Take a Seat

Fitting seats to the bus is pretty much the thing you do on the last day; the seats just get in the way of doing everything else, like putting in handrails, buzzer pull cords, interior trims, windows, etc.

So with all those things seen to, it is time to revisit the seats. These have been coming together for a long time, since a set of seat frames was scrounged from the collection of old ones at Tempe Museum, destined for the scrap heap. They had their legs inset 6 inches from the aisle, being from post war deckers, so all legs were cut off with the angle grinder, and welded back on flush with the aisle end. Then all the seat tops, in their rusty chrome, were cut off using a jig to ensure each cut was identical. Having been in the weather for some time they were pretty rough looking, but a friend who just happens to own a sand blasting and powder coating business offered with great generosity to refinish them. That done, they just sat, immaculate in their glossy brown, stacked up in the workshop for a couple of years.
New seat tops were made this year, and sent to the plater along with all the other hundred or so bright parts. Tempe yielded a set of seat cushions, all about 50 years old so the Dunlopillo had turned to black crumbs, and a couple of good seat backs to act as a pattern for making new ones.
So all was on hand: frames, tops, cushions and backs, and the great moment arrived: virtually the last stage of the whole restoration.


SLEEVES HAVE BEEN TURNED TO DIAMETER (FROM OLD MALLEYS WHIRLPOOL SPIN TUBES) SO THAT THEY ARE A PRESS FIT IN BOTH THE NEW SEAT TOP AND THE REFURBISHED SEAT FRAME. THEY ARE BEING KNOCKED INTO THE SEAT TOP BY WHACKING ONTO A SOLID BLOCK OF WOOD.
THE TOPS THEMSELVES ARE ALL NEW, MADE OF 1.25 INCH STEEL TUBE, BENT TO SHAPE BY A SPECIALIST TUBE BENDER. STEEL LUGS, CUT BY LASER AT QUITE MODEST COST, I THEN WELDED ONTO EACH TOP, BEFORE SENDING IT FOR POLISHING AND PLATING. This process is easier and cheaper than trying to replate just the top of the old seat frame. And the old seat tops were quite badly pitted from salt left by sweaty palms over decades, so that polishing them was well nigh impossible. I tried once.

USING A LEATHER FACED HAMMER, CUSHIONED WITH SOME OF THE WRAPPING PROVIDED FOR THE NEWLY-PLATED SEAT TOPS BY SWIFT ELECTROPLATERS, TO PRESS THE SLEEVES INTO THE SEAT FRAME ON EACH SIDE. The seat frames were sand blasted and powder coated by my friend Phil Dixon in Parkes.

USING THE LEATHER HAMMER, THE SEAT BACK IS TAPPED SNUGLY INTO POSITION IN THE FRAME. The seat backs are mostly new, with some exceptions, made from 2"x1" wood, covered with Masonite, Scumbled to give the leather-look paint finish, then upholstered. The shiny bit along the corner is 1/2" crescent section aluminium, drilled and nailed onto the seat back to prevent scuffing of the upholstery edge by hands hastily grabbing the seat as the bus lurches.

USING THE DRILL AS A SCREWDRIVER, NEW SCREWS ARE USED TO SECURE THE SEAT BACK AFTER DRILLING CLEARANCE HOLES THROUGH THE MASONITE INTO THE WOOD FRAME. AFTER A VAGUE ALLOWANCE FOR THICKNESS OF UPHOLSTERY, AND THE UNCERTAIN FINAL SIZE AND SHAPE OF FRAME AFTER ALL IT HAS BEEN THROUGH, THE NEAT FIT OF THE SEAT BACK INTO ITS FRAME IS A PLEASANT SURPRISE! The process will consume nearly 200 screws.

THE FIRST COMPLETED SEAT AWAITS ONLY BOLTING TO THE FLOOR AND WALL, AND A SEAT CUSHION WHICH JUST DROPS INTO POSITION.

