24th December - Progress Report

Good progress continues on RTW335 and prior to the Christmas holidays, a template for the lower deck horizontal stress panelling was fabricated and fitted. The existing stress panels, which are welded to the vertical steel frame, are all badly corroded and replacements will be in zintec metal sheet.

We wanted to get the offside of the vehicle stripped down as far as possible prior to christmas, allowing replacement steel and specialist timber to be ordered whilst keeping the nearside frame intact at this stage. The upper deck plywood ceiling panels have been removed for replacement and early in 2010 the upper deck floor panels will be replaced. This will give the staff dedicated to the project a clean sheet from which to start the re-assembly of the upper deck, whilst also being a visible milestone for the project.

The interior aluminium domes will be paint stripped and the offside cove panels have already been sent away for paint removal.

See Leon Daniel's own blog for the account of Leon and others saving RTW335
http://leondaniels.blogspot.com/2009/12/story-of-rtw335-tale-for-christmas.html