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.

PAINTING BEGINS!

A massive gap in the smooth flow of restoration was ended on Monday September 11th 2006.
Rob Gregor, a professional bus painter with the Port Botany depot of the State Transit Authority of NSW, took some long service leave and began work.
Thanks to the good offices of the Sydney Tram Museum at Loftus, the work is being carried out in an annexe to their workshops, where there is space to erect scaffolds for access to the high up panels, and a well-lit area. Unfortunately it was soon found to be a very dusty area, and the first items to receive paint, some interior pillar covers, showed fearful dust contamination after sitting to dry. So with my trusty aide Craig Parkinson, we moved the bus outside, washed it down and then hosed out the interior of the annexe, which exorcised the demon dust. Next step was to acquire some undercoat to mix 50/50 with colour to make a first coat. And a large quantity of Prepsol, to remove wax and grease and dirt from the surfaces to be painted.
A first try at full painting of a test panel was not very encouraging, as there were very visible brush marks in the final finish. The rear of the same panel was cleaned up and at the second try the result was satisfactory.

ROB, THE BUS, THE ANNEXE AND THE SECOND TEST PANEL SHOWING THE FINAL RED OF THE MAIN PANELS OF THE BUS.
Not seen are about 100 small items of mainly interior trim, pillar covers, advertisement racks, window trims, etc. painted in the brown paint from Scotland, called Nussbraun, "Nut Brown"; I believe the paint was made in Holland, and sent out to me at great expense in freight by my friend Paul Adams of Albion restoration fame (see links: Restoring a Sydney Albion).
However it is beautiful paint which flows out perfectly, leaving no brush marks and dries not too quickly, so there is time to 'lay off': ie do a series of smooth downward brush strokes with a very broad brush to remove excess paint and leave the painted surface evenly coated. Thinking about it, I think it's bit like the difference between Belgian chocolate and some others: the consistency is incredibly smooth, achieved by microfining the particles of colour.
There is a another dimension to the bus' presence at Loftus. Tuesday September 19th is the occasion of the launch of a book by John Dunn, a history of Comeng (Commonwealth Engineering) which in a previous incarnation was Waddington's Ltd, builders of the body of this bus. The speaker will be ex-MP Tim Fischer, and the bus will be a fine example of a pre-war Waddington body. The book is available from the bookshops of both Sydney Tramway Museum and Sydney Bus Museum, at $59-95 plus postage. It is lavishly illustrated with cars, buses, railway carriages and locomotives, steam and diesel, by Commonwealth and its predecessors.

IN THE BELIEF THAT PAINTING WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE AT LEAST 18 MONTHS AGO, I HAD STRIPPED THE ROOF OF ALL PAINT AND LEFT IT BARE. Unfortunately the metal strips covering the joints between the aluminium roof panels are steel, and they had a heavy film of rust on them, so Rob is seen here coating them with metal primer. The gutter visible here was full of dust and has been vacuumed clean.


THE SAME SCENE, WHERE ROB HAS PROGRESSED TO THE REAR OF THE ROOF WHICH HAS BEEN CLEANED ALL OVER WITH PREPSOL TO REMOVE DIRT, WAX AND GREASE.


SYDNEY HAD JUST HAD A WEEK OF VERY HEAVY RAIN; ABOUT 5 INCHES HAD FALLEN TO EVERYBODY'S RELIEF, AND IT FINED UP JUST AS OUR PAINT JOB BEGAN. If not, drying of the gloss paint could have been affected. Here Rob begins the job of applying a mix of 50/50 undercoat and gloss brown to the roof.


Some of the hundred or so small items of interior trim in brown: the ones on the left hold safety rails along the nearside top deck windows. The DRTT got sick of passengers losing arms and heads by leaning out as the bus passed a shop awning or tree.

The distinctive "Camperdown" arched entry to the lower deck saloon. Very soon after this bus, the entry became rectangular with heavy angled braces at each side.

The ceiling in the lower deck has received its undercoat and first colour coat. Sept. 18th.

Rob applies cream 50/50 undercoat to the lower saloon entry: from this point inwards the ceiling is white.

Rob squeezes into the driver's cab (minus the seat) to apply cream undercoat to the ceiling and pillars.

The ceiling over the engine bay is also cream, including the engine top cover and some of the bulkhead behind the autovac.

A view from the mezzanine floor in the main workshop, where the bus has been moved for the Comeng book launch on September 19th. The roof has had its colour coat.


THE REAR PLATFORM has acquired its final colour coats, but not the lining out in black between colours. Visible here are: LTE bus red, Nussbraun, and British Standard Colour 352, pale cream. The latter two were supplied with much effort and persistence by my dear friend Paul Adams in Paisley. The red had been acquired by David Wilson for use on the London RT bus and other Sydney pre-war buses at Tempe Museum.

THE DRIVERS CAB IN FINAL COLOUR: the door has yet to be done , also in brown around the frame. The complexities of the colour layout can be seen: I have had to use post-war buses as the pattern for this, in the absence of any early photos of 1930s bus interiors. Here's hoping......

The stair well, in brown, with the red putting in an appearance on the stair valance (?) Is that what one calls it?