Fitting out the Interior

The last few weeks have been like a 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle.Nearly all the parts were there, but needed to be matched to existing holes in the bodywork, or new holes made. And some parts had to be made, where it suddenly emerged that they were missing.
First step was to lay the malthoid flooring to the bottom deck floor and rear platform. These had been left bare so that paint spots could fall from ceiling and framing without causing a mess.
Then all the glass panes could go in: twenty windows along the sides top and bottom, made up of one fixed pane and one sliding pane each, the drop windows at front upstairs and behind the engine bay downstairs, fixed and sliding panes beside and behind the driver, and the fixed pane at the back of the lower saloon.

MALTHOID ON THE FLOOR DOWNSTAIRS AND GLASS IN PLACE IN THE FRONT BULKHEAD. Some of the 2,000-odd screws are visible. Regular visits to Bomond Trading, Brookvale, have had to happen as I surprised myself by running out of the required screws: 8 gauge and 10-gauge, pan head and countersunk head, but above all, with slotted heads. Phillips screws just weren't around in 1937, and now it's getting hard to find slotted screws because everyone wants the easier Phillips head type, which don't let your screwdriver slip off and go skidding across your nice new paintwork.
I was moved to count all the panes: there are 69 altogether, including ten in the driver's cab alone. Rather surprisingly I found the ones behind the driver, which were missing 20 years ago (see Archive: First Find the Bus to Restore, June 2006) and of which I had found one to use as a pattern for cutting the three new ones which were needed, were all about 15mm too tall! My pattern had been from a post-war decker; pre-war windows are smaller......
More than one visit to Tempe, with camera, was needed to explore the relatively untouched, but unrestored, Leyland TD5 there, no. 1438. Thus was it possible to find just how certain mystery items slotted together, and to identify pieces which were just missing from my stock of bits.

A SHOT TAKEN INSIDE m/o 1438, THE UNRESTORED 1938 LEYLAND DECKER AT THE MUSEUM. THE SLIDING PANES BEHIND THE DRIVER ARE AT RIGHT, THE DROP WINDOWS BEHIND THE ENGINE AT LEFT. THERE IS NO COVER STRIP OVER THE JOIN BETWEEN TWO SHEETS OF MASONITE ACROSS THE FRONT WALL! THIS SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN STANDARD PRACTICE.
Even the sliding panes behind the driver are a moot point: there is a view that the far right hand pair were not even fitted in these buses as built. And when they were fitted it was as a pair: post war buses have one large pane which slides to the left and allows the conductor to hang his head and shoulders into the cab to discuss the events of the day. Now that 1379's cab has its right hand side panes fitted, you can hardly get your head through the aperture, let alone shoulders.


Click on a photo to enlarge it.
THE CHANNEL SECTION TRIM AROUND THE TRIANGLE WINDOW IS VISIBLE, AND AN ABSOLUTE DOG TO FIT.. It has to fit snugly into the scumbled Masonite hardboard panel, be spaced away from the hidden steel framing with wood blocks of varying thicknesses so the screws don't crush the soft aluminium channel, and hopefully it hides the edges of the glass and the putty. In the event, the putty shows from the inside on most of them. Disappointing and hard to fix. After eight such trims (four on each deck) I was getting better at these and then there were no more to do.....
And so a pattern began to emerge: decide on the order of assembly, then learn how to go about the process of fitting of a particular group of parts. No sooner were they all in, than it was time to move on to a new group of parts and learn how they should go in.

THERE IS NO SAYING THAT THESE PHOTOS SHOW THE ORIGINAL CONDITION OF m/o1438; IT HAS BEEN OVERHAULED AT LEAST THREE TIMES IN THE GOVERNMENT'S WORKSHOPS, BUT IT'S THE NEAREST GUIDE AVAILABLE TO THE LIKELY APPEARANCE OF A 1937/38 DOUBLE DECKER'S INTERIOR. THIS SHOWS THE COVER STRIP OVER THE JOIN BETWEEN TWO SHEETS OF MASONITE, THE CAPPING ALONG THE TOP OF THE MASONITE, THE PILLAR CAP AND ITS LITTLE INSERT ACTING AS THE COVER OVER THE JOIN IN THE CAPPING STRIP.
The interior trims consist of: masonite lining, finished with a scumbled paint effect to simulate leatherette; metal trims, or cappings, along the top of all these panels, which hook over the raised inner edges of the waist rail cappings where the window panes sit; channel-section curved trims fitting around the triangular windows at each end of top and bottom decks; steel pillar caps which incorporate little rubber buffers to stop the sliding panes hitting them; various valances mostly around the tops of windows; cover strips over joins in masonite; the massive longitudinal mouldings acting as advertsement holders and wiring conduits; and large vinyl-covered curved liners inside the roof domes at the rear upstairs, made of heavy cardboard.
MOST OF THESE CAN BE SEEN IN THIS VIEW UPSTAIRS:

