1939 Bristol K5G with a Weymann body

Primer anybody?








At this point I realised that I’d been a bit of a doofus. To prove the point I made a wooden thing that was the same size as the battery that we have.





And sure enough I have made a bit of an error. The arms I brilliantly left in place stop the clamp bar from properly clamping the battery.





If the battery was taller or shorter it’d be fine, but with the particular battery we have it doesn’t work.
There is some foam stuff to go on the inside of the clamp bar by the way.

Easily fixed - just shorten the side bars.





Like a bought one.

I think it was the Rolling Stones who, in 1966, commented that a chap should Paint It Black. Well who am I to disagree?





To be honest, I think Gimmie Shelter is a better record but it doesn’t fit with the narrative.

The original battery tray had some thick rubber to locate the battery, to keep it off the frame and to grip it. It also had some high density foam on the inside of the clamp piece.





The rubber blocks were glued on with some unknown gloop but it was pretty tough. I had to run a sharp knife through it to detach them. The foam had some tough double sided tape on it. So what was I going to use to put it all back together?

Around the house I used construction adhesive such as Gripfill to put wooden architrave and picture rail up. The problem is that it goes off rock hard and as the wood shifts as it takes on moisture it literally rips the plaster off the wall. Over the years we’ve had a couple of bits of picture rail come down.
So my next trick was to use silicone sealant as an adhesive. It’s really good and it allows wood to move a little. It’s my goto household glue these days. The only problem is that you can’t paint it.
However I wasn’t sure it would have the toughness to hold the rubber blocks in place so I was looking for something else when I stumbled across ‘hybrid adhesive’.





I think this stuff has been around for decades but I’d never heard of it. Time to try it out.





Well I can’t get them apart. I probably could if pried it with a screwdriver which I might try one day. I put a gloopy blob on top to see how much give it has. Well it’s firmer than silicone but it still moves.
Right lets try it…

I used a smear to glue the foam back on.





And a thicker bead to reattach the rubber blocks.





I think these are finally ready to go back to Maidstone and be bolted back to the chassis.





Now I know what you’re thinking, Three thicknesses of steel in the corner, massive M12 bolt as a hinge, James you complete pelican, It’s nowhere near strong enough! You’ve totally under engineered it!
Well you might be right there. If, in a few years when we get this on the road, you run over a 12V bus battery somewhere around Chatham you may be proved right. I guess time will tell.

James

As long as the arms can pivot and the spacer is at the bottom of the battery, that's what will happen
The easy solution is back here

Moving the lower pivot forward about 3 inches should solve it.

Nice pictures, Sweetness.

I wouldn't have a clue how to do something like that without crayons.

If you attached them they wouldn't be loose or get lost drill a couple of holes, use nuts/bolts, no welding needed
Plenty of solutions, I'm sure you'll find an interesting one

Ian and I talked about that and there is a reason that it doesn't work. Sadly I can't remember why not. The only way to do it would be a wooden block between the battery and the chassis rail.
If I remember what was wrong with the 'screwing a pit of wood in' idea I'll let you know.




My current thought is a piece of angle across about 8" up and two verticals between it and the lower corner. The rubber blocks that I put on the diagonals of the clamps (that hopefully would never touch the battery) will get moved onto those verticals.
That's probably not that clear a description is it?

James

Well, good morning bus fanatics.
We’ve been back to Aylesford for another day working on GKE 68.

My first job was to refill the engine with water and see how many leaks it had. It had a couple of obvious ones, both on the thermostat housing.





I tried nipping the bolts up but it didn’t help. Just take a look at those bolts. You can’t get a ring spanner or socket on them because they are too close to the housing. You have to use an open ended spanner. However, some of those bolts are also close to other things (such as that fuel filter below it) so if you do get a spanner on you can’t actually move it without hitting something. I wound up unbolting the fuel filter so I could push it out of the way and swing the spanner.
The drips were the sort of drip that might sort themselves out or could pour water all over the floor. Should I bite the bullet and strip the housing down or risk it and hope they seal up? Well, as I’d already taken the fuel filter off I suppose we should just do it properly eh?

