all the framing over the door aperture has also been wire-brushed and given the obligatory three coats of paint, so it is all looking very respectable.

Drilling the multitude of holes for the entrance bulkhead occupied part of two sessions, and was as tedious as expected. In the end two neat rows of holes were the only evidence of a couple of hours work, including countersinking, but I was pleased and it will not need doing again in a hurry. Anxious to move-on, I picked up one of Steve Fennell's spare corner return panels and offered it up. Moderate fettling was required to allow it to enter the door aperture properly, but it was the lower end which proved problematic - it would not fit the curved tumblehome of the lower body side. Now that is downright paradoxical, as the part is marked SM/PRV/0330 in yellow crayon. If it was a Marshall part (which it could be) it would not be labelled PRV, but if it was a PRV part then it should be labelled SMS (assuming origin from the central, red area). Either way, it is just too curved as offering up the only scrap part I have demonstrates only too clearly. "So it goes", as Kurt V would say. In order to overcome this disappointment, I set about the GRP windscreen pan with my angle-grinder and removed the last of the abundant filler that was blobbed into the gap where damage had occurred at the lower n/s corner - and which now prevents a fit on the new woodwork. I just hope that I can find someone who is a dab-hand at welding aluminium sheet.

Considering permanent refitting of the windscreen surround led to examination of the steel framework beneath the front dome. Years ago, the rusty condition of this area was obvious and it was cleaned up (in part) and painted. Removal of the remains of the aluminium flashing from beneath the dome, and prolonged work in this area made it obvious that there was more to do - and I am braver now at stripping down and repairing. So the remains of the corroded csk rivets were drilled out and the steel trim removed completely so that it can be de-rusted and painted both sides, and giving access to the framework under the front of the dome. Lots of rust and white powdery dust from corroded aluminium was liberated, but the area now looks sound, well-protected and ready for reassembly with new countersunk pop-rivets (many of which had wasted so much that they were completely disengaged anyway! Top marks to the Rivet Supply Company for their helpful service again. The other key job was to make a plywood template for the body side to act as a model for the new entrance corner return. David Williams (Llandudno) reckon that they can modify the profile of the existing part by welding in a new side-cheek, that being much easier than starting from scratch. We'll see how good their welding is! New Type-24 brake chambers are on order, so fingers are crossed for proper compatibility of modern cloned parts, which originate in Turkey and are also still made in India.

The new bulkhead doubling-plate. Photo © J.Wilkins

The corner return - in original PRV primer. Photo © J.Wilkins

Detail of the modifications and welding. Photo © J.Wilkins

For a change, things seem to be working-out well! The brake chambers turned out to be very compatible indeed - only the position of the inlet port and the length of the actuator rod needed adjustment. Otherwise, it was just a case of plug-and-play. Quite remarkable! Rivetting the steel strips to the front of the windscreen aperture, and then inserting the aluminium flashing under the edge of the front dome took the remainder of my work session. It was very fiddly, and the interface with the windscreen pan will be more fiddly still, I fear. David Williams have done well again, and the corner return is now fettled top-and-bottom so that it fits neatly into the door aperture and step-well at top and bottom (took a couple of hours, mind). A first stage fitting of the beading which retains the grp wheel-arch moulding has also taken place, but it is a difficult area for access as the brake drum fouls the arm of the lazy-tongs pop-rivetter. Minor repairs to the grp windscreen pan were also necessary, as recent grinding away of mass filler revealed hitherto unseen voids, and weakness once the filler was removed. It has been rubbed down properly and treated to a green undercoat, and looks very nice. The front-dash body panels must be fitted properly before it is installed, and that probably entails work on the headlamp and sidelight fixings. While the paint was out, another bodyside panel was rubbed down, primed and undercoated, together with the window-aperture strips released by removing the nearside front window. It's much easier to do a proper job of preparation ex-situ. Another diversion has been to dismantle and free-off the telescopic lift on the driver's seat. I only did it because I was forced to remove the seat to reach the bus-bar cubicle which needed priming while I had a roller going. It was just stuck with old oil and disuse, and will be taken home to clean up and paint nicely. I was also talking to Nigel Adams from the Three Counties Museum about speedometer generators, since SM106 does not have one! It turned out that the wiring had not only been disconnected from the generator, but taped-up and secured out of the way on the chassis cross-member. Proof, if it were needed that SM106 operated for some time without a speedometer (and on red diesel if you remember that far back). Tut-tut!