THE TOP DECK LOOKING FORWARD. The steel mouldings which act as racks for advertisement boards, with the lower one also concealing wiring to the interior lights, are going in above the windows.
The metal cappping trims along the top of the interior lining are new, as is the lining, and in most cases the sill into which they are attached is new too, so it was a matter of learning how best to find the position for the new screw hole and then getting to work on them all, bottom deck then top deck.
I found a material called Customwood which was virtually identical to the original and had it covered by an upholsterer, who put in the necessary piped edge where they meet the rear window upstairs. The stuff bends easily and is really more like coardboard than wood.

THE OFFSIDE TOP DECK. The vinyl covered Customwood lining carries a light and the frame to hold the convex mirror which allows the conductor a good view of goings-on on the top deck, from his position on the back platform. Along the top edge of the vinyl are two cappings: why not one piece? I'm not sure. The front one is steel, the rear is some more Customwood covered with vinyl, which leads into the metal valance over the emergency window.

THE DISTANT VIEW OF THE SAME CORNER SHOWS THE CAST ALUMINIUM STAIR TREADS IN PLACE, AND THE TWO STANCHIONS AT THE HEAD OF THE STAIRS. THE ONE ON THE RIGHT WILL CARRY A CURVED HANDRAIL RISING FROM THE BOTTOM DECK. The scumbled masonite gives way to the steel lining of the stair well. The vinyl covered Customwood trims to each side of the emergency exit window have piped edges where they meet the window. These panels were made of steel in post-war deckers.


ON THE TOP DECK LOOKING FORWARD. THE VALANCES ABOVE THE TRIANGLE PANE AND THE FRONT DROP WINDOWS ARE IN. THE LITTLE BLACK DOTS IN THE EDGE OF THE PILLAR CAP ARE THE RUBBER BUFFERS. David Wilson once again was able to provide the essential, genuine, item: a set of about 40 new rubbers to fit to the pillar caps.


ON THE BOTTOM DECK, RIGHT HAND REAR. AT THE OFFSIDE BOTTOM DECK, BAY 7, OR OSB7 IN BODYBUILDER'S SHORTHAND.
THE FLOOR AROUND THE BASE OF THE REAR WHEEL ARCH HAS MALTHOID LAID, AND THE MASONITE LINING IS IN, WITH ITS CAPPING STRIPS. THE EMBOSSED CAP ON THE VERTICAL PILLAR HAS A LITTLE EXTENSION IN ITS BASE TO ACT AS A COVER FOR THE JOINT IN THE CAPPING STRIPS.

AUTOVAC UPDATE

Mmmmmmm. After trying to buy some sort of synthetic oil-proof gasket material and being offered nitrile sheet at $68 a roll, I thought of more basic materials. Cork.
I found I had some 4mm. thick cork sheet left over from making a rocker cover gasket for something years ago. So the sticky gummy mess of rubber has been cleaned out of the three-way cock and cork carefully cut and drilled to fit snugly. Not an instant cure but there is still some adjustment left on the securing nut.....

New Photo

This brilliant shot of m/o 1379 came to me from David Wilson recently, but was taken by David Taylor in about 1960 at Burwood depot in the inner west of Sydney, on Parramatta Road.
At this stage 1379 was in use as a driver trainer, as was m/o 1244, behind it to the right. These two would probably have been the oldest buses in the fleet, and were kept for training new recruits to handle the few Government Transport buses still with crash gearboxes. By 1960 the majority of the fleet consisted of double deckers with preselector or synchromesh gearboxes, and underfloor-engined single deckers also with preselector transmissions.
But at Brookvale, on the Northern Beaches routes, there were still the Albions, with crash boxes, so for some strange reason Burwood drivers had to learn the techniques of the crash box.
The bus to the left is a Leyland model OPD2, dating from about 1950. The two old girls date from the mid-1930s.