Here it is getting rebuilt with some gloopy stuff.





The engine sump seems to be dry so it’s not leaking oil just at the moment. That’ll change when we start the engine again. The gearbox is pretty soggy though. There are access plates on each side of the casing and they are both leaking. The one on the left is just an access plate so it’s easy. The one on the right has the selector forks on it though. We’ll ignore that until we find out if the gearbox actually works properly. It’ll need an oil change after a few hundred miles so that would be an ideal time to seal up the cover plates if it doesn’t need more serious work.
Speaking of the engine, the plan for next time is to get the engine running again and see if it’ll build vacuum. Then we can find out if the front brakes work. If they do we could put the prop on and drive it round the garage. I say “could” because I very much doubt if that’s happening any time soon. We’d need a driver’s seat apart from anything else.

While I was unleaking the engine Ian was fitting a new oil seal to the rear axle. By way of proof here’s a photo of a big socket and some other random tools.





Er, no, sorry, I didn’t crawl underneath to take a photo. There is an oil slick down there you know! There are limits.

My next job was to try and fit the windscreen. That comes as two parts. The lower third is fixed into the cab and doesn’t move. An aluminium trim holds it into the frame. That should be easy.
The upper two thirds is mounted in a chromed frame and can swing open along the top edge for ventilation. Sliding the glass and rubber seal into the frame is going to be the bigger pain in the tushy so we’ll do that first.





Or maybe we won’t… I couldn’t get it in. The two sides would slide in but then the seal across the top of the glass hit the frame it would not go in.
Part of the problem was that some of the screws that hold the frame together protrude a little into the channel.





There is one on the top side of the channel too so the seal gets nipped between the two. You can see how the top one has hooked the seal and pulled it round the glass.
Easy fix, just back the screw out. Right?

Nope. Wrong. The frame was in one piece when it was chromed.





So even if I could get the screws out I’d ruin the chrome.
I had three attempts at getting the glass in while using increasing amounts of Norman’s hand soap. Norman, you remember, is the chap who runs the bus company where GKE lives.
Eventually I gave up and chucked it in the car to do on the bench at home.


Here are all the bits back at home.





It’s a lovely frame don’t you think?
First job was to use the air cut off tool to grind down the screw heads down a little.





Then, with some liberal lubrication, we’ll try and slip it into the hole. It’s going to be tight so we’ll need to be firm but we also need to be gentle.
Why are you giggling at the back?

So, did I get it in or did I shatter the glass all over the garage?





Of course I got it in.
I had to give it a good thumping with the rubber mallet though… Nah, not really. I was using that and the wooden wedge to settle the rubber seal in. It went together just fine.
I have to say I was a bit nervous about this job. I’d have been really annoyed if something had gone wrong and I’d bust it. It’s safely wrapped in a blanket under the bed at the moment. I don’t trust myself not to break it if it stays in the garage.




You know how it is, you wait a lifetime for a bus restoration project to come along and then two turn up at once.

Ian had mentioned another project he was involved with a few months ago. It’s another double decker being rebuilt but this one is in private hands. Ian wanted help refitting the radiator so on Sunday I went along to a top secret location deep in the heart of Kent and found this…





We got the radiator back on and installed that wheel arch you can see.
The restoration work on this thing is absolutely lovely but it has a fair way to go. You can see the paneling is missing from the lower deck. It is still fitted to the top deck. This bus but has been kept under cover so it’s in much better condition than GKE was. GKE sat outside for years and suffered badly as a result. Much of the wood framing on this one is original.

So what is it, what’s my involvement going to be, and will we be getting a restoration thread on this too?

What is it? It’s a post war Guy Arab chassis with a 6 cylinder Gardner LW engine and a Park Royal body on it. It’s a low bridge body so it has a sunken walkway in the lower saloon and upstairs it has four across seating and a lowered walkway down the off side.

