I am in the process of manufacturing some brake grills for the front of the RM, I am having trouble obtaining the mesh. Its raised mesh, inch and a half by three quarters, thats the diamond size. I need a couple of sheets, can anyone name a supplier?

Many Thanks

Rob

Sorry all,
I have now got my brain in gear, sourced the mesh, it will be with me in the morning.
Thanks
anyway

Rob

Rob.........I will need some for RM446.....If you have some left over or can you tell me the supplier please. Regards Ian.

My bus number (if any): RM765

Rob/Ian Do you know that these grilles are actually an assembly of the grille, a U shaped 4 piece surround that the grille goes into and four or is it five captive nuts riveted onto the surround? I suppose you can always fix the grille in place with set screws and nuts and large washers but LT made them easy to replace from the front.
When the blanking plates on the old aluminium nosings were introduced they were simply inserted over the grilles and they had cut outs where the captive nuts came through to hold the grille and covering plate in place. The grilles themselves, only became redundant when the plastic one piece nosings came in with the grille hole filled in.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RML 2667, RM 1585, RMC 1458 and 14 RTs

Hi Ian, Brian.
I have borrowed the grills from RM17, they look original,they are as you say Brian held in with 4 captive nuts which are riveted on the surround. I am trying to copy them exactly.
Ian, I am making them myself apart from the lasering which a company in Luton is doing, once lasered I will weld them up, drill and tap, then get them powder coated.
Looking at the early publicity shots of RM13 that Brian scanned for me the original grills look black.
I am getting an 8 x 4 sheet of mesh cut, so there should be some left over.

Rob

http://rob-duker.fotopic.net/

My bus number (if any): RM13, RM17, RM238, RM1797 and RML2357 (flatpacked)

Rob, I have not seen RM17 but do know that several restored RMs with original frontal style have the wrong brake grille diamond lattice. On one or two it is too big and on one or two it is too small, and one a one the lattice is flat.

Brian is correct about the mounting method for the originals

Personally, I recall only one RM with alloy front panels and the correct lattice and I am sure they were not original either, but specially re-made.
They are on Geoff Rixon's RM254.
I think RMs1563 & 737 were similar although the method of mounting on 1563 was adapted to use the GRP panels. Neil G will probably be able to confirm that.
One thing is for sure, the grilles and vent grilles were never Black. As far as I recall only the prototypes had black grilles.

The grilles were red on central buses and green on the country ones. They usually appear black for two reasons.:

1. Dirt. as the 45degree angle of the twists was perfect for accumulating grime and roadspray as well as draining wash water.

2. They were difficult to paint and rarely got a smooth resilient finish.

Hope this helps

To confirm this, there are several colour pictures in Blacker,s book including the front cover with RM1122 on its first days in service. Again, Geoff Rixon's excellent Kodachrome images from the time provide a superb record.

Rob
As Jack says the various Geoff Rixon books show several RMs new into service at FW and NB all with red grilles although they obviously did not stay red for long and many even new in service look black in B/W pictures.
A close up the grilles on the pics of RM 13 show that they are red although they do look black in the sepia photos used for the publicity. If you look here http://aspal.co.uk/rm254/southsea/index.htm
you can view RM 254's grille and enlarge the pictures of the grille and check the dimensions of the grille material by counting the diamonds side to side, top to bottom.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RML 2667, RM 1585, RMC 1458 and 14 RTs

I have to admit to being unable to confirm how the brake cooling grilles were fitted to RM1563 as I didn`t get involved in this. Our coachmakers did the work and I`m 90% sure that they also supplied the grilles. I`m sure I would have remembered buying/ scrounging/finding some but I don`t. Once our GEM, George Corley, had given the ok to the 1960`s look on 1563 our coachmakers, in the firms time, did the necessary with the top rad grille, the offside route number box and the brake cooling grilles.

Don`t forget that here we are in 2009 talking about things that were changed/replaced in the 1960`s. That`s a long time ago. In 1980, and to long serving craftsmen, these things were not so long back and still fresh in their memories. I`m sure the grilles just magically appeared and were fitted. One day 1563 had 1980`s grilles and the next day 1960`s ones. We were obviously very lucky compared to how other showbuses and subsequent preservation vehicles struggled to find these bits.

When it came to the question of the bonnet badge we were somewhat taken aback when minutes after the initial conversation one of our coachmakers fetched one over to us having found it in his work bench drawer. No wonder they always took their shop keys home with them! What we would have given to have spent a Sunday afternoon rummaging in there! But we were never invited in and always respected that as their help and friendship was too important to risk losing. I`m sure they had a couple of RTL bodies in kit form hidden in there though! I did once find an RTL windscreen and the curvy doverite platform handrail in an outside store by the garage entrance. And I also gave to the Museum a discarded coachmakers ledger of work done on various RTLs and RMs in the early 1960`s.

One day we were using the acvert fixers paste table to do something - I forget what. Something got dropped down the back of this bench and when we pulled it away from the wall we found a small length of post-war reduced style blind!