Clean-up and drilling. Photo © J.Wilkins

Strange fruit - hanging out to dry. Photo © J.Wilkins

A fine Sunday session was spent in the entrance bay (again), but this is a project with wheels (at last). First there was the requirement to drill through from behind the old bulkhead to make the fixing holes in the new bulkhead plate and its beading, and again down the outside of the corner return where it meets the window aperture strip. Fortunately, neither were very complex tasks as there is a very accessible template for all the holes, and a new 3/16 inch drill-bit cuts nicely without a pilot drill or centre-pop. Then it was more preparation for painting and assembly. Here, things did not start well. In removing the rearmost lower-saloon window a minor disaster struck when the ventilator section parted company from the lower pane, and in falling twisted and snapped the corner from the glazing. That has never happened before, and I will be a lot more careful in future, especially as the ventilator section dropped with a glancing blow on my head! Anyway, it was not long before I was back in action with paint-stripper and Scotchbrite cleaning up the gutter and window strips. The rearmost vertical strip, adjacent to the exit doors, was snapped clean across - another stress crack. It was difficult to remove, too, as it was held by a rivet UNDER the gutter. There are a few of these to tack the structure together before the gutter is added, and the only way to undo them is with a slim woodworking chisel which will sever the aluminium rivet-head when tapped into the gap carefully with a hammer. The only alternative is to remove the entire gutter....... After lunch the action was all paint, with etch primer, green and grey undercoat all featuring. The philosophy is to give everything a primer and undercoat both sides before assembly. Ian Barratt seems to have put his trust in black bituminous paint, but it's messy and will always come off with solvent or other paint. I tell myself that it's worthwhile. While I had my roller loaded, a coat of primer and undercoat were put on the offside modesty panel at the rear of the lower saloon. It's not a key objective, but if progress can be made on marginal time and material, then it's all profit.

Weekends now start on a Thursday afternoon, but I still have to work Friday morning.....It is actually a good way to get preparation done for a big push on Sunday, so my afternoon was spent painting all the undercoated bits of trim from the door guides, the new bulkhead plate, the offside modesty panel by the emergency door and bits of the cab panels that I prepared the other day. My washing-line was filled with 9 items hanging to dry when I moved on to paint the driver's seat base in black gloss. Topped and tailed with a long dog-walk at in the woods at Dolgarrog on the way to and from home. What a great afternoon! Sunday was very productive, too. First thing was the rivetting in place of the newly-painted bulkhead, which was a good warm-up with 19 holes to fill. Then I rivetted back the angle that holds the trunking behind the front bulkhead, and put the trunking in place in the luggage pen to check the fit with the corner return in place. Glad to say that it did all promise to hang together. A half-hour was then spent chiselling up the old Treadmaster, which has to be replaced in order to make good the entrance floor. Holes were then drilled in the outside edge of the return where it meets the body-side panel, and the return itself cut back to match the profile of the wheel-arch. It was also necessary to nibble the side panel where it overlaps the return within the groove of the moulding which finishes the wheel-arch. Then the new window trim was offered up by the exit door and adjusted for fit, which was pretty good already. Finally, it was back under the wheel-arch to offer up the mud-flap panel and complete the fettling of the beading which secures the grp moulding, a very unpleasant job, made worse by having to remove and turn around three of the nuts and bolts securing the riser to the entrance rib. I did not realise when the moulding was out that it would foul the ends of the bolts and not fit flush to the supporting angle. It's coming together at last, but I have a feeling that something is missing because there is too much visibility of the rear of the riser - was it discarded when the step was lowered? Anyway, just time for a photo before packing away.

