My ongoing restoration project

I am part-way through restoring a 1949 AEC Regent III Pre-select bus, Ex-Huddersfield Joint Omnibus Committee No. 225. The only survivor of a batch of 6, it is now unique in being the only surviving Northern Coachbuilders (Newcastle) postwar standard lowbridge body (a wartime utility lowbridge body exists on a vehicle at St. Helens Transport Museum, from which the body on mine was developed).
The mechaniclas are all done, apart from needing the air tank's safety valve overhauling or replacing.
Correct pattern rims have been sourced, new tyres, road springs, shackles, pins and chassis bushes fitted, the steering draglink bushes and springs replaced, and the ball-joints replaced. It's a nice tight bus now mechanically.
I am now starting in earnest on the body - It's a timber frame, flitched with steel plates under the waist rail. I've renewed all the flitch plates which needed replacing, and am now starting to make some of the timber pieces for the lower sections of the framework. The platform and 6Ft. of the floor downstairs are out, as we had to remove the side seatboxes which were almost non-existent. Hopefully the next couple of years will see good progress... I am refitting the trafficators at the front, the timber recess still being present on the offside. Flashing indicators will be fitted on a removable unit in the rear window. The destination display was modified in service to use window rubber, this is being put back to its original filleted construction, which will necessitate a new flat panel at the front.
First photo © Simon Fozard, the rest are Chris Whiteoak's and my own.

Early days in service before fleet transfers were used in Huddersfield. 1949-50.


Removal from storage in 2013, ready for a tow to Keighley Bus Museum. New platform riser plate in place. This isn't structural, it overlays the timber riser. It's thicker than the original.


Huddrsfield modified the rear-ends to conform with East Lancs bodies and fittings. The numberplate will be a rectangular one, in a pan on the lower offside. The electric indicators will be re-sited in the rear window, and the original brake & tail lights will be above the numberplate. I will add a nearside tail light for safety, mounted unobtrusively on a bracket somewhere.


The rear end after taking the rear panel out. Staircase not as horrific as first thought, but will need some platework and angle iron surgery.


Old and new scuttle plates. The one on the left is a 1949 AEC original, mounted when the chassis was delivered to NCB in Newcastle for bodying.


Cab front as it currently is in September 2020

Trial-fit of the new scuttle plate before countersinking all the holes which need to be done. Unlike a lot of buses, this plate actually forms the outer part of the bus, the countersunk screws being sanded and the countersinks being fillered smooth. The other 5 vehicles in the batch had round-head screws! Not this one though...


I'll post more progress reports from time to time as work hopefully progresses. Next step is to invest in a router and a thicknesser / planer.

Richard.