Firing (?) Up The Electrics

Well over a year ago, before our departure for UK, the cab wiring had been brought up to the point where starter, turn indicator, brake and parking lights would work but the interior lamps had been left as loops of wire hanging out of the bodywork. Their fuses had been pulled so that short circuits were avoided. Fuses are there for the good reason that if serious shorts occur, the fuse blows and cuts off power to that circuit before the bus catches on fire. You hope.
Once the ceilings had been painted, interior lamps could be fitted, along with buzzer pushes. As I came to fit the second buzzer push, downstairs on the left of the arched entry to the lower saloon, I noticed a gentle spark as the wire stripper bit into the second of the two wires. Odd, I thought: the fuse for that circuit isn't even installed. So I went to the cab, inserted a few of the seven fuses mounted on the bulkhead above and behind the driver's seat, to see what was what.
When I turned the driver's cab light on, the horn blew! Oh hell......
I had ghastly visions of wiring, fitted anything up to two years ago, having been penetrated by drilling and screwing to fit some body part, and so shorted to the body. Or, had I badly misinterpreted the peculiar separation of the four battery connections, which allow for 12 volt lighting (batteries in parallel) and 24 volt starting (batteries in series)? Don't panic, I thought, breathe deeply, go about this in a methodical way.....
Bit by bit, I checked circuits with a multimeter, and found that there was a dead short of the negative terminals of both batteries to the body. This should not be: the system uses two wires, a negative and a positive, for everything. So nothing, negative or positive, should ever contact the frame of the vehicle. (Unlike all motor cars of the last 60 years or more, which use the body as the return, so that only one wire is needed for each electrical item).
Proceeding along all the negative connections I eventually found the offender: the blinkers. These are off the shelf, car part shop specials, designed for using the body as the return half of the circuit, and so had had to be insulated from the body with fibre or plastic washers and sleeves. In the rush to get the bus mobile again at Loftus and get it back here, I had refitted the blinker near the driver's door with a discoloured steel washer, which looked like a fibre washer, and there was my dead short to ground (or body).

THE BLINKER BEHIND THE DRIVERS CAB DOOR. THE TWO PHILLIPS SCREWS HOLD THE FITTING TO THE BODY, AND ARE NOW CORRECTLY SECURED WITH RED FIBRE WASHERS. Don't tell anybody that there are Phillips screws here: historical accuracy demands that they be slotted head screws. Phillips had not been invented in 1937. When the orange lens is fitted they are out of sight.
Yet with that fixed, there was still a short circuit from the buzzer push wiring, to ground. Was there a bit of wire crunched between two body parts, and making contact with the frame? I desperately hoped not. There would be a lot of dismantling to get at that. So far I had only fitted one push switch, the one at the head of the stairs. I pulled it out, and tested again: short gone. The hole for the push switch was just that little bit tight, and with the "new" switch of appropriate appearance wired and fitted, there must have been just a vestige of contact with the surrounding metal. Phew.

THE CONDUCTOR'S BUZZER PUSH AT THE HEAD OF THE STAIRS. IF YOU THINK THE INTERIOR FITTING-OUT IS A BIT ROUGH HERE, IT IS: THESE BUSES WERE PUSHED OUT AT THE RATE OF TWO A WEEK TO DO A JOB. CARRY PEOPLE.
How could this have blown the horn?
Once I had sorted out the non-working interior lights: another story, but suffice it to say that fuses that after 50 years looked all right, weren't. Some had fuse wire that was corroded through where you couldn't see it. And one light switch made the right cliccking noise but no electrical contact. So, with new fuse wire all round, and one switch removed, cleaned and refitted, the interior lights worked, the cab light worked and didn't blow the horn, and the buzzer worked.


