What a Winter. We got off lightly with temperatures down to about -9C, but as a disincentive to working on a bus in an unheated shed that was plenty! When the thaw came I went down to check that all was well and was treated to the sight of a bus dripping from end to end with condensation, inside and out. At least there was a good opportunity to clean some glass, but nothing else. The ice was still 8" thick in the water-butt.

By mid-February things were improving, so I had a go at a bit of bodywork. It would be really nice to finish the area between the doors on the nearside, so I took the corner return for the front of the centre doors out of stores and started work on fettling the length and fit to the lower cill. It felt better to be doing something rather than nothing, but as usual there was something in the way. To finish the rear return of the front door aperture, the steelwork of the luggage pen needed cleaning up and painting before it is re-panelled and that cannot be done with the cable/air pipe duct in place. A warmer weekend was thus chosen to get on with preparation of steel framework in a couple of areas - n/s chassis, rear blind-box and the luggage pen, and a week or two later to get some undercoat onto those parts and the blind-box cover itself, which was taken out a long time ago. That led to a campaign of preparing the beading and ceiling for restoration of the blind-box, and it was not enjoyable. For neatness in the saloon, Park Royal chose to use monel rivets with their tough, low-profile heads, which is great until you have to get rid of them. At least I only broke one drill, but it was actually less damaging and more effective (albeit noisier) to drive them out with a punch. Then the flaking paint had to be rubbed down until smooth, which provided an interesting observation. Deep in the areas that have never been exposed since 1970 when she was built, the ceiling colour is MAGNOLIA. Yes, that's what it says in the 'London Swift', but now I have proof. If asked what colour was the ceiling in the new MCW Swifts we had in Hitchin, I would have said white. Certainly white was applied when the MBs were tarted-up, because the front and rear boxes were not touched and the contrast between 'old cream' and 'new white' was very obvious.

Preparing the rear blind-box Photo © J.Wilkins

Blind-box cover after repair and undercoat Photo © J.Wilkins

So a brushful of cream undercoat was applied on top of etch primer to the exposed metal outside the box and cleaned-up beading, and as the tin was open, I broke out a new roller and also ran over the blind-box cover, and the underside of the box (still in-situ, of course). All of this led me to ponder just how big the ceiling of a bus is.......And then I went underneath for a bit to look at the chassis section behind the front axle, where the air-tanks mount. The straps holding the rear tank were sawn through (not difficult as there is almost no metal left) so that I could recover the angled spacers for copying. Yes, I have lost the other set, and I am very upset about it. With the chassis cleaned and painted I will be able to put the throttle cable in and re-fit the air-tanks, and that will be a good job done. The best thing about the day was seeing the sun shine through the garage door for the first time this year. It's bit like the Solstice at Stonehenge, really, and suggests that the Llandudno Transport Festival cannot be far off now.

The luggage pen frame. Photo © J.Wilkins

A coat of silver by the front air tank Photo © J.Wilkins

Holidays and family stuff have really eaten into working time recently, but there is action on multiple fronts. Negotiations are under way with a planning consultant and architect to drive along the new garage project, and the topographic survey should soon be completed so that we can plan the first stage of development of the field with proper regard to phase two in due course. Then the application for planning permission will go in.

Small jobs have gone along steadily, and the luggage pen framing is now fully cleaned and painted ready for reinstatement of the cable/air pipe duct, along with a fully-drilled beading for the edge of the front entrance corner return. This job would have been better done while the wheel-arch was out, but by careful measurement I seem to have hit some original PRV rivet holes in the bulkhead (might just be luck, but no matter). The rear blind box has been re-instated, and more work done on cleaning and painting the chassis. The rear air-reservoir had to come out for painting, and for access behind it to the chassis and cross-members. The pipe unions were very stubborn, but by careful reference to the pipe runs it proved possible to get by with only undoing two out of five connections - taking with it the lengths which reach to the unloader valve and the rear brake relay valve. One pipe had to be cut as there was no access to get any leverage, but there was no alternative and a great deal riding on treating corrosion to pipes and tank.

Where the rear air tank used to be.... Photo © J.Wilkins

....and where it ended up Photo © J.Wilkins

The general condition of the chassis can be appreciated. Not at all bad, but neither is it a cause for complacency. With the tank out there is a lot better access, so all the chassis, body frame and pipework will be treated before the tank, also due for full corrective treatment goes back in. On the offside of the chassis the automatic lubricator to the handbrake cross-shaft has created a superb build-up of road-dirt adhering to waste oil - good corrosion protection, but bad for putting new paint over, so it was laboriously cleaned away along with similar but dry deposits amidships. The remainder of a gruelling day was spent with power drill, angle-grinder and primer and I went home filthy, tired and aching in all sorts of areas. Low-floor buses indeed! My neighbour kindly suggested that I drive the bus onto blocks to raise it off the floor, but he has overlooked an element of mobility that he takes for granted with his Bedford TK.

With access clear, it was back to the wire-brush and primer for another session. I shall be really glad when this phase of operations is over, but all jobs need good foundations, and there won't be a second chance to get into these areas for a long while. Much better to have some confidence that the dreaded corrosion is at least limited so far as possible, and remember that aggressive techniques like grit-blasting are not a good idea on a complete vehicle. In fact, far from discovering how BAD the chassis is, it is the opposite that is emerging - and for a 40 year old structure that has received limited protection and care, things are not at all bad. It will be a toil tidying and re-fitting all the pipework, and one problem found is that one of the plastic pipes taking air to the door gear, I think, has snapped where it has been flexing during the messing about it has received. Do they become brittle with age?

In order to stretch out and ease the pain of confinement under the chassis I decided to continue an experiment started a long time ago. A prototype of a new tank-securing strap was bent up and seen to be of the right diameter, but the matter of a plastic sleeve was not addressed. Some PVC pipe of the type familiar to winemakers was procured, and found to slip neatly over a piece of straight bar, but whether it could be slid over a curved strap was unknown. In fact, lubricated with ordinary engine oil, it worked well. It was necessary to work at it for a while, coaxing and stretching and gripping carefully, but it wasn't difficult and ended up looking the part. Then it was lunch time, after which back underneath with an angle-grider and cup-brush working on the outside of the n/s chassis-member (the easy bit) before painting. For a diversion, I started work on the radiator fan cowl while I was in the mood and had a paint-brush loaded. Hard work, but satisfying. Then, the end of another job - ripping up the old, damaged lino on the floor of the luggage pen. It seemed that it had been stuck down with tar, which had really got a grip in some places and not at all in others.

The reluctant battery frame, with dirt cargo In rear (L-R) Flywheel, Gearbox, EP Unit, UJ. Photo © J.Wilkins

The pristine chassis, showing air-tank supports. Photo © J.Wilkins

After several sessions with a paintbrush, the chassis is up to scratch and looking fantastic. Only the pipework needs treating before the reinstatement of the air tanks prevents the access which is required. While getting to grips with the sub-floor bits, the area around the radiator and battery frame have been investigated, and were not a pretty sight. While pondering the general situation, it became apparent that my predecessors have removed the bolts which attach the offside curved ribs to the front and rear bulkheads of the battery frame, and that it was only a twelve more bolts which suspend the frame from the floor-bearers. As the area around the frame was fairly rough, it seemed logical to undo them and release it entirely, but the reality was pretty gruesome. One feature of work under the bus which I dislike is the way that showers of filth accompany every movement, and it soon became apparent that the top of the battery frame was covered in a thick accumulation of road dirt. However, not one of the bolts yielded to a spanner, so out came the trusty angle-grinder and ten bolts succumbed in a shower of sparks. Tea and coffee were required from time to time to dowse the tendency of my beard to combust and the last two bolts could not be reached except with an old fashioned hacksaw, which was used to cut along the axis of the bolt until the nut was also halved and chipped off. Then it was only rust holding it up, and it was prised away with a chisel and lowered on scissor jacks. By the time I had finished I looked like something from the Black and White Minstrel Show, but the wood could most certainly be seen for the trees at last. That was a whole morning's work, so lunch was taken as a sunny picnic on the riverbank watching the swallows catching insects and skimming the water for a drink. Bliss!

The early afternoon was spent cleaning up the worst of the mess made apparent by the morning, and a total of three dust-pans full of dried soil was removed from the top of the battery frame (you can see the piles in the picture, shaped by the floor bearers). After that I just couldn't find the energy to proceed with remediation, so I worked on the hydraulic fan-motor mount instead, which could be done standing upright. Then it was off to the Junction to collect my daughter from the 15:27 Coradia from Crewe to Holyhead.