An ominous sounding title...trust me, it's really not as bad as it sounds. With Tim making steady progress at the rear with the brakes, it was time to focus our attention to the front end and the matter of the corroded regions around the battery box, on which Paul, Gary and his friend Robin began to tackle on 23 August, firstly by accessing the interior to remove a number of seats and bolts to lift the floor and allow easier access to the corroded areas.
With the floor trim and boarding removed, Gary and Robin were able to expose corroded steelwork around the battery compartment, which seemed to be confined mainly to the top support frame and trapdoor surround, but the good news is that it is all repairable. After conducting an initial inspection it was decided that several of the supporting beams (which can be seen from these photos had given way) would be replaced using new steel and that other corrosion would be cut away and replaced with brand new steelwork, and a start would be made on this in a subsequent visit, covered in the next chapter of this blog...
Our initial thoughts were that we would require a new battery box itself, however on closer inspection Gary informed us that the box itself seems in good condition, with just some work to be done on the supporting areas. A plan was hatched that the rotten support beams (which in some cases didn't support much) would be cut away and replaced, and a sheet of metal would be ordered and cut to size accordingly to replace other corroded areas.
As an aside from the battery box work, the correct specification foglights also arrived from Northern Ireland during the timeframe of this post, thanks again to Robert Nogues and the Ards Bus Preservation Group for sourcing them for us. Thanks also to Gary Crosby and Robin Tilston for all their hard graft, and making significant inroads into completing another key task in our quest to return 2599 to the road.
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