The last part of the story concerned the painting of the windscreen and lower saloon window surrounds, meaning that at long last there was a real incentive to fit the two side windows permanently. Now, a London Swift connoisseur will know that those windows, like Harry Potter, have special attributes. One has been introduced already, in the form of the "NO ENTRY" display in the toplight adjacent to the exit doors. It was a strange sight indeed that when SM106 arrived in Wales, she was carrying TWO "NO ENTRY" windows in the lower saloon, which must reflect some mishap late in life. In order to correct this strange siuation it was necessary fo separate the toplight from the second one and replace it with one carrying a loudspeaker plate, because even though speakers were not carried, the blank plates certainly were. Thoughtful as ever, Steve Fennell's team had provided spares, though in red finish rather than green. Taking the toplight off was not straightforward - and I have prior experience of this from the offside when swapping a damaged toplight on the offside (and to my dismay I discovered that nearside and offside toplights are right and left-handed after fitting). The other problem is that disassembling a toplight is nigh on impossible because they are held together with slim, steel, countersunk screws which become electrolytically corroded and inextricably embedded in the aluminium extrusion. So a replacement toplight was found, cleaned up and prepared for the glass insertion into its channel with a new rubber mounting strip specially sourced at significant cost. Giving an optimistic push produced no effect whatever, and it proved impossible to produce enough force to push the glass home.

Applying extreme force to the toplight Photo © J.Wilkins

Completing the lower saloon glazing Photo © J.Wilkins

Special measures had to be applied! A week or two of thought produced the apparatus that you see above, where the force of a scissor-jack was applied to the assembly while held in place using my ladder extension as a handy, modular jig. Even so, it proved impossible to do the job in one go while using wood as pressure bearers since they are too flexible, even hardwood ex double-glazing frames. Moving the window unit laterally through the jig and applying pressure in three or four places did the job, but the time taken to reposition the window unit between pressure applications and a large amount of tea for lubrication, meant that the simple job took all of a morning. So it was a real triumph when the completed assembly was hoisted into place in the weatherstrip and the locking strip inserted. After that, I needed a holiday, which was taken in the company of Macbrayne's ferries and West Coast Motors on the Kintyre Peninsula. After that, things became a bit hectic and confused because the long school Summer holiday produced all sorts of family opportunities and grandparenting obligations that diverted attention away from the bus. And that is without taking into consideration the not insignificant matter of the building of the new garage.

The steelwork arrives on site. Photo © J.Wilkins

The new garage framework is complete. Photo © J.Wilkins

After more toing and froing than seemed entirely reasonable, plus the very real issue of persuading the powers that be of the safety and fitness for purpose of a very humble steel portal-framed barn, there was also the matter of designing a suitable floor to go in it and having the plans scrutinised. Anyway, cutting a long story short, before our Scottish holiday I made a stage payment to the shed-builder and took delivery of the steelwork, rather hoping that it might be upright when I came home. Not so, unfortunately. However, when prodded the reply came back that it should be started the following week - an answer that I was somewhat sceptical about. It was a considerable surprise when I called by on the offchance to find that the frame was indeed up, and most of the cladding applied. And so, in a space of a few short weeks the task which I had been working towards for years was well under way, and I hadn't even managed a picture of the frame going up!

Spreading the sub-base inside the shed. Photo © J.Wilkins

Building the floor support walls inside the frame. Photo © J.Wilkins

After that it was time to set about the floor, which also kicked-off fairly promptly and was proceeding well when the bombshell arrived. The garage where SM106 was housed was due for demolition the following month! Fortunately, at this point things are looking fairly optimistic that the new place will be ready for occupation in the nick of time, and I even have a low-loader organised in principle to move SM106 when the day comes. Let us hope that everything comes together as planned. The key lesson is again reinforced: if your bus is in unfashionable, rented accommodation it is simply not safe. Here endeth the first lesson.

The floor slab is laid (and still wet). Photo © J.Wilkins

The building inspection team. Photo © J.Wilkins

Despite the sudden urgency of the task, things did not proceed as quickly as had been hoped. Although the roller-shutter door was soon installed once the floor was down, the remaining cladding proved much slower because the contractor was reluctant to bring the necessary plant on site for such a small job. Quite how the floor would be completed with the front on was not explained. Suffice to say that it was finally fixed and the shed secured in March 2017, so it is indeed fortunate that the intended and indecent haste of removal from the existing garage was premature. As you can see from the pictures above there was great jubilation in the ranks even at the level of completion found in mid-November.