THESE TWO SHOTS OF THE LOWER DECK WERE TAKEN WITHIN SECONDS OF EACHOTHER, WITH THE INTERIOR LIGHTS ON, AND WITH THE SAME CAMERA SETTINGS. THEY CAME OUT QUITE DIFFERENTLY. The level of illumination is in keeping with the period: there are six lamps downstairs, each of 12 watts, making 72 watts in total. Not even the power of a 75-watt domestic bulb for the entire space!
The buzzer I now found was buzzing so well it sounded more like a horn: it had been the noise when the cab light was turned on, not the horn. The buzzer is adjustable, and on the bench I had adjusted it to its maximum, but fitted to the cab wall with all that metal to resonate against, it nearly made me jump out of my seat. the horn doesn't sound much different. Now it just hums politely.

THE BUZZER WITH ITS COVER OFF. The screw and nut in the centre of the circular diaphragm is the adjuster. In for louder, out for quieter.
I can see why drivers complained about the buzzer, and why post-war it was changed to a bell, which is more musical, and can be heard by driver, and passengers, and conductor, without having to be loud.
The scale of the buzzer is impressive: it is housed in a solid cast aluminium box, the electromagnet which operates it is the size of one of those tiny marmalade jars one gets in sets from Scotland, and it will last forever. Your mobile phone can produce hundreds of different ring tones, show pictures, send texts, etc etc and is about the same size. Technology....

Not the Autovac Again

About three months ago I thought I had the leaking Autovac stopcock problem solved, using rubber as the material for the sealing washer. It was uncertain whether that rubber would be resistant to attack from diesel oil: it isn't. The thing is leaking again and the rubber edge leaves black on your finger tip.

The tip of rubber can be seen poking out of the circular body of the three-way cock on the right. Unfortunately I didn't make the camera focus on the stop-cock: the engine cover took precedence. But if you click on the photo you can just see that on the hexagonal mounting flange above it says "OFF", and "RESERVE" to the right. On the face to the left out of sight it says "RUN". That is what the cock is for: to provide a reserve supply if you run out of fuel on the road. Seeing that all Government buses were refuelled without fail at the end of every shift, and had 35 or 40 gallon fuel tanks, it was a feature unlikely ever to be used.
Next try: use rubber from a piece of an old tyre inner tube, cadged from the tyre service. This should be butyl rubber and oil-resistant. If not, high quality cork sheeting may have to be resorted to: the original was this material but it's not easy to find nowadays.
The Autovac is such an integral part of Leylands of the mid-1930s and the three-way cock so inseparable from it, that whatever the problem it will be overcome.

Where Do You Get the Parts?

A frequently asked question, by friends, visitors, strangers on learning what is being restored, is "Where do you get the parts?" Always in those exact words.
At first I was taken aback by the question and would say "Oh, from wherever.." but slowly learned to explain that parts when needed are one of the following: either you buy then from a hardware shop like Bunnings, a specialist fastener supplier or a motor spares shop like Auto-One, or you make them, or they are provided by friends here or in the UK who have had the foresight to preserve such things from other, derelict, vehicles of the era, or they are made to order by specialist trades, or they are cannibalised from another bus, or they come from my stash of oddments collected over years, bower bird fashion. For 35 years I have compulsively hoarded anything that looked useful. Bits of wood, metal, nuts, bolts, screws, wire, pipe, tube, electrical fiitings you name it, and unbelievably the collection just keeps coming up trumps.
Having just had the task with my brother and sister of clearing out our parents' home in Canberra with its 50 years of accumulated treasure, I am very mindful of what awaits my children when I shuffle off. I don't imagine they will see my hoard as the priceless treasure it is, so the question is how and when to downsize!

A case in point is this:

Under the staircase is a luggage area. Its front wall is the bulkhead to the left in this shot. Out of sight to the right under the stairs is a doorway to the unused space under the first four steps. A look at the TD5 in the collection at Sydney Bus Museum, Tempe revealed that there is a door here, missing from 379. Chances of finding another are zero, so a new one was made from sheet steel, with a half-round swage rolled in it, and so-called wired edges: ie the sharp edges of the steel rolled over 3/16" wire all around the circumference. Brian Mantle told me the trick to this: allow 3x the diameter of the wire, and cut to that depth into a piece of 1/2" steel bar with a hacksaw. Pushing the bar over the cut edge, lift it up to form a lip all the way around the sheet, lay the wire into the lip and tap with a small hammer so that the steel rolls over the wire. Bingo: a wired edge.

In all its red glory this is the door, with wired edge, swaged rib an inch or two in from the edge all around to stiffen it, and to be a bit decorative, and with a DRTT-pattern latch and butterfly hinges taken from an old destination display hatch out of an early underfloor-engined single decker sold for scrap. The other side is painted brown, to fit in with the convention that red is exterior, brown is interior.

After Painting: the Bright and the Dark Side Revealed

Safely back in the garage at Turramurra, work on fitting all the bright parts could begin, and the job of applying Malthoid flooring to the bottom deck and rear platform.

THE BOTTOM DECK IS PARTIALLY RECOVERED IN ITS ORIGINAL 1937 FLOORING MATERIAL, MALTHOID. TODAY ONE CAN ONLY BUY TWO-PLY MALTHOID, WHEREAS WADDINGTONS USED 5-PLY. SO A FIRST LAYER OF THE 2-PLY ROOFING MATERIAL IS LAID FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER COAT OF BRUSH-ON SEALER AND THEN A LAYER OF THE DAMP COURSING WHICH HAS A SANDY FINISH. THE RESULT LOOKS THE SAME AS THE ORIGINAL AND IS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME THICKNESS. The centre aisle however has been laid with a single thickness of 5-ply from a roll 12" wide which came to me from I forget where years ago. The same roll has provided all the malthoid for stair treads, so I suspect it was a Government bus workshops stock item for just these purposes. In the distance it can be seen that the clutch housing does not align with the centre of the floor aisle: the engine, gearbox, drive line and differential are all offset to the left.
It is mildly amazing to me that a product like Malthoid is still around today, after being on the market for at least 80-90 years, maybe more. Today it is known as a roofing or damp coursing material, whereas in 1937 it was widely used for flooring, being waterproof and non-slip and hardwearing. It is bituminous woollen felt, dusted with sand if it is to be used as damp coursing. It was in this guise that it was used as flooring for all Sydney's buses in the 1930s 40s and 50s. Elsewhere in the world it is known as Pabco, Ruberoid, Ormonoid, and many other brand names. To hold it down one uses cut tacks and bitumen sealer in brushing form, and this stuff also does well as a preservative of the wooden floor boards: the bottom deck floor is original, after 70 years. A four litre can of sealer set me back $32 at Bunnings, plus 5 litres of turps to keep the brush clean. Also from Bunnings came blued cut tacks: an item of hardware not as easily found today it was 20 years ago.
Laying Malthoid is dusty, dirty, messy and not my favourite activity, but once done it is there for the next 50 years or so!

AROUND THE BOXES ENCLOSING THE REAR WHEELS AND DIFFERENTIAL WAS AN EDGING OF RIBBED RUBBER MOULDING. MY FRIEND DAVID WILSON IN HIS INFINITE WISDOM MANAGED TO SNAFFLE SOME STOCK OF THIS FROM THE GOVERNMENT BUS WORKSHOPS BEFORE THEY CLOSED THIRTY YEARS AGO, AND HERE IT IS, FORMING A CUSHIONED WEARING EDGE TO THE BOXING. IT IS TACKED IN POSTION AND THE MALTHOID IS LAID OVER IT, UP TO THE EDGE OF THE RIBBING. The hole in the top of the left hand box is an access hatch to the differential oil filler. In all English double deckers of the period, the drive line is offset to the left to keep the centre aisle floor level low.

Wheel boxes largely complete, and the hatch in place over the diff oil filler. Nearly ready for passengers to trample it down.
The other side of recent activity is fitting all the lovely chrome plated fittings for hand rails and posts, signal arm, sun visor etc.