A green bus is taking shape. Photo © J.Wilkins

An exploratory dig at the floor. Photo © J.Wilkins

Painting the bus-bar cabinet caused me to think about the electrical boxes on the bulkhead, so late one evening I tuned in to 'Late Junction' with Fiona Talkington (pre-destined to be a radio presenter, surely) and took out my wiring diagrams - which didn't help a great deal. Picking up the duff contactor and a voltmeter led to a schematic diagram of the contactor itself, and it is not complex. An input from the START button applies power to the coil, pulling in the main circuit breaker and a secondary contact which applies a holding current until the circuit is broken by the STOP button - straightforward enough. The nature of the black-plastic blob wired across the coil was initially a puzzle, but electronic intuition suggested a snubber diode (look it up on Wikipedia) - and it was a short circuit. Subsequent investigation led me to believe that the diode had actually blown apart, and half of it had been soldered back in place! Obviously part of the meltdown that damaged the wiring (see 2008A), but defeating the repair person. A new diode was easily sourced, and the melted wiring renewed, leading to a successful bench-test and preparation for re-installation. I can tell that a re-furb of the binnacle will be a great project for the long, cold, wet, Winter evenings.

Work has also proceeded on the rear brakes, where Maurice has made beautiful, new clevis pins for the actuator rods using the part removed from the nearside as a pattern. They are slightly complicated by the addition of an extension for the return spring to hook onto. In mid-November he came up to to stay (before departing to New Zealand for a month) for a weekend and had a go at fitting them. The nearside was just fine, but he offside was problematic - not least because an enthusiastic bodger had replace the original clevis pin with a half-inch bolt and welded it into the clevis! It took two hacksaw cuts (performed lying on my back and working overhead) to remove the push rod from the slack-adjuster arm, and then a lot of fettling to clean up the old clevis. Just what you need! Back home, the threaded ends of the pins were cross-drilled for their split pin and Maurice & Elizabeth departed for NZ. Work in this area was a shocking reminder that more work is needed in the area of the slack-adjusters, which appear to be seized. A prized spare from SMS637 was the flag unit, which still had the warning bulbs and lenses in place. As I was playing electrical games, I decided to transfer them to SM106, and it was very interesting when the power was switched on to see the red light for the brake-warning and a bit bothersome to see that the white gear-warning was not on. Going under the cab floor and twiddling the TEST switch had no effect, but there was a position where the flag went up! Small mercies, eh? I then spent an hour chiselling up the old Treadmaster flooring in the entrance. The trick appears to be to cut through the grooves with a saw, and then individual slats are stiff enough to come up largely intact, at least some of the time. The rest of a cold, dark afternoon was spent fiddling with the binnacle wiring and installing the contactor unit. Lots of wiring is still hanging loose, so it was no surprise that pressing START caused the relay to pull in, but it did not hold when it was released, so the STOP wiring must be disconnected. I decided that this was as good a time as any to start the binnacle refurb, so undid all the switches and speedometer head and took out the metal panel to clean up and paint as a first step. It will be easier to fiddle with the wiring like that, anyway. A couple of weekends were then missed while I did family stuff, including my son's wedding which went very well indeed. The other news that came through was that I have now completed the purchase of my field for building a bus garage. Plenty to look forward to.......A trip to Carlyle Bus & Coach to obtain the necessary new flooring material was only partly successful, as they do not stock Multislat (wide) and will only order in a minimum of 10 pieces - which is more than twice what is needed for the whole bus - but I do now have all the plain material needed for the lower saloon. A rather cold afternoon was spent taking up the remaining Treadmaster from the entrance area, which was very stubbornly stuck-down and refused to disengage. To avoid damage to the plywood floor, a new method was attempted: simply plane it off, because that way no sharp edge can dig into the underlying wood or rip up the grain. Warm work, mind! After that it was time to apply mastic and rivets to the n/s wheel-arch moulding, which was a great success but very sticky. The mud-flap support plate was also assembled as that had been cleaned-up and painted a while back.