What’s my involvement going to be? Well that’s a damn good question. I have more projects than I can cope with at the moment and I really don’t need another bus. That said she’s a bit of a honey and I am interested. Ian and its owner seem keen to have another pair of hands to work on it. Almost certainly I’m going to wind up helping out but probably not to the extent that I’m involved with GKE.

Will there be a thread on it? I doubt it. Partly because I’m not sure how involved I’ll be but also because this bus is in private hands and I don’t know what the owner would think. But I will let you know if / when I go over and what we get up to.
We’ll see how things pan out. Could this be the beginning of another long term relationship or just a one night stand behind the bus shelter? Time will tell.

James

Trip to Maidstone anybody? (This was about a month ago so let’s say you do want a trip to Maidstone as it happened ages ago.)

Ages ago there was a discussion about what colour GKE was to be painted. The answer is that she’ll be in Chatham Traction’s colour which are brown, cream and green. There were some photos but not much in the way of good quality originals. I mean, let’s face it, back in the 1930s the entire world was black and white. I don’t think colour was invented until after the war. That’s right isn’t it?

Anyway Nu-venture, the bus operator where GKE lives has a bus painted in Chatham Traction colours and it was in the yard.





So GKE will look something like this. But older.

Right, enough admiring the fleet and off to work.
Somebody has pinched the drivers door.





The door had a fixed glass in half the door window and a hole in the other half. Recently an original blueprint of the body turned up and it showed a sliding glass in the door as well as the window that looks over the bonnet.





I’m led to believe that South East Coachworks have been over and picked up the door to fit the sliding glass. Cool. That’ll make the cab a bit less draughty. There are more driver comforts coming later… Stay tuned.

I thought I’d get those battery trays bolted to the chassis for the final time.





I even loaded the battery on to one of them just in case we needed some electricity later.





Next on my list was the top part of the windscreen and the wiper motor.





That turned out to be challenging. The frame and glass went in ok but the wiper was a nightmare to get bolted on. This was all done about a month ago and I couldn’t tell you why it was a struggle but it was.
Actually a part of it was that the collet that holds the arm on to the wiper motor needed drilling out to get it to fit the spindle. Several times.

Meanwhile Ian had been doing some stuff including lying under the bus painting himself. He was supposed to be painting one of the vacuum pipes but came out with more on himself than on the pipe. I’m fairly sure that he once told me he wasn’t fond of painting. I can see why if that happens every time. Must have taken him weeks to get clean.

That done, Ian used the electricity I’d fitted to start the engine.





Apart from doing it for fun we wanted to know if the old girl would build vacuum.
Since vacuum is the lack of anything do you ‘build’ a lack of anything? What word should a chap use? Is it even a ‘lack of anything’ or a ‘lack of everything’?





Well it did but it took a while and only got to 12 inches. Ian reckons it should be better than that.
The front brakes are purely operated by vacuum. When you press the pedal it operates the servo to assist the rear brakes. That vacuum is also routed to the front cans. Well they both operated so we have front brakes. Who knows if it stops the wheels turning but at least the vacuum cans work.

We may have to go on a hunt for vacuum leaks next visit. I’m not sure how you do that. It’s not going to blow bubbles in soapy water is it…


Lastly, remember I talked about driver comfort? Well we now have a seat for the driver to sit on.





Now isn’t that a thing of beauty?
Genuine fake crocodile skin…





The seats that the public sit on have this crocodile skin on the cushion edges and moquette for your bum.
I commented to Ian that the poor driver doesn’t get moquette and he replied that the poor driver wouldn’t get flees from the seat either.

Yuck.

James

From my time on vintage railway carriages with vacuum brakes, the application of a brush full of paint around each joint/fitting at a time was our most effective and efficient way to sort leaks. You’re only dealing with 1 bar max, and the paint gets drawn into any leak and seals it pretty effectively.