ON THE BACK PLATFORM, SOME OF THE MANY HANDRAILS AND POSTS HAVE APPEARED. THE CENTRE ONE NEAREST THE CAMERA WILL NOT BE FITTED UNTIL ALL THE SEATS HAVE BEEN CARRIED INSIDE. THIS WILL BE ONE OF THE LAST THINGS TO HAPPEN, AS SEATS JUST GET IN THE WAY OF OTHER THINGS. THE RAILS UP THE STAIRCASE, WHICH WERE MISSING FROM THE BUS AS RECEIVED, WILL BE BENT FROM NEW TUBING USING THE ONES FROM ALBION 1615 AS PATTERNS. Compare this shot with the one of m/o 1629 taken in 1938, below, in "A Blaze of Colour". NOTE: You can save any of these photos to your own computer by clicking on the picture and, holding the mouse clicked, dragging the shot to your own desktop.

ANOTHER BRIGHT SPOT AMIDST THE GLOOM OF MALTHOID IS THE COVER OVER THE CLUTCH AND GEARBOX. LEYLAND WERE NOT AVERSE TO USING THIS AS A CHANCE TO ADVERTISE THEIR NAME, SO THE WORD APPEARS IN FLOWING SCRIPT ON AN ALUMINIUM ALLOY CASTING WHICH IS HIGHLY AMENABLE TO POLISHING. USING A BRASS-BRISTLE WIRE BRUSH IN AN ANGLE GRINDER THE WORST OF THE CORROSION AND SCRATCHES CAME OFF EASILY AND A BIT OF COARSE WETAND DRY FOLLOWED BY A FINER GRADE, THEN A STEEL WOOL SOAP PAD, THEN METAL POLISH BROUGHT IT UP FAIRLY WELL. A PROFESSIONAL POLISHER COULD HAVE MADE IT LOOK LIKE A MIRROR, BUT THEY WERE NOT LIKE THAT IN 1937.

The Result Exceeds Expectations!

Early Sunday morning I left home to catch the train to Central, and bus to Loftus (Track work meant no trains on the Illawarra Line). In the workshop where the painting was done the bus had been turned around the previous day after being moved to allow shunting of trams. The rear view is one I had not seen before. The gloss on that red is a treat to behold.

Rob Gregor the painter had come with his wife Pat and a friend with whom Rob been a NSW Railways coach painting apprentice 40 years ago, to see the painted bus emerge. Rob and I stand in front of our proud creation.
The finish on all panels is wonderful and a tribute to Rob's old-fashioned art of coach painting which can achieve a result akin to a spray job, but using a brush.

On Sunday 8th October I saw the finished bus outside in bright sunlight; it's better than I had ever hoped for.

Near the entrance to Sydney Tramway Museum, 1379 poses outside the facade of the YMCA Building from Pitt/Bathurst Streets City, beside a Sydney P Class tram of the 1920s. The two, in these colours, would have been seen together in Sydney streets throughout the 1930s and 40s. photo: Ian Kates

From Loftus up the Princes Highway to Tempe, and the Bus Museum, where two new tyres have to be fitted. For many years the bus has sat on four tyres instead of the normal six, so two old tyres came off the front wheels, to be replaced with new, and to be fitted to the rear so as to have two on each rear wheel.

The tyre fitting press at Tempe Bus Museum makes removing and fitting tyres a lot easier than bashing away by hand. Ian Mair generously gave his time to help with this job.
The tyres came from China (at $180 each, with tubes and rust bands): on one side they are branded "Double Star". On the other they carry a raft of Chinese characters, so trouble was taken to ensure that they were fitted to the rims with the English facing outwards, despite this being not exactly 1937 wording. However the story is that the moulds for these tyres are the original Olympic Trojan ones from Australia, sold to the Chinese, and therefore quite in character for tyres used on this bus during its life. Certainly the tread pattern is that of an Olympic Trojan tyre. Given the mileage this bus will do, they are ideal.

The tricky job begins of reversing off Bobbin Head Road down the drive into the workshop.
The run from Loftus has been a treat. The bus runs quietly, smoothly and at last I have got the hang of the gearchange, even to the point of doing it without the clutch, timing the change by the sound of the engine and allowing for road speed. The steering is light and precise, and the engine hums like a sewing machine, but being a Leyland 8.6 litre it has that wonderful howl at higher revs, produced by the gears driving the overhead camshaft. The only reason I am restoring this bus is to hear that sound again.

Back at Turramurra Works in Bobbin Head Road, after an absence of four weeks. Now to fit flooring, windows, seats, handrails, plated fittings and interior trims and interior lights.

Before and After

Over the engine bay the cant rail was bad. The new front header rail, the side one, the ceiling and the gussets are now resplendent in cream.


Meanwhile on the driver's side the story was much the same. I admit that the mirror is not of the 1930s pattern: it is the larger post-war one, but much the safer for it, yet still about 50 years old in design. (instead of 70).


Soon after arrival at Turramurra from Tempe in 1996, the bare frame, engine and chassis was steam cleaned prior to beginning major frame repairs. Now the headlight is back in its 1937 position, and somehow the red livery looks far more dazzling than any black and white photo of that era.


With the cab floor out it was easy to stand on the ground to attend to all the many aspects of the drivers cab: wiring, controls, stripping of paint, and the drivers seat.


Upstairs, viewed from the stairwell, the distinctive pre-war corrugated kick plates now cover all the repairs to the framing, and the massive angled brackets holding the top deck down to the floor are now painted in their correct brown.


On the back platform all traces of post war green have gone, and the panels await nothing but the black lining below the windows and between colours.

A Blaze of Colour

As the red and cream go onto the outside at last, after doing a myriad of small details inside and on loose components which will get fitted later, the realisation dawns that photos of pre-war buses in black and white simply do not do justice. The effect is dazzling. The sight of hundreds of these buses in red and cream on the city streets in the 1930s must have been quite uplifting.


MY FIRST BOO-BOO AS PAINT PROJECT MANAGER: I FORGOT THAT THE CREAM HAS TO COME DOWN SOME WAY ONTO THE REAR PLATFORM'S FRONT BULKHEAD. THIS HAS NOW BEEN RECTIFIED, AND BLACK LINES WILL BE APPLIED, CONTINUING AROUND FROM THE SIDE PANELS.

AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOORWAY ROB APPLIES CREAM UNDERCOAT OVER THE RED SO PAINSTAKINGLY APPLIED ONLY A FEW DAYS AGO. The watering can is to apply water to the floor to keep dust down.


The same view of a bus newly bodied by Waddington, showing how the lines fit in. One difference is that as built, this bus has no conductor's box, which is the triangular door visible in its open position in the colour photos above. In the John Dunn book about Waddingtons/Comeng, this bus has been identified as number 629, a Leyland TD5 built in mid-1938. If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you can see that the entry way to the lower deck is not arched: it is the later angle-braced type.



WHILE ROB BEAVERS AWAY ABOVE, I TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO REMOVE THE TROUBLESOME VIBRATION DAMPER (THE LARGE ROUND THING AT LEFT). The damper itself proved to be fine; the looseness and severe vibration is from the flange mounted on the shaft coming out of the centre bearing (the smaller round thing to left of centre). Rather surprisingly this flange is splined onto the shaft, not mounted on a tapered section of shaft with a key to keep it rotating firmly on the shaft. All I could do was tighten up the retaining nut, now hidden back inside the damper, with a fat spring washer to discourage it from loosening until something can be done. Maybe an Albion drive flange, which does mount onto a keyed taper, can be used if the shaft coming out of the centre bearing can be ground to a taper and a keyway milled in.

September 29th:
(click on any photo to enlarge it)

The last three bays of red top coat go on the upper deck. Rob is wearing disposable paper overalls to minimise dust risk.

The red paint is beautiful stuff: as supplied to the London Transport Executive, it is that red used on the classic London bus, and is specifically for brushing. It dries more slowly than spraying enamel and gives the painter time to lay off or touch up as required. This can of red has been in stock for over fifteen years but has not deteriorated in any way.

The roof, the top deck windows, and the cream around the lower deck windows are all done. Now only the final coat has yet to go on the lower deck red panels, but after the long weekend (Labour Day), Rob will undertake the black lines which separate the bands of colour.

Before applying the red to the lower deck, Rob masks the cream above so that splashes from the brush do not mar the fresh paint.

Starting the final coat of red for the bottom deck; laying off vertically after making a heavy application of paint, spreading it horizontally, and going around the edges of the panel. In Rob's left hand is a small 1" brush to touch up around rivet heads, along the raised swages in the panels, and near the masking tape.