Panelling commences

Repanelling commenced today on the RTW, another major step forward in the restoration phase. Next major obstacle, is tackling the corroded step riser and platform bulkhead area and getting window pans fabricated. Certainly the pictures of RT8 now completed by Ensignbus is an inspiration - we look forward to seeing RTW335 alongside RT8 when its own restoration is complete.

New floor fitted as re-framing progresses

A new lower deck floor has been fitted to RTW335 this week, whilst continued good progress on re-framing continues. The offside is now 90% complete and the nearside around 70% complete. There is still a lot of work to tackle around the front and rear ends, but it is proposed to start repanelling between the decks over the next few weeks.

Reframing makes more progress

There are times at the BusWorks, like with all restoration projects, when work appears to progress rapidly and we all smile with satisfaction, and other times when either jobs stall or visual progress (well, lack of!) gets us frustrated. RTW335 has suffered this over the last two weeks awaiting timber from our specialist joinery contractor after we overwhelmed them. Also, Andy Ashton (the lead coachbuilder on this project) has just had a well earned holiday.

Anyway, suffice to say more shaped timberwork is now arriving and Andy is once again progressing well with RTW335. See picture - ok not the most inspiring but every step brings RTW335 closer to the day it will come back to life.

We've also had good news that RTW467 may be up with us by the end of the month and we look forward to crawling all over it for the detail for RTW335. I found out from Nick Agnew (one of the owners of RTW467) that it carries the body originally on RTW335 - now there's a great coincidence!

Lower deck floor out

Work on RTW335 is again making good progress this week. The lower deck floor has been stripped out for renewal revealing the chassis underneath which is in excellent condition.

This can be attributed to 335's history with Hywema Lifts in Germany - the bus was used to demonstrate the vehicle lifts to potential clients so keeping the underframe in good clean condition was important. The floor will be replaced next week.

Lower deck re-assembly

The gap in posting updates has been twofold - partly a brief diversion of the team working on RTW335 to other projects and partly because in bus restoration there are many jobs which are laborious, unglamouress and for which there are no great picture opportunities. This describes much of the tasks of recent weeks which has seen rewiring of the lower deck and fitting of some more complex shaped timbers between decks.

Anyway, to make amends here is a view of the lower deck now with ceiling panels and aluminium cove panels refitted.

Lower deck stripped for restoration

We have now started work on the next stage of the build programme for RTW335. The lower deck has been cleared and stripped with all ceiling panels and fittings removed.

It is intended to now concentrate on getting the lower deck to the same stage as the upper deck, which will include all timber replacement, rewiring of saloon lighting, new stress panels and a new floor.

Great progress on upper deck

The basic re-assembly of the timber and steel stress panels on the upper deck of RTW335 has made great progress this week as seen in the accompanying photograph. The next stages for the upper deck would be refitting mouldings and window cappings - but it is more likely that we will now start stripping the lower deck to get it to the same stage before the detailed finishing work commences.

Because RTW335 was devoid of much original interior detail when it arrived at the Busworks, we really need another RTW to refer to. Sister vehicle RTW467 is earmarked to make the journey north to Blackpool during the Spring allowing us to extensively photograph the bus and apply this to the restoration of RTW335.