Neither the garage nor the new field were significantly affected by the torrential rain and gales which afflicted much of western Britain during late November, but attention was needed to the troublesome central gutter of the garage, which had filled with leaves. Having found a competitively-priced hole-saw set at our local hardware store, I set about the long-avoided task of installing the lower support for the entrance door poles. First, a piece of scrap plywood was marked up and drilled through as a trial, and slots cut for the bracket of the vertical channel that holds the draught-excluder brushes and hides the gap between the poles. Fortunately, the step was high enough (with the axle on stands) to get underneath with my power drill and cut the real holes before unscrewing the plywood tread and cutting the slots. At this point, I realised that a rebate was required for the base of the bracket, and for the bolt-head where the support arm meets the threshold. A bit of precision woodwork was thus required to take out the necessary thickness from the plywood. Then a brush-full of primer was applied to the new, bare wood and a cup of tea awarded. The last task was to bolt down the support bracket on the threshold, and offer up the central channel - which turned out to be too long, of course, as it had an extension grafted in to reach the lower position of the modified step. The mods were undone quickly, and there was no damage as the original fixing holes had been used for the extension. Imagine my joy to find that the holes all lined up - not bad after so much new construction, modification and a decade-and-a-half of disuse! Good progress achieved, and all that during a downpour so hard that the sound of my radio was drowned by the rainfall on the tin roof. The channel was packed in the car along with the spare 'Checkmate' aluminium, which was going to Len for the the cab bulkhead in his LHS (looking good now the front dash is reinstated). It seemed rather a shame to remove so much original green paint from the door channel, but a sound base for new paint is required, and the inside and extremities were rather rusty. Looking better already! Another game has been to make new a new trim piece for the front n/s corner, which is somewhat difficult to produce due to the pronounced curve of the body side. Using the curved profile of the bus and a carefully-shaped piece of hardwood (left over from the windscreen corner exercise) and some G-clamps, a piece of 1.2mm sheet was bent-up in situ. Even with the benefit of annealing the sheet it did not go too well, so a second and more careful attempt was made, this time only the edge of the sheet was annealed where it would have to accommodate the extra material around the curve - and it worked well. Sheet-metal work will be second nature by the time I have finished. Finally, a new piece of beading was drawn from the stores and drilled all the way down to match the trim. The parts were then taken home to paint in the warm. The saga of the new Multislat flooring grumbles on, with a certain Routemaster owner taking issue with the price being quoted for his new floor. We are still hoping that a partnership deal through The Bus Works will prove mutually beneficial........

Bending the front quarter trim. Photo © J.Wilkins

The finished item. Photo © J.Wilkins

Painted and assembled with Treadmaster flooring. Photo © J.Wilkins

A major hurdle to engine-fettling is the state of the radiator and water piping. I have already mentioned the lack of a drain-tap, and the elbow between the thermostat and the radiator top pipe is missing. Unfortunately, the bits of the spare engine (which has a metal elbow) would not fit, so a new, rubber elbow will have to be found. The radiator itself was a bit awkward to remove, with very stiff bolts on the main suspension bushes, but it came out once the supporting brackets were removed instead. Now we can see the wood for the trees it will be much easier to clean up the items and the gaping hole under the floor where they used to be (yes it is absolutely filthy in there). A job for a week of freezing and sleety weather was the painting - at home - of the front trim, so it could be assembled loosely and left in place. That done, attention moved to the Treadmaster flooring on the step. Steve Fennell had managed to source a composite unit with its integral white nosing, impossible to source nowadays and therefore of great value, so cutting into it took some courage. Using the step tread as a template and checking frequently that things were working out, the job was soon done, but of course the additional problem of cutting out the space for the foot of the central pole-trim soon reared its head. At this point, things did not seem to be going too well, because there was no space to maintain a continuous run of white nosing - and then the realisation that the protrusion of the white nose was set by the width of the step. Having no idea what the correct dimension was left me with a problem, but in the end I decided that the white nosing should not be visible from the front of the bus, and should be parallel to the threshold angle that holds it all up. That meant cutting the nosing, contrary to instruction by Mick Overton (and possibly others, too). Sorry, Guys. After that it was time to drill through for the door-poles, using the hole saw to centre a pilot-hole and then drill through the white nosing with a smaller hole saw to suit the bottom spindles. By then I had suffered enough from the cold and dark of the garage, although the gentle sound of the wind blowing hail and sleet onto the tin roof was very comforting! Hanging the door poles in situ finished the ensemble, but it's a fiddle to assemble through the step with its increased thickness and I am not confident that I can do it with the little rollers on the spindles. It looked great, and dirty because I have been walking on it deliberately to give it a patina. No point being sentimental about a floor, and it was never actually clean.