By the afternoon of September 23rd really visible action had begun. Back in the annex, somewhat freer of the dust problem, undercoating of the broad surfaces on the top deck began. Rob Gregor is seen, on the rather safer hydraulic scissor lift, applying a first coat of 50/50 white undercoat and red. The cream around the windows has been done. Rule 1: start at the top and work down.

The Gearbox and Other Details.........

After the false dawn on the painting of the bus, when it went across to Smithfield in Western Sydney (under its own power) only to have a quote for $26,000 plus GST for painting in two-pack enamel, new plans are in place. It will be painted by Rob Gregor, who painted our Albion double decker 25 years ago, by brush, and so well that it still looks good and not a brush mark can be seen.
En route to Smithfield and then back to Turramurra, a nasty noise was evident in the gearbox: a clicking sound in second gear. So the gearbox came out and was overhauled here using bits gleaned from another box of the type to make one good box out of two. Click on a photo to enlarge it.


USING THE CHAIN BLOCK AND EYE BOLT IN THE SOCKET THOUGHTFULLY PROVIDED BY THE BODY BUILDERS IN THE ROOF OF THE BOTTOM DECK, THE GEARBOX, SEPARATED FROM THE ENGINE, IS HOISTED CLEAR OF THE CHASSIS INTO THE LOWER SALOON

THE APERTURE PROVIDED IN THE FLOOR OF THE BOTTOM DECK IS NOT ENOUGH TO LIFT THE GEARBOX STRAIGHT UP: AFTER LOWERING IT TO THE FLOOR IT HAS BEEN SLUNG FROM ITS REAR FLANGE AND LIFTED ON END INTO THE LOWER SALOON. FROM THERE IT NEEDED TWO MEN TO CARRY IT OUT TO THE REAR PLATFORM TO THE WORKSHOP FOR DISMANTLING

WHILE STILL IN SITU, THE GEARBOX WAS DRAINED OF OIL AND THE SIDE PLATE REMOVED. NOW, OUT OF THE CHASSIS AND RESTING ON THE LOWER DECK FLOOR, THE PROBLEM IS REVEALED. THE CENTRE PORTION OF THIS TOOTH HAS A LARGE CHIP OUT OF IT, BY WHAT MEANS IS UNCERTAIN: BECAUSE THE CHIP IS NOT AT THE FRONT OF THE GEAR IT IS UNLIKELY TO BE ROUGH ENGAGEMENT.

AFTER STEAM CLEANING THIS BECAME APPARENT: THE DATE OF ASSEMBLY, 13th DECEMBER 1938. THE BOX IS THEREFORE FROM A LEYLAND TD5, BUT AS IT IS IDENTICAL TO A TD4 BOX, IT HAS BEEN TAKEN FROM THE STORES AND FITTED AT THE BUS'S LAST OVERHAUL IN 1955. Elsewhere, on the top of the case, three sets of initials are stamped, and a type number, GB9B, and a reference number, probably its serial number. It shows the pride in workmanship that the team of three responsible for final assembly of the box, just twelve days before Christmas in 1938, have identified their job, but it may also be a means for Leyland Motors Ltd to identify those responsible if that box should have given trouble under guarantee!


AFTER DISMANTLING, STEAM CLEANING AND REPLACEMENT OF DAMAGED OR WORN PARTS, THE GEARBOX IS REASSEMBLED

VIEW FROM THE REAR OF THE BOX, PRIOR TO REFITTING THE SELECTOR MECHANISM AND THE SIDE COVER PLATE

THE GEARBOX SLUNG FROM THE CHAIN BLOCK HAS BEEN MATED BACK TO THE ENGINE AND CLUTCH HOUSING. While the box was out the opportunity was used to dismantle clean and overhaul the clutch, which showed signs of having had a birds' nest in it! It was full of wisps of grass and fluff. The pressure plate was sent away for machining smooth, although for its age it was not in bad shape with some very minor surface crazing.

RESPLENDENT IN A COAT OF SILVER PAINT THE GEARBOX AND DRIVE ARE READY TO ROLL. We can't wait to find out how it sounds and whether the clutch brake behaves itself.
Answer: the gearbox is fine but the clutch brake now works so effectively that it makes the upward gear shift quite tricky; one has to shift very fast or else fluff the change altogether. The technique, as advised by Craig, is to shift by barely depressing the clutch pedal, moving to neutral, clutch up while engine revs die away to idle, then again barely depressing the clutch move to the next gear. In other words, don't use the clutch brake at all, which comes in when the pedal is fully depressed.
The newly refurbished drive then highlighted a second noise problem: a shudder from the prop shaft and quite noticeable vibration at road speed. After arrival at Loftus a quick scramble around under the bus revealed that the vibration damper ironically is the problem: it is loose on the shaft. This will require removal of the universal joint at the centre bearing mounted on the chassis cross-member about halfway along the shaft, to expose the large nut securing the damper. As it has been loose for some time there may be some minor wear on the tapered hub of the damper, but it will enable it to be inspected closely for wear in the friction linings, and refitted in a cleaned and painted condition. This will have to wait until painting is complete because the process needs the bus to kept mobile at all times.