An amazing find, and developments behind the scenes 18/06/14

All has been rather quiet on the 2599 front for the last couple of weeks, with Tim and Gary both jetting off on holiday, and Paul, Calum and your blogmaster being hard at work (or attending, anyway) at our respective jobs. However, a chance find has turned up some key components that will be a big help in the restoration process, as follows:

• Replacement windscreen
• Replacement emergency window
• Replacement cab window
• Battery box (!)
• Replacement cushions for the seats
• Two replacement rear windows
• Lucas Voltage Regulator
• Two wheel rims ready to fit to the spare tyres
• Enough window rubber to replace all the old rubber around the windows
• A complete set of front brake shoes
• Replacement bulbs for all indicators and headlights

We were simply blown away to be offered such a huge range of key parts that will speed up the restoration process as we no longer have to go searching for them (some of which are very difficult to get hold of in this modern day and age), and many thanks to the persons who have supplied them to us.

In other news, many of you will recall how badly corroded the throttle supporting plate was when Gary did some mechanical work around the front of the bus (put it this way, it wasn't supporting very much!) After speaking to Tony Challons and supplying him with the relevant drawings he went away and made some enquiries, and we can now announce that a brand new support plate has been manufactured from scratch - with some minor modifications from the original design added by Gary - and will be collected at the weekend. All that remains is for Gary to drill a number of small holes in the plate, and refit it to the bus on our next visit to the farm.