Winter working....

The bus rally season may be over for 2013, but that doesn't mean buses are parked up and forgotten about for six months!!

Maintenance is of course ongoing all the time, particularly the routine maintenance that goes with owning any vehicle; especially a large commercial type vehicle. Winter is also the time for things like bodywork and painting (even though I did start on 302's body during the actual rally season!).

It is 302's turn for some attention; you'll note from my blog post in August that I'd started the bodywork on the offside, and that the condition of the framework was far worse than anticipated.....

Well having done small bits of work here and there as time permitted, I was finally ready to start the repaneling today. Having invested in some air tools and a compressor, I was actually able to complete the work in one day - somewhat different to the nearside which took a week and nearly crippled my hands as I'd done every rivet by hand (all panels are riveted on at six inch intervals on all sides).

Here is the first panel being offered up, with the use of clamps to hold it in place:

Each panel has polystyrene insulation between the inner and outer panels - I'm recycling the old stuff which although rust stained, is actually ok to re-use. I also run a bead of sealant around the edges before attaching the new outer panels:

Second panel going on; at this point I'm using a couple of special gadgets that hold the panel in place by using the same holes that the rivets use:

Offering up the third panel, again with the use clamps to hold it in position - this is the final check that all the cuts are correct prior to permanent riveting:

The big pain at this time of year is the shorter days (daylight) - by the time I had the last panel on and was ready to go home it was dark. Whilst we do have some lighting at Yeldham, its not good enough to use when working on vehicles.......so I ended up working under my spotlight:

Canvey rally

The traditional end of season rally is Castle Point transport museum's Canvey Island rally, and it's the one I look forward to most as I can run in service on the shuttle service between the display site and the museum as many times as I like.

This year was so wet that the field where the display buses are usually parked was deemed out of bounds. Luckily numbers were down due to the weather and so thankfully is was possible to park everything on the hard standing car park area, all be it with some challenging imagination required photographers in order to get their prized shots.

I took 317 and we did indeed run in service. I lost count but I think we did six round trips. Due to the lack of visiting vehicles and thus those taking part in the shuttle service, pretty much every trip we did was a full load - in fact we twice had standing loads!!

This image was added to the image sharing site flickr by 'parkandride2007', who retains copyright ownership of this image, and shows just how wet the day was!!:

317 back in the stable

Following the latest breakdown with 335 - will it ever behave itself?!! - and some discussion with the person who bought Dart J317XVX off me.....

I'm pleased to say that I have re-acquired 317.

Having thought long and hard about it, fully weighing up the reasons why I sold the Dart and whether I can realistically keep 3 on the road......how this season has proved that an on-the-road back up vehicle is a must to guarantee attendance at all planned events.......well on balance I decided to take up my option of first refusal should the Dart owner wish to move it on.

As a result, and given that 335 remains out of action, I will be taking 317 to the Canvey rally on 13th October.

FFS

If you understand the meaning of the three letter title, sorry for the language!!

335 was booked to take part in the Theydon Bois running day as part of the North London transport society's autumn transport bazaar event.

We got 20 minutes down the road from where she's stored and I got a warning light light on the dash informing me of low engine coolant level. Now I had checked the coolant level prior to departure (I check all fluids as a matter of routine) but I duly pulled over and rechecked it - it was still full.

Being as the temperature gauge was indicating that we were in danger of over heating I made the decision to turn round and return to storage. Upon arrival and having sought advice, I confirmed what I suspected - we have air trapped in the coolant system. To top the day off, the radiator sprang a leak about two hours after being parked up.

Looks like the season is over despite the last event still being a week away - Canvey Island on the 13th....

Yeldham Open Day

We had an open day at the place where I keep my buses on 8th September and 335 was available for service having had the gearbox specialist in to look at the random gearbox-changing-down-a gear-by-itself issue.

I'm extremely pleased to report that 335 managed two runs to Braintree rail station without breaking down - here is an image of her having arrived at Braintree rail station on the first trip;

August Update

I mentioned in my last post that I was "holding back on recent developments".....

Well 335 has once again been fixed [following the power steering failure] and so I've been taking it out on a few 'proving runs', which gradually get longer and increase the varying road conditions each time. The first half hour run went well and we actually made it back home without breaking down!

We then did a 45 minute run - again no issues and we got home without breaking down. Thinking we might have finally turned the corner and seen the back of the constant breakdowns, I'd planned to do a 1 hour 30 minute run.........this didn't go down well with 335 and it decided, after about 10 minutes of trouble free driving, that once top speed is reached it'll change down to second gear by itself. Arrrggghhhhh!!

I'm currently awaiting a diagnostics specialist to have a look and see what's going on......

Meanwhile, I thought I'd crack on with sorting the offside body and framework on 302 and it I wasn't expecting it to be too bad - should be easily done in a month right? Wrong!!

As the images below show, one of the windows exploded whilst we were taking them out - literally. Whilst we had it partially out, nobody was actually touching it when it went; as I was outside the vehicle getting ready to receive it, I got covered in broken glass and gained a few cuts - lesson learned - in future I'll make sure as much skin as possible is covered when fitting or removing windows! This does however present a serious problem - there's only six of this type of bodywork still in existence, and a couple of bus & coach suppliers have already said they can't help with a replacement........

To make matters worse, it turns out the framework on the offside is actually far worse than the nearside was - in particular there's a structural piece of box section over the rear wheel arch that is completely missing! This may explain why the window exploded.

Sorry about the angle of the two lower images - 302 was blocked in on the day I took them.

Buses Magazine

I'm a bit out of date with this blog but I'm gonna hold back on recent developments for now....

I had a phone call yesterday giving me the 'heads up' that 335 is in September's Buses Magazine, photographed during its visit to the North Weald rally.

Now I was expecting to find it in some sort of panoramic view, or perhaps lurking in the background behind another vehicle that was being featured - so to say I was surprised to see it was the 'main event' was something of an understatement!

Despite all the breakdowns and trouble its given me (and ignoring the fact she actually came back from North Weald on the back of a tow truck), I have to say I'm rather proud to see P335ROO chosen by Buses magazine to appear in their 'Preservation Update' section. It is equally pleasing to read their positive comments and makes all the hard work, time and money that I've invested worthwhile. I wonder if 302 will manage the same feat when its finished????

In the mean time, here's the article in question: